After writing my 2010 wishlist last week it made me think about the products that will hopefully be appearing on our Christmas table this year. Many of them are firm favourites with us. From top left:
Quenby Hall Stilton Our favourite Stilton. Strong and creamy and perfect for a Christmas cheeseboard. The beef from Quenby Hall is also superb and the best I’ve ever tasted.
Brays Cottage Pork Pie We first tasted these pies at the Good Food Show a few weeks back. Let’s just say they converted me to pork pies. What is delicious about the pies is that they don’t have jelly in them plus you can buy them either ready baked for frozen so you can cook them fresh.
Sainsbury’s Canape spoons I’ve seen these advertised in a recent Sainsbury’s magazine and love the idea of them. If we don’t have the time to workout how to make them successfully by our Christmas Drinks do we’ll certainly be buying some of these.
Camel Valley ‘Cornwall’ Brut A superb sparking wine from Cornwall of all places that is great drunk on its own or with a splash of sloe gin. I’m intrigued by their sparkling red.
Lidl Christkindle Glühwein At less that £4 a bottle it’s not surprising that this flies off the shelf as soon as it arrives in the Lidl stores. Aldi’s version is just as good. It’s tradition in our house to drink this while putting the Christmas decorations up.
Belvoir Spiced Winter Berries Cordial Delicious hot or cold and perfect for the non-alcohol drinkers. At parties I usually serve it in the same way as the mulled wine with fruit floating in it.
Heston from Waitrose Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding You may have heard all about these puddings in the media. The pudding developed by Heston Blumenthal for Waitrose has been flying off the shelves priced £14.99 and now selling for over £100 on eBay. Unsurprisingly they are now sold out in Waitrose. I’ve been lucky enough to be sent one and while I admit I did toy with the idea of flogging it on eBay I have decided to share it with friends next week as our Whisky Pudding for Christmas Day is currently maturing. You can read a review of the Heston pudding on Fuss Free Flavours.
Aldi Stollen Bites Warning: these are incredibly moreish and a packet doesn’t last long in this house. One problem with getting these as that I can’t go into Aldi without buying other products in the Christmas range like lebkuchen, pfeffernüsse and spekulatius. Lidl make a similar products that are just as good.
Chocolate Confetti Forget your Roses, Quality Street or Heroes at Christmas these made not far from me are so much better. They are not scared to experiment with flavours. A few years back I tastes some of their Vintage Port & Quenby Hall Stilton chocolates (far better than they sound!) At the moment they are only available at Farmers Markets in the East Midlands, but you can order via the website to pick up at these markets.
What delights will be on your Christmas table this year?
13 comments
2 pings
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours
December 5, 2010 at 8:49 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks for the link.
What a good idea for a post!
I have had the Camel Valley fizz, and very nice it is too!
Jacqueline
December 5, 2010 at 9:30 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’ll have the stilton the wine and the chocolate please! Loving the new look and I mean really loving it. So cool!
Jules
December 5, 2010 at 10:04 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thank you very much.
Lizzie
December 5, 2010 at 9:59 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
No jelly in pork pies?! Noooo thats the best bit!
Jules
December 5, 2010 at 10:06 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Before, I would dissect pork pies so I could fish the jelly out. Hubs – not as fussy as me!
Helen T
December 5, 2010 at 10:01 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I love the Spiced Winter Berries cordial, and keep bottles of this in as an alternative to mulled wine. Lucky you with the Heston pudding though, was it good?
Jules
December 5, 2010 at 10:04 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
We’re trying it on Saturday. Quite intriged to see if it lives up to the hype.
maisoncupcake
December 6, 2010 at 10:52 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I had one of those Sainsbury’s spoons last week and they’re a bit hard to bite but I suppose you wouldn’t want them to go soggy with the topping on them.
I’d love to try the Cornish Brut – I hope it’s fizzy enough though as some English fizz is a bit flat.
Jules
December 7, 2010 at 6:33 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks for the spoon feedback. Are they like pastry?
I find the Cornish Brut nicely fizzy.
Roger Smith
December 6, 2010 at 10:53 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Will make sure that I have “Jennys jams” Cranberry, Orange and Brandy sauce with the turkey. With cold meats I have Faraday’s Chutney. My wife also does a wonderful roulade using Raspberry jam. All from “jennnys jams” in Lincoln
whoatemycrayons
December 9, 2010 at 9:34 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Aldi and Lidl always a winner for us in the treats department. Winning prices too. Thanks for the inspiration.
Magic Cochin
December 14, 2010 at 2:33 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thank you for the tips :-)
Christkindle Glühwein, Stollen bites, lebkuchen, pfeffernüsse and spekulatius from Aldi would be just the ticket for the Village Carol Singers’ Party this Friday…
:-( except our local Aldi doesn’t stock any of them … came home with a few Stollen Slices and Mince Pies instead. Will have to toddle off to Sainsbury’s after all.
Celia
Jules
December 14, 2010 at 5:49 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Oh no :( They do seem to sell out very fast when stock comes in. Hope you have a lovely party.
Tweets that mention Christmas Food Wishlist « Butcher, Baker -- Topsy.com
December 5, 2010 at 8:59 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rich Brady, Jules. Jules said: Christmas Food Wishlist: http://wp.me/pJrBR-pt [...]
Christmas Food Gifts & Essentials « Butcher, Baker
December 14, 2011 at 12:43 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] As you can imagine food is quite important to us over the festive season. Some of these foods have traditional or nostalgic connections and some are just because they taste so good. Many of these suggestions below will be great on your festive dinner table or will make equally good gifts. To see what I recommended last year see this blog post. [...]