Meal Planning Monday - the Christmas 2012 edition!

It's here at last. Hopefully, you're not too stressed by it all. I have everything I need foodwise, the presents are bought and wrapped, and we're all on holiday (although husband worked over the weekend!) 

I've spent so much time planning Christmas Day that the rest of the week is pretty vague, but we will cope. It will mostly be leftovers and I'm not doing a major shop again until later in the week. I'll be near a shop tomorrow afternoon so might wander in to see if there are any bargains. 

We don't cook on Christmas Eve (apart from perhaps some minimal prep or make ahead things for Christmas Day) so we're going out for a curry! In previous years, we've bought Chinese take-away but we end up buying too much which fills the fridge unnecessarily with leftovers. We decided to go for the curry and then discovered our local Chinese is closed over Christmas anyway, so it was obviously meant to be. The later part of the week, husband will be back at work so it will feel like normal days for us, although we might pop out and visit family so this is all rather provisional and subject to change. The only things set in stone is Christmas dinner really. 

Monday (Christmas Eve) - Not cooking

Tuesday (Christmas Day!) - Poached and smoked salmon pate (already made), Four bird roast (in freezer) with pigs in blankets, stuffing balls (in freezer), bread (out of a packet) and cranberry  (made) sauces, roast spuds and roast parsnips (both veg prepped in freezer), broccoli (just needs chopping up today and bagging) and carrots (prepped, blanched and frozen), gravy (already made), followed by chocolate coconut banoffee tart (the main part of making this is today's job)

Wednesday (Boxing Day) - Ham cooked in cola with a maple mustard glaze, with jacket potatoes and salad

Thursday - Turkey/Poultry leftovers (sandwiches or chilli)

Friday - Turkey and ham pie, mash

Saturday - Turkey fajitas (or possibly coronation turkey)

Sunday - Keeping free

As you can see, there is a repeating theme to the week! 

By the way, every year, I try to get people to tweet pix of their Christmas dinner with the hashtag #allthetwimmings Feel free to join in *cough* hint *cough* - it can be photos of your table, any of your courses or preparation. I'm just nosey. I'll try and retweet any that I see. 

And don't forget to tell me what you're having. And if it's there, Mrs M will have the linky for the other Meal Planning Monday entries. 

Happy Christmas! 

Edible presents for teachers

We do presents for teachers at Christmas. I don't like doing the same as everyone else so we normally make things. This year, I decided to put together a number of edible presents as I'm normally making some for family.

I started in September by doing some damson vodka. I had some damsons in my freezer which I'd been given by a friend about a year ago so decided I needed to do something. I googled around and hit on a recipe that meant I could fill large Le Parfait jars. The third one was a bit light on damsons so I added a vanilla pod. It was basically a bottle of vodka, sugar (anywhere between 170g and 350g was mentioned so I went for about 250g) and 1lb damsons in sterilised jars then hid them in my airing cupboard - where it is dark and warm. I turned the jars over daily until the sugar dissolved and tasted it after a month to check if it was sweet enough. Then I bottled it earlier in the week using kitchen roll to filter out any bits. Bottling was actually the hardest thing, because I bought swing top bottles and fitting the tops turned out to be an art form!

Then in late October, I made some baked bean tin Christmas cakes - lining the tins took us ages! They've been maturing in tins ever since and earlier this week, I marzipanned and covered 4 fully in sugar paste, marzipanned and sugar pasted the tops of another 5, and 3 were baked with an almond decoration. The children did their own design on the tops - Monkey did a Christmas tree with green sugarpaste for his teacher, Missy Woo did stars which I sprayed gold before sticking on. We wrapped a couple of extra cakes for teaching assistants too.

Next, in November, I made some sweet chilli jam. It's quite hot, so I hope it doesn't blow the teachers' heads off!

Then, yesterday, I made some mini mince pies from this recipe so I didn't have to roll out any pastry - everything just got pushed into place with finger and a tart shaper, then I pressed out the rest of the dough and cut out stars for the tops.

I know this all sounds like a lot of faff but everything has been fitted in around everything else. The longest job was lining the cake tins - next year, I have my eye on a mini sandwich tin to cook them all together although I guess I will still need to line them!


Do you make edible presents? What do you like to make?

Christmas cupcakes from Pryces

I may like making cake but I'm really rubbish at making them look fab. This is why I don't like making cupcakes that much. The children however love them. So, if we're offered cupcakes to try, I am not going to say no.

Pryces offered us just that. A husband and wife run business, they are very local to us, being just down the motorway at Walkden, and they only hand deliver cupcakes to Manchester (M), Bolton (BL), and Preston/Chorley (PR) postcodes. And when I mean hand deliver, Joanne turned up smiling on my doorstep one lunchtime with my little box of cakes. Lucky for her that she also lives in Chorley.

This is our box. It also comes with a handmade card, but that seems not to have made it into the picture. Oops.

Obviously, at this time of year, they had sent Christmas cupcakes to try. Here's a better picture of the cupcakes once the box was opened.

Beautiful - something I should aspire to, but never quite achieve! Everything is handmade by their staff.

So, we had three flavours - the ones on the left are vanilla with vanilla frosting, in the middle are fruit cake cupcakes with a glace icing on top like little Christmas cakes, and on the right, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Well, it was a tough job but we tried them all. My favourite was the chocolate cupcakes but they were VERY chocolatey and rich. The children couldn't finish them (unusual for them!) so that's the only way I got a taste. The fruit cake cupcakes were Monkey's favourite and Missy Woo liked the vanilla ones best and not just for the glitter sprinkles on top. A box of six costs £9.99 (£1.66 each) which is really good value.

Having had a quick squizz at their site, I noticed they also sell other baked goods that can be sent further afield. Hampers, baked goods, cake accessories and cake decorations - even bake it yourself mixes -  are all available if you want to give them a go but if you're in the area, definitely try their gorgeous cupcakes.

(I was sent a box of six cupcakes to try. All opinions are my own. )

Yes, it's November so I can mention the C word!

I made Christmas cakes on Sunday. Yes, cakes. I'm not really a domestic goddess, I made baked bean tin Christmas cakes from this post by Jules. Actually, it was a bit of a long process. First, I bought the fruit and started soaking it a couple of weeks ago, in brandy.

We also had to eat our way through 12 little baked bean tins. The children enjoyed this challenge, discovering new flavours of pasta and beans with sausages, but not Dora the Explorer pasta. I'm not daft, it would cost me a fortune as small tins of beans and pasta seem to cost approximately twice as much as large tins.

Once washed out and all the ingredients purchased, I set aside Sunday afternoon to do this. Jules warns in her post that lining the tins is fiddly and boy, she is not wrong. I started at about half past two and even with Missy Woo "helping" me, I didn't finish lining the tins until 4.45 - at which point, I thought I had better make tea for everyone then get on with the actual mixing and baking. (Do as Jules says if you do this - buy paperclips to hold the paper in place, it really helps.

The recipe is quite generous in amounts. That or I've got small tins! I tried not to overload the tins but went back round to fill them nicely. And finally, just before the Strictly dance-off, the tins finally reached the oven. Interestingly, the cake mixture rises quite a bit - which surprised me as the flour is plain and there is no baking powder added either, so it must be the eggs or something. I placed whole almonds on the top of a few cakes before I put the cakes in the oven, so that they can be left plain as not everyone likes marzipan and icing.

Once cooked, I left them to cool and they were still warm at midnight. I was therefore removing them from tins at 1am, before putting them into storage boxes. These are being saved for Christmas presents, some for teachers, some for family and I'll get the kids to help me decorate them.

Also, on the theme of Christmas preparations, I have damson vodka hiding in the airing cupboard, and some recipes ready to hand to make in the run up to Christmas. And yes, I've bought some presents with some to buy but that's boring. I like making Christmas presents for people to eat.

How about you?

Some quick ideas for using leftover turkey

Fed up of turkey sandwiches yet? We're probably coming to the limit of the time you can use leftover turkey but you're probably drowning in it, whilst not wanting to waste it. Of course, a good way to jazz up a turkey sandwich is to add some bacon, or some stuffing, or even some cheese - and toast the bread first to make it a turkey club sandwich. Yum!

Anyway, here are just a few things I make to use up what's left of the turkey. Thankfully, we don't have tons as we had a turkey crown but there is still way more meat on it than 4 people will ever eat in 10 meals, let alone one. If you are reheating the turkey in anyway, don't forget to make sure it's heated right through.

Coronation turkey - this is really quick and quite a flexible recipe. It goes really well in sandwiches but if you're bored of that, then use as a filling for jacket potatoes or just have with some green salad. Look away now if you don't like fruit with meat, this is not for you!

First, chop up some turkey meat into bite sized pieces. I don't weigh how much I've got, I just cut off enough to feed however many people are eating. Finely chop an onion and cook in 1-2tbsp oil for a couple of mins without browning it. Add some mild curry powder (about 1 tbsp) or some curry paste and cook for another minute, stirring. Then, add 1 tbsp tomato puree or ketchup, a hefty dash of lemon (or lime) juice, and about 125ml of chicken stock, from a cube or proper stock. The tomato is entirely optional, leave it out if you don't want the finished result to look quite orangey. Simmer this for about 10 mins until you have quite a thick sauce. In the meantime, chop up some dried apricots and add to the turkey. If you don't have them, use raisins or sultanas instead, or even some chopped fresh apple. Once the sauce is done, cool the sauce. If you're in a rush, run some cold water into your washing up bowl, plunge the pan into that and it will be cool in about 10 mins. Now add mayonnaise (low fat will be fine) and natural yogurt in roughly equal quantities. If you're making for 4, you'll probably need about 200-250ml of each but stir it into the cooled sauce and see if you like the consistency. Taste and season, pour over the turkey and fruit mix, stir in and serve. Add some flaked almonds if you really want and have some to hand.

Turkey tacos or fajitas - This is really quick and a nice way to serve up an informal meal with a bit of spice! First, slice up some turkey meat, some onion (red or white but red looks best), and 2-3 peppers of any sort (preferably a mixture of colours). You can also use sliced mushrooms, sliced baby sweetcorn or any leftover veg that you think might go. Heat some oil in a pan or wok and add the turkey, stirring for a few minutes, then add some chilli powder, ground coriander and ground cumin. Again, I tend to do this by eye, but usually about a teaspoon of each. Stir to cover the turkey and let the spices cook without burning, then add the veg. Cook for a few minutes until the veg are softened. Then heat tacos or some tortillas according to the instructions.  Put everything out on a table in dishes, adding some pots of other things you'd like to add - such as grated cheese, sour cream (though greek yogurt will do), perhaps some salsa or some guacamole. Everyone can help themselves and build their own fajita or taco.

Turkey and ham pie - brilliant if you have leftover gammon too but you can add any ham and again, you can adapt it to what you have left. It takes longer to make but it's quick to prepare, then you can relax whilst it bakes. Chop up as much turkey and ham leftovers as you want to use into bite sized pieces. Finely chop an onion and cook it in some butter for a few minutes, then add some sliced mushrooms and cook until  golden brown. Next, either make a white sauce (like Delia's all-in-one white sauce, which I use a lot) or if you have leftover cream, add that to the mushrooms and onions, bring to the boil and simmer gently until it thickens. Mix everything together - if you have other leftover veg, you could add that too - leeks, sweetcorn, carrots, broccoli are all good. Pour into a baking dish, and cover with pastry. If you have an oblong dish and ready rolled pastry sheets, it should be as simple as putting the pastry on top, sealing the edges and then making a small hole for the steam to escape in the middle. Brush with beaten egg then bake at 220C for about 20 minutes, then cook for a further 15-20 mins at 180C.

If you have any quick and easy yummy recipes for leftover turkey, add them in the comments below or blog about them and link away in the comments.

Either way, that turkey will be gone in no time!

The ultimate Christmas meme

I can't deny I'm beginning to feel rather Christmassy, whatever that entails. With 3 days to go (I don't do sleeps), it's allowable to bang on about it in detail and not get snarled at. So, I was tagged by The Boy and Me to complete this meme, so I thought I'd give this a go.

The Christmas song I can even listen to in June is…

This one.



Hot chocolate, egg nog or mulled wine?

Mulled wine. I cannot abide egg nog, but I do drink hot chocolate. Winter pimms warmed with a star anise and a cinnamon stick and some cloudy apple juice is also very nice and similar in taste and smell to mulled wine. And if I'm being teetotal, Copella Winter Warmer and Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial are suitable alternatives!

When do you put your decorations up?

We (*cough* my husband *cough*) put them up last week, somewhere around the 15th/16th. We never do it particularly early as I don't want the children to get too giddy too early, they're giddy enough as it is. I know people who have their trees up on or before 1st December. I couldn't do it.

They come down early too. My birthday is 6th January when the decorations traditionally come down. It's depressing enough, so we take them down a day or two early and we have chance to get used to it again. Ok, me, not the rest. One year, we took them down on New Year's  Eve, but we were going away straight after New Year.


What are you having for Christmas dinner?

Starter: Smoked Salmon, tho I may make something with it but it will be low effort.

Main: Turkey crown, my Dad's chestnut stuffing (it is a must in my house), pigs in blankets, freeze-ahead roasties, roast parsnips, sprouts, carrots, cranberry sauce a la Nigella, bread sauce (out of a packet, I cannot master home made), gravy. There is a possibility the kids will demand Yorkshires. I blame school dinners.

Dessert: Golden Christmas meringues from Ruth's gorgeous blog, with an adaptation for Missy Woo who claims not to like mincemeat or cream, so I'm doing a bananas and yogurt version of the filling for her) or possibly some of our Christmas cake, also from Ruth's blog with design by Missy Woo and me. D'you like it?

And I really, really do enjoy doing it. I don't get fazed by it all but I do write a full list working backwards from proposed eating time of EVERYTHING I have to do but all the peeling gets done before the big day. The last time I didn't cook Christmas dinner, I didn't really enjoy it - maybe I've got used to doing it my way.

What’s your favourite Christmas tradition?

On Christmas Eve, the children have hot chocolate before bed, husband reads them a story, and they watch Polar Express. That, or making my Dad's chestnut stuffing recipe. Or is it having Chinese on Christmas Eve? We did that as a kid and we've resurrected doing that in the last few years.

Have you ever gone carol singing?

Not actually door-to-door but I used to belong to a choir and I've done a few midnight masses at the village church and a few carol concerts. That count?

When did you discover the truth about Santa?

Well, of course he's real but one year, we had our Chinese at the International and something upset my stomach or didn't agree with me, so I couldn't sleep. I was perturbed to hear that Santa putting presents out sounded very much like my parents.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

With baubles, silly. Seriously, when I moved house in the 90s, I bought a set of blue and gold baubles. Over the years, we've now added to them - some are things made by the children, or chosen by them. Other colours have crept in and I think it looks very homely. The tree is artificial and pre-lit. What? I don't care. I don't like the hassle of dealing with real trees and the mess. There is no such thing as a no-drop real tree. And the price these days is shocking. We quite often go out late on Christmas Eve and pick up some bargains and one year, our tree was at a knock-down price in Asda. It's been going 3 years and looks like it will last for many years to come. What do you think?

All I want for Christmas is…

A KitchenAid, some form of tablet (not the pharmaceutical sort) and half the Lakeland catalogue.

Oh, to tag, it is now my solemn duty.

I tag

Claire at Ninja Killer Cat (who I still can't believe came and said hello when we were at the same event!)
Menai at Menai's Posterous
Choc at Chocolate is Therapy who needs a blogging push and anyway, she knows my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law.

but feel free to tag yourself if you want to join in and no-one else has. The above 3 saw my plea on Twitter and responded, that is all.

And if you're not around the online world over the festive season, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hark the hungry diners sing

I'm having a go at Julia's 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups. The challenge is to rewrite a favourite carol with the theme of a Christmas Dinner. I thought I'd give it a go, using one of my favourite carols, Hark the herald angels sing.

Hark the hungry diners sing

Hark the hungry diners sing

“Give us food, we’re all starving 

Increase our girth with turkey wild,

Sprouts and chestnuts over-boiled”

Joyful all ye eaters rise

Once you’re done, there’s more mince pies

Eat your fill and don’t complain

I forgot bread sauce again

Hail the choice not to have goose!

Hail the roasts of crispiness!

Have some more of your stuffing,

(Leave some room for the pudding)

Wild they pile their plates so high

Too much food, but eat they’ll try,

Raise your glass to Christmas cheer

Stuff your face, it’s once a year

Click on the badge above and find some more seasonal silliness from others. 

Meal Planning Monday - the extremely late edition

Yes, I know it's late. I did actually plan our meals for this week before we went away but we got home last night and this morning was busy with washing, shopping and general catching up so no time to blog my plan.

This is last week of term, and the children have parties and odd days so it's kind of all over the place. I'm trying to ensure that the children get their 5 a day after the amount of chocolate, chips and pizza they ate over the weekend. And they're going on a sleepover to Granny's on Saturday so I need to keep their veg intake up in advance of that.

Here we go:

Monday - Sausages in Onion Gravy (which we've already had, and was as lovely as ever!)
Tuesday - Salmon, broccoli, and dill lasagne (already made, my own recipe)
Wednesday - Slow cooker chilli con carne (with extra crusty bread, cucumber and tomatoes)
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Vegetable curry
Saturday - Takeaway or meal out
Sunday - leaving free

Apologies for the lack of inspiration but mid-December does that to me! Have you got anything more exciting to share? Please do. And then hop on over to At Home With Mrs M to see what everyone else is or is not cooking. Mostly not, we're all preparing for Christmas!

My favourite Christmas song

Much as I am not into a huge build up to Christmas and I'm not happy until everything is bought, wrapped and posted, nearly every music radio station within earshot is playing Christmas songs now. I'm sure they have a mathematical formula which allows them to increase the number that they play daily until they play themselves into a Christmas frenzy by somewhere around 24th.

Anyway, Garry from The Blog Up North tagged me to share my favourite Christmas song with you. Actually, the answer to this question is on his own blog. Last year, he did a series called HUN's Musical Advent and I suggested this song and he dedicated it to me. When searching out said post, I actually found it straight away as I am such a saddo that I can even remember what day of the calendar it was.

This is the song. It's "I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake.



The irony of it all is Greg Lake wrote it as a protest about the commercialisation of Christmas but it does sound Christmassy - and when this was released (I was 10) I was not to know that. I remember wondering why he was sat in a desert for part of it.  The words are very evocative and I always love it. It's not formulaic in the slightest and it doesn't age (unlike Greg Lake, who I suspect doesn't look anything like as boyish these days).

I think I now must tag a few more bloggers and as it's late, I'm going to have to randomly take a punt that these folk won't mind so I'm going to tag a few that like musical memes so I'm going for

Kirsty from Gone Bananas
Karen from If I Could Escape
Lynne from Honie Mummy

All they have to do is write their post, link back to me and tag a few others to carry on the fun. Peasy.

And if I haven't tagged you, feel free to join in anyway, link back and leave me a comment with the link to it.

Dad's Chestnut Stuffing

You'll know, if you do read my blog regularly, that Christmas is a time for remembering my Dad, as he died just 8 days before Christmas. I don't really want Christmas to be a sad time because we had so many good times at Christmas. When I was a child, Dad did a lot of cooking when his very long working hours allowed him. Before I was born, my mum had been quite ill and very often had no appetite so Dad would cook. He did a lot of the Sunday roast stuff and he did a lot at Christmas - full dinner on Christmas Day, mince pies, the lot.

When I was about 10, Dad was given a recipe for chestnut stuffing by a friend of his called Don. Don ran a vintage wedding car hire business, was brilliant at restoring cars - until it came to lifting the bonnet. Dad used to do extra work for him in the evenings and at weekends fixing and restoring engines. Dad was never happier when tinkering with cars.

I helped Dad to make this the first Christmas but we did everything down to boiling the chestnuts. We had (and my mum still does have) the tiniest of galley kitchens to work in and in the hour that it took to boil the chestnuts, the place got so hot, I felt faint. I really can't be bothered with that anymore so I tend to buy tins of chestnut puree but you can also buy vacuum packs of cooked chestnuts that you can mash - or just chuck in the food processor.

I reckon I have made this every year that I have cooked Christmas dinner. I actually honestly do love doing it - I plan it carefully and have a timetable to follow so that I don't forget anything. And this year, I will be following the advice in English Mum's great guide. But my one constant is this recipe to go with the turkey (a crown in this house, as we have such a small oven). Mum still has the original recipe, written in Don's handwriting, with notes from Dad, as well as Dad's signature and address scrawled on the page for some odd reason. I have two photocopies of it but I typed it up a few years ago so that I never lose it. I've amended it for my purposes these days and as I have a food processor, make it really simply by bunging it in there and mixing. I cannot do Christmas without this now - it reminds me of Dad and helping him in the kitchen. Of happier times. Don also passed away a few years ago and it reminds me of both of them. Sadly, for me, the last conversation I had with Don was over the phone - telling him that Dad had died.

Oh, and the recipe contains this dire warning if you do boil your own chestnuts in large letters - pierce chestnuts BEFORE boiling!

Chestnut Stuffing 
serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 small packet of sage and onion stuffing
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
225g/8oz pork sausagemeat (or 4 good sausages, skins removed)
1 small egg, beaten
50g/2oz breadcrumbs
2 rashers streaky bacon
225g chestnut puree (or similar amount of cooked chestnuts)

Snip the bacon into small pieces. Place everything in the bowl of food processor and mix. Season with salt and pepper.

If you don't have a food processor, snip the bacon into a bowl, and chop the onion finely. Add the sage and onion stuffing, and breadcrumbs and stir to combine. Add the sausagemeat, the chestnut puree or chestnuts (whole ones should be mashed with a bit of butter first), and beaten egg. Season and mix together (you may need to use your hands to knead it together.)

The stuffing can be made into balls or do as I do - I make double quantities and pack it into a loaf tin, which saves space in my oven! This freezes well uncooked - I made mine a few weeks back and I'll take it out of the oven today ready for the big day tomorrow. It takes at least 40 mins to cook (allow up to 50 mins) so can be cooked once you have the turkey out resting. I sometimes do a bit of butter on top, or spoon over some of the juices from the turkey to keep it nice and moist.

I love cold leftovers of this as much as I do having it with my Christmas dinner. And, of course, when I eat it, I think of Dad - and smile.

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great time and a wonderful New Year. Thanks for reading my blog during 2010.

Easy Christmas party food - a compilation of ideas

Photo credit: DontBblu

So, the Christmas party season is upon us. In little over a week, kids everywhere will be ripping paper off obscenely expensive toys and the cooks of the household will be panicking about getting the big event that is Christmas Dinner just so. It can be a lot of work - although most of the work is getting it all ready at the same time without spoiling.

With Christmas lunch the star of the show, most people don't want to be spending hours making food for Christmas parties, whether it is just a few friends round for drinks and nibbles, or a whole houseful that leave your house looking like a plague of locusts has been and gone. (Or is that just our families that do that?). I know the answer for some will be to go to the supermarket but it works out pretty darned expensive and I find it a bit samey. Obviously, if it's after the big day, there's a possibility of leftover turkey etc - but this starts to wear thin quite quickly and it's nice to make something slightly different.

I have a few ideas that I use for parties, although I often resort to an oven full of jacket potatoes and a slow cooker full of chilli con carne to pad it out. I had an idea that I would put it out to the good people of Twitter to tweet me some nice but easy ideas for party food for Christmas time. I got tons of replies and am going to try and mention as many as possible.

Let's start with mine:

• Philly and Chilli (also suggested by @grealis) - put a tub of soft cheese on a large plate, pour sweet chilli sauce over it and surround with tortilla chips or kettle chips for dipping into the cheese. It is delicious!
• Pesto Palmiers - lay ready rolled puff pastry out flat and spread with pesto, then roll the pastry up from each of the short ends so that they meet in the middle. Wrap in cling film, chill for 20 mins. Unwrap then brush with beaten egg yolk and slice into 1cm slices and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 10 mins or golden brown. Grate over a little parmesan as you remove from the oven. Serve warm or cold. 
• Christmas Crispy Squares - melt 4tbsp unsalted butter, 2 cups marshmallows and 100g white chocolate chips in a pan over a low heat, using a spatula to stir them together. Add 100g rice krispies and 125g dried cranberries and stir until well combined. Quickly spoon into a baking tin lined on bases and all sides, and press flat with spatula or fingers. Leave to set for 20 mins. Lift out of the tin using the paper and cut into squares.

Moving on to ideas from other tweeters:

• Mummy Limited - Goat's cheese and fig wrapped in parma ham were a hit last year.
• Soggous - Bruschetta - lightly toast slices of baguette, rub with garlic clove, top with chopped tomatoes & basil, drizzle with oil. Or spread tapenade on toasted baguette slices. Another fave is smoked salmon on triangles of brown bread.
• @Jannism - brush tortillas with oil, place on baking sheets in a hot oven (200C/400F/Gas 4) for 5 mins so they puff up. Also, horseradish added to hummus is good.
• English Mum - Chicken tikka skewers! Marinate chicken in mixture of yoghurt, tikka paste and squeeze of lemon. Thread, grill, serve with raita. Also, I'm doing mince pies with a piped meringue top as little puds.
• @ebabeelikes - Italian breadsticks wrapped in parma ham, yummy and very easy.
• sezi13 - Honey and Mustard Cocktail Sausages. Mix together 2tbsp wholegrain mustard, 3tbsp runny honey, 1tsp white wine vin & 1tsp olive oil. Pour over cooked sausages and put in medium hot oven for 15 mins. (@Wholovesmecouk also suggested honey and chilli sausages)
• @Tracytid - Cheese Stars. Mix together 50g flour, pinch cayenne, 25g softened butter, 80g finely grated red leicester, and 20g grated parmesan by hand or in a food processor. Knead together. Roll out thinly and stamp out star shapes. Bake at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 10 mins. 
• @Tracytid - cubes of beef on a stick with horseradish dip. (Sounds great for leftover roast!)
• @Tracytid - cut flattened slices of bread into circles, dip into melted butter and garlic, bake until crisp, top with cream cheese and salmon.
• DomesticJules - Mini Toad in the Holes. Make a usual recipe but make individual ones with chipolatas or cocktail sausages in a bun tin. Bake for 15 mins. 
• AFCband - Butter slices of bread and lay a slice of ham on top. Roll each slice longways, wrap and chill overnight. Slice into rounds. 
• TheMummyLife - Party Mini Pizzas. Mix 1 cup of flour (100g) and 1tsp baking powder in a bowl. Beat an egg lightly and add to the bowl with 3/4 cup/160ml of milk, whisking thoroughly. Add 60g grated cheese and 2 pepperami cut into bite sized pieces to the mixture. Leave to stand for 10 mins. Pour into muffin or cake tins and bake at 160C/320F/Gas 3 for 20-30mins until golden brown. Can be eaten hot or cold. (The veggie side of me would want to do this with peppers and mushrooms instead!)
• @putajumperon - Blinis with sour cream and lumpfish caviar or cream cheese and smoked salmon. 
• imperfectpages - Popcorn with paprika. Melt 2oz butter in a pan, add 2 tsp each of ground cumin, ground cinnamon and ground paprika, mix and pour over popped corn. Shake together with some salt and sugar.

Let me know if you try any of these and what you think of them. If you have any quick and simple ideas you'd like to share, then let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks to everyone that tweeted ideas or emailed me recipes. Sorry if I've missed you out, but I had to stop somewhere - this post could have gone forever. 

May all your parties be fun-filled and stress-free. And most importantly, filled with lots of lovely food.

(Oh and as an afterthought, I've just thought that the ideas on my Tapas Tea might also be relevant. Russian salad, in particular, is great for parties and it's easy to make.)

Secret Santa

Picture the scene. Last year's school Christmas Fair. The children and I were queueing to go and see Father Christmas in his grotto. Daddy was at work. Only he wasn't. Well, he was. He WAS Father Christmas sat in the room we were about to enter, I knew this and getting nervous that they would realise and have their illusions shattered.

He'd done Father Christmas before with the children around, but back then, Monkey was scared of him and Missy Woo was still a baby. Daddy reported back afterwards that if either of them twigged who he was, it was Missy Woo - she may have been under 6 months but he saw the recognition in her eyes as she looked at his face. 

Queueing up, Missy Woo was not keen to go in - she was having her phase of being scared of Father Christmas. Monkey just wanted his present! 

Eventually, we went in. Neither were keen to sit on his knee, but both stood there transfixed as he spoke to them, bringing up little details so that they knew that Father Christmas was watching them all the time. After a couple of minutes of chat, they took their presents, said their good byes and walked out of what was actually the Y3 classroom temporarily converted to Santa's pad. 

We walked out of the door in silence. And then it happened. Missy Woo turned to me, took my hand and  as we passed the queue waiting their turn to be called into the inner sanctum, said in the clearest voice possible:

"Mummy, that Father Christmas sounded just like Daddy."

Cue a few sniggers from those that knew who we were, me stifling a laugh and trying to maintain a straight face whilst shepherding the children away before she said anything else to the assembled throng. 

Thankfully, that was largely that. Monkey never said anything and I still, to this day, don't know if it is because he didn't notice the same or he is just in denial. Missy Woo made one further reference to it the following day when she told Daddy that Father Christmas sounded like him. Having been briefed by me, he managed to come up with a suitable brush off and it was never mentioned it again. 

Tonight is once again the Christmas fair at school. And yes, once again, Daddy is Father Christmas. He likes doing it, he's good at it and the school ask him to do it. I am not really sure what to expect this time. I'm hoping Daddy can disguise his voice a bit better this time, because I love their innocence. I love that they have a sense of wonder at the magical things about Christmas. OK, they are fabrications but it makes Christmas special for them. In the meantime, I have to think up a suitable and plausible explanation if either of them - especially Missy Woo, there are no flies on her - manages to out him completely. 

Maybe by this time tomorrow, Santa won't be quite so secret after all. Wish me luck!