Christmas Pensioners' Lunch

Well, we have just staggered back from our village Christmas lunch, having consumed so much food and drink, it's taken us SIX hours to do just that.

My daughter said I was dressed suitably to go to the pensioners' lunch (cheeky madam) so I told her in that case, I was going to get a body piercing or tattoo. She said then I would look just like a pensioner with a body piercing or tattoo...oh well...I wouldn't mind, but I'm only 56...

Anyway, I thought you would like to know what was on the menu:

Apéritif
(with nibbles)

Potage Périgourdin
(clear vegetable soup with noodles)

Délice de Foie Gras
(Foie Gras, 2 sorts, with fig jelly and cherry jelly, toast, orange slices)

Queue de Lotte a l'amoricaine
(Monk fish in a tomato and pepper sauce)

Sorbet
(Peach sorbet with peach spirit, hic)

Civet de chevreuil et sa garniture de légumes
(Young venison stew with, puzzlingly only boiled potatoes, but divine all the same)

Salade
(obvious)

Fromages
(selection of cheese)

Buche maison
(French Christmas cake - Yule log, 1 slice of chestnut/marron glacé sponge, and 1 slice apricot sponge)

Chocolates

Coffee and liqueurs
~~~~

We had champagne with cassis or chesnut liqueur for the apéritif, a different wine for each course, then with the coffee four different liqueurs to choose from - or cognac - which were all home made by people from the village. Of course, we were pressed by the Mayor to try them all...

Phew!

This is the second time pensioner friends have invited us - they can invite whom they wish providing it's paid for, and the money goes to the poor elderly folk of the parish so we feel it goes to a good cause in this time of austerity and yet festivity.

Well, all I can say is that the elderly folk of our village certainly know how to pack it all away and not a single 'ooh, I couldn't possibly' or 'well, just a little one...' amongst them...it was just the new kids on the block - like us - who were complaining of having eaten too much!