Busy Days and Christmas Traditions…

Our Christmas traditions are strange to many. Having grown up in the hot southern hemisphere the emphasis has always been on the great outdoors during the Christmas holidays. These are the long holidays in bad old SA. The schools break up somewhere in early December and the kids only return after mid January…

Play… at the beach, on the farm… in the wilderness, in the sticks… wherever the outside can be utilised. So… over time we, as a family, have drifted into the Christmas braai tradition. I’ll be bold and say I love doing the whole thing. Yep, believe me… the whole thing. The meat, the veggies, the desert… the preparations… the cooking… the eating. Oh, sorry… I don’t do the dishing up or… you guessed… the washing up. 😉 Have to look after the braai master’s soft hands, you know!

OK… I waffle… so, today you’ll find me preparing the meat. No… not turkey. We tried it once… not our scene. We usually have a pork roast and lamb roast… from our favourite butchers in Kilcock… J&R, they look after us year after year. Another meat tradition in the house, started by Granddad and the good lady wife some years ago. The copper coin collection tub is emptied just before the meat needs collecting. A whole year’s small change usually goes most of the way to paying for our feast.

As on this day you’ll find me in the kitchen, I have to send the good lady wife off to run around in the shops. We swear blind every year that it won’t happen again… but, there always seems to be something we forget… turkey foil trays, for our roasts… nuts, ice cream… fruit… fresh herbs. Even though we have shopping lists it’s sometimes necessary to wait until the last-minute to get the freshest stuff…

OK… now to give the veggies a mention. Roast potatoes… many of them, in duck fat. A must!! Cauliflower in foil… on the side of the braai… opened just before serving and coated with cheese. Mushroom/ leak stuffed peppers… carrots… and if the good lady wife can convince me to do those little sprouty things they be par-boiled and then fried with diced smoked bacon…

I usually can’t eat a full meal by the time the food is ready for serving… chef’s delights takes care of that. I pick here, I pick there. On the odd occasion I’ll throw a bit of boerewors on the side of the grill… just for a snack. The kids love joining their pappy/grand-pappy at the braai… looking for titbits.

The result of all this sampling is that I usually have space for desert only… in our case it’s a fresh fruit salad. We strive for at least a 13 fruit mix 😉 for good luck. You can have your fruit salad with or without ice cream/cream… well, that’s if you have the room to fit it all in.

As for drinks… I’ve been known to have the odd glass of the good red stuff… usually a gift from the kids… I’m partial to a sunny Saffer or French lad… maybe Spanish, Portuguese or Italian… never any of that stuff from down under. 😉 That would be unpatriotic…

By now you’ve got the picture… I’m wrecked! But, just so I sleep well the good lady allows me my annual helping of the best Irish angel’s pee-pee… yep, a wee dram of Jammie or Blackbush seals the deal well!!

So… this year the weather folk predict a warm, cloudy day… around 10 Deg C. That must be about 20 degrees higher than last year. I’m not about to complain… as you’ll see below… it was a tad chilly out by the braai last year… 😉