 Poster: A snowHead
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I did goose once...never again. Far too much fat in the tin to safely take it out of the oven and very little meat.
I have a tree with built in lights in Flachau. I can pretty much make a proper Christmas chicken dinner shopping locally, although ...and don't flame me...I take paxo.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@holidayloverxx, a bulb baster is your friend for the fat. Obviously a goose won't feed as many as a turkey will. But it's bigger than the average chicken!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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And the goose fat makes the absolute best roast potatoes.
Those indoor fireworks look fun, @colinstone, I think I'll get some for when I do a "Christmas dinner" for my kids etc on 22 December. We used to have them many years ago. I can remember the smell they made, and the ash falling on my Nana's best crocheted table cloth.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Indoor fireworks - how the hell does that work!?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Also something to note, depending on exactly where you go skiing, in the German-speaking parts of the Alps I've noticed Christmas Eve tends to be the big event / meal etc - Christmas Day is more like a regular day for skiing.
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Same in France
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Same all over Europe, I think. I'm more used to 'doing' Christmas Eve than Christmas Day.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Hurtle, yeah, but no I won't be doing it again
@pam w, I make absolutely rubbish roast potatoes but I always have a jar of goose fat in the fridge
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I make really good roast potatoes! Parboil then cool and freeze, roast them straight from freezer, in duck fat, oil, dreaded lard, whatever is around and they always work. Whenever I have the odd potato or three kicking around I pop them in the freezer to be used like this.
We would prefer something other than turkey but the kids all love it and ask for it. We used to put up a tree when we had the chalet in France, and have one outside too. Bought mince pies are always much better than mine.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Pamski, I've never heard of roasting spuds from frozen. How interesting.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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This is going to make me sound very old, but we always used to use goose grease to waterproof our boots. It was always a good byproduct of christmas and it did work better than dubbin
Sorry, I must now return to the workhouse.
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I make good roast potatoes too but have never thought of that method, @Pamski. A brilliant time saver, make in advance. And I could do just a few for myself in the air fryer!
I normally use olive oil for mine. The secret is to parboil for JUST long enough that the outer layer will fluff up, and then roast in a very hot oven for long enough. Anaemic roast potatoes are sad.
I'm useless at pastry but bought mince pies are often a disappointment and a definite waste of calories, especially the stodgy and oversweet "deep filled" ones. I sometimes use shop pastry and make my own but I can live without mince pies. My sister makes brilliant pastry and her mince pies are fantastic. Open topped, with a blob of marzipan on top. Marzipan improves almost everything!
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You know it makes sense.
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@johnE, that's interesting too!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We seem to be the opposite of everyone on this thread, although we do have our own house in France, which could account for some of it.
We don't have any Xmas decorations at home in the UK, but my wife and daughter spend the first day of the holiday putting up the tree and decorations when they get to France. I drive out to France with all the pets (3 dogs, 2 cats) and all the Christmas presents. Christmas day we don't ski, we spend the day celebrating Christmas in exactly the same way as we would in the UK, but without any extended family.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Has nobody said a box of Christmas crackers? It’s all gone a bit foody.
Ok Crosbie did and everyone else disagreed. As you were.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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A question about those frozen roasties. The recipe on the link says to halve big potatoes and leave smaller potatoes whole. This would produce much bigger roasties than I usually make. Last lot (on Sunday evening) I had a bag of Maris Piper and quartered the smaller ones and eighthed the big ones. You get a lot more crunchy "outsides" that way and flat faces crisp up particularly well!
I never time my par-boiling because potatoes vary, but keep an eye on them and give them a poke. some of my most raved-over roasties have been after I forgot them for a minute or two too long. I always drain them and leave in hot pan, with a T-towel over the top and close lidded, and give them a shake. I guess I could do all that and then freeze - though I'm not sure I'd add flour, which seems unnecessary to me.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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As for crackers, the kids love them and they look great on the table, but my daughter and daughter-in-law are both disapproving of the amount of waste! And I have to agree, really.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@pam w, should fling them in a colander and allow them to dry out, then give them a shake to rough the edges - makes them more crispy.
I don't flour.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Layne wrote: |
@pam w, should fling them in a colander and allow them to dry out, then give them a shake to rough the edges - makes them more crispy.
I don't flour. |
+1
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| pam w wrote: |
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Bring secateurs. Find a friendly fir tree
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Not encouraged to be chopping down the surrounding trees...... some vandal tore branches outside one of the "landscaped" fir trees outside our apartment to form the arms of their wretched snowman. If we'd seen them they'd have been shoved head first into the nearest snow drift.  |
A world of difference between going into the forest and taking a bit of branch from one of 100,000 trees, and attacking the garden! I'll help you push them into a snow drift. It wouldn't be possible in Tignes, but it works well in Austria on the valley floor!
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| Quote: |
A world of difference between going into the forest and taking a bit of branch from one of 100,000 trees
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Minor wars have been started in the Alpine forests for unauthorised plunder 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| doddsie wrote: |
| Christmas day we don't ski, we spend the day celebrating Christmas in exactly the same way as we would in the UK, but without any extended family. |
Nooo! Surely skiing Xmas Day is the main point of being there and not here? Slopes are less busy, people are generally less aggro etc.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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No skiing is quite a low priority for most of my family, they just like spending the holiday time in a nice place. In the 20 days we spend there this Xmas, I'd imagine that my daughter will only ski about 10 days, my wife 5 and my mother-in-law zero. A ski day normally being from 9am - 1pm or often less.
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@holidayloverxx, 
I've never much enjoyed the whole sitting indoors all day on Christmas Day. That you'd do it if you were in the Alps too! Lucky we're all different otherwise the world would be a boring place.
Goose legs I tend to roast with the bird (as the bird looks odd without them) and then confit them afterwards for the day after. Grouse legs, pheasant legs also. The reality is that you cannot effectively roast a bird.
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You know it makes sense.
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| pam w wrote: |
| My sister makes brilliant pastry and her mince pies are fantastic. Open topped, with a blob of marzipan on top. |
Heathen! It it doesn't have a top it's a tart, not a pie. Likewise if a meat pie doesn't have pastry sides/base it's not a pie, it's a stew with a hat on.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We roll our roasties in semolina after par boiling, adds a nice bit of crunch.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Despite having had to put snow shoes on to navigate the track up into the woods we were too dim to realise, till the last minute, that anything under a metre high was good and buried."
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Not a tip about what to bring, but about Christmas dinner. Assuming you're having Christmas dinner in the evening after a day's skiing, it may end up later than you think.
If self catering, don't necessarily expect to have as much cooking capacity as at home. If time allows, I like to do a roast dinner one night before Christmas to get an idea of how timings work. Several factors can slow things down - insufficient capacity in general, reduced capacity as everyone else is also cooking at the same time (though most non-Brits will do the main meal on the 24th), or being a bit tired after a day's skiing. Whatever the cause, if cooking, I'd allow at least 30 minutes contingency, and if not cooking, I'd pace my pre-dinner drinking, and/or have plenty of nibbles for people hungry post-skiing.
Catered chalets. Pretty much as above. I've had maybe 6 or 8 Christmases in catered chalets, and I think only one server dinner on time, a couple were no more than 30 minutes late, and the others an hour or more late.
In my limited experience of hotels (2 Christmases as guest, 2 as staff) they get the timing right
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| geoffknight wrote: |
| We roll our roasties in semolina after par boiling, adds a nice bit of crunch. |
I feel an experiment coming on!
I do find roast potatoes need more salt than normal potatoes (to be honest boiled or mashed taste fine without any) and I usually toss them with a bit after the parboiling. And usually add a bit of paprika - not enough for the potatoes to actually taste of paprika, but a little peps up the taste.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| johnE wrote: |
This is going to make me sound very old, but we always used to use goose grease to waterproof our boots. It was always a good byproduct of christmas and it did work better than dubbin
Sorry, I must now return to the workhouse. |
Not odd really. My paternal grandmother swore by goose grease for rubbing on your chest when you had a cold. Luckily Mum bought Vick for me!
See you in the workhouse!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| viv wrote: |
| If self catering, don't necessarily expect to have as much cooking capacity as at home. |
Yeah, self-catering ski apts typically have an oven with just about enough capacity and heat output to do 3 decent roast potatoes in 2 hours.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Many smaller ones self-catering places won't have an oven at all.
If traditional is really important for your party I'd suggest roasting a very fresh turkey crown, slicing it and cooling it rapidly then freezing it in top quality gravy before you leave home. If you're travelling near Christmas it will stay frozen for ages and then be fine in a fridge for several days more. Our cave was very cool and served as great extra refrigeration capacity. I did a passable traditional Christmas dinner for 12 once in our small apartment but we were in three apartments and one was detailed to bring lots of roast potatoes and another was responsible for pre-supper nibbles and drinks. Blokes brought extra chairs. We had champagne cooling in the snow bank outside. Then we played games including, I recall, drunken Articulate - always a hit. Everybody had been skiing during the day. Nobody had dreamt of switching the telly on at any point.
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I'd make sure I'd packed some gratitude to give to people who had given me good advice when I asked for it. Oh, and excellent whisky. 
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| j b wrote: |
| geoffknight wrote: |
| We roll our roasties in semolina after par boiling, adds a nice bit of crunch. |
I feel an experiment coming on!
I do find roast potatoes need more salt than normal potatoes (to be honest boiled or mashed taste fine without any) and I usually toss them with a bit after the parboiling. And usually add a bit of paprika - not enough for the potatoes to actually taste of paprika, but a little peps up the taste. |
I add salt to the semolina as well, I’m going to try adding sea salt, the large crystals stuff in the last 5 mins
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@geoffknight, @j b, course corn meal works too, though as gk says, season it.
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Try the COOK! Christmas food. We did that one year and it worked well.
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FAQ
