May you all have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family. May you find a few seconds in this time of fun, presents, food and drinks, what it is you are celebrating :-)!

God bless and love to all our visitors.

Merry Xmas to you too, Mamta.

Merry Christmas Mamta!

Phil

Oops! Wrong sentence, I should check what I write more often!!

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

I was going to do food shopping tonight, but will go at 6 tomorrow. It will be too crowded now and I am early bird. Early bird gets the best bird LOL!!

A very Merry Christmas to all.... may it be merry and bright..:-)

Steve

Seasoned greetings, my dears!

Hi Mamta, family and forum members

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and an even greater New Year!

Cheers!

Steve

I'd like to wish Mamta, Kavey and the forum members a very special Christmas.

I also have a very peculiar recipe request. Any suggestions for a meal that can be eaten by somebody with no teeth?

Regards & Seasons Greetings to you all,

Martin

Thank you all.

Is this to be an Indian meal or traditional English meal Martin?

Idea is not particularly inventive but how about a top class consomm?/bisque although I think I would go for a Chinese Hot and Soup - best thing is they can all be made on Christmas Eve.

Winton

Martin, here are a few suggestions, which I am sure you have already looked at;

Mince whatever you are cooking for everyone and serve it with mash, though roast potatoes should not be hard to eat, just mashed with a fork and with gravy added. After all, we do this for toddlers!

Salmon Wellington

Savoury mince with mash and peas

Chilli con carne, with soft cooked rice

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Lasagne

Shepard's pie

Cottage pie

Keema and rice, if she eats Indian food

Christmas cake with custard should be okay, even without teeth!

Rice pudding

Ice-cream

Whatever you cook, have a nice Christmas!

Good Morning and Merry Christmas to you all....

Santa has been and left me some very nice presents indeed.. :-)

presents

Steve

Many thanks to Mamta for your suggestions.

They have lead me to investigate Risotto's, pasta dishes, Bubble & Squeak, tinned fruit cocktails, soft sausage rolls and finding ways to modify all my favourite curries too!

TTFN,

Martin

Are they trying to give you a hint with all those bottles Steve ;-)! Now that the hard work is over, enjoy your presents :-)

2 bottles of Brandy were bought because of my fig brandy experiment...:-)

The port is because we went on holiday to Portugal years ago and got a taste for it...

I'm not sure what they would be hinting though.. lol

Steve

lol! Not hinting at anything Steve ;-). We all also had some nice port and sherry (kavey will know the names) with cheese and biscuits. I hadn't had a sherry in years. Though I only had a sip, it was tasty :-)

and now a Happy New Year to all...............

Looks like Steve will have a head start with his presents!

Winton

Port was some Croft stuff I was given.

Sherry was a Pedro Ximinez that I asked you to pick up in Sainsbury's.

Both so good with cheese, and indeed so much else.

:-)

Fig brandy experiment? That sounds interestig. I always have way more figs than I kow what to do with each summer.

Phil

That's it, I'm coming to visit on a fig raid, Phil! ;-)

Phil I had this notion that figs in brandy would work... So about 1 month before Christmas I put about 500g of dried figs into brandy with a few spoons of sugar and about 1 tbsp of runny honey.. Christmas day I had a fig flavoured brandy liquer ! :-)

Steve

Thanks, Steve: I got my dried figs wrong the first time I did them, since I failed to stick them in the freezer to kill any eggs of flies. Result: I had maggots. The second year, it went fine, but I still couldn't think of enough things to do with dried figs.

I discovered something new the other day, by accident: boursin with figs and walnuts. Very nice, and good for the festive season. Picked it up by mistake in LIDL.

Kavey, our figs are a wonderful purply colour, taste delicious, and are not sprayed with anything at all. Since we get two crops from our main fig tree each year, we have loads of them. They ripen really well in the Mediterranean sun, as do the pomegranates.

I do goat's cheese and figs, and must do duck with figs.

Phil

you should see these "re-hydrated" figs, they drank half the brandy, so 2 or 3 of them will put your over the limit ! :-)

Steve

Oh my gaaad! Thanks for the tip, Steve!

Phil

I am so jealous, purple figs and pomegranates, I love them both! I have purple figs but get a very small number each year. As for pomegranates, no chance here!!

Steve, your drunken figs sound very nice ;-)!

Mmmm! Love figs.

Phil, you're still making me want to raid you for figs next year!!!

Kavey: we rent out the bottom part of the house in the summer months: do come and consume as many figs as you like!

We're on the Creme de Languedoc website: Mas Fabre, house near Aumelas, in the H?rault department.

Phil

Oooh how lovely. Do you have a link to your website, Phil?

Would love to see?

Hi Kavey

I don't have a website for this, but if you Google 'Creme de Langeudoc', you'll get onto their website.

Then do 'Find Holiday Rentals'

De-select all French departments except 'H?rault'.

Enter the 300-500 euros per week price range, and you should find us, with photos and text.

We used to be on page one, then we were on page two, and this morning at the top of page 3, and then further down that page.

Don't understand the new layout.

If in doubt, email me.

The pool is fab, as you will see from the photos.

Cheers

Phil

Nice place Phil :-)

thanks, Mamta!

Yeah, it's rather lovely!

And we cook Mamta food here!

phil

LOL!

How do I tell which one is yours, of those that come up?

They all look lovely!

Ours is Mas Fabre, near the village of Aumelas. I think it's currently at the top of page three, if you enter the price range 300 -400 euros a week.

Phil

Aah, easiest was to Google and it popped up straight away. It's gorgeous, will definitely bookmark it, thanks Phil! x x

i'm glad you mentioned that, Kavey, since I then discovered that my name and address have been hijacked by a dating agency, which I suspect is run by the phone company. They've falsely represented me as single.

I'll be suing them.

Phil

Blimey!!!

I think I've figured out what this scam is all about.

They list your name and phone number, say you're single, and link you to an internet dating service.

The, when women call, it stops ringing after a few seconds. If you respond, they charge you at a high rate.

That would explain some puzzling recent calls.

I'm going ex-directory, but if I'm right about this, I will not only sue: i'll have them exposed on local radio and national tv, since I know people who work in both of those areas.

Phil

That's awful, hope you can get a resolution, horrible scam.