Roast Pork Loin and Roast Turkey Roll, Recap of Last Year and Looking Forward to the New Year

It seems so long ago that the Christmas Lunch was over... Was a big job for us and never got around to write about the food that day, apart from the Christmas pudding and the Christmas log - I am a dessert person after all?    So this blog is the recap of the last bit of cooking I did last year, and as we are renovating the house, the project is finally starting, my new year resolution is at least to get the new kitchen, bathrooms and outdoor decking in...  Cook more, in and out doors!  Oh, I didn't have to do much for New Years Eve, went out to friend's place for a lovely BBQ....  I did make the salad, but that was just a minor effort.

Alright, so the last bit of major cooking of last year.  The Christmas Lunch.

MIL brought over some salad, brandy sauce for the Christmas pudding and mum made some nice spring rolls and pan fried dumplings...

I did this sushi platter for the entree.

And the roast pork loin stuffed with figs and orange.

Figs marinated in orange juice, zest and liqueur, and spread on pork, rolled and tied...

Roast turkey roll, we only had 6 adults and 2 children, so not big enough of a crowd for the whole roast turkey.  We bought turkey on crown, and I de-boned the turkey, made it into butter fly cut.

Rolled in with some mozerella cheese, parsley and dill and some olives and bacon.

Tie up in a roll just as I did the pork.

Sear with olive oil first and then in the oven for roasting.

I also made cranberry juice to serve with the turkey.  It's hard for us to find fresh cranberries, so I used dry cranberries, with red wine and maple syrup and the cranberry sauce was just devine.

We also had roast potatos in duck fat and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately as I have been running around trying to finalise a few things for renovations, starting with the kitchen.  We bought ILVE cook tops and oven which has a setting for pizzas, and BLANCO dishwasher, sink and tap, and it's just exciting talking to the designer about designing the new kitchen....

We will have outdoor decking as well and the 4 burner will be put to much better use....

Until then, I guess I will just try to cook as much as I can with my current kitchen!