Happy Holidays!
As usual, we couldn’t get the dogs all together and still for a Christmas card picture – so this year there are two. The boys were particularly disruptive, which meant at one point I lost my patience and raised my voice – only to get these looks:
“We refuse to participate in your bourgeois Christmas endeavours!”
Anyway, little dinner here at the house tonight. Giant turkey and all. I ordered one from the good butcher here in town (Patrick Mouret), and was feeling ever so pleased with myself. A bird from an organic farm, raised free blah, blah, blah. Obviously evidence that I’m a nice person, better than the average person. When it arrived yesterday and I saw the price (equivalent to 7 chickens), I thought at this price this better be a very rare endangered turkey. It’s been in brine since yesterday. The starter will be a soup version of Navarin de la Mer (with a generous glug of Oloroso sherry). The table is nearly set and this year I’m going with a strong blue tablecloth and napkins by De Witte Lietaer (fab quality, easy maintenance!) The blue looks best in dimmed lights. The glasses are pressed glass by La Rochère. Under-plates are Portuguese pewter.
Happy Holidays!
My Mazamet 
It all looks very elegant, including the pooches. We’ve just ordered our turkey from the neighbours – organic, free-range, blah, blah, blah – and you are correct. Vastly expensive but that’s the price of boycotting ‘chains’. 🙂 Have a lovely holiday season, Mr. M and M!
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You too! With all the instability in the world, it’s important to have these moments where we just tune out, and leave it all outside.
As I was coming home from the butcher I started wondering how much cheaper a depressed, existentialist turkey would be?
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I recognise those looks…..
The description and photograph have decided me to make more of an effort with the table over Christmas. Otherwise standards would not just be slipping but collapsing.
No turkey though. Given a choice between the tough local version and the obscenity of the frozen butterball I am abstaining. Coq au vin to a Flemish recipe.
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I’ve finally started unpacking the good stuff which makes setting the table so much easier 🙂
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I LOVE the dog pics! My pooch is the same way when it comes to pics. You’d swear to Jeebus I was trying to steal her soul when I point the camera at her. Have a great Christmas!
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Taking pictures of the black one (Bessie) is near impossible. She hates it. She also doesn’t like to be touched at all which doesn’t make the process any easier.
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Well you certainly got a wonderful shot of her. She’s so beautiful, and I love that expression.
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She’s at least 16 years old. Completely daffy, but not unhappy 🙂
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I have a 16-year-old dog too! Mostly deaf, mostly blind, nose still works well and he enjoys a good walk around the field. Has always been and still is a sweetheart–we call him the Bulldog of Happiness. (Aka, Louis.)
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In the US, people seem to cherish dressing their dogs up in garish holiday sweaters and props like reindeer antlers and hats, undermining any dignity a self-respecting dog might have, so I understand their attitude toward your photos.
I do wish you, my Pink Agendist friend, a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year filled with decorating delights … and happy dogs!
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Thanks, Steve 🙂
All three dogs are all highly complicated (personality-wise) rescues – so they’re difficult enough without us trying to dress them!
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Happy holidays to your entire family. I’m glad to see your boys playing a prominent role in your blog again.
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Thank you! I promise you they get enough prominence in life in general!
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Have fun, Pink!
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The oven smoked and the radiator in the dining room stopped working – but other than that….
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All the very best to you and yours, Edouard. So many nice hounds you have.
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Thank you! Have you started the Gabor Mate book? Mine arrived last week. After your recommendation I started reading his online articles which served as sort of an emotional electrical discharge – with the realisation that I might have to shift/adapt how I perceive behaviour. Very interesting.
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Not started the book yet. For some daft reason I’ve been ‘saving’ it. So glad to hear of the shifting. Sometimes that can be very painful, can’t it, but it’s usually v. worthwhile (or to quote the late Tom Petty – if you don’t run you rust). I must follow your lead and look at the online articles. Also some good vids on YouTube. And I will open the book! Onward and upward, Edouard. It’s all about shifting the excresence that other people dumped on us – being who we were meant to be.
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Ha ha! I love the expressions on the dogs’ faces.
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Sometimes it looks like they’ve been to drama school!
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Funny dawgs 😎 Happy happy to you as well! Enjoy your bourgeois turkey. I’m sure the boys won’t turn their noses up at leftovers. 👀🌴🏄🏼♀️🎉
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It came out nicely! I was suspicious of the 40 minute resting time after cooking, but it worked. Couldn’t have been more tender 😉
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Excellent! 😀
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Dogs are awesome.
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Indeed. They’re amazing for the psyche and for keeping things in perspective.
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Unconditional love is a precious gift.
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The pewter chargers are fabulous. I imagine you had a beautiful soup tureen to serve the soup out of. I generally prefer plating in the kitchen, however with soup I’ve found it better to dish it up at the table. Turkey of course must be served table side.
We pretty traditional in our family and I haven’t convinced my husband to change his ways but I did convince a dear friend of ours to make a change for carving turkey. Our friends had invited is for Freindsgiving and I brought him a gift, an electric carving knife. My husband was completely against the gift by the way, but I had watched a you tube video by a prominent chef and he highly recommended it. Guess what? Our friend LOVES the electric carving knife and uses it every year for his turkey. My old man does have a few redeeming qualities, one of them is his ability to completely debone a roasted turkey, slice it and then put it all back together for serving presentation on a platter with the form of the bird intact.
When ordering turkey from the butcher I wonder if you thought to request a female turkey? The male turkeys have smaller breasts and can be a bit stringier, if you know what I mean.
I’m curious if you drink your champagne as an aperitif or save it for desert? I’m a fan of creating a feature cocktail for the party, my husband hates that, he likes his spirits pure, but I like a good cocktail, pure alcohol is to strong for me. Inevitably the women at the party always enjoy my feature cocktail. I just cruise the internet and make ones that look good and interesting. We do have spats sometimes throwing together a party, typically I want to be innovative and try something new and he is quite strident that everything is done in a traditional “proper” way. He’s rather inflexible that way. He’s very creative with the menus, but not at all in the service and set up and accompaniments.
One point I have never won on is candles. I love tall tapers in a beautiful candelabra(s) and he absolutely hates candlelight on the table. I used to try and negotiate candles every time and I never won so finally I gave up. I mean he is adamant about no candles, the closest we have ever come to candles at one of our dinner parties is Baked Alaska and I’m not kidding.
I’m with you, I always set the table the day before, it completely destresses me and gets me in the party mood.
I hope you have a wonderful dinner, but I would add candles to the table, ha-ha-ha.
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I love the chargers too! They add that little extra glint which is fab. You can get almost identical ones from an amazing Italian company called Cosi Tabellini. Their version goes for £139 each: https://italian-pewter.co.uk/collections/cosi-tabellini-pewter-and-ceramic-charger-plates-range/products/cardinale-large-plain-pewter-charger-plate-33-cm
We used to have an electric carving knife in Spain which I loved for roast beef. Then it stopped working and I never bothered getting another one. I’ll definitely look into it because I did love how perfectly the slices of meat came out (and how thin we could go.)
And yes, I also love starting with a cocktail. Ours is usually a Kir Royal because it’s soooo easy and pretty. A couple of berries in the glass looks great too! 😀
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A Kir Royal is a most excellent starter, I agree with you. And not only that it has less alcohol than a regular spirit drink so the guests don’t get bombed before the fabulous dinner you slaved over.
We do lack charges, and they are so nice, I think I will ask my kids for them for Christmas one year. But not at that price range. My daughter is an artist, not professionally, she does a lot of pottery, I think I will ask her to make some for us. She is very talented.
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Having them custom made is even better! I’ve seen some absolutely gorgeous extra-large ceramic ones in deep blue, I think they were also Italian. Will she make anything you ask for?
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I hope your dinner party went well and that you are still mellowing in the afterglow this next day.
“Will she make anything you ask for? ” So far, but I only asked for one thing and she made it, a birdhouse. A chip off the old block, she researched the heck out of birdhouses, started one, didn’t like it and threw it away, modified the design and made it for me for Mothers Day, I love it, it’s so pretty.
Then she texted us a pic the other day, she made us for Christmas a Bird House Condominium, three bird houses stacked on top of each other as one unit. That also is really pretty.
I sent her a link to chargers and asked for black, white and gold, she said she can’t do gold in the kiln but she will make them for us but not all at one time. I said to give one for Mothers Day a couple for Fathers Day a few more for Christmas, to take her time. Thinking further on the request this second day I think I would like them non uniform in shape but near the same size, and I’m thinking instead of black and white contemporary design to go more for a style like Joan Miró. Our best china is this pattern
https://www.replacements.com/webquote/miktuxe.htm I have really pretty black and white thin striped, and black with small white pokadot napkins to match this china. The china is understated traditional yet contemporary and I use the napkins, and napkin rings to liven up the table to a more contemporary setting.
This is a good project for her, it can take her several years to get 12 of them out, and actually I have place settings for 16 of our china. The only thing I am concerned about is storage. At this stage in my life I have most “things” I desire, and I find myself giving away and throwing out things I haven’t used in years, trying to declutter my life, so now what do I do (?) come up with more “things.” Sigh. I think I’ll not tell my husband about the project and surprise him, I’m sure he will love them also. We really do need these chargers, they make entertaining so much better. I don’t think I want uniform round though, I think I would like them in undulating shapes, each one different.
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“We do lack charges”
Chargers, not charges
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A table set for an emperor.
A turkey eh? Of of the few native North American foods the rest of the world has adopted (Of course, Central and South America provided loads more).
Exquisite room. Can we eat now?
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Thank you 😀
I’m very close to the atmosphere I see in my head, but not quite there yet. Fortunately the refinement part of the process is the part I like most.
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What’s behind the mystery door; all the local vegans you more recently dismembered? 😉
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What an eye you have! You know the doorknob used to blend in as well. I added this new dark version because there was something overtly strange about it before. Through there there’s Mike’s study 🙂
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The setting looks fabulous, Pinky, but I’m curious, why soak the turkey in brine? I know salt is a tenderiser but not really sure of its purpose re the bird.
Merry Christmas to you, Mike, the dogs and everyone here on the blog. -hugs to all-
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You get the juiciest, most well seasoned meat ever because the Turkey absorbs liquid along with the spices in the brine. I use this old Martha Stewart recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/343940/turkey-brine
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Oh…so it’s marinated in both salt and wine, amongst other things? It’s almost pickled?
To be honest, I’ve always hated turkey because it’s so dry and tasteless. Can you take a pic once it’s roasted and sliced? Would love to see what it looks like on the inside.
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I would’ve except dinner was the 21st. I can take a picture of leftover meat for you, would that do? It was so moist it was like a slow roasted chicken.
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lol – it’s okay, I’ll take your word for it. Btw…MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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Happy holidays to you and your lovely fur babies! P.S. Love the blue table cloth and napkins!
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To you too! People are often afraid of strong colours like this blue, but the effect is actually wonderful 😀
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More on the Turkey.
How did it come out?
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Firstly, love your china with the black stripe. I have a set that’s nearly the same, but with a hunter green stripe.
The brined turkey came out fantastic. The resting time was 40 minutes, which I was nervous about, but it worked. The Hasselback potatoes also came out nicely, although I meant to sprinkle Parmesan on them during the last 10 minutes of baking but I forgot 🙂
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Hi Pink! Thought I’d hop over to see what’s about, what mischief I might find. Haha. But I’m assuming you have been quite busy since this December post is your latest. No worries. I hope you and yours had a great, relaxing holidays. I love the dog pics. They all have these faces/expressions of “Grrrr, why do we have to pose like this again? Didn’t we just do this a few months ago?” 😉 😛
Those are gorgeous table settings, pewter, and crystal. Was that meal and sherry as good as it reads? You have an exquisite home from what I’ve seen from all your pics. Are you hiding all the maintenance, hard work, and repairs from us to keep it looking better than the Château de Chambord? 😉
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Thanks! Lately I’ve been trying to escape from my own mind, but it keeps following me everywhere I go!
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