With Christmas hurtling towards us like a speeding train, you may be just like me, facing the queues at the registers with a grim determination trying to buy things that you hope that your friends and family want. I’m a pretty good present buyer (at least I hope so!) but there are some people that are hard to buy for. And these people usually get a book with a returns receipt so that they can swap it if they want to 
But Serge Dansereau’s new book French Kitchen is perfect for any francophile friends you may have (and let’s face it, we all have at least one friend that pines for Paris). There are 230 classic French recipes in this hard cover book (and some Canadian as he is French Canadian after all) but very importantly they’re recipes tailored for the Australian produce market. There are no obscure ingredients that will send you on a wild goose chase! I have made a couple of dishes already from it including the spiral sandwiches and a beetroot and walnut tarte tatin.
The styling and photography is gorgeous reminding me a bit of Donna Hay location shoots and the recipes range from ratatouille with crispy fried egg which involves crumbing and deep frying a poached egg, country style pork and walnut terrine to rhubarb charlotte, figs with champagne sabayon and croquembouche gateaux.
Thanks to the lovely people at Harper Collins, three lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will each win a copy of French Kitchen! For a chance to win a copy of French Kitchen by Serge Dansereau all you have to do is tell me what you’re cooking for Christmas dinner! Simply add your answer as a comment to the story. The competition ends at Midnight AEST 9th January, 2011. You can enter this competition once daily. Delivery is within Australia only.
***The winners are:
Fiona C.
Grace
Traci T.
***
Best of luck!
Lots of love,
Lorraine
xxx
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My job for Christmas is salads and sweets! the in-laws are making a huge roast beef and prawns as usual. I really revel in the summer Christmas and have fun experimenting. When I’m home with my family in Canada, dinner is very traditional and pretty identical from year to year. I love it, but its not inventive…
I’d love a cookbook with a few Canadian recipes where I could easily track down all the ingredients!
Christmas dinner will be the usual spread of salads, freshly baked homemade bread, cold Christmas ham, roast turkey and pork. I can’t wait!
On my Christmas dinner menu is prawns with romesco dip, roast pork with fennel salt, prosciutto-wrapped lamb with pesto, smashed potatoes with sour cream dressing, tomato salad, and for dessert raspberry & pistachio ice-cream pudding. Although on first glance this seems like a lot of work, all of these dishes require very little preparation so I will be able to spend most of my time enjoying myself with my family. I think Actual Nigella would be proud of some of the short cuts I have incorporated into my cooking.
Argh- no idea what I’m cooking for Christmas lunch, trying to get a menu together at the moment. I’m going to check back here to see what other people say for inspiration! I can’t get past the cocktails! Great giveaway!
Hi Lorraine,
Of course there’ll be more food throughout the day.
Hopefully for Christmas this year, we’ll be having a whole roast duck with (pickled) cherries I picked in Young a couple of weeks ago. Duck fat kipfler potatoes and Swiss brown mushrooms. Green beans with toasted slivered almonds.
Dessert will be my cognac heavy steamed Christmas pudding and cognac cream sauce. Also for my brother in law who doesn’t eat fruit! A Vanilla ice cream pudding with chopped Tim tams, raspberry puree, toasted hazelnuts and broken up pieces of 70% dark chocolate and icing would be Cottee’s Choc Ice Magic. I was thinking of adding cookie dough and perhaps Cottee’s Star Dust for that spark.
I love the depth of colour and the truly textural style of the photos. Makes me ache to cook from the book…
This Christmas we are doing i European style – dinner on the 24th! We’ll be having traditional Latvian Pirag (like the Russian Pierogi) which are pillows of bread stuffed with bacon and onion followed by aged roasted fillet of beef with a red wine and portobello mushroom jus, steamed asparagus with lemon and parmesan, crispy roasted potatoes and parmesan crusted parsnips. For dessert, we’ll have the traditional Christmas pudding made by my mother with home-made vanilla custard. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
I am going to help my mum cook our turkey with all the trimmings. The recipe has been passed down from generation and its absolutely delicious!
Even though there were some years where we were thinking of having seafood as summer seems to be getting hotter and hotter, but NO! we always stick with the turkey in the end. Cant wait! only 13 more days to go!
Gorgeous book!! Thanks Lorraine!
I am cooking garlic prawns (and leaving a few just to eat as is of course), roast turkey with an orange glaze and a couple of roast potatoes and pumpkin.
I will make a few salads as there is nothing like a summer Christmas at the coast with mum and dad – fresh salad, prawns and sea air
Hi,
As I am part of a small family (5 adults and 3 kids) I decided that 8 of us siting around the table wasn’t festive enough. We are going to the Bathers’ Pavilion at Balmoral! The cafe – less $$ and more informal. SO, Serge is cooking for us! I would love to have his book so I can try to re-create….
ps love the blog – just started subscribing 2 weeks ago.
I do my long gone grandmas trifle at Christmas with a lot of love and fond memories thrown in to the mix. Cheers
roast turkey, ham, fresh garden salads, pasta salads & coleslaw followed by trifle and honeycomb cheesecakes
I could be cooking one of the neighbour’s sheep if the flood waters continue.
This year simple is the order of the day. Cold turkey (roasted the day before) & ham because we all like it. All our favourite salads- colourful garden, potato, Waldorf, beetroot…
And an enormous, glorious Pavlova heaped with raspberries & strawberries fresh from the garden (lucky us).
Getting everyone together involves a bit of traveling and a simple but yummy meal means we all get to relax and enjoy each others company especially the little people now in our lives.
My current plan (which may change… this is the third menu I’ve come up with!) involves chicken poached in champagne and glazed baby root vegetables with fresh bread rolls. Dessert is usually something simple like fruit salad and ice cream (we’re not big dessert eaters normally) but I was thinking of steeping cherries in something (not sure what yet) and serving with a really yummy ice cream, not just the plain old vanilla.
Who wants to bet that we’ll end up just doing a BBQ at the beach instead? I live on an island so it’s a possibility… and as long as we have food to eat, something to drink and we’re happy and in good health then it will be a wonderful Christmas.
I do a lot of cooking for Christmas day ….and the meal plans tend to remain the same for most years. There are usually up to 20 of us sitting down so there is a mountain of food and a mix of hot and cold/traditional and more recent additions
* Slow cooked pork belly (over 2 days) so it ends up falling apart but with amazing crackling!
* Cured Salmon – I cure a whole side of salmon in salt, sugar and white pepper then slice it and serve with an orange and fennel salad
* Brown sugar & maple syrup glazed ham studded with cloves
* Lemon and thyme roasted chicken with cashew and preserved lemon stuffing
* Roast beef fillet with caramelised eschallots (and gravy of course!)
* Roasted potatoes, sweet potato pumpkin and carrots (done on the webber bbq so they are crispy and beautiful)
* Prawn, mango & avocado salad
* A green salad with the usual suspects
* Platters of fresh prawns and oysters with lime
For dessert there is *traditional pudding (a very old family recipe) with custard or icecream
*homemade cassata (my mothers secret recipe)
*pavlova with berries
so basically its a massive feast over 3-4hrs in the afternoon….
Such beautiful images!! I am the person who pines for Paris. I have visited twice and I would go back in a heartbeat!
I am very fortunate, this year I am not cooking Christmas dinner, my mother-in-law is in charge:) I will be “kitchen help” as such I do not know what is on the menu, but I am sure it will be delicious.
I will be a “bring along” cook this Christmas. I am going to join family and have been asked to bring along my “famous” potato salad and as a surprise treat I am making “Nutty Caramel Popcorn” which I discovered right here.
p.s Lorraine can I use this quote from you: “francophile friends”. Two of my friends are obsessed by Paris
I would love to win the French Kitchen cookbook. On Christmas day I will bake my favourite dish which I got from a Canadian naturopath’s website, Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries. http://drbenkim.com/recipes/sweet-potatoes-cranberries-apples.htm
This year we have Christmas lunch, dinner, boxing day brunch and BBQ dinner with our families. I’m planning on making Italian cassatta, roasted duck, turkey on the BBQ, mango salad, some rocky road, Ginger bread making next weekend and other things to give others. I love Christmas! Would love to make a peach tart tartin and use my blowtorch!!!
We’re hosting (again) – 9 people in a house without air-conditioning! We will have a pre-baked ham, a pre-baked pumpkin and onion tart (I’m not vego, but I like the option to not eat meat), a pavlova and loads and loads of hot roast veges with gravy (the only thing we’re heating up the oven for!) Others will bring a turkey and some salads.
Even though it’s 30+ degrees in Queensland, my family still have the traditional hot lunch of roast chicken and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding and custard.The table is laden with stone fruits , nuts and sweets and by the end of the meal, everyone retires to a cool spot for a nap! merry christmas.
I know that I wish I was Australian! It is so odd that we share a common language and heritage but your seasons are the opposite of ours… I can’t imagine CHristmas in a hot climate! Great looking cookbook… the pics are gorgeous.
I’ve got a feeling that this year, it’s going to be a traditional Aussie christmas… sausages on the bbq, lamb chops, pork chops, potato salads, salads, creme caramel, honeycomb cakes… MmMmmmmm
I will be something involving prawns and maybe a pavlova with raspberries and passionfruit.
I usuall help mum with all the traditional Christmas dishes, then take control of an alternate dessert to the pudding (because I don’t like pudding
). I’m thinking Raspberry Whip this year, or something else cold and refreshing 
Lorraine,
Sadly I’ve not gotten email updates from you in more than a minute. Perhaps you got filtered out or perhaps something has happened to your list. You know I’ve read for years so I’m a bit surprised.
Thought I’d let you know.
Warmly
Julianna
This year is easy & cold with Baked Ham ( well almost cold), Cold roasted chickens, prawns with lime mayo, Russian salad, roast pumpkin & sweet potato salad, noodle salad with Tirimasu & frozen Christmas pudding for dessert. Haven’t decided on a cocktail yet – it’s a work in progress
I am in charge of desserts for two families so was thinking of a Crunchy Lime Semifreddo for one (need to be there the day before to make it) but not sure on the other one yet. The suggestions above sound yummo!
I’m in charge of the vegies. This year I’m doing Nigellas amazing roast potaotes that get coated in duck fat and polenta, and various warm salads; bean and lentil, nectarine and cabbage, rocket pear and parmesan etc etc. yum. i seriously cannot wait to eat all day. x
Ours is a shared affair, too, and I’m in charge of ham, a dessert – I’m making a Torte Caprese- and some salads.
Christmas eve is our ‘big’ event (german heritage) where we have a HUGE smorgasboard (we all contribute to this) finishing with christmas pressies and traditional german biscuits (sent from Germany) with coffee quite late in the evening….. on Christmas day we have a christmas breakfast of waffles made with my grandma’s hand me down recipe (cooked by my sister)… Christmas day lunch is roast duck stuffed with simple apples and nothing else, roast potato, red cabbage and peas&carrots and after all that, afternoon tea and then Christmas dinner usually is leftovers! Phew…… that’s a lot of food!!!
In all that I usually get to help out with making everything, do all the running between the table and the kitchen, and then… most importantly! I am responsible for the Gluhwine, making soaked prunes in port with christmas spices, and making a traditional christmas pudding (which is currently maturing)!
We will have a blended Aussie/Yank Christmas dinner with my in-laws on the Central Coast. My brother-in-law will prepare lamb on the barbie and we’ll be making a deep fried turkey! I’m also making a yummy baked-potato salad and the ‘secret recipe’ KFC coleslaw which the kids all love.
I might take up the whole post if I write everything but here goes…
apricot/brandy ham, turkey breast buffet, dill roasted carrots, crispy potatoes, fresh bread rolls, Christmas coloured salad and for dessert – traditional pudding, snow ball biscuits, Nigella’s brownies (in the shape of stars) and chocolate sauce, brandy butter and custard.
Ok now I’m drooling in excitement!
My Christmas dinner for one is a giant roast beef, turkey ham and cranberry sauce sandwich!
My quietest Christmas of all this year and cooking Roast Pork and Pavlova with fruit salad.
I don’t cook Christmas meals – I run away to my daughters place and we do the bar-b-que breakfast with champagne thing, then I sleep for the rest of the day. Christmas has far too many family expectations and stress associated with it. Bah Humbug!!! But the book is brilliant and I’ll use it anytime other than Christmas.
Everyone has put their requests in. We will have garlic prawns and scallops, followed by roast turkey,baked ham and smoked salmon served with warm vegetable salad and lime brulee for dessert To wet our whistles we have sangria, champayne and G and Ts. Quite a mixed bag, however everyone will be happy.
By Christmas Day most of us have eaten two months’ worth of food in December! So, I am going to keep it light. The present plan is to stuff calamari tubes with a slightly spicy rice/nut/fruit filling and serve those sliced on a streak of sweet potato mash. Turkey, yes but – am buying the beautiful turkey legs now available, dryrubbing them a day ahead with ras-el-hanout or similar – STEAMING them until the meat almost falls of the bone (lovely and healthy too) and serving them with steamed mixed summer vegetables in which the Moroccan theme is subtly reinforced. A light dessert of a lemony foamy kind with a few fruits steeped in brandy or champagne. A few almond tuiles to add a bit of ‘end bulk’. Should be pleasant, not too expensive and a lot can be prepared ahead of time!
Although I have been right through this newssheet, I cannot find a ‘helpline’! Twice now my blogs have come on line with ‘Your comment is awaiting moderation’ stamped upon it. As my today’s comments are by far not the longest in line, and there is absolutely nothing controversial written – pray what is the matter?
Our whole gang just graduated from uni so this year we’re gonna celebrate xmas with the whole she-bang! This year we’re gonna attempt to get a turducken into the oven along with sour cream mash, honey glazed parsnips, bread sauce cranberry sauce and the most delicious sage gingerbread stuffing!
Maille crusted Porterhouse steaks, TRUE!
Based on thickness, baked separately as DH loves well, I love medium rare too!
Apple & Jarlsberg Potato Cake, sliced in wedges after does bake,
After all, who does not like with the main meal eating cake? lol
Let’s not forget Tomatoes Provencale, Brioche à Tête,
Dessert will be a surprize as have not decided yet,
Decisions, decisions…either Caramel Crème Brûlée,
Or Grand Marnier Berry Chocolate crepes, with chantilly cream, think would MAKE hubby’s and MY day!
Great giveaway Lorraine, thank you for organising! I was at the bookstore the other day looking at this book and it really does look gorgeous, and with recipes that are actually doable…
We haven’t finalised our Xmas menu yet, but I think we’ll go for grilled lobster with a Burgundy white, hard to go wrong with that!
Christmas dinner will be helping my Ma make trditional chinese food (because that’s our heritage), Roast pork, oodles of noodles, speciality dim sum and my favourite, chilli crab
My job for Christmas this year is to bake a Turkey roulade with a macadamia and apricot stuffing!!
Yum!
With a Polish hubby and a Japanese Daughter-in-law we have a mixed antipasti platter with smoked salmon and fresh sashimi, tuna sushi rolls, char-grilled spring onions and asparagus, cheesy crab puffs, dill blini with caviar or egg topping, goose liver pate in aspic with fresh bread rolls and toast available in baskets. Starters follow with fresh oysters from the coast – a third of them Kilpatrick, a third pinenuts and bacon, a third plain. Then roasted goose with two stuffing, apricot, seaweed and herb stuffing as well as lemon, lime, sage and onion stuffing with orange cranberry gravy, golden roasted potatoes, peppery brussel sprouts and baby squash, green salad and horseradish cream sauce. A little rest and to finish with Polish Makowiec (Poppyseed Christmas cake)with cream or home-made custard (son’s favorite) or my Summer pudding of my garden raspberries, mulberries, strawberries and cherries. Champagne or red or white wine available through the meal but home-made husband’s cherry vodka(taught to him by his late father)to accompany afters. Sleep needed but a good brisk walk afterwards works wonders! Yumiferous!
Absolutely nothing! We (me and hubby) are going to be away on Christmas Day, and rather than the two of us having a proper lunch in a fancy restaurant, we’re taking whatever our resort cafe has to offer. However, we’ll be getting together with the family later, and my contribution is always traditional steamed plum pudding and a special red fruit salad.
Oh I love French food! THis cookbook seems right up my alley. I am doing Christmas Eve dinner – I’m thinking glazed ham and roasted veges – nothing to complicated as I’ll be preparing it after I finish work!
We will be having a multicultural feast this christmas.
Samoan foods,Some french cuisine from my beautiful french sister in law,Some english grub courtsey of moi and some good old traditional Aussie fare.I can’t wait!!
I will be making tamales, cheese enchilladas, tacos, Zatarain’s
Spanish rice, and pork-fatted
refried beans slurpy-yum. But these contests are in Australia only and I am in the U.S. Rats!
Am going to take my guests on a little trip à Paris avec my KUMQUAT BÛCHE de NOËL!! C’est bien!
In recent years we have had “no fuss” Christmas Lunch by the pool. A selection of fresh and BBQ’d seafood, roasted meats, the traditional baked ham and several salads are the order of the day.
The desserts will be trifle, pavlova, christmas pudding and tiramisu all washed down with copious amounts of chilled champagne….
We’ve decided to do a BBQ this year. In place of Turkey and Ham, will be BBQ pork ribs and Chicken Drummettes in various marinades. Served with Jelly Fish salad, Potato, pasta and ham salad, and Coleslaw. Then pavlova with fresh fruit and cream topping for dessert. I can’t wait.
I’m making a variety of pizzas – thin new haven style pizzas, and several chicago deep dish ones.
Of course, a few of them will have the obligatory turkey and cranberry sauce.
As I write, my husband is working his magic on what is going to be the most divine Steamed Christmas Pudding, using his treasured family recipe. This year we will be taking it to Melbourne to share with my family (a last minute decision).
As for what else will be on our family of many cultures table…Foie Gras and Champagne to start. Then a deliciously fragrant Lamb Biriyani; a moist roast turkey with ricotta stuffing; lots of lively fresh salads…..
And more Champagne!
Then when they think it’s all over, out comes the Pudding doused in brandy and set ablaze, with hot Brandy Sauce just to gild the lily, and suddenly we all find our appetites again…happens every year!
Christmas dinner is usually the left overs from our feast at lunch time, this consists of, ham off the bone, different salads such as potato, pasta, greek and tossed, cold turkey, seafood platters, cheeses, dips and of course wine.
Big dinner Christmas Eve at my Mum’s like usual. Prawns for entree followed by roast turkey, pork and individual roast chicken fillets, all accompanied by gravy, salads, potatoes and crusty bread. This will be followed by traditional Christmas pudding with custard, cream and icecream. Of course we will all eat way too much and be absolutely stuffed!
Leftovers.
What am I cooking for Christmas dinner? -Nothing! I’m planning a couple of kilos of prawns and half a tray of mangoes between the four of us – all eaten leisurely in our pyjamas at some stage during the day.
I WILL, however be preparing a birthday cake for (and with) my 15 year old daughter for Boxing Day – we’re attempting Adriano Zumbo’s chocolate mousse cake.
Wish us luck!!
Bouche de Noel, a traditional French Christmas cake made to look like a log. It’s quite fiddly but looks great and certainly more tasty than Christmas pudding !
As it’s just the 4 of us, we’ll keep it simple with a 6kg smoked ham, a lamb leg roast, slow cooked pork belly, a lemon and rosemary roast chicken, a frozen berry eton mess, gfree christmas cake,lactose free custard, baked potatoes and root vege in duck fat, potatoes dauphine as well, carrots and beans, plum sauce, apple sauce, gravy, and mint jelly. Thank goodness I have a double oven, and thank goodness I’m just cooking for us 4!!
I’ve been really sick since October so have not been cooking at all. I’m not really going to cook for Christmas as there are only 4 of us on the day and we could not book to go out due to my ill health which has affected what and when I eat. That said, next year I have surgery to reverse it all and will embrace cooking once more. I also ADORE Paris, and went twice in 11 months in 2008 and 2009 (with husband and 5 year old daughter). Lucky girls in our house. We stayed in apartments, so felt like real Paris residents.
I’m only the assistant to Christmas cooking and Mama hasn’t even told me what’s on the menu – but I’ll be making some marzipan for Dad and I to have with our cups of tea over the break
Absolutely stunning photographs, Lorraine.
I love pictures that pull me in and make the food seem part of a truly lovely story. 
My family-famous fruit cake is my contribution to Christmas day! I’ll also dress the ham, although Mum takes the credit for that!
Well I was going to make the plum pudding and I was asking Mum about it and she offered to make one for me. So that’s done. I asked if she was going to make brandy butter and she said do you want me to make you some too and of course I said yes. So now all I have to do is roast veges and fruit salad on the day. Wow, so easy!
Oh man that cookbook looks awesome!! With all these giveaways, I may need to move to Australia …
Christmas is the happiest day of the year for me, I don’t care the gifts, but I love preparing for the day, setting the table, decorating the dining room and I specially love cooking for my family and I love them for just being there and enjoying every moment of the day. Each year, my sisters and I take it in turn to cook. This year it is my turn.
Menu:
Appetizers: cheese platter, duck liver & creamcheese pate
Entree:
Baked ham on the bone with apricot glaze
Main:
Roasted Turkey with macadamia stuffing + smashed potatoes with green beans and herbs + gravy
Dessert:
A beautiful homemade Christmas icecream filled with cranberries and pistachios
Mini Mince Christmas Tarts
Its always too hot on xmas so we always have cold meat platters, tons of seafood- yum -and lots of cold champers!
Our family is off to Finland. I’ve cooked a pudding to take and will be buying one of the lovely local (Canberra) hams to take too. Apart from that, I’m looking forward to lots of smoked fish!
My mother will serve cold chicken, ham & salad, fresh fruit salad & ice-cream. Not a day to slave in a hot kitchen but a day to enjoy family. An Australian Christmas is best enjoyed with cold food & lots of liquid refreshment.
We’re doing goat biryani, cucumber and yoghurt raita, salad of spanish onions, tomato, corriander and lime. And to drink,icy cold lassi
Christmas Eve is usually spent with family and friends and everyone brings a dish – no meat/chicken etc. So I will make a roasted vegetable cous cous salad which is delicious and also really filling and for dessert I am going to make Nigella’s mini pudding’s using bought fruitcake (sorry Italian we don’t make it lol!) mixed with melted chocolate and formed into mini puddings with a little white chocolate to resemble icing etc..Then christmas day at mum and dads I will bring a glazed ham (glaze yet to be decided but most likely apricot, brown sugar which is my hubby’s favourite) and for dessert I am going to attempt a raspberry & lemon patisserie filled meringue roulade – should be interesting! The combination of many cultures Italian, English/Aussie and French – and it will hopefully blend beautifully.
I’ll be making :
Tuna or Kingfish Carpaccio, Roast Turkey,home-made Lasagna procuring Triple-smoked leg ham on the bone, fresh prawns and oysters and lastly my Traditional Italian Christmas Biscottini.
ill be serving the aussie xmas up: glazed ham,bbq octopus, cold king prawns(with cocktail sauce), pacific oysters opened last minute with tetsuya’s oyster dressing, a free range turkey breast with homemade cranberry relish a potato and mint salad and to finish a xmas cake and some xmas pudding and chocolate macaroons ive done for the last couple of years
all washed down with some home brew
im getting hungry as im writing
A non-traditional Christmas seafood dinner for us but it will be followed by the oh-so-very traditional Christmas pudding with gallons of brandy custard. Merry Christmas to you Lorraine and to your NQN readers.
Me and my friend, Amy, are hosting a Christmas potluck this year! We’re baking a traditional Christmas ham, the recipe from A Table For Two’s blog, and for dessert, the 8 texture tiramisu from Almost Bourdain’s blog…we love our bloggers, as you can see.
hop your winner will like it !!pierre
I’ll have traditional a French Christmas actually (my home country): foie gras toast and smoked salmon terrine, roast turkey stuffey with chestnuts, green beans and pommes noisettes, chocolate buche de Noel (Christmas cake).
Prawns on the bbq, honey glazed ham, roasted veggies, pavlova.
I’m in charge of buying the Turkey this year but I’ve decided to actually cook a proper Turkey rather than just buy the breast roll. I think I’m going to go with one of Martha Stewart’s recipes, like the one with a brown sugar and mustard glaze. It’ll definitely be an experience and my first time ever cooking a Turkey!
I also have to make a couple of small desserts so I’m thinking of making pumpkin tartlets and shot glasses of white chocolate mousse.
For Christmas Dinner my sisters and I plan on making your halloween ‘bat wings’ and maybe a roast ham
or if we can we will try to make turducken! 
Oh and we’ll be making lasagne or some form of pasta too! (I love our pasta machine)
Garlic prawns with homemade bread to soak up the garlic butter and salads. Dessert??? probably something with lemons because my husband loves lemon.
belinis and fruit for breakfast; cheese platters with fresh local muscatels and figs; baked ham with spiced blood orange and balsamic glaze; roast turkey stuffed with cranberries, apples, rosemary and sourdough; a variety of salads including roast pumpkin, sweet potato and garlic with fresh (from my garden) rocket; a quinoa with roast red onions and goats cheese; a potato salad with homemade olive oil mayo; a bit fatoush with pomegranates; and a leafy green (again, all from the garden); plus pavlova; macaroon trifle; home made icecream (still working out which flavour); plenty of fruit platters throughout the day. I think thats my part done…
Yes please! (Fingers tightly crossed). We’re having Christmas with the in-laws and we each contribute something. I’ve been asked to make a barbecued snapper with spicy north african marinade that I’d made once before and was a hit with everyone. (It’s a Stephanie Alexander recipe.). The rest of the meal will be the usual Aussie fare : ham, prawns, salads, mangoes, cherries etc and the kids are making panna cotta for dessert (least chance of burning and fail).
I’ve always been lucky and someone else has always cooked Christmas dinner for me
.
But I always make festive desserts and cookies in abundance. They usually contain lots of chocolate, cranberries and pistachios.
Having just read 85 divine comments I must say I am in awe of you all.
My family is doing the traditional hot baked dinner but Boxing day will be something fishy – probably prawns, mussels and fish on the bbq. And best of all lots and lots and lots and lots of champagne.
BBQ and lots of salad! It’s the same every year, and usually someone will make a cake. Not a Christmas because no one in the family likes dried fruit, but a simple vanilla or chocolate cake.
To make it a truly enjoyable Christmas for all, I will not be cooking. Instead, I will be washing and cleaning the mess afterwards.
we have a very traditional christmas- roast, ham, turkey, roasted vegetables, christmas pudding mince pies.. all the traditional (and delicious) things, I love it!
ill be doing the sweets this year =)
What a delightful book!
As this will be our first time hosting Christmas – we are going all out!
Sourdough and olive /balsamic to start.
Christmas meats served with balsamic braised fennel, brussel sprouts with pancetta and maple-glazed sweet potato. Finished with a pear and ginger pudding
Christmas dinner is all about a shared table of leftovers and salads. Everybody’s usually still full from lunch and it’s too hot to bother with much more. Given my family’s love affair with Asian food, my contribution this year will be a Thai beef salad, a Thai noodle salad and a selection of homemade icecreams. I think it will be mango, coconut and maybe passionfruit.
With the inlaws in Autralia for xmas, I will be doing a traditional British dinner with turkey, minted peas, brussel sprout, roast potatos and the best stuffing ever!
!!!
To add a little aussie flair with pavlova cupcakes for dessert. Cant wait
My mother cooks the Christmas Day feast solo with our only allowance being granted to peel the pumpkin & potatoes! However she now allows me to make the Christmas Fruit Cake which i relish in with a hand tailored recipe where i soak my fruit for 3 weeks in Chambord.
So I go all out with my 2 Best Friend’s families and my own, and we have a celebration of 6 adults and 6 children, and I put on a Christmas Lunch the Sunday prior to Xmas Day (however it was yesterday this year)…. As they dont cook I go all out with all the trimmings… Our lunch included a
Golden Roasted Whole Free Range Hunter Valley Turkey with a Bacon, Sage & Walnut Stuffing, Roast Potatoes, Honey Glazed Carrots, Peas and Pumpkin Pie. Dessert was a traditional pudding with Double Thick Vanilla Custard and French Vanilla Icecream and this year a peice la’resistance of a Cookies n’ Cream Cheesecake that was a TOTAL HIT and everyone placed requests for a take home peice and now Im making it again at request for our Boxing Day gathering.
Wishing everyone at NQN a very Merry Christmas for 2010, and all the best for the coming year.
Ooh la la! It’ll be a big feast already as my partner and I will be going to two Christmas parties, however I’ll be adding to the meals with an appetiser of peaches/prosciutto and rocket leaves, a honey glazed ham with sliced pineapples on top, finished with a mix of little rum balls in the shape of Christmas puddings, fruit cake and star-shaped shortbread. Voila!
To keep my Dad happy I will be making his favourite – Cassoulet!
And to finish off we will be having a buche de noel. Yum yum!
I go all out for christmas especially as it at my house this year. My parents will be travelling down from Melb. There will be fresh sliced ham, hot chicken cooked in the webber by my husband hot roast vegies if it is cold, my special potato salad, pasta salad and perhaps rice salad. Maybe a prawn or seafood cocktail to start with, it depends on the cost. I always make ice cream this year it will be vanilla, vanilla ice cream that I add broken up peppermint candy canes and coffee ice cream. Also homemade small pavlovas, cannolis & cream puffs both filled with creme patissiere, also a fruit flan. My Dad will be bringing down a special fruit cake from USA – if it arrives in time.
And after all that for lunch if needed we have leftovers for tea — after a rest in the afternoon.
I will be doing the usual lunch this year comprising, glazed ham, roasted turkey, roast potatoes & pumpkin, roasted tomatoes, almond beans and cauliflower cheese! Followed by the Newcastle Pudding Ladie’s most wonderful Christmas Pudding with homemade egg custard, brandy sauce and vanilla icecream. Then, we will all snooze until dinner, consisting of leftovers ! Always good !
As it will be two of us it will be quite simple. Fresh seafood, salad, Mum’s veal and mushroom terrine and either strawberry souffle or Eton mess.
Merry Christams!!
Christmas by the beach – that is all the kids and I need, but I can’t go past yummy finger food and delicious cheeses.
This year we’re making a traditional
honey glazed ham along with some fresh seafood. As for dessert, some simple spiced pineapples hot from the grill should do the trick!
We’re very traditional at our place. Cold ham, roast pork & turkey, lovely vegetables, gravy & condiments, followed by Christmas Pudding, my Nana’s receipe, served with custard & cream. Yumm!
We have a massive Christmas lunch instead of dinner (to which I will be bringing my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts, and rum balls)…. so by dinner we will all by stuffed – so i wont be cooking anything for dinner. If anyone can fit in more at dinner time I will be pretty amazed!
We’re cooking Jamie Oliver’s Slow cooked overnight pork – amazing. There will be the roasted veggies, peas, gravy. Also turkey with a cranberry and chesnut stuffing mmmmm
and plum pudding with boozy sauce! This book looks divine. I am newly obsessed with French cuisine – before it seemed too daunting (besides crepes). Now I’m really getting into it!
Heidi xo
I am not cooking Christmas lunch as we are going to my husband’s parent’s house,but if I were cooking I would do a cold spread. All the usual suspects -ham, turkey, lamb – but served cold with fresh salads, something green and something carb laden like potato salad, and condiments. My only nod to the traditional hot lunch will be home made steamed Christmas pudding, which needs to be served warm with custard.
My “thing” at Christmas is the baking – Christmas puddings, gingerbread men, rum balls, Christmas cake, fruit mince pies. Love it all!
Green lobster tails sauted in garlic butter, with fresh prawns, pear and beetroot salad, oriental salad, warm potato and mango salad and probably Chinese crispy skinned duck (my sister-in-law is Chinese) Dessert will probably be a chocolate torte and a delightful hazlenut and strawberry mousse cake (all made by me!) YUMMY!
As we are travelling to family on the day I will be contributing a tray of mangoes and champagne.
We don’t really ‘celebrate’ christmas, but we’ll probably have a BBQ, same as the previous years. I was thinking about making pavlovas w summer berries as this year’s dessert.
platter of prawns with choice of traditional seafood sauce, garlicky basily aoli, dukkah, wasabi mayo and lemon wedges
rolled shoulder of boned roast pork (free range)apricot and star anise glazed ham (free range)
chicken pistachio cranberry terrine with jalapeno jam
warm potato salad with spinach, red capsicum spring onion and dill
marscapone and lime tart topped with blueberries cherries and raspberries
xmas pudding and home made custard
had a practice run on saturday night and can’t wait for the 25th to knock the rellies socks off
I will be having 7 guests over for lunch on xmas day.There will be Turkey, a rolled duck with prunes, butter chicken, green salads, Berry trifle, double chocolate Xmas pudding,BucheDeNoel Log,
Not bad for a Jewish Francophile!!!!!
I got off lightly this Christmas! All I have to do is bring a dish, so I am using some of the 20kgs of potatoes we just harvested from the vege patch to make a potato salad for one family lunch, and a potato bake for the other family lunch, yes, two lunches in one day ugh! Plus I am going to try out Nigella’s Chocolate Fruit (toot) Cake
It’s not so much important what I am cooking, but rather interesting to read what all your other readers will be cooking! Such variety and creativity! We will be having crisply fried tempura prawns with a mango salsa and rocket salad to start the Christmas celebration. Hot roast turkey with cranberry and apple stuffing served with a lightly peppered Cumberland sauce. This will be accompanied by cold smoked leg ham with redcurrant jelly and dijon mustard. Crisp fried potatoes with chive sour cream, a fresh garden salad with baby beet leaves, butter lettuce, endive, radicchio with baby spinach dressed with garlic/ walnut flavours. Freshly picked plump tomatoes diced with fine red onion, crushed garlic, basil, oregano and virgin olive oil splashed over the top. A cool glass of sauvignon blanc for the adults with lemon mineral water for the children. Dessert will be sweet, flaky shortbread (kourabiethes)with just a hint of rosewater as well as fresh pavlova, strawberries, mango, passionfruit, kiwifruit and fresh whipped cream with a dash of tia maria added. This will be delightful, maybe not as inspiring as what Serge can suggest in his gorgeous cook book, but we live and learn. Happy Christmas to you!
I come from an all vegetarian family… so our christmas lunches have always strayed from the traditional. We like to call our lunches ‘cook-ups’, and we base them on a different cuisine each year. This year we’re doing an Indian cookup – complete with our own naan bread (topped with stewed apple, sultanas, and almonds), our own samosas (filled with spicy potato, peas and corn), and many other traditional indian dishes… curry, rice pilaf, dhal… all washed down with some homemade lassi yogurt drink!! Maybe next year we could try a french cookup
Turkey, Ham, Pork and all that comes with it!! Yummy
My brother and sister-in-law are doing Christmas dinner this year. I’m hoping to be allowed to do my famous coca cola baked ham … so simple and easy. We will also have a cold roast chicken or two (no one really likes turkey) and loads of salad. My ex and I used to do roast pork belly with apple sauce as well. Only the oldies like plum pudding, so I might do a chocolate mint log for the kids. (PS please don’t enter me for the prize, those recipes sound far too difficult!)
My job is to eat heaps of top tucker and play mediator for the usual disagreements that ensue
We have an epic 20-man gathering this year. There will be roast pork, cold prawns and BBQ salmon. I’m handling dessert, thankfully no one likes Christmas pudding so I’m doing a flourless Fererro cake for the coeliacs on the room.
This sounds like an absolutely lovely book, Lorraine! I will definitely be on the lookout for it!
I’m having 20 people to my house for Christmas, luckily everyone is bringing something.
We’re having ham, prawns, garlic bugs on the BBQ and an amazing array of salads. Can’t wait!
I’m on dessert duty – we are going for a retro fest this year! I’m making bread and butter pudding, trifle, strawberry chiffon pie and lemon meringue pie!
This will be my first Christmas home in 10 years. We used to have a traditional dinner then one year it was over 40 with no aircon my mother decided to boycott the oven and we have never looked back.
Finger food, homemade sausage rolls, spinach and ricotta filo triangles, fresh salads made from my mothers garden, grandfather will bring the ham and my Filipino aunt will bring her famous spring rolls and shredded chicken glass vermicelli salad. Eclectic but hassle free and we have fun!
Coming from Wales and doing the traditional dinner every year with a husband how could not boil an egg,nz is sooo refreshing so this year it will be a loin of pork(bones left in)stuffed with thyme butter and peaches with spring carrots in thyme and chardonay, beetroot in marajon and galic and french potatoes all cooked by……. wait for it my HUSBAND who has turned into the most amazing cook (self taught)I’m even thinking Master chef here
Keeping it simple, glazed ham, garlic prawns on the bbq, fresh green salad, and a delicious potato salad.
This year is our first year without our beloved Nana, so I am taking over on “Pudding Duty”. I am making several gluten free puddings and a couple of regular ones. Also on the dessert menu is gluten free fruit cake and fruit mince tarts. I’m making all of this for everyone else and I don’t even like sultanas!
Absolutely nothing, we are a large family and take turns hosting, so this year sees me being able to relax and enjoy(so far)…who am I kidding…I know at the eleventh hour someone will be begging me to make something!
I’ve decided to ditch the ham and we’ll be having rare roasted eye fillet with mushroom & white truffle pate instead – Being a chef, and cooking the same old Christmas food for a good 6 weeks prior, I get soooooo sick of the same old stuff.
Also going to do a pork and veal terrine, a side of Salmon with herb & macadamia nut crust, it’s served with pickled lemon & caper butter, and a ballottine of turkey breast filled with whisky fruit.
Doing a Purple Potato Salad, a warm salad of Butternut Pumpkin, Peccorino & Proscuitto, a Bocconcini Salad, a Caprese Salad, a Garden Salad & Salad of Proscuitto, grilled pears, Hazelnuts & Gorgonzola.
I’m making a mixed berry flan and I’ve got the trusty old Christmas pudding with a Brandy Custard for the traditionalists in the family.
Also, doing a Vanilla & Cointreau Pavlova w/ Seasonal Fruits. YUMMO!
We do xmas lunch instead of dinner – but i will be bringing my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a mustard mayo dressing and some rumballs too!
Roast chicken, roast pork, ham, prawns, potato salad, salad, bread rolls … And either a pavlova or something from the Cheesecake shop – depends whose on sweets this year. Yum! Can’t wait to get stuffed!
Although we have a lot of Christmas traditions, each year I sort through my recipe books and pick a new dish that not only looks amazing, but also sounds exciting and delicious. This year, I am going to attempt a stunning Summer Fruit Meringue Bombe. It looks colourful and has that `something extra’, which I suppose you could call `pizzazz’.
Have just sat down at 10.30 pm after searching and finding the family recipe for plum pudding. Its still on the back of an envelope, maybe this year it will be typed up and saved in cyberspace. Fruit is soaking in Rutherglen muscat tonight, prior to making the pudding with plenty of spice and brandy tomorrow night.
I’ve already made plans to go to someone else’s house for Xmas dinner
which means I have no idea what they’re cooking until the day. That means there’s no chance of winning the book eh? Awww…
This book sure looks good though, I recently got into French food so wouldn’t mind going out and getting this book for myself as a Xmas present
Mmmmmmmmmmmm, lunch……of course there will be champagne, with homemade gravlax salmon and dill blinis with a little sour cream… on the deck, in the sun, taking in the sea air. And some king prawns with chilli and garlic and lemon, barbequed, with lots of serviettes – a little messy but yummy. Main course will be free range chook, probably done stefano di pieri style – picnic chicken with tomato and garlic and breadcrumbs, done in the pizza oven… with Dad’s sauerkraut salad and spuds and green salad and garlic beans…. and maybe a couple of pizzas to nibble, just in case all FIVE of us get a little peckish. Dessert will be Mum’s homemade baked cheesecake, not sure if she will be making plain or chocoalte this year (hopefully both)…. many drinks, dug out from the cupboard under the stairs… coffee cognac…..and hopefully lots of leftovers to eat in the days beyond… oh wait i forgot about the pork…. either some free range ham, or a beautiful old style organic bit of pig, done in the pizza oven – crackle…..mmmmmmmmmmmm…..
I have looked all over for this book to buy it myself and I cant seem to find one anywhere. I am loving the recipe descriptions and the beautiful pictures. I know I am from out of the country and cant win one of these wonderful copies but I just have to get my hands on one. If there is anyway you could get ahold of one for me I would glady pay whatever it costs plus the shipping to get it here. If you cant do that I totally understand but if you could at least point me in the direction of purchasing one somewhre else that would be great. I Love, lonve, love your blog by the way. Its amazing how stumbling across a blog from someone all the way across the glob from me could totally inspired me to kick start my lazy butt into cooking again and trying new fun recipes.
I am cooking a rolled turkey breast, the turkey is one we grew ourselves so it will be delicous. One of the guests is coeliac so no breadcrumbs in the stuffing, I thought I would stuff it with peaches from our tree, sage, parely and thyme from our garden and macademia nuts. I’ll put a herb butter under the skin.
My contribution to Christmas lunch this is year dessert and I’m making a lemon curd pavlova with fresh summer berries and a spice chocolate plum pudding.
Yum!
For xmas lunch (not dinner) I will take potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts, and a plate of rum balls… if anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
a great british christmas roast with the family and yorkshire puds of course.
I cook a Christmas lunch (more time to spend with my guests during the day.
So, at dinner time, there will be leftovers.
I’m vegan, so our Christmas dinner might be a little different from most people.
I’ve picked out some yummy organic wine to get the evening started. We’ll have roasted chestnuts and home-made sugared almonds for nibbles.
For mains, a giant home-made tofu-turkey with gravy
and for sides: roasted veggies and a mango, quinoa salad (with roasted pumpkin seeds mmmmm!)
And if theres room, white chocolate, gingerbread vegan ‘cheese’cake for dessert
Damn, now I’m hungry!!
Every year, mum and I have resisted the urge to make turkey and go for the roast chicken/ham or even Beef but this year, we have decided on Roast Turkey with roast vegies – japanese pumpkin and potatoes. We will have entrée of Manhattan Seafood Bisque, fresh baguette, proscuito and fresh figs and mixed leaf salad, smoked trout salad and for dessert, we’re making crêpes with loads of fresh fruit and cream.
Hi,
we are having a yummy pork roast marinated in orange juice, mixed spice & red wine -delicious!! MERRY XMAS
As my parents and in-laws are all overseas this christmas I already did the turkey/ham extravaganza at the end of November so Christmas mark 2 is just the 4 of us so it’ll be giant pile of prawns on the BBQ, my famous festive cranberry and almond couscous, very expensive ice cream and we’re treating ourselves to some foie gras from the fabulous Mr Saucisson. Not necessarily in that order but I intend to be picking all day. Almost forgot to mention the champagne!
Here in Poland traditional Christmas Eve Dinner consists of 12 dishes. So this year we will have three traditional cakes: soft gingerbread, poppy seeds roll and panettone. For the main course we shall have fish jewsish style (with butter and raisins – still depating over the kind of fish), pierogi with sauer kraut and mushrooms, tiny dumplings with mushroom stuffing, barszcz and salads and of course at least two sorts od herrings. and the most important part cranberry kisiel. All very traditional but delightfull.
would love the copy of the book, hope it’s not a problem that I’m a foreigner.
Nothing. This year I’ve booked our small family into a very nice restaurant and I’m so looking forward to it.
Christmas dinner – Being 34 weeks pregnant at Christmas, I have been put in charge of salads – but will be making an eggplant, tomato and harissa salad, as well as a roasted vegetable with orzo salad. Very different from my Canadian Christmases!
I will take potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo, and a plate of rum balls… We do xmas lunch not dinner though and if anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
We’re starting with the very retro-but-good prawn cocktail, then munching on delish ham with orange and maple glaze, roast chicken with homemade stuffing, hasselback potatoes, dutch carrots and roasted beetroot, followed by chocolate pudding AND a pav ie an entree dessert and a dessert
. And maybe chocolate truffles and a cheese platter to keep us going while we are cooking it all!
Many delicous dishes will be made depending on what looks fresh… BUT the most important course for Christmas is the all day supply of bourbon-ated EGGNOG topped with a touch of nutmeg. Best made the night before & I’ll gladly give out the recipe to anyone who wants it.
I remember as a kid, the excitement of my mostly teatotaling grandparents (mother’s folks)in the kitcken whipping up a batch of this GREAT brew. It was my dad’s parents’ recipe & usually made with corn liquor. One of my sisters has sophisticated it by using Canadian Club, but any bourbon will do.
I will suggest serving it in glasses that you can scrape or lick clean. Too good to rinse down the sink..
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
For xmas lunch (instead of dinner) i will be bringing my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a mustard mayo dressing and some rumballs too!
We have created a new tradition in our family of cold bbq organic duck (cooked christmas eve)and a green mango and noodle salad. For dessert is tiramisu!!! Simple and satisfying in the oppresive humidity of Brisbane.
Making a trip to see the family this year so most of the food will be done but I’ll be helping out with the salads and dessert to accompany the roast chicken and ham.
I’m not cooking much, as we are invited to friend’s house and they are really good cooks. I’ve been thinking of maybe making the Portuguese tarts by Bill Granger you’ve featured before. I’m from Bulgarian background and Xmas eve is even more popular than Xmas day, and the meals have to be vegetarian and you need 7,9 or 11 plates. So for Xmas eve I’m cooking dolmades (Bulgarian style), baked beans, vegetarian stuffed capsicums, filo pastry with feta, dolmades with tofu & black beans, baklava and a special xmas bread.
I am taking potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo, and a plate of rum balls… We do xmas lunch not dinner though and if anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
I sooo want this book. I just thought I’d pop in again and mention that!
We’ll be eating leftovers from lunch! The Aussie seafood lunch of lobsters, prawns, & oysters to start with & lots of lovely salads, can’t wait to use the abundance of fresh veggies I’ll get from my garden.
And of course the quintessential dessert pavolva and icecream!
White Chocolate Tim Tam base.
White Choc cheese cake filling.
White Choc Kit Kats around the outside. White that’s right!
Seasons Greetings Everyone!
Being the first Christmas without my dad (miss you) we will be having a very quiet day… some seafood and lots of cuddles for my 3 year old. On Boxing Day I will do the whole hog – well just a roast and all the trimmings for my husbands family…. fingers crossed the day will go well…..
For xmas lunch (not dinner) I will take potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo, and a plate of rum balls… if anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
We are going to my Dad’s so its all being cooked for us! I wanted to make something to bring, but have been told Im not allowed. ‘If you’re still hungry you can eat more once you get home’ was the phrase used I think!
We’re going semi-traditional this year: roast chicken and turkey breast served with roast vegies. Dessert will be Christmas pudding, Peppermint Choc Ripple Cake, and of course Pavlova….if only I had a French cookbook to drool over adnd create some delicious Christmas fare – my family wouldn’t believe it was cooked by me!
Mmmm Christmas dinner for family,smoked salmon and grapefruit with home made bread, roast turkey with my mothers stuffing recipe, sausages wrapped in bacon, roast vegetables, steamed vegetables (including brussel sprouts)mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetarian daughter has special nut roast, pudding will be Christmas pudding stirred back in November. Non dried fruit pudding will be apple charlotte, brandy sauce, and finally a long snooze makes for a beautiful Christmas day.
Roasted chestnut salad with warm cider vinaigrette
Savoury Chocolate orange crepe with duck
Turkey and rosemary gratin dauphinois
Red french macarons with cherry jam and green peppermint macarons with dark chocolate ganache.
We’re doing a delicious seafood BBQ – grilled prawns, balmain bugs, lobster and king fish. We’ll also have a ham and some salads and lots of yummy appetisers like rice paper rolls, cheesy crab toast, and smoked salmon. For dessert I have left it to the expert and ordered a V8 turbo cake and some Macarons from Adriano Zumbo. Can’t wait!!!
What a lovely looking book. We have already had our christmas lunch this weekend, and I was meant to bake something for dessert, but I happened to be in Sydney the day before so picked up a lovely ricotta cheesecake from the famous Pasticceria Papa!
Hiya,
For Christmas we are having seafood and I am making Jamie O’s tomato salad and a potato salad. I am also going to attempt your portugese custard tarts I think my Dad would also love them!!
I’m glazing a ham, making a boccocini, tomato and basil salad and a chickpea salad. Baking sourdough and white chocolate and almond mini cakes with rasberries. There will also be fresh prawns and free oysters
I am taking potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo, and a plate of rum balls… for xmas lunch (not dinner though). If anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
Christmas for us means lots of little bits to eat and chat with. And that means little bits of different countries. We’re having Vietnamese pork pastries, bruschetta, BBQ ribs, a raspberry vanilla and gingerbread layered ice cream cake and virgin apple mojitos.
My parents are coming to my place for Christmas this year, and I planning to cook lots of random but favourite dishes:
– roast duck with cherry sauce
– 5-spice pork belly
– pumpkin, pinenut and spinach salad
– your buzo cabbage, pinenut, raisin & pecorino salad
– French peas
And finishing off with lemon cheesecake mousse!
Roast lamb with vegies, and your stollen actually (which turned out beautifully!) We were feeding someone who was feeling nostalgic for a white Christmas, and I think it worked beautifully!
Cooking up a storm in a tea cup. Planned to go big for dinner then someone said, hey, lets have a picnic lunch in the park so the doggies can have some fun, too. So, everyone bought something and we ate and chatted and ate and chatted and sat back and enjoyed each others company and each others dogs. Perfect
Christmas is now over but what we had was heaps of cold meats and salads.
Yummy pav and fruit mince pies
And chocolate truffles that my youngest daughter and I spent days before hand making.
Along with to much to drink and lots of love and laughter.
(must start my diet soon :p )
As we are living abroad in the Middle East, Christmas for is a time to travel back to Europe, enjoy time with the family, and indulge in the pleasure of great homely cooked food. My mum and mother in law both take pride in cooking for Christmas, so our contribution was limited to breakfast, where we served a lovely orange-chocolate-bread. Feels like a new delicious tradition is born!
Best wishes
Katelijn
PS: Just watched the Julie&Julia movie on Julia Child, and am dying for a French cooking book!
For xmas lunch (instead of dinner) i took my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a mustard mayo dressing and some rumballs too!
In a stark, sugarless, post-Christmas landscape (courtesy of my New Year’s resolutions), I can think of nothing more painful than reliving my food memories of a week ago. But for you, Nigella, anything. So here goes!
To start: caramelised carrot and potato salad.
Each sprig of parsley and curl of lettuce is perfectly executed. The sauce dresses each potato in a delicate golden sheen. Almond slivers are suspended amongst the leafy foliage like points on a graph. Forks splinter each crisp golden skin, to reveal a potato flaking softly within.
For the main: bourbon-glazed ham.
The ham sails into the dining room on a large white platter, dozens of eyes following. It sits on the table in all its crispy golden glory, still slightly flushed from its oven sojourn. Studded with cloves, it winks cheerily at its admirers, happy to steal the limelight from the flowery centrepiece.
On the side: melon, bocconcini and pine nut salad.
Balls of honeydew melon gambol playfully with their bocconcini brothers. Mint leaves, torn and tender, attempt to fit in. Olive oil and lemon juice lighten the scene with just the right amount of jest.
On the other side: quail eggs with dukkah.
The eggs float unmoored on a sea of salt flakes, drifting gently as dandelions. Their pale, opalescent moon bodies are topped with a golden crown of dukkah.
Something sweet: gingerbread cupcakes.
The cupcakes arrive in military form, row upon row of melting dreams, dusted with icing sugar and topped with a beaming glace cherry. The smell of ginger and old spice wafts from their hot, crumbly centres like the shadow of a fragrance released from an empty drawer.
Next to arrive: snowmen meringues with crinkling raisin eyes.
The snowmen conjure a christmas scene of whimsy and magic. Their meringue bodies are as light as fairies’ fingers, melting on tongues, tasting like clouds of happy.
To finish: Christmas pudding, a towering, trembling creation, almost ashamed of its heaving weight. It shimmers, still warm, in a shallow pool of chocolate rum sauce.
The night melts away. Friends chatter, children steal kisses under the mistletoe – the poignant unravelling of innocence. The door opens and closes. Finally, only family remains, eating pudding on the sofa long into the night.
Thank you NQN for allowing me to relive those precious moments. My taste buds have now awoken from their New Year slumber.
Merry Christmas and happy NY.
Christmas Dinner started early in my house. At Breakfast! I roasted Peaches in the oven with Canadian Maple Syrup, threw Bacon into the oven while the peaches were cooking and, while that was all cooking away and smelling divine, I whipped up some French Toast using Sourdough bread from the local Bakery. I topped the Sourdough with the peaches, maple syrup and bacon – Heaven on a plate!
Oh and to top that off, Dinner that night was Queensland Tiger Prawn and Mango Salad (Mangoes, coriander, mint, baby rocket, cucumber,and avocado) with Chilli Dressing (a light olive oil dressing with just a touch of honey and Chilli). A day of culinary bliss with tastebuds singing their praises.
For xmas lunch i made an amazing potato salad with pancetta, pine nuts and spring onion and a wholegrain mustard and mayo dressing… Oh and some rumballs for nibbles too!
it was my job to bring the prawns… so we had a summery asian salad of prawns and green mangoes with a chilli & kaffir lime dressing. The best part though, was that i made a huge stock with all the shells…. the last week we have treated ourselves to a sensational lemon prawn risotto and a tasty seafood bisque!
Christmas Eve is the big event in our house, with Christmas dinner usually a poor second filled with leftovers. This year though, with leftovers that will include turkey, ham, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and soft cheeses, I’m going to attempt to whip up a neat quiche!
I dont cook anything, my hubby does all the cooking, so sitting back and relaxing with a few drinks is what i do
For xmas lunch (not dinner) I took a great potato salad with pancetta,spring onion and pine nuts with a wholegrain mustard & mayo dressing and some rumballs too!
I took potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo, and a plate of rum balls… We do xmas lunch not dinner though and if anyone still has room for dinner after our massive lunch it will be byo because i know I wont be eating!
we had a very large christmas lunch of roast turkey and all the trimmings, so dinner was simple, rustic, yet also indulgent to fit in with the festive season! We had chargrilled steaks with a lentil, goats cheese and pomegranet salade, sparling wine, and little flourless chocolate cakes with whipped cream and berries for dessert.
I am preparing a “meals on wheels” type Chrissie this year cause the older rels have been sick.Have to cook the whole lot at home and transport 30 kms. So we have opted for a gorgeous big baked schnapper, baked turkey breast and various salads. Should be great for leftover meals for days to come. The best part of Christmas!
For xmas lunch (instead of dinner) i took my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo dressing and some rumballs too!
Delicious fresh prawns and oysters and plenty of icy cold Coopers Green!
My family is Chinese so every year for Christmas dinner, I try to make food that is as far away from Chinese cuisine was possible!
So this year we had:
Entrees – smoked salmon rolls with chives and creme fraiche, sweet potato falafels and spanikopita (all home made :p)
Sides – Potato & egg salad with home made dijon mustard mayo, and a mix of steamed broccolini, asparagus, beans and almonds.
Main – a large beef fillet wrapped in basil/cashew pesto and procuitto. The procuitto crisped up so divinely!
Dessert – Avocado cake! (Really wanted to make a pudding, but didn’t have the right pudding dish!)
Happy new year everyone!
This christmas I am making my first home baked ham and I hope it turns out okay.
I took my potato salad with pancetta and pine nuts and a wholegrain mustard mayo dressing and some rumballs for xmas lunch (instead of dinner)
The big lump of Gravlax always goes a long long way and is such an easy and impressive entertainer. It gets made every Christmas! Love it!
I took my potato salad with pancetta, pine nuts, spring onions and a wholegrain mustard and mayo dressing and some of my favourite rumballs for xmas lunch…
We were in charge of Christmas breakfast so we decided to try and re-create the breakfast tagine from Kazbah on Darling – It worked pretty well, spicy Lamb mince, roasted capsicum with poached eggs on the top – I was pretty happy with our efforts sans recipe!
We’re having seafood this year, crab, lobster, prawns, yabbies and even Balmain Bugs, now that’s different from a roast turkey; that’s for sure.
I hosted Christmas for the family for the first time this year. I have only just started to try and cook something more than stuff out of a packet or a takeaway box, so I stretched myself this Christmas and made lobster mornay with shallots and parmesan crisps (they sort of didn’t work). This was served with a simple green salad and garlic and herb bread that I baked. Not too bad for a first effort
I hosted the family christmas and mad esome delish creations which included a roast turkey with bacon and onion stuffing, A apricot and maple glazed ham, An array of bbqed seafood including morton bay bug tails so yummy with several different salads and sides.I love christmas cooking theres always leftovers for days when i cook so great for a rest over the next couple of days after christmas
We don’t celebrate xmas so we just had a normal dinner.
We cooked a delicious fresh stuffed turkey with percuto ham wrapped around it!
We had Nan’s potato bake, delicious!
We also have a large bowl of mixed vegetables with a dribble of herbed oil made by our Aunt from her own herb patch!
How long until Christmas again????
Mmmmmmm
In the tradition and spirit of Not Quite Nigella, I took three leaves out of Nigella Lawson’s recipes last Christmas.
1. Romanian Stuffed Peppers – fresh peppers stuffed with beef and pork mince, cooked in a nice tomato and paprika based stock – yum!
2. Seafood Pot – seafood galore (clams, salmon fillet, squid) cooked in a nice yummy, creamy broth
3. Grumpy’s Christmas Cake – fruity cake filled with pineapple, apricots, dates, cherries… delicious!
It was a sumptuous and very satisfying meal. I received the thumbs up from my guests, which made my effort even more satisfying
-Ed
The simple stuffed roast chicken, juicy ham, succulent prawns, smoked salmon and an assortment of salads (whatever’s in season!) including my raved about sweet potato salad (the secret ingredient is condensed milk!). Dessert is no-bake lemon cheesecake with fresh fruit.
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