So this is Christmas...

 … apologies, Celine Dion!

Good afternoon dear Blogger friends. Compliments of the season to you all. 

 I have been here. I have been busy - being the holiday season for both the holiday accommodations that I manage. Last week, I wound down my Avon sales for 2021, had a Christmas party for my Weigh-Less members in Winterton and have gone temporarily online for my venue Weigh-Less groups over the festive season.

Thandi and I prepared The Bunker for Christmas weekend guests on Thursday morning. By 2pm I had dropped her at her home in the township with a selection of vegetables - pumpkin is favored greatly;  and fruit: she always opts for pears,  from our local Champagne Valley Produce (known as Hillbillies but recently moved to a large shed at the airfield);  her Christmas bonus in her purse and clutching a large grocery hamper for the family. 

This is also my fifth year at the neighbor's Christmas Eve dinner. And over the past four years, I'm also involved in preparing the delicious fare as Janine, the hostess, decrees. This year I prepared the glazed gammon as well as four of the six vegetables she decided upon. We were catering for 25 guests. 

I hadn't done hams since Christmas 2015, when we still lived in Marquard so I asked my brother how long was I supposed to cook the hams before glazing and roasting them. He remembered how our mom had done this meat and told me.  I was up at 4.30 on Friday morning and started with the hams. Skabby salivated as he realized REAL meat was being cooked in the house!  I Googled how to make the glaze and duly roasted the three large hams in a new roasting pan in the eye-level oven I'd been gifted. Ronnie's son, a Johannesburg interior  decorator, had refurbished their holiday home on the North Coast and the family gave me the previously-owned-in-perfect-condition eye-level oven in June this year. Sure beats working with a six inch square counter top oven! 

The glazed hams, roasted Brussell Sprouts with roasted pecan nuts (home grown on the farm) and tossed with balsamic vinegar; sautéed mushrooms and onion rings; and steamed green beans with roasted sesame seeds

By 2.30pm I had finished cooking and sent Nine a message for  Jenna and Derryn, both teachers like their mum, and home for the holidays,  to collect the food. Once they'd left, I picked up a book I was studying, put my feet up for an hour with the fan playing cool air on me. Much needed after a hot morning in the kitchen! 

Within minutes Nine sent me a message to say thank you for the hard work and delicious dishes. But where were the baby carrots?

 Oops. 

I had forgotten to steam the baby carrots which were still in my freezer. I duly did cook the carrots, adding a generous helping of butter and honey to glaze them. And sent a WhatsApp to Janine that they were ready. Jenna and her boyfriend,  Guilford came over this time to collect the errant carrots! LOL! 

I returned to my relaxation. The book I was studying?

!!!

I  REST MY CASE...

Enjoy the rest of the festive holidays!