Merry Christmas to all from the Slow Food Society at the University of Exeter!
In case you haven't already had enough of turkey and sprouts, here's a special post about our Christmas meal this term and some of our committee's favourite Christmas traditions! So grab a cup of tea or coffee or mulled wine (definitely that one) and snuggle up warm...
The Slow Food on Campus society has been going to the Rusty Bike for the annual Christmas meal for a couple of years.
And for good reason too; the pub is famous amongst locals and visitors alike for its exceptional selection of locally sourced dishes and ales (with a rather exciting wine and spirits list too, if you're that way inclined!)
A peek at their website reveals the following:
"Our aim is to minimize the distance from producer to plate. We opened our own pig farm as part of that vision, but break-ins and poachers shooting five of the herd put a stop to that. Not giving up however, we source all of our meat direct from the farms around Exeter: rare breed Pork from Haldon Hill, Ruby Beef from Dartmoor and lamb from Langford.
We have forged strong ties with local land owners and game keepers where we shoot our own venison, pheasant, rabbit and pigeon for the pot, and we use only line-caught fish. Bicton College supply us with fantastic rose veal and a small amount of hops for our brewery. You will often find us foraging in the hedges for wild garlic, dandelions and berries, and we bloody love it.
Put all this together with a talented and dedicated team of chefs and friendly hospitable staff out front and its pretty close to our idea of the perfect pub."
And ours too!
And it wasn't long at all before our delicious starters arrived!
Smoked salmon always makes an appearance at Christmas in my house. What do you have for your Christmas starter?
The charcuterie plate looked equally as delicious!
For some of our diners, it was the first time trying out a traditional British Christmas dinner!
Needless to say though, we were all equally excited.
Now some people save their traditional roast for Christmas day itself.
In my family, we stop having Sunday roasts for at least six weeks before Christmas so that lunch on the 25th is extra special.
I went for the mushroom risotto, a delicious, thick, creamy and rich dish. Considering that I'd already had smoked salmon and a huge hunk of freshly baked bread for my starter, I'm a little embarrassed that I managed to finish the whole thing; it was huge!!
The traditional turkey with all the trimmings was just as impressive, if not more so.
A good introduction to the traditional Christmas dinner for our international members.
Juliana (above), our treasurer tells us about her Christmas traditions:
Merry Christmas everyone!
Christmas morning my whole family wakes up really early to have breakfast, normally poached eggs with smoked salmon on brioche toast.
After breakfast we then practice our annual Christmas dance where all four of my sister's make up a dance and song before we can open our presents.
After that we all have large amounts of Christmas confectionery (normally shortbread, which one of us will get as a stocking filler present) and then we have a Christmas lunch, with all the trimmings,we alternate between goose and Turkey usually all handmade by my dad.
After lunch we then snack on mince pies, Christmas puddings and the rest of the chocolates.
For Ros (above) our PR assistant from the Netherlands, the meal at the Rusty Bike marked her first ever traditional roast Christmas dinner:
In our house, Christmas starts on Christmas eve.
We usually have an intimate dinner, just my parents, the cat and me and watch Love Actually together, which is a family tradition and a BIG DEAL. First of all, we count all the times the characters say ‘actually’. We got to 24 this year, a new record! Then we have the same old discussion about how Love Actually is one of the best films ever made and is gravely underestimated, because it is undisputedly the best film in its genre and that the Dutch remake (Alles is Liefde, meaning Everything is Love/Love is Everywhere, as in Love is Actually all around, get it?) is absolute shit compared to this Richard Curtis jewel. We bombard each other with LA trivia and talk about whether ‘romantic comedy’ does the film justice, because yes, it has romance and humour and a happy end, but not everyone lives happily ever after, do they? What about Mark, who’ll never get Juliet? What about Sarah? What about Karen, who stayed with Harry, but knows life will always be a little bit worse? We end the discussion with lamenting on the fact that they cut the storyline of Karen’s horrid son Bernard and his headmistress. Like I said: Love Actually is a big deal in our house .
The last hour before we go to bed, we spend dancing around the room listening to bands from the ‘60s - ‘80s. Oh and we always, always, always listen to Bing Crosby & David Bowie singing The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus
On Christmas day, the whole family goes to grandma’s (I’m about to leave, actually) where we go for a walk through the nearby forest, watch videos of ourselves and our parents when we/they were young (grandma’s filmed everything, she always has a camera in her hand) and have a massive Christmas meal. And I mean massive. Last year, there were 17(!) courses!
Pictures of the massive meal will follow
Have a love(actual)ly Christmas everyone!
For me (blog editor Lucy - above) the Rusty Bike was definitely not my first Christmas dinner!
Christmas follows a rather predictable pattern in our house.
The first thing to happen is that my Dad will never get my mum's Christmas present in time and will leave it down to my sister and I. Considering we got home on the 21st this year, that meant seriously stressful shopping on the 22nd! We're going to do it online (and probably in July) next year.
Next, Mum goes absolutely crazy and starts panic-buying. She'll text us asking if we want Uggs or other unnecessary things that we can't really afford. You can guarantee that anything you briefly mention in the run-up to Christmas will magically appear under the tree on Christmas morning. I didn't ask for anything this year so I'm hoping there will be a little less excess this time.
We all go to church on Christmas Eve with my oldest friend and her family. It's the same service every year in this beautiful old church in the town of Sandwich. Even though I'm 22 and my little sister is 20, we all take part in the children's christingle procession - it would break tradition not to! Oh, and my friend Madeleine and I never fail to burst into giggles at the line "appeared a shining throng" in the carol 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks' so maybe we are kind of like children after all. After, we go back to their house and have dinner together.
On Christmas morning we wake up and take our stockings into our parents' room to open them. We then usually have pancakes for breakfast and sometimes go for a walk. The alcohol starts flowing pretty early and we're glugging prosecco by the bottle by midday whilst we nibble on smoked salmon "nibbly bits" (smoked salmon wrapped around smoked salmon pate). We open some presents whilst Mum and Dad work away in the kitchen and then open more after our dinner - a full on affair with turkey, potatoes, sprouts, broccoli, carrot and parsnip mash, Yorkshire puddings, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, red cabbage and cauliflower cheese. I'd like to say it was all made by hand but a fair bit of it comes from packets - I still think it's the best roast dinner ever though. And as a vegetarian, I have veggie sausages instead of turkey!
Afterwards we finish opening presents, stick a film on and munch chocolates and other goodies whilst descending into a boozy haze. We always go for an evening walk to look at all of the other Christmas lights but Mum has broken her toe so we might have to pass this year!
It's quite quiet on Christmas day in our house - just the four of us and the dog - but we have a couple of Christmas parties with our extended families in the days after!
Charlotte (blog writer), starts her Christmas Day traditions with presents as soon as the sun rises.
She says 'I just can't help myself, I run into my brother's room as soon as I'm sure I can't get to sleep again!
Then we head downstairs to open our stockings and all the presents under the tree, followed by our traditional breakfast - poached eggs, smoked salmon, ham and bread...with bucks fizz of course.
We all have a nap before my family of four are joined by a couple of close friends to enjoy a cracking 3 course meal. (As I write this, I am between main course and dessert! A break is much needed!)
We never have turkey (GASP!) This year we had a mix of chicken, pork and beef... I'm greatly looking forward to our dessert of creme brulee, my mother's special. Merry Christmas everyone!'
Bethan (above, left) our President and Charli our PR and Social Sec tell us about their Christmas routines:
Bethan: Christmas morning I always wake up very early and open my stocking presents in bed. I then play with them/ go back to sleep till its deemed a suitable time, then my sisters and I all go into my mums room and show her what we have got and she opens her stocking too. We then have a large breakfast of eggs ham and salmon and don't really stop eating after that. My grandparents come over mid morning and we do Christmas tree presents before our Christmas lunch- always very traditional with Turkey, vegetables, bread sauce, pigs in blankets etc. We end the day all collapsed in front of the tv watching doctor who and Downton abbey and feeling extremely full and sleepy.
Charli: We always have our stockings at the end of our beds on Christmas Eve and expect our parents to be able to sneak in and fill them (even now!) My sister wakes everyone up at silly o'clock in the morning and we all go downstairs, Christmas CD on, to open pressies. My mum and my aunt alternate Christmases at each other's houses, but both of them are fantastic cooks so we always have the most amazing food. And always on the table are sausage meat stuffing balls, from a secret family recipe. And of course Christmas pudding which my Grandma makes months in advance from another secret recipe. And fruit salad with a secret ingredient. We are all about traditional foodie secrets!
Slow Food can confirm that Charli was indeed woken up at silly o'clock - she was posting photos to our Facebook page from 6am.
Like all good Christmas meals, ours ended with a good old traditional Christmas pudding.
We've still got ours to set alight later tonight. What have you been doing today? Share your Christmas traditions in the comments below!
The committee got there half an hour early to have a quick meeting.
For us bloggers, that turned into a bottle of wine too.
Pretty soon the rest of the eager diners began to arrive and before long, we had a full table of very excited foodies.
The Christmas menu was really hard to choose from:
To Start
Potato, onion & garlic soup
Smoked Salmon, dill & pickled cucumber
Beef, beetroot & carrot terrine
Home cured charcuterie plate
Salt cod, soft egg & aioli
To Follow
Roast Devon Turkey with all the trimmings
Braised ruby red beef, mash, onion gravy & roasted carrots
Slow roasted pork, green lentils, smoked sausage & thyme
Grilled hake, tomato, fennel & white anchovy
Field mushroom, parmesan & parsley risotto
To Finish
Christmas pudding & brandy sauce
Devon cheeseboard
Dark chocolate mousse, orange syrup & vanilla cream
Bread & butter pudding & custard
Sticky toffee pudding
Cheese Board
2 Courses @ £20 per person
3 Courses @ £25 per person
So much so that, having chosen a few weeks earlier, none of us could quite remember which delicious option we had gone for!
We started with a quick speech from society President Bethan welcoming everyone to the Christmas meal before pulling our crackers and letting the festivity flow!
And it wasn't long at all before our delicious starters arrived!
Smoked salmon always makes an appearance at Christmas in my house. What do you have for your Christmas starter?
The charcuterie plate looked equally as delicious!
For some of our diners, it was the first time trying out a traditional British Christmas dinner!
Needless to say though, we were all equally excited.
Now some people save their traditional roast for Christmas day itself.
In my family, we stop having Sunday roasts for at least six weeks before Christmas so that lunch on the 25th is extra special.
I went for the mushroom risotto, a delicious, thick, creamy and rich dish. Considering that I'd already had smoked salmon and a huge hunk of freshly baked bread for my starter, I'm a little embarrassed that I managed to finish the whole thing; it was huge!!
The traditional turkey with all the trimmings was just as impressive, if not more so.
A good introduction to the traditional Christmas dinner for our international members.
Juliana (above), our treasurer tells us about her Christmas traditions:
Merry Christmas everyone!
Christmas morning my whole family wakes up really early to have breakfast, normally poached eggs with smoked salmon on brioche toast.
After breakfast we then practice our annual Christmas dance where all four of my sister's make up a dance and song before we can open our presents.
After that we all have large amounts of Christmas confectionery (normally shortbread, which one of us will get as a stocking filler present) and then we have a Christmas lunch, with all the trimmings,we alternate between goose and Turkey usually all handmade by my dad.
After lunch we then snack on mince pies, Christmas puddings and the rest of the chocolates.
For Ros (above) our PR assistant from the Netherlands, the meal at the Rusty Bike marked her first ever traditional roast Christmas dinner:
In our house, Christmas starts on Christmas eve.
We usually have an intimate dinner, just my parents, the cat and me and watch Love Actually together, which is a family tradition and a BIG DEAL. First of all, we count all the times the characters say ‘actually’. We got to 24 this year, a new record! Then we have the same old discussion about how Love Actually is one of the best films ever made and is gravely underestimated, because it is undisputedly the best film in its genre and that the Dutch remake (Alles is Liefde, meaning Everything is Love/Love is Everywhere, as in Love is Actually all around, get it?) is absolute shit compared to this Richard Curtis jewel. We bombard each other with LA trivia and talk about whether ‘romantic comedy’ does the film justice, because yes, it has romance and humour and a happy end, but not everyone lives happily ever after, do they? What about Mark, who’ll never get Juliet? What about Sarah? What about Karen, who stayed with Harry, but knows life will always be a little bit worse? We end the discussion with lamenting on the fact that they cut the storyline of Karen’s horrid son Bernard and his headmistress. Like I said: Love Actually is a big deal in our house .
The last hour before we go to bed, we spend dancing around the room listening to bands from the ‘60s - ‘80s. Oh and we always, always, always listen to Bing Crosby & David Bowie singing The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus
On Christmas day, the whole family goes to grandma’s (I’m about to leave, actually) where we go for a walk through the nearby forest, watch videos of ourselves and our parents when we/they were young (grandma’s filmed everything, she always has a camera in her hand) and have a massive Christmas meal. And I mean massive. Last year, there were 17(!) courses!
Pictures of the massive meal will follow
Have a love(actual)ly Christmas everyone!
For me (blog editor Lucy - above) the Rusty Bike was definitely not my first Christmas dinner!
Christmas follows a rather predictable pattern in our house.
The first thing to happen is that my Dad will never get my mum's Christmas present in time and will leave it down to my sister and I. Considering we got home on the 21st this year, that meant seriously stressful shopping on the 22nd! We're going to do it online (and probably in July) next year.
Next, Mum goes absolutely crazy and starts panic-buying. She'll text us asking if we want Uggs or other unnecessary things that we can't really afford. You can guarantee that anything you briefly mention in the run-up to Christmas will magically appear under the tree on Christmas morning. I didn't ask for anything this year so I'm hoping there will be a little less excess this time.
We all go to church on Christmas Eve with my oldest friend and her family. It's the same service every year in this beautiful old church in the town of Sandwich. Even though I'm 22 and my little sister is 20, we all take part in the children's christingle procession - it would break tradition not to! Oh, and my friend Madeleine and I never fail to burst into giggles at the line "appeared a shining throng" in the carol 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks' so maybe we are kind of like children after all. After, we go back to their house and have dinner together.
On Christmas morning we wake up and take our stockings into our parents' room to open them. We then usually have pancakes for breakfast and sometimes go for a walk. The alcohol starts flowing pretty early and we're glugging prosecco by the bottle by midday whilst we nibble on smoked salmon "nibbly bits" (smoked salmon wrapped around smoked salmon pate). We open some presents whilst Mum and Dad work away in the kitchen and then open more after our dinner - a full on affair with turkey, potatoes, sprouts, broccoli, carrot and parsnip mash, Yorkshire puddings, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, red cabbage and cauliflower cheese. I'd like to say it was all made by hand but a fair bit of it comes from packets - I still think it's the best roast dinner ever though. And as a vegetarian, I have veggie sausages instead of turkey!
Afterwards we finish opening presents, stick a film on and munch chocolates and other goodies whilst descending into a boozy haze. We always go for an evening walk to look at all of the other Christmas lights but Mum has broken her toe so we might have to pass this year!
It's quite quiet on Christmas day in our house - just the four of us and the dog - but we have a couple of Christmas parties with our extended families in the days after!
Charlotte (blog writer), starts her Christmas Day traditions with presents as soon as the sun rises.
She says 'I just can't help myself, I run into my brother's room as soon as I'm sure I can't get to sleep again!
Then we head downstairs to open our stockings and all the presents under the tree, followed by our traditional breakfast - poached eggs, smoked salmon, ham and bread...with bucks fizz of course.
We all have a nap before my family of four are joined by a couple of close friends to enjoy a cracking 3 course meal. (As I write this, I am between main course and dessert! A break is much needed!)
We never have turkey (GASP!) This year we had a mix of chicken, pork and beef... I'm greatly looking forward to our dessert of creme brulee, my mother's special. Merry Christmas everyone!'
Bethan (above, left) our President and Charli our PR and Social Sec tell us about their Christmas routines:
Bethan: Christmas morning I always wake up very early and open my stocking presents in bed. I then play with them/ go back to sleep till its deemed a suitable time, then my sisters and I all go into my mums room and show her what we have got and she opens her stocking too. We then have a large breakfast of eggs ham and salmon and don't really stop eating after that. My grandparents come over mid morning and we do Christmas tree presents before our Christmas lunch- always very traditional with Turkey, vegetables, bread sauce, pigs in blankets etc. We end the day all collapsed in front of the tv watching doctor who and Downton abbey and feeling extremely full and sleepy.
Charli: We always have our stockings at the end of our beds on Christmas Eve and expect our parents to be able to sneak in and fill them (even now!) My sister wakes everyone up at silly o'clock in the morning and we all go downstairs, Christmas CD on, to open pressies. My mum and my aunt alternate Christmases at each other's houses, but both of them are fantastic cooks so we always have the most amazing food. And always on the table are sausage meat stuffing balls, from a secret family recipe. And of course Christmas pudding which my Grandma makes months in advance from another secret recipe. And fruit salad with a secret ingredient. We are all about traditional foodie secrets!
Slow Food can confirm that Charli was indeed woken up at silly o'clock - she was posting photos to our Facebook page from 6am.
Like all good Christmas meals, ours ended with a good old traditional Christmas pudding.
We've still got ours to set alight later tonight. What have you been doing today? Share your Christmas traditions in the comments below!
