It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

By Kitchen Exile December 12, 2017 Christmas dinner, hints and tips

We're now well into December, the temperatures have plummeted, it's crisp and frosty outside and the nights have now drawn in. For some of us, there have been snowstorms and general snow related chaos. How many of you have given a thought to Christmas dinner? Me being the sad person I am, have been mulling over the main event for some time now. The decision has finally been made and it will be Duck.

My other half and I are not the words biggest fans of traditional fare such as Turkey or the whole Christmas dinner charade. Neither of us like dried fruit either, so that rules out traditional fare such as mince pies, Christmas cake, pannetone and Christmas pudding.

I think my hatred of xmas dinner may go back to when I was a kid and my grandmother used to have a live Turkey which was kept in her back yard and fattened. Now this was all well and good but my grandmother's toilet was an outside one (yes, really), so in order to get to the toilet you had to pass the turkey and boy was it vicious. I was traumatised by a very angry turkey at a young age.

Since I've had the option of cooking my own Christmas dinner rather than spending it at someone else's behest. I've enjoyed other options such as goose, roast stuffed quail or rack of venison. Other years have been cote de boeuf cooked on the BBQ with the neighbours thinking I had lost the plot barbecuing on Christmas day. What you need to keep in mind is that Christmas day does not need to be a stressed out mad dash to the finish line where the meal is concerned.

Here are a few simple tips.

Think about what you'd really like to cook, and what can be prepared in advance.
Get the family and or friends/guests involved or ask them to bring a side dish or dessert which will help ease the pressure.
Cooking things a day at a time up until a week before is always a good idea, that way you can take food out of the fridge or freezer and reheat/defrost on the day.
Start the food shopping early by buying groceries that can be bought in advance rather than the last minute panic at the supermarket.
Make a time plan for what needs to be cooked and when so you can tick things off on the day

While it may be a special occasion with family and friends around, at the end of the day it's just a bigger version of a Sunday roast. For those of you may not want to do a roast dinner, it doesn't have to be traditional, it just has to be something you enjoy.