Christmas Continues at Riverside Matakana-A Wonderful Venue for Our Family

 Nerdy Santa, with his adoring Elf

After the Champagne, the Oysters and still digesting the breakfast...we were starting to panic.
Lunch is looming, guests are arriving soon.
Turkey and Beef need to go onto the BBQ.
Ham is coming with Sheryl and the Salmon for Dale, was leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner.
New potatoes
Green Bean Salad
Fresh Asparagus
The Famous Stuffing Balls
All in all an excellent feast.
This year I wasn't quite so diligent about the photo taking and we are missing one guest from the shots.
One Craig Walsh Wrightson, actually I note that Dale is not in the shots either. Oh well. They were there.
Plus we are also missing the puddings.
OMG they were so good. Helen made her Christmas Pud, teamed with Rum Butter
Chris made an Eton Mess. There wasn't even anything leftover for me to shoot. Oh well.
C'est La Christmas
Memories.

First we had some Cooked Prawns with an excellent Tartare sauce.
1 cup Mayo (shop bought is OK)
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
3 tablespoons chopped pickles...we like bread and butter cucumber
2 tablespoons chopped capers
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped shallots

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Zest of 1 lemon 
Lemon juice to taste
Good shot of your favourite hot sauce
Mix well and leave in fridge for at least 2-3 hours for flavours to meld
Longer if possible
In fact it will keep for a few days

Pate and crackers, all washed down with some chilled Methode Champagnoise

They were wolfed down.
The prawns were roasted click here to fine out  how to cook these.
So so simple, so so good

Really the best way to cook them in my books.
This year, we cooked Turkey Breasts
Helen had heard Chef Extraordinaire, Mr Tony Astle, from Antoines Restaurant in Auckland, suggest that steaming the Turkey breasts was the way to go.
We had bought ready stuffed breast from Farro Fresh, Auckland's Boutique Market click here
Our problem was no oven but we did have BBQ's

So Helen rolled the breasts, wrapped them in foil,
We made a water bath, in a foil roasting dish
Made sure the dish wasn't sitting on direct heat
The result
Perfect.
So tender and moist. Will do that again. The stuffing contained cranberries as of course it should.

Here is Sheryl's beautiful Ham. Green Bean Salad and of Course Asparagus

Chris cooked the beautiful piece of Rib Eye Steak
Stuffing balls, our family tradition, recipe here
New Potatoes,

Everyone lined up, getting a bit peckish...it was nearly 3pm already

 Baby Ella, took the Fancy of her little sister Jordan, Mia and Karen

So time for the Secret Santa
Santa needed a little padding. Don't you love the nerdy glasses. He was very proud of himself.

 Santa is staring to look a little bored

The presents came out thick and fast and were very popular

The elves were more keen on having their photos taken, than helping Santa...no wonder he was bored

And "Ladies and Gentleman, We give you, Queen Elizabeth II".

We always watch the Queens Speech.
One can score points, when someone gets the phrases right...
e.g "My husband and I" etc
So it was time for a little fishing off our jetty

 Turn to the left

Turn to the right

Beautiful
Someone was little tired and emotional, she needed a lift home

What a beautiful Christmas Day.