Our Christmas Table Setting at Maisonvogue

Our Christmas Table Setting 

The big day has come and gone ...the fridge is still full of lovely leftovers and the presents are opened. 
I hope that you had a very lovely Christmas time.
Here are a few photo's of our Christmas table.

On Christmas Eve I set about making a Beef Wellington ....it consists of a large piece of the very best Beef Tenderloin .....French Paté ...Mushrooms and shop bought Puff Pastry 

Firstly I sear the beef in a cast iron skillet on all sides ...then I let it cool for about 1 hour ...I then cook the diced mushrooms till nicely cooked in olive oil and let them cool ..meanwhile I defrost the pastry for 40 mins ...then I roll out the pastry on a floured surface to the size that I want ...
I then spread the pastry with the mashed up French Paté and then on top of that I spread the cooked mushrooms ...
I then lay the beef on to the Paté mixture and wrap the pastry neatly around the beef .....
I then brush it with an egg wash ...one egg with a tablespoon of water ....
I had fun and rolled out the left over pasty and cut out a gingerbread man and 2 christmas trees ...
Then attached them to the top of the pastry parcel and glazed them with the egg wash
Lay in the fridge overnight.
Preheat oven to 410ºf / 210ºc ...Gas 6
For a medium rare ...red centre ...cook for 50 mins ...
You may have to cover the top with foil near the end to prevent the pastry from getting too brown.

Here is our Christmas table ...just the two of us ..so I don't lay the table as elaborate as I did when there were around 15 of us but I think it is pretty and makes the occasion a little more special.

Toby approves of it ...so that is good !!!

In England we have a tradition that most of us love ..these are called Christmas Crackers and a Christmas table would not be the same without them .
​Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favorite in the UK. They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French 'bon bon' sweets (almonds wrapped in pretty paper). He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn't sell very well.
However, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.
Crackers were originally called 'cosaques' and were thought to be named after the 'Cossack' soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air!

I used my Lenox Christmas plates as I did last year ....being a bird lover it just makes me smile.

This is silly Bella ....on Christmas Eve she thought she would get in to the Christmas Spirit and fall asleep inside the Christmas wreath we have on our back deck table ....ha! ha! 
She is perfectly wrapped around the umbrella poll  

Best wishes for a lovely Christmas week that will take us to the end of the year and the dawn of 2017
Happy Days 

Janet