A happy new year to you all
Published:
December 29, 2014 at 7:20pm
And I trust you had a good Christmas, too. I’m interested in finding out what your Christmas lunch was, whether you prefer traditional foods or something completely different, what constitutes tradition in your case, and whether your family gathering takes place in a home or at a restaurant.
So please write in – and thank you.
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We didn’t eat. We were all depressed because of your absence. Welcome back, and all the best to you and your family.
Hahaha.. Well said…. Welcome back dear Daphne.
And a happy new year to you and yours, dear Daphne.
I celebrate the solstice, Saturnalia and the new year with a fortnight’s or so period of reflection and contemplation.
Lunch on the 25th was a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich.
No so-called traditional food for us. We had fresh fish as main course.
A happy new year to you as well, I’m sure you’ll break some more site traffic records in 2015.
We’ve never eaten out on a single Christmas; it has always been a home affair for the extended family.
The menu is usually made up of soup, some cannelloni and either a roast turkey or gammon. Dessert is usually some sort of cake, preferably a layer cake with lots of cream on my part. I always thought fruit cake was a tad too dense to stuff down after a huge lunch.
Then comes the traditional digestive stroll across some of the more rural parts of this island. I never really much looked forward to it when I was a child, but now that I’ve grown older I can see the anthropological significance.
Daphne, a happy new year to you and your family, and thank you for all the information you give us.
We had turkey this Christmas and a plentiful supply of wine. It was a family gathering at home.
same here
We had the usual family Christmas – a bit stressful, chicken broth with tortellini, meat loaf, turkey, roast lucerto, roast potatoes, veg, mushrooms, figs and walnuts, cheeses and galletti, wine and water, chestnut pie and lemon meringue, all this after Pope Francis’s blessing on TV.
We missed you. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Traditional food without a doubt: soup or pasta; a roast turkey + some ham with plenty of cooked veg; Christmas pudding and mince pies.
I join the rest of your readers in welcoming you back
Christmas lunch is traditionally spent with my side of the family at my sister’s.
It was sumptuous fare, with timpana, different meats plus veg and potatoes and finishing off with fresh fruit and sweets plus pudding and liqueur.
The result is an additional inch around the waist.
Tradition, at home with family. Beetroot and apple soup, lasagna, turkey, lamb and falda mimlija cooked in broth.
Lamb gravy and lemon and ginger sauce which went well with the meats, and a dish of potatoes roasted in a wood-fired oven. Nsomma issa rrid impatti ghalih. Nimxi kuljum sas-sajf u mbiddel minn family pack ghal six-pack.
Wish you and your family all the best for 2015.
Hope you had a serene Christmas with your loved ones!
We opted for fish which is not associated with Christmas. Funnily enough, turkey was not even on the menu at the restaurant where we ate.
Dear Daphne, we had a lovely Christmas and hope you enjoyed yours too.
We always spend ours at home, since the smell of cinnamon and good food is not so easily found in a restaurant.
We had some crostini with cranberry and sausage pate with grated pecorino, and Aperol and fresh ginger aperitif. For starter I cooked cauliflower soup, followed by a pretty traditional timpana and stuffed turkey breast, brussel sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta, and parsnips and carrots with a maple syrup glaze.
For dessert I prepared a pear cheese-cake. In the evening, and this is becoming quite a tradition, I prepared a leg of ham with redcurrant glaze, plus some nibbles.
Christmas dinner was roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and the kids’ favourite “pigs in blankets”, plus lots of veggies and roast potatoes of course.
Wishing you and your family all the very best for a Happy New Year!
Meanwhile, this girl has been missing for 11 days – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141229/local/girl-14-still-missing.549998.
We spent Christmas in England at the home of a relative and lunch was almost traditional. No turkey because not many people like it; instead we had a three bird roast prepared by a local butcher, plus all the trimmings – sprouts, roast potatoes and parsnips, pigs in blankets, etc.
There were three vegetarians so special dishes were provided. The table was beautifully set and we all had a Christmas cracker to pull and champagne to toast the occasion.
No traditional food for us – we had a lovely home-cooked meal consisting of soup, followed by beef stew, roast potatoes and baked cauliflower with white sauce. So no turkey.
Rather than keeping tradition vis a vis food, we keep the tradition of eating all together at home on Christmas day.
Hope you had a lovely Christmas. I wish you and your family a happy new year. Well done for the work on the site. We missed you over the past days.
Brunch, then a Lidl ‘freezer to oven’ duck for Christmas supper: excellent.
All the best to you and all the readers. We had turkey breast Wellington, basically rolled turkey breast in cranberry sauce, then coated with shredded mushrooms, and all is then encased in pastry – thanks to Jamie Oliver.
Butternut squash soup to start, coffee and pecan nut for dessert, and some good red and white wine. And lots of love was sprinkled on the Christmas lunch table.
We had a lovely Christmas lunch with a delicious beef Wellington – thanks to our LOCAL chef Joe Vella
Despite the promises, we still couldn’t afford steak so we had to settle for pizza as usual.
This year we had a Christmas lunch in one of the hotels. I was disappointed as Christmas is a family affair and we have always celebrated this at home.
Memories of these in Malta and the UK….wonderful times.
A blessed New Year to all ..wishing you a peaceful and wonderful year ahead, possibly filled with as many lighter moments provided by our government. Look out for the next exciting episode of “Oh No, Prime Minister”.
Naq’a soup u selit.
@ H.P. Baxxter
..Ehh inti helltfrik Paxster, soppa w selitt! Biex ha nghabbu ghawn. Jaqaw hi, int xi vagiterjien, ehh? Jew xi skrewg? Issa Malta, taghna ukoll, jew ghadek ma tnebbahtx…
God Bless Baxxter ;)
Mela bhali! As a dessert I had ginger bret men. I made sure to have an all male couple in matching bowties to dine with us.
I missed the fluffy guy talking about wine.
Wishing you and your loved ones peace, health and happiness.
Thank you for keeping us in the know, Daphne. God bless.
“Without free speech no search for truth is possible… no discovery of truth is useful… Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.”
Charles Bradlaugh, 1833-1891
We went to my niece’s and had baked rice (mum), turkey (niece) and cake (wife). Personally, I don’t enjoy food, only eating to live but everyone else said it was fine.
We usually eat out but I must say I enjoyed this much more.
A happy new year to you and your readers – whatever their persuasions.
Due to lack of space we eat out with my sister’s family as well.
It is a lavish buffet in a hotel restaurant with a very good spread. Of course it includes the traditional turkey – otherwise it will not be a Christmas lunch for me at least.
However there was a cheese table, a Chinese table as well as my favourite hors d’oeuvres table with vol au vents and shrimp boats amongst other stuff.
The pasta table was out of this world. What really hit me was the tasty and warm chocolate pudding. Best of all – parking is free. We really enjoyed it.
We had turkey at home. Cooked turnip for the first time. Ham, roast potatoes, quinoa with vegetables, red beets, fresh cranberry sauce, yams, wine. No room for dessert.
Glad you’re back, Daphne.
We had Christmas lunch with all the family at grandma’s.
Wishing you a happy new year too and keep up the great work, as always.
First of all I wasn’t surprised with your long absence, so I hope you enjoyed Christmas and wish you and your dear ones joy and happiness for the future.
We ate at my brother’s home, it was his turn this year.
We were at his house at around 12.30pm.
Our “cenone” was co-ordinated by him: a BYO (bring your own).
We had parma ham rolled on breadsticks, several dips with galletti and aperitifs.
When we sat at table we had pumpkin soup, and after that baked lasagne and after that we had baked stuffed pork roll.
We had the usual soft drinks and a variety of wines; there was not even one Maltese bottle of wine on the table.
Then a variety of cheeses, and after that peanuts and walnuts. At around five, we had Maltese soufflé’, then coffee or tea served with a selection of home-made desserts: Christmas log, mince pies, carrot cake and Christmas cake.
We left my brother’s house at around 8pm.
It was an enjoyable evening.
No need to tell you that there was enough food left to feed an army.
We ate nothing. One of Leli Mallia’s henchmen came over with his Glock and took our turkey.
Auguri sbieh lilek Daphne u lil familja tieghek. Grazzi.
Welcome back Daphne! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
We had the Christmas lunch at our house. My husband made cups of filo pastry filled with tuna paste he made himself as appetizers. Then I made creamy smoked salmon, leek and potato soup followed by turkey with sausage meat stuffing, grilled potatoes and carrots made by my husband.
For dessert he made zabaione trifle slice which was divine. We get the recipes from BBC Good Food and an Italian website called Giallo Zafferano.
Happy New Year to you and all your family.
Best wishes to you and your family.
We cooked stuffed turkey and ate it with friends.
Taghna biss.
Good to have you back, our lunch was a large family affair at my sister’s house. Truffled eggs, roasted parsnip soup and roast goose with apples. Followed by a choice of lemon sorbet, coffee granita or fig and cinnamon ice cream, or a taste of each. Yum and yum again!
A happy new year to you!
We had Christmas lunch at my brother- and sister-in-law’s. They are great hosts. But the real treat is that she’s a creative, outstanding cook. The highlight of this year was lasagne with baked pumpkin and pistachios.
Could have stopped at that – and I should have.
Aperitifs, Stilton and broccoli soup, turkey, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cauliflower au gratin, brussels sprouts with pancetta, gammon, Christmas pudding, snapdragon and all. At home with family and in-laws. Nothing like it. Here’s wishing everyone a better 2015. Keep up the good work, Daph!
Dear Daphne since you are our daily bread (news-wise) we had a very poor meal on Christmas day as it was mostly shellfish. Now it seems we will have a wonderful New Year’s lunch and dinner with you being back. Wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
Had a good Christmas, hope you too. Our tradition of food cries out homemade.
Tortellini (rigorosamente fatti a mano) in brodo.
Rolled up pork, filled by mum.
Fruit
Christmas pudding
After a nap, some coffee with homemade mince pies.
That’s our Christmas lunch menu, held at my mum’s home. Luckily no in-laws to ruin it all.
I started my own traditions influenced by northern European friends.
Christmas eve started with hot drinks, at 7pm everywhere lit in candle light. Hot soup followed made of a mix of vegetables and rooster stock. Then deboned rooster which was cooked in a brew then roasted for another hour basted in its juices. Golden crispy roasted potatoes on the side plus a family recipe of cauliflower mixed with tiny shredded bacon ricotta, grated cheese baked to a crispy brown.
For dessert imbuljuta and dates rolled in baked dough.
Afterwards more gluhwein and vanilla kippferl.
Finished at 10pm in time to prepare for midnight mass.
I would not dream of going to a restaurant on Christmas day, not even if they paid me. Traditional once a year timpana, a recipe from my grandmother and the usual turkey, washed down by some good Burgundy recommended by Glenn Bedingfield.
A very Happy New Year to you, Peter and the boys and thank you so much for all your efforts to keep us informed.
Forgot to wish you a blessed and healthy new year, missed you during Christmas.
Now, Daphne, you can sift through the comments and identify who’s Taghna lkoll and who isn’t. As for us, we didn’t eat either – we fasted.
Happy Christmas retrospectively and a Happy New Year.
[Daphne – You can’t tell voting choices from Christmas menus but only from behaviour and attitude. Is there anyone who didn’t take it for granted that the police sergeant in that lapdancing club fracas is a rabid Mintoffian? Because guess what, he is. This post is purely about food habits and traditions, in which I have a professional interest.]
Police? What police? Oh the ones who are committing one flop after another. Sometimes I get the feeling that in reality we are not safe anymore. It’s a fully corrupt system.
Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Christmas(belated) and a happy and prosperous new year.
Christmas is a strictly immediate family affair, where my wife and I and our two children (19 and 21) spend the morning calmly cooking.
Traditional broth followed by stuffed turkey breast with roast potatoes, and a good old fashioned pudding and custard, washed down with home made warm mulled wine. Then lazing about opening presents, playing rummikub whilst watching Michael McIntyre Christmas Roadshow on Comedy Central. Bliss.
Hi Daphne, happy Christmas to you too.
Ours was the traditional turkey with stuffing, but NO brussels sprouts at my sister’s with parents, in-laws, etc. Soup, not pasta, for starters and (almost) everyone made a dish.
The tradition around Christmas lunch starts with the preparing of it at our home throughout the month of December.
The desserts are multiple and we start the preparation of these at the beginning of Advent with the Christmas cake icing finished on the 6th December.
The preparation of the turkey on Christmas eve before mass is part of what we look forward to because that’s the time for our imbuljut.
Depending on whether it’s an even or odd year, the even year is traditionally: a bouillon, 3-meat lasagne (no pork) with homemade pasta, turkey with chestnut and sultana stuffing, delicious Cointreau orange sauce, homemade confits; home-grown new potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon and walnuts, cheese; Christmas log, year-old Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, mince-pies which generally take us up to tea where the rest of the sweet table keeps “lunch” going until about 8.30 pm.
On an odd year, the tradition is a different one: home-marinated gravlax and home-cooked foie gras followed by guinea fowl with a foie gras stuffing accompanied by smaller gamebird like woodcock basted with Armagnac and also prepared with foie gras. Potatoes and parsnips cooked in milk and served with truffle shavings. Funghi porcini as an additional accompaniment. Cheese. Christmas log and raspberry vacherin follow.
This year was an odd year. We never go to a restaurant for Christmas lunch. I look forward to Christmas every year and mark the start of Advent with a simple dinner and an exchange of a homemade gift on the the 6th December.
Between the 6th December and Christmas lunch we fast.
Our Advent effort is concentrated on orphans.
On Advent Sundays we draw pictures which become Christmas gifts.
Preparation preceding Christmas and then the enjoyment of the whole of Christmas day are very family intensive.
The Christmas period is the highlight of our year.
Wow amazing – wish I was part of your Christmas :) One thing though – why do you say that this year was an odd year? 2014 is an even number…. or did I miss the point?
It’s only our reference to the fare.
Armagnac and funghi porcini, eh? So this is how the upper class live. Now we know.
If there’s something I skimp on, it’s food. I mean it all goes out the other end, and I’m skint. So I had porridge and a can of beans.
Hey, at least it’s not those M&S individual turkey rolls. That would be the prelude to suicide.
The clue is most times in the little details:
Woodcock, depending on where this is caught, cannot be transported by car and if not caught by the person/ home cooking it, must be a gift. Yes, it is known as the king of birds and tradition also has it that it is served “seated on its canapé.”
Funghi porcini, is also a gift of the land. Not so much a class thing but a choice. When these are prepared by family members, there is their effort to go out into the forest early in the morning before other mushroom seekers pass by. They grow to huge relative proportions but past a certain size they are certain to be attacked by slugs. I would say farmers and agriculturers benefit most from this fresh produce. Upper class perhaps when it comes to choice of ingredients.
Our attitude towards food is a series of healthy choices in keeping with a responsibility towards future generations:
When we find that a fresh product is delicious, we take the trouble of keeping the seeds and occupying ourselves with germination, planting etc. (Lemons, tangerines, pumpkin etc)
The mushroom spores, for example, are left in place, so a mushroom is always cut at the foot not picked, which leaves you with a marker for where they’re bound to be found in successive years/ or after other rainfalls within the same season.
It’s cheaper than a can of beans.
Give me a true gaggle of geese over the many months it takes to prepare these, over loud brash music in malls, traffic jams or strolling down supermarket aisles any day.
Another traditional sweet for us are date and honey slices on a thin shortcrust with a porridge oat crumble on top that gets gently toasted in the oven. Candied (home-candied) “mandolin malti” goes in with the date preparation. Sometimes we add a piquant section to the tray. Spices are a focus. Where the basics are the same, the spices change.
Anything that we can make or grow without super exertion, we do.
It has a tendency to get very manual and busy-keeping, so I’m not sure how that merges with your upper class theory.
Simplicity is hard work, but it’s a choice.
What an outstanding array of food and products. What a lovely menu.
Very well done, Tabatha White. I greatly admire imaginative and creative people like yourself.
Thank you.
I must say it would be impossible without family contribution and combined effort and motivation.
A happy new year to you too, Daphne.
With regards to Christmas day lunch, my parents decided to go off the traditional menu. In fact we started with an aljotta soup, which in a way is typically Maltese. This was then followed by some shellfish accompanied with a simple pasta dish. A salmon and swordfish steak marinated in herbs and a lemon citrus twist, served as the main course, along with a side portion of salad and sweet potato.
As you can see we are a family who love the fruit of the sea. In general it was quite a typical Mediterranean lunch.
For dessert we went traditional with imbuljuta, chocolate Christmas log, mince pies and a cassatella Siciliana.
In addition, we had quite a variety of wines (with most wines being from foreign soils ) alongside the usual soft drinks.
We prefer to have lunch at home because we feel that this unites the whole family as we would have everyone come over. But on Christmas eve I usually go out to dinner with my family whilst later I would opt to have a good night out at the clubs with my friends, being the typical 18 year old.
On that note I want to congratulate you on your work. I do admire the choice of lexicon that you use. And as I said before, being an English A level student hoping to follow a BA in English and Theatre starting in October, I genuinely believe that this blog serves as a good example towards making good use of grammar, which I applaud you for, irrespective of what one’s opinions may be on the topic in question.
Best regards,
SG
Christmas has always been a day to be with family, all day. Never go out to eat.
Had a nice lunch at home with the whole family. Menu included soup, turkey with veg and potatoes, then cake.
Still too much hassle to have it at home for all the family and kids so maybe, next year, we may eat out (as a family) for Christmas lunch.
Wishing you, your family and your avid readers all the best wishes for the holidays and a great 2015!
Christmas lunch at my wife’s parents’ house. Mushroom soup, then pasta (vegetarian sauce), and then vegetarian “meat” balls with potatoes and vegetables, followed by Christmas cake and logs. The rest of the family had steak instead of the vegetarian “meat” balls.
It depends how far you go back in time to determine what is traditional in Malta.
In today’s Malta, I guess traditional is an English style Christmas meal: turkey, Christmas pudding, wine and then port and of course eaten at lunchtime on Christmas Day rather than dinner on Christmas Eve as most Europeans do.
As we usually do, we had the family over to our house. Christmas should be at home. Ideally at one’s own home or, if not, at the home of a close relative.
We open presents before lunch.
Then all seem to take it in turns snoozing.
Awguri Daphne lilek u lill-familja kollha. Milied affari familjari b’ikla bnina a caldo.
Pork fillet with prunes and apricots – a success.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/andalucianporkwithap_72080
Happy New Year
A happy 2015 to you Daphne and to all the commentators and readers of this block.
Having an Italian wife, our Christmas lunch is almost always fish and this year was no different. Antipasto of smoked salmon and mussels, shrimp ravioli and sea bass as main course.
The only difference from last year is that we had our lunch on the terrace!
Oh God! Did I really write block? Heartfelt apologies!
It was traditional food for us, mainly British except for the timpana. Wish you the very best in 2015.
Again, all the best to you and your dear ones, Daphne.
We’ve been celebrating Christmas eve and New Year’s Eve the same way for donkey’s years now. With us it’s raclette.
We prepare what seems as being a ton of uncooked medallions of chicken, beef, pork, prawns, mushrooms, and other things like onions, broccoli, sliced Emmenthal cheese, steamed sliced potatoes, and sliced red paprika.
It’s then a case of each choosing and cooking his/her food on the raclettes on the table. Nearly forgot the side plates of jasmine rice and long grain rice, with a choice of mushroom or Zigeuner sauces. Washed down with wines and thank god that we don’t do this too often.
Wish everyone a happy and prosperous NEW YEAR.
A Happy New Year to you, Daphne.
Hope you keep up the good work you are doing.
Best wishes to all who visit your blog.
Hey Daphne! Nice to see you are back with us and will be keeping us informed with all that goes around our little island.
We are a typical Maltese family and together with my uncles, aunts, cousins, parents, brothers and nephews we ended up around 30 pax at the end of the day with imqarun il-forn, turkey, capon, baked Maltese potatoes, vegetables then a selection of cakes, and with wine and coffee. Then turkey sandwiches later.
Hope you enjoyed your day too – all the best for the New Year.
Welcome back! These are very difficult days for people that suffer with diabetes, heart decease and high blood pressure.
I have to keep two of these conditions under control. It is not easy to walk away from i beni di Dio which we had at table, but I managed to be only just a bit naughty. Would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year and Grazzi ta’ kollox.
Auguri!
A traditional family gathering at the Fortress of Solitude, eating turkey of course too..
We always have a traditional Christmas lunch with the family at home.
This year we had soup or timpana followed by turkey, cooked ham and roast pork served with gravy and vegetables (roast potatoes, mushrooms in garlic, artichoke hearts au gratin and Italian green beans).
To finish off we had a selection of all my mother’s homemade sweets – mince pies, torta tal-marmorata (a family classic) and Christmas pudding with brandy butter. Everything was delicious! Hope you had a great Christmas too… Wishing you all the best for the new year!
It was heard on the grapevine that on Christmas Day, Joseph Muscat was seen eating Malta’s liver whilst the rest of his acolytes, bar few, were lapping up her fat. Luciano Busuttil and Joe Mizzi were seen squabbling over who gets the brain, whilst Owen Bonnici and Konrad Mizzi were lifting her skirt to check her out.
This got Manuel Mallia slightly peeved as there were no eggs for his collection. He sulked and walked back home to wait for his appointment as George Vella’s substitute.
Beneath this table of giants gathered a mass of Lilliputians holding white flags and chanting loudly “Malta taghna Ukoll!” as they scavenged on the crumbs.
By Boxing Day, the platter had been licked clean and Edward Scicluna was seen scratching his head in bewilderment, trying to figure out where it had all gone.
It is also reported that Louis Grech turned up late on the 27th, and scurried away as soon as he saw the rabid faces of the Lilliputians who had been cheated out of any share.
We had a good Christmas and hope you enjoyed it too. Thank you for all the effort you put into this blog and we wish you all the very best for the new year.
We haven’t had turkey for Christmas lunch for ages. We tend to change menu every year. It’s time to go back to turkey next year, I suppose.
Green vegetable puree followed by roast beef, roast capon accompanied by roast spuds, pumpkin, sweet potato.
A gravy was made by reducing red wine in the beef roasting dish without murdering it with flour to thicken as most do.
The beef also had English mustard as an accompaniment, the capon cranberry sauce, both of which were from a jar.
Finally, for dessert we had a plum pudding with either Birds packet custard or soy custard.
The wines were an Argentinian red (very average) and an Italian white. Coffee was made using a moka and Borg’s coffee, a mix of three varieties.
My work has made me spend, practically, as many Christmases abroad as in Malta, and inevitably its celebration was influenced by this fact.
However, in no case was Christmas celebrated in a hotel, restaurant, or any other public place. It was celebrated at home, and in church, with one singular exception when we were invited to welcome a new year, en famille, with the Ambassador of Spain when both of us were serving in Tripoli.
A happy New Year to you and your family.
A very happy and prosperous new year to you and all your readers.
Thanks for all the info you provide us with, as well as your reflective and intuitive take on the public and not-so-public news items you provide us with.
Many years ago, I read a comment about you made by an English woman that simply said “Thank God for Daphne” when she was lamenting the state of freedom of information in Malta in the bad old days. Well, we’ve turned full circle and all I can do now is echo that lady again today. Thanks again.
The family was not together at Christmas this year so we decided to just go out for brunch and then indulge in favourite bites in late afternoon. We can confirm that missing people and favourite finger food is bad news for the waist line.
It’s so nice to see you back. Happy new year!
Phew , so glad you’re back Daphne – hope you had a great Christmas, and I wish you the best New Year possible under the circumstances.
Ours was a traditional family reunion with more food than we could possibly eat in a week, for lunch. We started with some appetizers with our aperitifs, proceeded to a decadent creamy truffle mushroom soup, followed by pear and Gorgonzola ravioli.
Next we had our main course consisting of a deboned and stuffed capon with the usual vegetables and baked potatoes followed by a cheese board, nuts, fruit and “helwa”.
After a break, a traditional Christmas pudding was brandy flamed and served with brandy sauce, accompanied by liquors and After Eights. Finally we all staggered and sat around the fire-place with our coffees and waited for a couple of hours till tea-time with its accompanying round of Christmas cake and panettone.
Almost a week later and I still feel bloated, but it was great fun.
Nittama li kellek Milied hieni ma’ dawk l-aktar qrib tiegħek. Il-familja tagħna baqgħet l-istess. Mindu miet missieri tmien snin ilu, ħsibt li l-ikla tal-Milied nagħmluha d-dar tagħna imma t-tfal tagħna u ta’ ħuti ħasbuha mod ieħor, riedu jibqgħu jiltaqgħu għand in-nanna.
U hekk nagħmlu kull sena, l-aħwa bejnietna nippreparaw l-ikel, din is-sena kellna soppa tal-brokkli, timpana, “meat loaf” u ħaxix u patata bħala kontorn. Diżerta kellna trifle u pudina tal-Milied. Sintendi l-inbid ma naqasx.
Aktar tard għal ħin it-te, qsamna l-kejk tal-frott, il-mincepies, il-Christmas log u anke panettone. L-għada ma ridtx nara aktar ikel!
Nieħu l-opportunità biex nixtieq lilek, lill-familja u lill-ħbieb tiegħek kif ukoll lill-qarrejja ta’ dan il-blog, is-sena t-tajba, mimlija barka, saħħa u riżq.
We had a lovely Christmas traditional lunch at my brother’s house. He is a lovely cook.
It included cold hams/salamis and cheese for starters, soup, stuffed turkey with roast potatoes and vegetables and a lovely cassatella Siciliana made by a beloved aunt. Wine was abundant but so were water and soft drinks for the non-alcoholic drinkers.
But the loveliest part is that we also spent the day with very close relatives of ours who share with us the Christmas joy of getting together.
A most Happy New Year to you and your loved ones and to all the contributors on this commentary.
Wara li fil-lejl tal-Milied morna ghall-quddiesa u wara breakfast f’lukanda, nhar il-Milied morna f’restaurant u hadna ikel pjuttost normali nghidu ahna minn spagetti, chicken fillet etc.
Darba tidhol id-dar xi 3am kien se jkun difficli ghal ommi li terga tqum kmieni u tipprepara l-ikel ghal 8 persuni. Dan ghalkemm l-intenzjoni taghha dejjem tkun dik.
B’hekk morna l-Mellieha f’restaurant komdu ghall-familji u bi prezzijiet tajbin hafna. Hadt ukoll l-okkazzjoni biex koppja hbieb tieghi li jinsabu Malta bhalissa kienu wkoll mistednin jinghaqdu maghna biex f’dan il-jum ma jieklux wehidhom u dan bla ma nzid stress fuq min jkun se jipprepara l-ikel.
B’hekk b’kollox konna 10.
Issa ghal NYE ser naghmlu l-istess wara lejl ghand xi familjari biex nibdew is-sena flimkien. Sabieh hafna min jaghmel l-ikla tal-Milied fid-djar izda mhux dejjem jkun prattiku.
Awguri lil kulhadd.
Christmas lunch is always a family gathering with a traditional menu of stuffed roast turkey, gammon, roast potatoes and fresh veg with home-baked dessert, chocolates, dates filled with ricotta and nuts.
Welcome back. Wishing you and your dear ones a Happy New Year.
We get the whole family together (brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren) and we have a traditional meal with turkey, roast pork, Christmas pudding and all the trimmings, plus a few extras like fresh salmon and prawns for those of us who cannot eat everything.
On Christmas Day, we had asparagus soup and stuffed turkey with some black pudding on the side and stuffing.
For dessert, we opted for traditional Christmas pudding with brandy sauce (and the penny!). We didn’t go to a restaurant, but all was cooked at home. We will be eating snails and eel on New Year’s Eve.
Wishing you all the best for the festive season.
Barabbas
Barabbas or Judas? It should be a sixpence.
Barabbas. No six pence these days. A penny with the Queen’s head.
I hosted our families this year. It was a gluttonous 12-hour affair with copious amounts of wine, pate, homemade ravioli, turkey with chestnut stuffing, roast beef, sprouts, parsnips, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, pudding and cheeses and whisky. Leftovers sandwiches and karaoke past 10pm. A few tears and a heated debate rounded off the day spectacularly.
Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead.
A Happy New Year to you, Daphne. My Christmas meal was a typical German one – 2 geese with a lovely crispy skin, potato dumplings with sauce and shredded warm red cabbage. Dessert was homemade apple strudel.
Seppie in zimino. Absolutely fabulous and squid is abundantly fresh. Tasty and healthy. Bon appetito a tutti.
[Daphne – http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/seppie-in-zimino-recipe.html
http://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/ricetta-seppie-zimino/ ]
A Happy New Year to you, Daphne, and to all the denizens of this blog. Here’s to a year where things no longer remain ‘taghhom biss.’
Very traditional food and within the family as always. We make two sweets that I think belong to old Maltese traditions but I hardly ever see others making them – Torta tal-Immarmurat and almond wreath – a puff pastry ring filled with a filling similar to that of the figolli.
Happy new year to all.
I don’t prefer traditional food – i would rather Asian, which is far lighter and healthier. Yet the family preferred it and I wasn’t cooking… so traditional it was. I stuck to the lasagne and forwent the meat.
All the best to you and yours too
We spend Christmas with the family, Daphne, and we prefer a traditional lunch.
This year I chose pork which I believe is one of the traditional dishes used. Happy new year to you and all your family and may your God be with you and illuminate your writing as he has always done.
Muscat told us to eat pizza only – so there you have it
Welcome back, Daphne.
We enjoyed an imbuljuta on Christmas Eve and panettone first thing in the morning with cappuccino after the excitement of unwrapping Santa’s presents, and whilst baking.
Our Christmas lunch was a family affair for a small group of 14 and held at our home. We prepared everything ourselves.
An aunty brought the dessert and an uncle the vegetarian lasagne.
Christmas lunch, as always for us, included deboned capon stuffed with a mixture of chestnuts cooked with spices, onions and herbs, baked on top of lemon, garlic, orange and rosemary, wrapped in pancetta and served with cranberry sauce. This was served with roast potatoes and baked carrots and veg.
On a yearly basis we come up with more delicious ways to eat our Brussels sprouts. This year we had them first grilled with garlic and sautéed with red chard and almonds.
We also added a roast beef complete with a red wine gravy reduction and varied antipasti for starters, including a light mushroom and spinach lasagne. We tried to keep it light.
For dessert we made custard using coconut milk, served with homemade Christmas pudding with the brandy flare. And finished with some yearly hot debates and tantrums over a game of monopoly.
A very alcoholic Christmas cake. That’s all I can remember.
Wish you health and happiness for the New Year – thank you for your splendid Notebook commentary, will be looking forward and following you without fail.
Christmas lunch was a family affair – soup, lasagna, roast beef + potatoes, Christmas pudding and coffee.
Christmas Day lunch was a family affair in a good restaurant with a buffet for starters, then fish, turkey or steak, and a big selection of pretty little sweet concoctions for afters.
Christmas Eve lunch was home-made with stuffed swordfish, stuffed chicken breast and an avocado dip to start, then pasta with lobster sauce, roast gammon with veg and Christmassy sweets for afters.
New Year’s Eve will see us having a nice meal at home with family with a menu consisting mainly of smoked fish starters, a veggie soup of sorts, salmon as a main dish and left over Christmas sweets. French and/or German wines served during all meals.
The usual timpana/lasagna/cannelloni/mqarrun fil-forn stuff is a definite NO during the festivities.
Thanks, Def…il-kumplament.
At home.
7 kilo fresh (Sicilian) turkey. Underestimated oven and was ready by 10.00. Followed Jamie Oliver’s advice and wrapped in a couple of paljazzi and a blanket. Was lovely warm and juicy at carving. Very tender and tasty.
Put the gravy (red wine baste) in the freezer – easier to skim off fat at lunch time and then reheated.
Had lots of leftovers. Made soups and pies and sandwiches. Did not make stuffing.
Stuffed pork sausage under the skin …kienu zejda.
Pudding made in November 2013, doused in brandy. Was even better cold the next day. Insomma is-soltu. Burp.
What’s so special about the Sicilian turkey? Jamie Oliver raised a turkey himself in one of his latest tv shows, and showed the difference between a supermarket turkey, and a normal free range raised turkey.
Regrettably my family opted for lunch at a restaurant. I prefer a traditional English home cooked lunch for Christmas followed by home entertainment. It’s the only day in the year when members of my family are willing to spend the whole day together, so why not make the most of it.
Turkey is not traditional in our family. Indeed I never had turkey for Christmas. We usually stick with a game-bird though: pheasant, duck, quail etc.
But this year we broke with that tradition and had veal instead.
The only tradition we always seem to keep is to have cannelloni or lasagne as a second course and soup for the first.
After the main course, we always have a cheese course with a nice array of continental cheeses. For dessert, it’s usually anything but the traditional Anglo-Saxon desserts. They are too heavy for our taste.
Happy New Year to you and your loved ones too, Daphne!
Welcome back!
Altretanto Daphne!
Christmas means an inhouse extended family reunion (about 85 of us, don’t ask how we fit) .
Due to logistic reasons and cost savings (ifhem, qedghin taht il-Lejber), each branch of the family is responsible for a particular course.
This year, my family’s branch was delegated the desserts. I made the honey rings while my siblings made christmas logs and coconut balls.
As for the main course, turkey of course.
Happy New Year, Daphne!
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we met up with the immediate and extended family. Every day during your absence there was the occasional click on your blog to check whether you were back. You are always missed.
Best Wishes to all!
I would like to wish you, your family, and everyone who reads or contributes to this blog in some way, a very Happy New Year.
I always host Christmas lunch and it is a combination of the traditions of my ancestry ( English and Maltese) as well as some American customs influenced by having lived here for 35 years.
We always have hors d’oeuvres in the living room with a log burning in the fireplace and Christmas music playing in the background. This year, Idina Menzel’s new cd “Holiday Wishes” was the firm favorite. We had hot artichoke dip served with baguette slices, spanakopita, smoked salmon on cream cheese and cucumber and champagne.
Next, we moved into the dining room for lunch. I always have Christmas crackers and this year besides the usual trinket, paper hat and joke, they each had a trivia question and a charade. Our group were great at the trivia questions but a mixed bag at charades.
For lunch we had roast turkey with Italian sausage stuffing, gravy, roast lamb with au jus, mashed potatoes, sautéed brussel sprouts with bacon, baby carrots, spinach salad, fresh cranberry relish, homemade thyme biscuits (very American) with honey, thyme butter and some wonderful wines my friend and her husband brought.
We took a break from eating, after lunch, and exchanged presents. When teatime rolled around, we had a pot of strong, proper British tea (none of that awful American stuff) as well as trifle made the way my Maltese mother used to make it. We also had pumpkin pie, homemade fudge and an assortment of cookies.
It was a wonderful day spent with family and friends with much laughter and too much eating. The stuff of which memories are made.
We always prefer Christmas lunch at home. This year we had spicy lentil soup with cumin, cannelloni with parmesan and boletus mushroom sauce, couscous with lamb and a small turkey stuffed with sage, onion and chestnuts.
For dessert we had struffoli in honey, fancy cakes and panettone. Started lunch with a bottle of Brut champagne, followed by a shot of a 33 year old single malt whisky and then good Spanish wine throughout the meal.
A can of Lidl meatballs for Christmas Day lunch. Couldn’t even bother warming it up. And straight from the tin. Saves washing a plate.
Our Christmas lunch always starts off with my father’s special: chestnut soup, followed by a small portion of pasta, roast turkey with roast potatoes and vegetables, and finally Christmas pudding with brandy sauce.
Welcome back, Daphne, and I wish you and your family, as well as your readers and contributors, a wonderful year ahead.
Our family gathering for Christmas and New Year always take place at my parents’ house. This year my brother-in-law prepared both Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day lunch which consisted of chicken caesar salad, crusted veal cutlets, broccoli and croutons soup and baked lamb shanks with roast potatoes and honey glazed carrots and parsnips.
For afters we had a variety of cheeses and nuts, a rich chocolate mousse gateau, almond tart, home made honey rings and mince pies. We started Christmas Eve dinner with a drop of Irish single malt whisky and Christmas Day lunch with a bottle of Carte D’Or Brut champagne. Throughout dinner we drank some foreign and local wines, the latter, most of which is home made.
As from this year, foie gras has been banned from our household for ethical purposes.
This year, Ritienne and I decided to have a ‘right on’ ethical Christmas.
So the starter consisted of a carpaccio of kuntrattur, particularly delicious since he had been freshly caught in his own pool earlier that morning. We served it with a sauce aioli.
This was followed by a terrine of politician, slaughtered two days previously. The secret with this dish is, of course, to add a dash of Azerbaijan vodka to the terrine.
The pièce de résistance, brought into the dining room by a tinsel-clad Ritienne, was a roast free-range lawyer, shot on Sunday, with sage and onion stuffing, and parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, sprouts and mash. The smell, as Ritienne plunged her knife into the steaming bird and the moist filling oozed out, was delicious. We served it with a brown-nose sauce.
We decided to forgo pudding.
But Ritienne had baked two dozen LGBT mince pies, and I scoffed more than a few as Ritienne pulled my cracker.
Later, we lay back, sated, to watch the Merilweez Xmas Address. Despite the two bottles of Barolo, I found I came to a proud, twitching stand quite easily as the national anthem came on.
Much later, we repaired to Marrakesh, where I downed all 24 Earl Grey shooters. Wicked!
Although I’m half Maltese I was brought up in England where we had the very old traditional 4 birds stuffed into one.
This would consist of my father sitting in front of old Christmas movies for a whole day, with a table and a set of sharp knives, carefully deboning the 4 birds.
The first was a goose, inside which would go a small turkey or large chicken, then a duck, followed by a pheasant. The choice of bird is very particular, so that when carved, or just sliced really, there is a layer of dark meat, then white, then dark, then white and stuffing in the middle.
I think I’ve got the type of bird slightly wrong as pheasant is a dark meat, but you get the picture.
Sadly the art of deboning a bird is being lost so we won’t be having this one for much longer.
And of course, no timpana to start – usually something much lighter like smoked salmon or soup.
[Daphne – A proper butcher will debone your birds if you place your order in good time. It’s part of their training, but they so rarely are asked to do it, that they appreciate the chance to use their skills. Thank you for reminding me about this old recipe. I find it fascinating.]
It dates back to Tudor times.
Unfortunately there are very few proper butchers here. Many shops selling meat who call themselves butchers but they haven’t really had the specialised training.
This year was the first year we ate out. Usually we have Christmas lunch at our house, inviting over the rest of the family, or at the home of some other member of the family.
The kids have been complaining that this resulted in more work on Christmas Day and thus we decided to eat at a restaurant instead.
Though the food was good and we enjoyed it, and that meant less work for us, probably we will be back to Christmas lunch at home next year.
Regarding food, we are quite traditional, though the restaurant we went to did not have the traditional Christmas food.
In fact my wife is still complaining to this day that this Christmas was not the usual one since she did not have any turkey and pudding.
All I had were a couple of digestive biscuits and half a glass of tonic water. I had a runny tummy after listening to Joey and Merry Louise.
Merry Christmas (belated) to you and your family
Christmas lunch was nice and traditional – we started with cannelloni, then turkey and gammon served with pineapple sauce, roast potatoes, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce and mustard, followed by a selection of crackers and cheeses and ended off with two desserts to make sure you couldn’t move till 6 pm… when tea and cakes were then served.
Thankfully we all survived the gluttony and are now eager for tomorrow’s meal.
All the very best for the new year.
21 family members at home.
1st course: Thai infused pumpkin soup.
2nd course: smoked salmon and prawn salad
3rd course: roast ribeye beef, roast stuffed capon, roast pork and a stuffed chicken roll with potatoes, cabbage with mulled wine, Brussels sprouts and stuffing
4th course: cheese and biscuits
5th course: Christmas cake and mince pies.
Darn, I love Christmas. :)
I wish you and your family happy holidays and a great year ahead.
Thank you for your efforts in bringing the truth to us when others do not.
There’s nowhere like home on Christmas day.
We had a selection of dips, galletti, grissini, roasted vegetables, stuffed olives and mushrooms for starters, followed by pumpkin soup. Main course was the traditional turkey with roast potatoes and more roasted vegetables. Cheesecake for dessert.
A happy new year to you and all your loved ones.
Christmas lunch with the extended family. Mostly traditional, consomme’, timpana, loin of pork, stuffed capon, roast potatoes and veg, selection of fine cheeses, flowing wine and Prosecco, torta gelato with fresh berries, etc, etc… As an American friend likes to say “a very widening experience”.
Happy New Year Daphne, may 2015 bring you health, happiness and even greater success than in 2014.
You were away for Christmas and we missed your posts but not your name because, for a change of pace and since we had a non-Maltese as a dinner guest I thought of baking a traditional Maltese bread pudding – a perfect accompaniment to the indispensable black coffee after a multi-course meal.
Where did I get the recipe for the pudding? Glad you asked. It was from a cook book jointly authored by Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia.
Now, I have a confession to make. The ‘original’ book was bought several decades ago and before the dog-eared pages started to literally disintegrate, I had the presence of mind to copy all 70 pages (front and back) thus extending the book’s life to well beyond my remaining years.
So, with the book by my side written by two Caruana Galizias, how could I not think of you?
A happy 2015, and may you be blessed and rewarded for infusing some sanity in all of us, while going through such troubled times!
Happy new year to you and your loved ones. And welcome back!
Turkey for main, starters change every year. And it’s always at home, of course.
Happy New Year to you, Daphne. Christmas lunch wasn’t as normal: I ate party food, as we were preparing party food for the evening.
Before my parents passed away we used to prepare the traditional Christmas lunch, turkey with all the trimmings.
At home with my family and my wife’s family. We manage to fit in 15 places for Christmas lunch with some movement of furniture. The important thing is that we are all together. Soup, lasagne, cannelloni, turkey and stuffed pork. We always do this. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (everyone in his own way).
Happy New Year to you Daphne and everyone else.
We always eat at home for Christmas lunch which starts late, at around 14:00 and ends God knows when. The menu is always the same one (we tried something different last year but ultimately everyone preferred the traditional menu) brodu tal-falda, lasagna, roast pork belly, stuffed capon, roast veggies, cauliflower gratin, roast potato wedges, variety of cheese/fruit/nuts, traditional trifle/christmas pudding, mince pies, date and nut pie, christmas cake, gallons of wine, coffee, gingerbread men, stuffed figs, liquers and chocolates.