What Did You Have For Dinner?

[John Farrell]

Tonight will be cold chicken (leftovers from last night), potato salad (made with leftovers from last night), salad and assorted trimmings. There's no leftover Christmas pud, unfortunately.

[daves]

Fish fingers, chips and peas.

[lesleysm2]

Sausages again to use the rest of yesterdays pack
Did a toad in the hole with roasted leeks and carrots with a few roast spuds and some peas on the side

[Kellen]

Solo pilot this week so able to cook what I want (◔◡◉). So I decided to make squash soup. Bought a couple acorn and one butternut squash. The final product was great, but spending an hour and half peeling and dicing was a pain! I think next time I'll do pumpkin instead and just buy the puree in a can.

[MJB]

Beef teriyaki with a noodly stir-fry.

[dreampolice]

Oven baked pasta with mushrooms and tarragon with a creamy brandy sauce.

[kate]

Baked potato topped with cheese.

[squeamishossifrage]

My Christmas dinner is planned to be my favourite  meat - dead duck. I knew I had a half-duck in the freezer, so that was OK - until I went to the freezer today to put in the fridge to thaw. I did indeed have a half-duck in the freezer, in fact, I had two. The problem was they were still joined together.

Now, I hate food wastage (post-war rationing, anyone?) so I didn't want to thaw the whole thing. A quick google showed me a video of how to split a frozen chicken, and that looked good enough for a medium sized duck so out with a meat cleaver, very large knife, and a wooden rolling pin as a hammer. Unfortunately, what I wasn't told in the video was "For god's sake don't try this if the giblets are frozen inside, because that will be like trying to penetrate the frontal armour of a battle tank with a plastic knife".

After a mere 45 minutes, one severely blunted meat cleaver, one large knife with the handle coming off, and a rolling pin that will roll no more, I got the job done. It probably would have been cheaper to thaw the whole thing, and just chuck the second half away.

[MJB]

Dec 23, 2022 8:50:03 GMT squeamishossifrage said:

My Christmas dinner is planned to be my favourite  meat - dead duck. I knew I had a half-duck in the freezer, so that was OK - until I went to the freezer today to put in the fridge to thaw. I did indeed have a half-duck in the freezer, in fact, I had two. The problem was they were still joined together.

Now, I hate food wastage (post-war rationing, anyone?) so I didn't want to thaw the whole thing. A quick google showed me a video of how to split a frozen chicken, and that looked good enough for a medium sized duck so out with a meat cleaver, very large knife, and a wooden rolling pin as a hammer. Unfortunately, what I wasn't told in the video was "For god's sake don't try this if the giblets are frozen inside, because that will be like trying to penetrate the frontal armour of a battle tank with a plastic knife".

After a mere 45 minutes, one severely blunted meat cleaver, one large knife with the handle coming off, and a rolling pin that will roll no more, I got the job done. It probably would have been cheaper to thaw the whole thing, and just chuck the second half away.

It's why meat cutting plants use band saws.

[zou]

Steak and chips tonight, with a wilted spinach salad thing and roast chicory.

[squeamishossifrage]

Dec 23, 2022 9:10:16 GMT MJB said:

It's why meat cutting plants use band saws.

I must confess that about halfway through I thought of getting out my angle-grinder, but the thought of pink slush all over the kitchen rather put me off.

[zou]

Dec 23, 2022 9:10:16 GMT MJB said:

Dec 23, 2022 8:50:03 GMT squeamishossifrage said:

My Christmas dinner is planned to be my favourite  meat - dead duck. I knew I had a half-duck in the freezer, so that was OK - until I went to the freezer today to put in the fridge to thaw. I did indeed have a half-duck in the freezer, in fact, I had two. The problem was they were still joined together.

Now, I hate food wastage (post-war rationing, anyone?) so I didn't want to thaw the whole thing. A quick google showed me a video of how to split a frozen chicken, and that looked good enough for a medium sized duck so out with a meat cleaver, very large knife, and a wooden rolling pin as a hammer. Unfortunately, what I wasn't told in the video was "For god's sake don't try this if the giblets are frozen inside, because that will be like trying to penetrate the frontal armour of a battle tank with a plastic knife".

After a mere 45 minutes, one severely blunted meat cleaver, one large knife with the handle coming off, and a rolling pin that will roll no more, I got the job done. It probably would have been cheaper to thaw the whole thing, and just chuck the second half away.

It's why meat cutting plants use band saws.

I thought Venus fly traps used acids, wasn't aware of plants that slice their prey.

[TrishM]

Dec 23, 2022 8:50:03 GMT squeamishossifrage said:

My Christmas dinner is planned to be my favourite  meat - dead duck. I knew I had a half-duck in the freezer, so that was OK - until I went to the freezer today to put in the fridge to thaw. I did indeed have a half-duck in the freezer, in fact, I had two. The problem was they were still joined together.

Now, I hate food wastage (post-war rationing, anyone?) so I didn't want to thaw the whole thing. A quick google showed me a video of how to split a frozen chicken, and that looked good enough for a medium sized duck so out with a meat cleaver, very large knife, and a wooden rolling pin as a hammer. Unfortunately, what I wasn't told in the video was "For god's sake don't try this if the giblets are frozen inside, because that will be like trying to penetrate the frontal armour of a battle tank with a plastic knife".

After a mere 45 minutes, one severely blunted meat cleaver, one large knife with the handle coming off, and a rolling pin that will roll no more, I got the job done. It probably would have been cheaper to thaw the whole thing, and just chuck the second half away.




You can cook both halves of the duck and refreeze the portion which you don't need.  If you let the cooked duck cool and then put it in a sealed container, I think it can be frozen for around two months.

[TrishM]

M&S frankfurters and steamed veg.

[MJB]

Just picked junior up for Christmas from Banbury, so KFC at the M40 services.