Christmas dinner

Anastasia and Dr Crazy have inspired me to gloat about describe my Christmas dinner plans too.*

This year it is just us. Just the Geekman and me. But will that stop us from cooking as though we are having 20 dinner guests? No, it will not. In fact, we will have EXTRA TIME FOR COOKING! Because of no dinner guests. Hah.

We plan to start off by piling the table with small snack-like things, which we will eat throughout the day. This means:
Dolmades
Olives
Smoked salmon spread with cream cheese and rolled up into little parcels
Prosciutto wrapped around pieces of melon
Strawberries**
Blueberries
Mango

There will also be gin and tonics, and vodka and orange for random slurping throughout the afternoon.

Then we are going to have an actual Christmas dinner, in three acts:

Act I
Mushroom and smoked fish canapes (1982 says hi!)
Scallops with lime and vodka sauce

Act II
Cornish game hens with sage and orange glaze
Swedish meatballs
Braised red cabbage
Glazed roast beetroot
Pioneer woman's burgundy mushrooms
Sourdough bread

Act III
Banoffee trifle
Cheese platter

Then we are going to spend the evening drinking mulled wine and port, and eating homemade chocolate truffles.

Yes, it is eclectic. And we will probably die of exploded stomach syndrome before we finish it all. But it is all our favourite foods, and it will be AWESOME.

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* Is anyone else a little worried that when you have been talking to a real life colleague or family member recently, you might have mentioned something delicious you are cooking, which they might google in order to find a recipe, and then they might come across your blog? No? Just me, then.

** The best thing about Christmas in the middle of summer is the berries. The worst thing about Christmas in the middle of summer is how the berries were $2.99 a punnet last week, and they miraculously leap up to $6.99 on Christmas Eve. Also that if you want ripe berries on Christmas day, you have to brave the craziness that is the grocery shop a day or two before. In New Zealand, I remember that the milkman used to deliver strawberries along with the milk on Christmas Eve. That was a much better solution.

Christmas greetings and wotnot. Also: eep!

Greetings from "Oh my god what are we doing holy fuck we are buying a house" land. Yes, it is said all in one string without any punctuation, just like that. Well, maybe there is punctuation of the sort that doesn't have an appropriate symbol other than *%&?!

Yesterday we got pre-pre-approved for a mortgage. This seems to consist of a verbal "She'll be right, mate" from a guy named Matto. (Oh, Australia, I do like you quite a lot actually.)

We haven't found the perfect place yet, but we have now seen a lot of imperfects, and have a very clear idea of what perfect will look like. It will not, for instance, be lacking any sort of heating system, insulation, and functioning ceilings. It will also not smell like Old People. I am currently in love with something completely impractical, but I think that's pretty standard practice when one is house shopping, and I'm sure I'll get over it.

In other exciting news, I made the world's best sourdough bread tonight, and recipe therefore will be posted here forthwith. (Hurrah for two pretentious adverbs in a single sentence! I should win some sort of prize. Perhaps my prize will be another piece of sourdough bread, and a glass of the quite remarkable krupnik from the recipe found here.)