I didn't get a huge goose - it's only about 2.5kg (it's just for DH and I - that's still a lot of goose for two people, however, we loooove goose!). But it was still kind of funny walking home. You know how you wave your arms around a lot when you're trying to walk through deep snow? Well... besides the goose I had two kilos of tea (we drink a lot of tea), a pannetone, a half dozen smoked herring and a pound of king crab legs. So I did some pretty funny waddling and was thankful than no one smucked me with their car (there were a LOT of slipping and sliding cars)! Not that I'd want to get smucked by that car, but can you imagine what the people going through my bags would have thought :-) I totally forgot to take some photos today - I'll have to remember tomorrow! You should have seen the snow removal crews today. We live on a very narrow street and because emergemcy vehicles have a hard time getting down it when it's snowed, we're amongst the first in the city to get the snow hauled away. Normally, for our block, it takes a half an hour to an hour to do all the plowing of a regular 15-20cm snowfall into a big line and then the giant snowblower comes by and they're done. This time they started at about 3:30PM and they had to make three passes with the big snow blower! It took them until 11:00PM before they were gone! They had to change the dumptruck so many times that most of the time the blower was just sitting there waiting for the next one to arrive. Tomorrow I'm going out back and shoveling all that good insulation onto my winter beds. They're mostly under the upstairs balcony so they don't get all that much on them as it falls. Hopefully we won't have a thaw and have all my heavy work go to waste! Besides, I need it to stay below freezing so my goose stays frozen - it's too big for the freezer, so it's out back :-) BP

DD and I made one for Christmas a couple of years ago. We followed the Martha Stewart recipe linked below exactly as written and it was delicious. One caution: use a deep-sided pan because you wil not believe how much fat a goose generates. We removed a lot before roasting and rendered it separately. After roasting, the flesh was moist but not really greasy. It's all dark meat and tastes more like pheasant than chicken. Here is a link that might be useful: Martha Stewart's Roast Goose This post was edited by ruthanna on Sat, Dec 15, 12 at 0:29

Thank-you, Rita! It's very kind of you to go to all that trouble! I was just comparing to when I make a turkey it's 20-22 lb. and when I make a chicken it's 3.75-4.25 lb., because that's what I buy. So I thought maybe you knew offhand how big your geese were. The recipe itself sounds simple, as you said, and also delicious. Thank-you very much for everything. I agree with the watching, but it also goes in retrospection. When I ask my mother how to make some old favorite, I've done the watching, know pretty much what the ingredients were, and just need a few details on proportion. The famous Auntie S's blintz "recipe" for the pancakes (which are about 3-4 times thicker than crêpes) has the important step of "you know it's the right consistency when you're using a rotary crank egg beater in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup and the crank feels like X, and when you lift it out of the batter it flows off of it like Y. Definitely had to be there. :) But blintzes are for a whole different holiday! Back to your regularly scheduled Christmas dinner!

Oh! Well that's easy, Christine. Duck would make a fine pie. The trick to a good red wine reduction is good red wine, not too tanic. I cook with Two Buck Chuck all the time, but for a reduction you need a pretty flawless wine, and I spent for a good California zinfandel. I did chop shallots for it, but the rest was also leftovers. I had part of a container of homemade chicken stock, and a little chicken stock and roux based mushroom gravy, which freed me from having to make a base for the reduction. Oh, and a good sized sprig of rosemary from the garden. None of that matters, though. One bottle of good red wine, about half as much chicken or vegetable (or duck or veal or mushroom) stock, minced shallots, or scallions or leeks or onions or even fennel, about half a cup, sauteed in butter or a truly flavorless oil like safflower with some fine flour worked in at the end to give body to the sauce, add an herb that pairs well with your duck. Cook on low for a long time. Like low enough that an egg won't brown. Stir regularly scraping the bottom--reduce heat if anything is sticking. Keep simmering. Reduce by 2/3 - 3/4. Strain well and cool. Season after it's cool as desired. This is the recipe for the spice rub from the goose. I used triple the cloves (pre-ground, old bottle) by accident but I liked the result. I might go a little more pungent and less warm-spice for duck, but as is would likely be great. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/goose-recipes/spiced-roast-goose/ The real trick was that the leftover parsnip puree had been reheated on the stove and steamed out quite a lot, so it was very thick, stiff and pasty and worked well as a topping. It started as very light and fluffy and way too wet for the purpose. Good luck!