However, looking at goose as a potential purchaser, they seem jolly expensive and with not a lot of meat. A bit like duck used to be but bigger. This may be a myth though. Unlike the Tesco model, this one weighs 5. It was then pointed out it was upside down…. What I enjoy most about Christmas is meeting up with family and not having to help with the preparation of the big meal. Thank you for your generous offer, Bishbut. You are welcome to help yourself to turkey, roast potatoes or whatever takes your fancy.
I might give that a go, Alex, but with whisky rather than whiskey. It would not be right for a Scot to use Irish whiskey. If you have ever read reviews for salted caramel ice cream, many moan because they can taste the salt. Christmas coffee and tea, spiced wine, marmalade with whisky or whiskey , mustard with honey, champagne and snails eggs I made that up …. Good basic food spoiled and desperation purchases.
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I am not a lover of Christmas pudding but will eat it once a year when the occasion demands. On that basis its unhealthy constitution is unlikely to cause lasting damage. I have never understood why people buy the huge tubs of chocolates and other sweets. Do they sit on the sofa in front of Her Majesty gorging on them by the handful? The supermarket offerings vary and I find that many of them are too rich. I found a tin of Christmas coffee at the back of a cupboard in September and it was still in good condition. Malcolm I have never had Yorkshire puddings with anything other than gravy.
Jam would be an interesting experience, I think. You think you made it up malcolm?: They look nice, Alfa. Presumably laid by the wife of Brian in the Magic Roundabout. How do they taste? Slightly tart on the tongue, perhaps, with a hint of cinnamon in the finish? I know what you mean about odd-shaped boxes, John. Christmas is a good time to collect useful storage containers. Toasted hot cross buns with lashings of butter, a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, and topped with thick honey.
Worth trying YP if you have any left over from the roast. I have not yet grown to like salted caramel, chocolate or ice cream. Nor have I learnt to like whisky. But I do like Baclava, perhaps because they are honey-based. However, the American recipe with sugar, butter and nutmeg is not Yorkshire. I need to find the secret recipe for Bakewell pudding. A delicious soft almondy paste and jam in a flaky pastry case. Never seen it in the shops though except in Bakewell. I once made a Bakewell tart and left it cooling. Every time I see a Bakewell tart I think of the incident. Cheddar, champagne, Yorkshire pudding do deserve regional status.
I think Duncan said that the Americans were planning to use the name Scotch Whisky. A Bakewell Pudding has a soft filling made, I think, with eggs and ground almonds on a raspberry jam base in a flaky pastry case. A bakewell tart has a frangipan sponge topped with almonds, on jam in, in my experience, an ordinary pastry case. Sometimes iced with a bit of cherry. If mrs r makes some can we have a full report please, ha! Regional status of YP is an interesting idea, I support it.
We did have one in the Haddon Hall restaurant many years ago and it did not let us down. Christmas is NOW just another excuse for wasting money on food that a other times of year you would not buy at all! The actual season predates Christianity and is called Saturnalia although it could be argued that since it was conceived to worship Saturn so as to ensure a decent harvest the year following it did have some mildly religious connotations.
The interesting aspect of Saturnalia is that not only did it involve feasting, fun and frolics, towards the end of the period the masters waited on their servants and slaves, thus anticipating Boxing Day in some ways. My history teacher at school never told use about history so far back He was not living then I presume or could not remember so far back Thanks for the info..
Christmas trees , villages and Christmas scenes all originate in Germany. A taker rather than a giver demanding retribution for any wrong done. They have a built in knowledge of the need to succeed to the top by hard graft , good mountain climbers like the goat of their symbol. The problem is they tend to overreach themselves when in control and many end up back at the bottom of the hill, but never fear they are made of stronger stuff and will try again-and again to get back up there.
Usually long lived due to their natural conservation ability , better stop there or maybe one here will condemn me for prattling on. I do have a very prominent Saturn. Some aspects dervive from the German Royals but not as much as you might imagine. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time. Saturn was regarded generally as a god of generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation which are, in the main, reasonably positive characteristics.
I was looking at it from a Astrological point of view where ,s of years of checking planetary positions in relation to human Fate showed it was the exact opposite of the mythological terms. Remember Ian astrology came before astronomy , they only separated in recent history. Queen Victoria influenced by her husband popularised Christmas as it now is in this country especially Christmas cards and Winter scenes , the German,s have plenty of wood-cuts and pictures of such scenes. By the way ancient Babylonians and Persians pre-dated Greece in study of the planets long before this country was civilised.
There are stone tablets showing such in many museums. It would be interesting to test astrology by listing in detail future events that are specific to everyone, not just to individuals. Berkley University has this: This experience is common in science — scientists often test ideas that turn out to be wrong. However, one of the hallmarks of science is that ideas are modified when warranted by the evidence. Astrology has not changed its ideas in response to contradictory evidence. Many astrological predictions appear in newspapers — not in places where they will be scrutinized by the scientific community.
An astrologer can go his or her entire career and not present findings at a scientific meeting or publish a single article. When astrologers do publish, these articles are not usually peer-reviewed or published in places where they will be critically scrutinized by the scientific community. Scientific studies involving astrology have stopped after attempting and failing to establish the validity of astrological ideas.
So far, there are no documented cases of astrology contributing to a new scientific discovery. Instead, they strive to test their ideas, try to come up with counterarguments and alternative hypotheses, and ultimately, give up ideas when warranted by the evidence. Astrologers, on the other hand, do not seem to rigorously examine the astrological ideas they accept. As reflected by the minimal level of research in the field, they rarely try to test their arguments in fair ways. In addition, the astrological community largely ignores evidence that contradicts its ideas.
Youb are talking about World Astrology which is different from individual astrology malcolm.
Having said that Aries can be reserved , aloof etc but light the touchpaper under them and they rise up. Germany by the way is also under Aries so there is a natural clash of who should get their towels on first on the beach chairs and much rivalry. That is the general trend for countries but is varied by individual personalities. In England sport personalities are held in high regard in other words people of action.
Each country has its own gweneral personality. World events are related to individual countries and their response to outside changes. The actual setting up of a chart is totally scientific ian is quibbling over the predictions. I have no problem of Ian,s denial of it having any influence we are all different and it needs a stable set of values that Ian holds to make people feel more secure , although bankers are not now viewed in that light.
Nobody can force anybody to change their beliefs You need steady reliable people like many Tauruses to keep people calm. Newspaper horoscope are only Sun Sign prediction , no more than that and are too general for serious consideration. If you dislike somebody I could maybe give you some info on why you do but it would only be on the basis of that persons general actions not in relation to you as that would need comparison charts.
There is a massive amount of additional data but its good to work out in advance whether there will be a clash of personalities in relationships. It can also tell how mentally stable you are or are repressed and have hidden feelings. Its your Spirit that counts not your body as only your body is influenced by the planets. I think Ian is absolutely right about astrology. If it is a science why are there no university degree courses in it? Indeed, academia ignores it altogether. To me it seems to be a combination of supposition and coincidence so heavily hedged with qualifications as to be meaningless.
I have many close friends and relatives, however, who place their faith in it and get much satisfaction from seeing a forecast eventuate. I will take up the Duncan Lucas challenge and let him divine my destiny from just my birth date and time — I await the word of the wise man. London comes under Gemini even Dickens knew that. Look at a picture of twins above the flames of London burning in the Great Fire.
My birthplace was Thetford in Norfolk and the coordinates are So long as you stick to the rules, Duncan, I will accept the consequences and I look forward to the results. After all, where would we be, if we upset the powers that be and precipitated a national astrologers strike? You can relax Derek the top military man who gets the message from Donald to nuke NK has just said he wont do it on International news in a televised Canadian show.
On the second and utterly unrelated point, Duncan, you need to read about that case from objective sources, and not those with an axe to grind. Shall we get back to talking about Christmas food? All this talk of nuclear warfare and other irrelevant issues upsets the Christmas appetite. I am sure the celebrations around Christmas-time that we have today have their roots much further back than the Victorian period. Novels and plays by 18th century and earlier writers also portrayed a generous and heart-warming season.
Perhaps the focus on pine trees was a Germanic tradition but it is quite possible that it was a strong English tradition as well through the Baltic timber trade that went back centuries. It was probably a practical consideration since English trees were devoid of leaves in December and not suitable [or cheap enough] to cut down and bring indoors. Christmas cards were a wholly English innovation and obviously had to await the development of the universal penny post to make them popular.
Enjoying a fulsome repast also goes back a long way with benevolence and indulgence being symbolic of the relationships between people and the dutiful observance of the Christian code for a few days a year a sign of goodness and conformity. In pre-Industrial Revolution Britain, December and January were difficult months when normal work was frequently impossible and a bit of downtime and merriment was tolerable. The preparations probably started much earlier than we complain of today because the right piglet had to be chosen months ahead to fatten up for the table.
All the commercial exploitation of Christmas started with the Victorian era in earnest. There were no shepherds abiding with their flocks by night in the fields in the middle of a Winter there. I agree with you on the start of the commercialisation of Christmas being mainly in the 19th century. It had to await the arrival of mass manufacturing, distribution, and consumer commerce and there were some sharp entrepreneurs who took advantage of the opportunities.
I am not sure how welcome or unwelcome these developments were however. Perhaps there was resistance in more rural areas. The imagery of Christmas was certainly exploited by the merchants and manufacturers to spray a patina of good cheer and well-being over some fairly miserable lives, the illustrated biscuit tin being a prime example. I mentally smile — or maybe grimace — when I see the chocolate boxes and biscuit times extolling the virtues of living a few hundred years ago.
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Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve: An American Tradition
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