(no subject)

Wow, I'm ill for a few days and look what happens. Surprising things are happening all over my friends list (some good, some ... really not), and we now apparently have flagging (I keep reading this as 'flogging', which doesn't help) and Russian overlords. Or something. I admit I haven't yet gone and read the official stuff. I'm just over here feeling extremely tired.

Not-a-Christmas-Dinner

There is a spectacular sunset happening outside. Stripes of a deep gold and dark grey are covering half of the sky; the rest is clear blue and aqua.

I have somehow ended up volunteering to cook a Not-a-Christmas-Dinner for me and three (was going to be four, but apparently not) other members of my family. This will be before Christmas, but as I won't be seeing this bit of family at Christmas, it'll still be fairly festive.

The requirements so far are:

• Starter, main meal and dessert, or possibly nibbles, main meal, cheese and mini-dessert


• To be eaten in the evening, with a maximum of about an hour's preparation on the day (I can do some more a couple of days before)


• No fish


• Festive or wintery, but not turkey


• Starter and dessert should not be too heavy

I was thinking about something like a casserole, assuming I could find something suitably impressive, as that could be made in advance and heated up. I found a tasty-looking braised venison recipe here, but apparently at least two members of the party have never tried venison and are not sure whether they will like it. Hmmm. Some sort of beef in wine, maybe?

I'm a bit stumped about other courses, as well. I'm thinking of something gingery, but my ginger ice-cream may be a bit rich, and I won't want ice-cream if we have cheese. Dark chocolate and ginger might work, but I'm not too sure what I'd do with them.