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Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas!


Despite my Scrooge-like tendencies, I am doing my best to enjoy Christmas. For one thing, I actually like traditional Christmas food. Roast Turkey, Pigs-in-Blankets, stuffing, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, and carrots are all on my list of favourite foods, although I do draw the line at Brussels Sprouts (or as I recently heard the called, 'The Devil's Grapes'). I also love Christmas Pudding and mince pies, and have been known to consume some of those 'Eat Me' dates that only ever seem to be on sale at Christmas.

I don't know what presents I am going to get this year (I am writing this blog entry before I have opened any), but whatever I get I am sure that I will get lots of enjoyment out of them.

I hope that all my regular blog readers - and their loved ones - have a great Christmas, and that they enjoy prosperity and good health throughout 2013.

32 comments:

  1. Er . . . I like sprouts!

    Have a good Christmas anyway!

    ;O)

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  2. Anibal Invictus,

    Wishing you and your family a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. Crazy Joe,

    I love them ... but they don't love me!

    Wishing you and your family a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

    Bob

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  4. Merry Christmas Bob, and your good lady too!

    I've just been banished from the kitchen where I normally predominate over the rest of the year so I'll just have to gloat over the 8 Regiments of Spencer Smiths that I need to start painting soon.

    Have a good one!

    Jim

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  5. Jim Duncan,

    My best wishes to you and your family!

    We are eating out today, so I don't even have to near the kitchen. On the present front I have had some interesting books and the promise of some more Hexon II terrain from my wife ... so things are looking good.

    I HOPE to paint my Spencer Smith figures before the summer ... other projects permitting. In the meantime I will follow your progress with interest.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. I will be having my usual concessionary one sprout with my christmas meal. The kitchen seems to be full of 'em....

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  7. Regarding Brussels Sprouts . . .

    Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs) refused to eat his sprouts until his mother told him "what they really were" . . .

    "Little green brains" . . . since then he loves them.

    (Hmpf . . . "Devil's Grapes" indeed . . . no way.)


    -- Jeff

    PS, I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year.

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  8. Have a Merry Xmas Bob. Wont be any sprouts on my plate either

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  9. Mosstrooper,

    May I reciprocate your good wishes and wish you and your family a great Christmas as well.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  10. Tried a new way of doing sprouts, roasted with streaky bacon and drizzled with olive oil. Made them eatable.

    Missed one Christmas hope - got a unit of converted Scythians, was going to paint one of them all in red with white trim but didn't get round to it. When I do get the unit finished I'll call him Scythia Claus.

    Merry Xmas everyone.

    Rob

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  11. Tim Gow,

    One is enough to take me to 'dark side' ... and I ate two!

    The gurgling is already drowning out the soundtrack of the film I am trying to watch ... and I fear that there is worse yet to come!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  12. Bluebear Jeff,

    Calvin and Hobbs always had a great view about the problems of everyday life!

    Wishing you and your family a great Christmas.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  13. Johntheone,

    Wishing you and yours a great Christmas ... with or without sprouts.

    (I ended up eating two sprouts ... and boy, do I regret it now!)

    All the best,

    Bob

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  14. Xaltotun of Python (rob),

    It sounds like your way to prepare and cook sprouts would make them taste great ... but will it prevent flatulence?

    Good luck with painting your unit of Scythians. My old friend Eric Knowles had a unit painted in claret and light blue ... and they were always called the 'West Ham Cavalry'.

    Wishing you and yours a great Christmas.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  15. Bob best to you too...

    I came to sprouts late in life, but have to say quite like them now!

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  16. Merry Christmas Bob, and all,
    The late humorist Lewis Grizzard suggested the best thing to do with sprouts was to quietly bury them in the soil of the nearest ornamental plant arrangement.
    My Christmas arrived by post yesterday. 240 plastic flats for my Morschauser Musket Period American Revolution armies! Hurrah!
    -Steve

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  17. Steve-the-Wargamer,

    I love sprouts ... but as I am finding out to my cost this evening, they don't like me very much!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  18. Steven Page (Steve),

    Mr Grizzard certainly had a good idea!

    Congratulaion on your wonderful Christmas present. I never knew that anyone made plastic flats. I look forward to seeing what they look like.

    Enjoy painting your new figures!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  19. All my best for you and yours this season !

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  20. Merry Christmas from Pete and wishing you the best for the New Year.

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  21. Don M,

    May I reciprocate, and wish you and your family a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  22. Peter,

    Many thanks, and may I wish you and your family a great Christman and a prosperous New Year.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  23. Merry Christmas Bob

    I hope you and your wife had a great day. I've just surfaced from helping my wife to cater for 16 assorted relations!

    She came up with a cunning plan, add pancetta, hazelnuts and other goodies to the sprouts to make them more paletable - seemed to work, even the small nieces and nephews had some (my suggestion that you might just as well leave out the sprouts altogether was not well received!).

    Hope the rest of the holiday is just as fun and all the very best for the new year.

    Cheers

    Nick

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  24. I hope you had a splendid Christmas and I look forward to hearing about your gifts...
    best wishes
    Alan

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  25. Nic101,

    Sixteen relatives in one place at the same time! Too many for me; you and your wife deserve medals for devotion to family 'above and beyond' normal expectations.

    I think that the dish with all the extras - and no sprouts - makes excellent sense! I did eat two sprouts yesterday ... and have regretted the fact ever since.

    I hope that you and your family have a wonderful 2013 ... and that you manage to fight some more battles using the PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  26. Tradgardmastare,

    I saw on your blog that you and your family had a great Christmas, and may I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous New Year.

    With luck I hope to write a blog entry about the books I was given later today.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  27. Hi Bob,

    Merry Xmas and all that!

    I can only manage 6 sprouts with Xmas dinner - any more than that I spontanelously combust!

    Some very useful prezzies which will feature on the blog at some point and so I hope all your kit is as exciting!

    All the best,

    DC

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  28. David Crook,

    A merry Christmas to you and your family!

    If I had eaten six sprouts the consequences would have been dire ... both for myself and those around me!

    I look forward to seeing what presents you received.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  29. Happy Christmas, my friend.

    Your mentioning Pigs-in-Blanket remainds me of a failed attempt on my part to go ethnic a few years ago. We had a boy from N. Ireland stay with us for a few weeks. My buddy, who had lived there, assured me that little pork sausages wrapped in some dough were called "bangers", and were a great favorite there. Having no reason not to believe him, we had them the following morning. After breakfast I asked Ian, "Well, did you like the bangers?" "What are bangers?" he replied. "Um, aren't these bangers?" I asked. "I don't know." 'What do you call them then?" "Wee sausages." OK, so much for going ethnic.

    Meaning well but screwing up as usual,

    Chris

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  30. Chris,

    And a merry Christmas to you as well.

    I have never heard of sausages being wrapped in dough ... but skinless sausages cooked in a puff pastry casing are called sausage rolls (not to be confused with sausage in a roll!) and are served as finger food at parties.

    Bangers are just an alternative name for grilled sausages, although they also used to be called links because they were sold linked together in strings of sausages.

    Trying to reproduce 'ethnic' food is a gastronomic minefield ... and one that I try to avoid if at all possible. I once tried to make a risotto ... but used the wrong sort of rice and ended up with something more akin to a rice pudding ... and it tasted vile.

    All the best,

    Bob

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