Happy Boxing Day

Andy and I aren't particularly attached to Christmas, especially in years like this one when we stay in Townsville with no family around.  But, we like any excuse to eat, and I like any excuse to cook elaborate meals, so we took Friday off from uni and cooked up two feasts: Christmas Eve Dinner, and Christmas Breakfast.

For dinner, we had a stuffed seitan roast with yuba skin (recipe to come in its own post soon);

 Saffron Potatoes, based on a recipe from Vegan Planet, which were only okay;

Sweet potato, Orange & Mango Salad, a tester recipe for Carla's One Dish Wonders;

Cranberry and Orange relish;

and little ramekins of Orange, Date & Almond Stuffing.

It was such a big meal that we didn't have room for dessert.

On Christmas morning we woke up to lots, and lots, and lots of rain, thanks to a sneaky category 1 cyclone that crossed the coast a few hours north of us.  It was the perfect morning for a hot cooked breakfast, and luckily I had done most of the work the day before.

I had pre-made a quiche that just needed warming up, filled with sausages, spinach & sundried tomatoes.

I made dough the night before for Noosa Morning Rolls, a tester recipe from One Dish Wonders, which are gently spiced ginger & macadamia rolls.  Really good on their own, or with leftover cranberry relish.

The only thing I had to make on the morning was Potato Latkes, following almost exactly a recipe from Bittersweet blog.  The only change I made was to use garlic chives instead of spring onions, and I was generous with oil, but my latkes totally burnt, and stuck.  They were edible, in a very crunchy way, and actually weren't too bad with tomato sauce.

For lunch, we took the easy way out - cocktails & potato chips.

After a phone call from Andy's mum, we churned some ice cream to make Chocolate Candy Cane Ice Cream Pie.

Then for dinner we had a little bit of everything that was leftover, along with some fresh spinach from the garden.

With still more leftovers to go, I'm looking forward to a day of grazing, but hoping that the rain clears for long enough today that we can go for a quick bike ride, or even just a walk!