The Air Near My Fish Fingers

Have just done The Grocery Shop for the Christmas Dinner, which is breathing down my neck...wait that doesn't sound so positive. It's looming - wait, that sounds too shadowy and dark. The Christmas Dinner approacheth! I won't lie, I'm feeling a little frazzled but I really don't want to turn into one of those people who insist on doing everything themselves and then complain that they have so much to do. But look at it this way: The dinner is on Sunday. I am working all day tomorrow, then we are going to the Phoenix/Australia soccer game. On Saturday night is the Beckham/Phoenix game. I will be very, very busy. I was going to get the truffles started tonight, but of course the only (so far) thing I forgot to buy was bloody icing sugar and the stuff we have has gluten in it which kiboshes that. Never mind, I feel that making truffles after 10.00pm can only end with a tearful breakdown, followed by eating All The Truffle Mixture.

In other news, the USB cord for the camera arrived today, so I can stop borrowing Kieran's (extremely flash!) camera. It also means I can show you the finished Chocolate Guinness Cake - yes, him again! (I don't know why I think of this cake as having masculine properties, it is clearly far too late at night for this sort of thing.)

Above: A tip for ye, don't for goodness sake ever use lite cream cheese for the icing of this cake. It is runny as heck and no amount of refrigeration would thicken it. So I abandoned the idea of emulating the froth on top of a pint and went for the artistic drizzle look instead...still tasted like a dream - this is a seriously special cake.

Anyway, we spent an inordinate amount of dollars at the supermarket tonight. It was partly covered by a generous donation from an anonymous fan of the blog cough*mother*coughcough* which helped immensely. I was too exhausted after all that to think about food so this was our dinner, and a fine one it was too:

Above: Fish fingers (or fish sticks as our Canadian friend calls them) and chips from Aro Valley (it's a place near where we live, not a magical valley where fried foods grow on trees.) Had a sudden craving for fish fingers after thinking about retro food, prompted by a cooking forum I frequent. Now I am feeling full and cranky, but after salad for lunch I think it balances out...plus I drank sooo much green tea at the office after reading about how good it is for you.

So yes: tomorrow night and the next night will be spent watching football so I have to plan this out somehow. I will leave you with a maths problem, because not only is any maths a problem in my books but...well, that's it really.

2 stuffed Chickens need about an hour and a half at 220 C

Potatoes need to be at 200-220 C for an hour or so.

Challah needs to be at 180 C for about 40 minutes and apparently starts going stale instantly so can't be made ahead.

The ham can be baked at either 200 C for 20 minutes or at 180 C for about 40 minutes...

The Challah shouldn't sit round for long, the meat can handle sitting for a bit covered in foil, and the potatoes need to be hot. If my brain explodes from crunching these numbers, what time will the 3.45 train get to London and exactly how many apples will Sally have left?