A Very Merry Christmas from Munchkin and Gnome!! May your day be filled with joy and laughter. This is day to make gestures to all. Have a Good One!!
So, cold today (Brrrrrr!!! 20oC/ 68F). We actually made mulled wine. The chilled wine in the fridge will have to wait!!
Chee-eeeers Everyone!!!!
Good Morning and Merry Christmas to y’all!! You won’t believe what happened yesterday…the back of the truck caught fire while we were driving!!
We did some last minute Christmas shopping yesterday and were driving back home. At one point, I looked in the wing mirror and saw flames coming out of the back pan of the truck. I can’t believe this but I didn’t scream, swear or exclaim…I rather nonchalantly said to Gnome in a steady voice,
“Darling, the back of the truck is on fire.”
Of course Gnome slammed on the brakes and we both ran outside to see what was happening. The fire seemed to have started inside one of the boxes and was spreading quickly to other items on the truck. Gnome poured all the water that we had on the flaming box which wasn’t enough to douse it out….what to do?? The only fluid left was a big bottle of coke which I bought as a Christmas treat (Santa drinks Coke at Christmas too!!). Hah, the coke did the trick and stopped the fire….saved by a bottle of coke!!
After the fire went out, we realised the enormity of the situation…if we didn’t have the bottle of coke, the back of the car would have been up in flames with no hope of saving it. Instead, we have a melted plastic hole in our truck pan…we can live with that!! The other thing was that we had cans of diesel in the back of the truck and luckily they were on the opposite side of the fire!
Anyway, we are puzzled over how the fire started in the box. There was a book, a packet of metal spoons and loose leaf tea in the box. Next to the box, there was a bottle of coffee creamer which thoroughly melted. Was it the tea or the coffee creamer…huh??? This really means that we have no idea what happened and have concluded that it was a freak incident.
Well, that is our Christmas Miracle and we are grateful that it all ended well! We have to Thank our Christmas Fairy Gnome…
Hello Everyone!! We made it through the Camp-fire chickens and Camp-fire turkey!! The 8lb turkey turned out to be rather big (bigger than an 8lb chicken??) and I had to literally squeeze and squash it into the cast-iron pot. The thighs were monster-humongous…. anyway, this one took two hours to cook under coals. We dug up some sweet potatoes in the morning and cooked these in the coals also. Cooked turkey under coals was a success; the turkey was delicious and succulent. I lined the turkey with bacon (modified Jamie Oliver recipe) which added to the juiciness of the meat. I did not take any pictures because I thought that a squashed-up, lop-sided turkey would not be appreciated…Ha-Ha..what would the neighbours say??!
Oh, but I do have other pictures to make you go Ooooh and Ahhhhh!!!
By the way, a Gnome is not just for Christmas…(sorry, couldn’t help sticking this one in…I think I am being really funny…you probably think I am just plain silly).
Home-made bamboo Christmas tree with decorations. Munchkin and Gnome went all out this year:
Oh, and a Christmas duckie too. How auspicious…
This one is very well-behaved and sits quietly. No Star Trek with this one. In fact, not much noise at all because we haven’t been watching anything. This will be a New Zen-Christian Duckie…
New Duckie.
Christmas Chicken bites with citrus peel:
Oooooh….prosciutto, salami and cheese courtesy of Gnome’s Mammy and Papa…thank-you so much:
Ahhhh…oh yes, I did get my salmon…at last. I have been dying for smoked salmon. This is a lovely Gnome display! Salmon also a gift from Gnome’s parents!! Oooooh and Ahhhhh!!!
We had a Pre-Christmas camp-fire dinner last-night with friends including Panda. We had everything perfectly timed because we had rehearsed the cooking about five times already. The bread was 15 minutes and the chicken was 90 minutes under coals. It came out really well. But, now I think that I have stuffed myself rather prematurely and I am not sure if I can make it until Christmas. Gnome:
“…but we haven’t had the Christmas Day extravaganza yet!!”
I know, I know!!
I need to keep on going…for this…(Ha-Ha).
Today, I am strictly on water and fruit only!!
More Christmasy Pictures:
Oooh, spotted another one in the sorrel:
Oh, another one in the vegetable patch:
Okay, peppermint water is the order of the day today…
Hello!! I mean left over pictures…there are no “left overs” at our place since we started cooking over coals…I had to post this picture again because it was very nice indeed.
We have decided to kinda wind down for the year so have been taking a few leisurely photos around the farm. (The gate can wait until the new year!!) Also, have Festive Season pictures to get us all in the mood.
Big Bossie Goosie Richard II. The King of the Wheel-barrow. He actually flew into the wheel-barrow during meal time the other day because he was so excited.
We have a bed covered with these wild edible mushrooms: bamboo pith aka stinkhorn. They start off as these round eggs (witches’ eggs) and then blossom into these interesting looking mushrooms.
Christmas mugs are out courtesy of Papa Dudley (Merry Christmas Papa). 🙂
When you don’t have a Christmas tree…
And yes of course. His and Hers for Christmas!! Can’t wait to put on my new wellies!!
Okay have a lovely day!!
We’ve had a lovely Festive Season this time and I made a tremendous effort to keep the celebrations going on the farm with lots of yummy food. Here are pictures of some Munchkin goodies:
Sorghum and coconut flour flat bread with Swiss cheese and bird peppers:
More flat bread hors d’oeuvres with sapodilla sauce and blue cheese (more Bird Peppers to add heat and give the Christmas colour!):
For Christmas, we had ham this time, unconventionally with sorghum and vegetables and home-made sour peach jam.
Ooooh, lots of this…Ribena and Rum!! When I was a kid, Ribena was the stuff that we had with our packed lunches at school…a kid’s drink. Now, we are grown ups, we have it as an adult’s drink! By the way, Ribena is a British cordial made from black currants.
For the New Year, I decided to do Chinese for a change. This is tripe with calamondin.
Also, we had Venison with Lotus Root. And a yummy sauce made from home-made chocolate miso, calamondin zest and bird pepper.
Okay, we’ve had our fun!! Now, back to work diggin’ in the dirt!!
Hello Everyone. I am sure everyone is getting into The Christmas Spirit! We certainly got into it yesterday when we visited a friend in Punta Gorda and had a Scotch at 10am in the morning! Wow…my head was spinning! Nevertheless, it was a lovely gesture for this time of the year. Anyway, I wanted to squeeze in another plant post before Christmas. We call this The Christmas Bobble Plant:
Every year, at this time of the year, these plants come up around the house. I remember procuring the seeds from a friend about 10 years ago and I didn’t even plant them. I think they just fell out of my pocket. Since then, they have voluntarily come up for Christmas time. The picture really does not do it justice…if you actually saw them, the balls are about 5cm (2 inches) in diameter; they start off green and slowly turn red. These plants are from the Solanum sp. or Eggplant species. Well, who needs the sparkly lights and bobbles when you have this right at your door-step! Have Fun Everyone!!
I spent a bit of time today catching up on cake recipes from the Festive Season for Belize Wild Recipes. I simply had to write about them because this year, for the first time ever, they actually worked out. This is a typical baking disaster…this one was Christmas Spice Cake:
This year, we were made “Apple” Pie from jujube (Chinese wild plum):
The wild chinese plum has a very tart flavour similar to crab apples. These plums are about 1inch (2.5cm) in size.
And Gnome made the pastry with the pasta machine:
Oh, and look at these…
I have also posted up a “Black Cake” recipe which was very kindly given to me by Barbara Nightingale. I haven’t tried the recipe yet…it will have to wait until next Christmas!! And sorry no picture because we polished it all off before we could get a photo!
A Merry Christmas to you all from the Piggies at Paradise Pastures! Wishing everyone a Happy Festive Season and they are all looking forward to Christmas Pudding tomorrow..
Message from Mayor Gnome:
“Happy Christmas Everyone!! And may all your dreams come true in the New Year!”
“Get Ready Piggies For 2016…Gnome Buddy Does It Better!”
This story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, places, buildings and products is intended or should be inferred.
