There's not a great deal of meat on them anyway. I followed the Jamie Oliver method previously (pretty much) and the legs were good but not much breast.

As I recall, his method for four involved two ducks because that gave a leg each and then they picked at what was left with fingers.

So cook it, have a leg when others have whatever they have then use the rest for a bit of cold meat, curry, duck fried rice, duck soup whatever.

And you'll have nice duck fat for roast spuds another time.

Can you keep frozen meat that long? Probably but I think I would have either eaten it by now just in case

And there folks is why N2O won the most parsimonious poster award- I'm going next door, if I'm going to vomit it is going to be as a result of excess beer, not due to the vegetable of satan, brussel sprouts -

Ask your colleague Dr Price. The one who said it was a health risk keeping a corpse in a kitchen but then went ahead and fried his sausages anyway, he might know.

We've had stuff a few years old. So long as it's good when it goes in the freezer and it stays frozen it seems good. The worst that happens is freezer burn if the wrapping gets broken.

We had some steak at least 4 years in the freezer a few weeks ago and everyone commented how good it was. Even before they knew.

Yeh, I'm sure you are right- just when I started thinking about Brussels the bile was rising in my throat!

Have a great Christmas Bristol!

I bought 8 sprouts Only two of us eat them and, to me, they're an essential (almost compulsory) part of the xmas plate.

Love Brussel Sprouts, me. Food of the Gods, if prepared properly.

Nope nope nope

I love a bit of synchronised vomiting!

So you they're thrown in the rubbish bin and then thrown out the window?

Pork pie, stilton, pickled onions, an assortment of cold meats, pate and the posh bottle of Bordeaux I was going to take over to HID's parents house but err, forgot.

Boxing day - cold turkey, chips (we are going the whole hog this year and have crinkle cut chips) and of course, gravy.. Not a sprout in sight

Cup of Tea

I've never been a great tea drinker but at xmas family tea was always pâté, cheese, salmon, sausage rolls, ham, several different kinds of bread, jelly, christmas cake and...several cups of tea.

The tea always went great with this stuff, hence my several cups.

It's not a tea or 'Souper' my second family ever did and since I introduced it to them every xmas I'm asked when are we having it.

I don't do 'the works' of course, I have too many memories of my mum's overkill when it took so long to put everything away as there's too many open and started items that need wrapping up in some way and barely any room to store it until the next time a bit of everything is used.

So I just get a couple of cheeses out - even though there are several there - one pâté and a few sausage rolls and fancy mini spring rolls or something. We had ciabatta rolls. Then some mini pastries.

And the cup of tea was fabulous.

Three pepper brandy rib eye steak, garlic mushrooms & shallots and a few chips.

Kim Crawford Merlot.

A nibble of Mahon cheese from Minorca.

PC Red Velvet cheesecake. Not a great fan of cheesecake but this one is heavenly.

Hopefully going with HID to our local oyster house for, chowder, mussels, clams and garlic shrimp. Plus, some wine and beer. If HID works late, I'll be the saddo sat up at the bar on his own, stuffing his face with steamed mussels in butter, garlic & wine and then wolfing down a couple dozen fresh oysters. Still, it could be worse.

How will you cope?
Whilst I would definitely prefer yours, stir-fry tonight, chow mein from scratch for me and the youngest pup- Snoop doesn't like them... her loss!

Apparently I've stumbled onto their happy hour called Low Tide. Result!