Christmas this year had many highlights – the fact that my mother flew all the way out here to keep me company in the festivities, a fine haul of gifts, some merry skype conversations with my loved ones back in the UK, and of course, plenty of good grub and booze.  I put in a fair few hours in the kitchen on both Christmas Eve and the day itself, conjuring up a festive supper of nibbles (mini calzoni pizzas, spinach and feta falafel  and houmous, cheesy sausage rolls, spicy nuts, mince pies) and then a two course dinner (sweet potato and cheese souffle followed by mushroom and stilton pie with mash, parsnips and cauliflower cheese).  But for me, the masterpiece was the Christmas cake, made weeks ago, diligently fed with brandy, and finally covered with marzipan and iced in a team effort with my mum.  It looks festive, as you can see, and the sponge is delightfully moist and tasty, full of fruit and flavour.  The ultimate Christmas cake, if I do say so myself!

The obvious consequence of all this fine food is that my waistline has expanded and my belly is aching from the effort.  I was planning on cutting back for a month or so in order to get back into shape, but my gifts contained a fair bit of baking paraphernalia and surely it would be rude to Father Christmas and offensive to the baby Jesus if I didn’t put it to good use immediately?

Between my Christmas menus and the potential of my new supplies, there should be a fair few posts coming soon.  In the meantime, I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and isn’t suffering too much from over-indulgence!