BH might have kicked off early by buying and freezing the necessary chicken, but the proceedings proper started with the purchase of a loaf from Waitrose to form the basis of the stuffing - for many years now not stuffed but cooked separately.
I worried about whether it was big enough, at something less than a pound, including a lot of crust, not included in the stuffing. Instead, mostly eaten as was, but the last bits were turned into a rather wet version of bread pudding for a breakfast for BH.
The crumb seemed very damp when first broken out and I thought it smelled of damp vinegar. BH thought it smelled of yeast. In any event, left to dry out a bit overnight before adding anything else in the morning.
Dried sage (our own plants not being up to much just presently), freshly pounded black pepper, coarsely chopped onion, coarsely sliced celery, two eggs and a little oil. The celery was described as organic, was rather soft to the touch and was green rather than the white of fen celery. I thought it smelled like some herb - perhaps fennel - rather than celery. Notwithstanding, it served well enough.
Placed in dish and covered with streaky bacon from Waitrose, described as dry cured. No rind, slightly damp to the touch, this probably the result of shrink wrapping. Bacon which might have cost half as much as the chicken.
A third item from Waitrose might have been some dessert chocolates, but they did not have anything that appealed, despite various fancy offerings for Christmas. Nor did the nearby Hotel Chocolate where the offering was even less appealing, to me anyway. What I wanted was straightforward pralines and they, it seems, were not to be had in Epsom - although, to be fair, I did not try M&S. Powder kept dry for the upcoming festivities.
The assembled lunch, more or less spot on time at 13:02:27, with pans from Aga.
The served lunch.
Taken with our last bottle of La Levée, first noticed at reference 1, seemingly hoarded since early September. Very good again it was too. Discussions in progress about whether we shall get any more in any time soon. An excuse for a plague free drive in the country south of Guildford? Maybe a walk in the woods? Maybe a walk along the River Way and/or the associated canal - some combination of which attracts a line of Ordnance Survey green diamonds, probably a good sign.
Not much stuffing left. Probably vanished on a casual basis during the next 24 hours.
Spoons provided for dessert, so possibly blackberry and apple. I think I would have taken a picture had it been something grander like an apple sponge pudding.
Cold the day following. Getting quite a taste for cold roast, now that we have resumed roasting.
Soup the day following that. Three or four pints of water used to make the stock from the carcase. Plus a few carrots, a couple of onions and a few sticks of celery. Strained off the liquor, then potatoes, leeks (last five minutes) and mushrooms (last minute). Left over chicken meat. Some left over brown rice. Just two rashers of bacon - which worked better than the hard core bacon from the butcher, rather too salty for soup.
Most of the soup done on its first outing. Balance polished off for breakfast. Leaving us with no left overs on hand.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/toad.html.
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