Many Movillians could be without Christmas Dinner

Posted Thursday, December 23, 2010

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Christmas Dinner

Lord knows but this has been a bad year for Movillians and the rest of Ireland.

It could end on an even worse note with no Christmas Dinner.

The gas bottles cylinders outside most people's houses that provides them with the gas to cook have been freezing up.

Mine are currently frozen now and I can't cook on the stove.

Frozen Pipes

Some people say it is the pipes that are frozen and others that it is the gas in the cylinders.

A typical day has been where there has been no gas in the morning and then it comes sometime during the day and then freezes up at about 4 o'clock.

That's what has happened the past two days.

However, with temperatures -11 degrees Celsius at 11am my gas has still not come on yet.

At those temperatures it is unlikely to.

Some people's gas hasn't come on at all and they haven't had gas to cook with for days.

Electric

I'm lucky in that although my stove is gas, my oven is electric so I can at least cook in there - although it doesn't always come out as well.

My macaroni and cheese wasn't that well received by my children when I made it in the oven including cooking the macaroni there.

Those that have all gas ovens may not be able to cook their turkeys at all.

Even if they have an electric oven they may find it difficult to cook the potatoes and vegetables if they have a gas stove.

It'll be hard enough to get the turkey to defrost in these temperatures.

Microwaved

I wonder how the children would react this Christmas to a microwaved turkey.

That would be different.

I wouldn't fancy the stuffing.

Bad Year

Wouldn't it just finish off a bad year if people were foraging for whatever they could eat without it needing to be cooked on Christmas Day - and with the shops all shut?

Let's hope the daytime temperatures are warmer than today on Christmas Day so that everyone can get a nice cooked turkey with all the acoutrements.

It might be advisable to get it mostly cooked if you can on the day before Christmas if the gas comes on so that you could finish it off by microwave on Christmas Day if there is no gas.

2011

Ah well!

This year's almost over.

But should we be looking forward to 2011?

Update - Tip from Conor Jay

Quick tip for the frozen gas cylinders that seems to work for us is to simply pour some hot water over the pipe and cylinder.

It might have to be done a few times during cooking, but surely that beats not having Christmas dinner!

Further Update from Paddy McLaughlin

Take a hair dryer to your gas cylinder pipes and top connection.

If you can take cylinder indoors to thaw all the better..... then cover hosepipe with any heavy material.

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