Good food finds in the run up to Christmas

I must say that I can't tell the difference between mince pies and the expensive Ecclefechan ones ( except less pastry, as the Ecc ones are little tarts rather than pies.)

Oh loves Aldi red box mince pies I don't like any pies swanny oh used to have fried Christmas pud I don't like that either my Downfall is Christmas cake with cheese .

Austrian friend brought me Aldi Lebkuchen, big, soft, spicy!
DS spoke highly of Waitrose 1 All Butter Mince Pies. I managed to resist.


The

We bought chocolate stollen bites from Aldi and they are so moreish! Basically slightly more than a mouthful of stollen covered in chocolate.

caocao thanks for that information. I am Scottish but have never heard of it. Admittedly I left Scotland in my late teens.

Has anyone come across a decent jar of mincemeat they can recommend? I love making my own mine pies but not making my own mincemeat. Most supermarket jars seem to be all sauce and very little fruit - yuk!

minimise, I like many s gf bread and their crumbed fish. They didn't have any gf panettone, sadly

Piggin phone, sorry* minimouse*!!

I am trying to resist this thread!

I'd never heard of ecclefechan either and the recipes seemed to vary when I looked it up.

I now live near a Lidl and am finding food things in there, Their Stollen bites are very moreish - although they don't look very pretty on a plate. I think I'd tart them up a bit for Christmas with the tiniest shake of icing sugar.
Lidle's free range chicken breasts are very good too - if like me you have to cater for one turkey hater.

Kitty If I'm minimised any more I'll disappear completely

I could do with quite a bit of minimising!!

My OH will not eat ANY bought mince pies, he hates them and only likes mine because they are so yummy. Back to the kitchen then although it is a round about compliment.

shloer is a nice substitute for wine if you cannot drink alcohol. I am allergic to wine so this makes you feel included. We got some in today at waitrose.

When we lived in Norway they used to have ginger bread and pickled fish for Christmas dinner instead of Christmas pudding and turkey.

Tesco have a new selection of non alcoholic drinks made with wine grapes. Have bought a couple of bottles but not tried them yet.

My DIL's Polish family have their Christmas feast on Christmas Eve. Advent is a period of reflection and abstinence, much like Lent, and on C Eve it is traditional to fast until the sun has gone down. The meal has 12 courses to symbolize either the 12 disciples or for good luck in the coming year. It is traditionally meat-free (to respect the animals in the manger) and the main dish is carp. From what I've heard there is also a great deal of vodka drunk!

Sorry, I seem to have veered off the OP a bit

ecci53 so agree, several boxes have been consumed already

Hi Candlefran. I used to make my own mincemeat (when I was young and enthusiastic) but find brandy stirred into the shop bought variety works very well and saves a lot of messing about.

Love love love the traditional nougat that is sold in Aldi - almost worth the expensive trip to the dentist in the New Year lol

We have already eaten several boxes of Aldi mince pies (the ones in the dark blue box) and I've have bought their Prosecco Pannetonne. Haven't tried it yet but their luxury ones are always lovely. A couple of weeks ago they had a dessert version of Valpollicella. Luckily I bought two bottles as they've sold out now.

Not exactly on thread, but Pret have a Christmas deal of a drink and mince pie for £1.99. Lovely mince pie.

Thanks granny piper...didn't know about the lidl offer!!

Starbucks mince pies were very tasty last Christmas, Hope they haven't changed suppliers.

The tiny little Florentines from Aldi are so delicious I could eat a whole box.