Happy Christmas to you

It’s Christmas time. Time when every shop blasts you with tinny songs about snow and reindeer, the letterbox is stuffed with so many flyers and brochures, and everywhere, it seems, there’s pressure to buy and spend and cook fancy things and go crazy.

 

One of my favourite people in the blogosphere, Jane, posted some very sage words about this time of the year, and reinforced my own ideas about the festive season. To me, Christmas is about the people close to you: saying thank you to my friends for sticking with me for another year; sharing the day itself with my parents, my two most favourite people in my world.

 

Of course Christmas is also about food. We grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney, where Christmas day was often a sweltering affair; poor mum cooked the traditional roast thru the heat, until salads and cold meat and seafood became acceptable for Aussie Christmases. I still remember bowls of dried fruit mysteriously soaking on the side cupboard, and the sweet chill of mum’s fruit-studded ice cream cassatas.

 

Since we moved to Tassie 15 years or so ago, with its unpredictable summer weather (34 one day! 13 the next!), the majority of our Christmas days have been cold – so warming traditional roasts are quite welcome!

 

This year, I will, for the first time, be hosting Christmas for my parents. I’m not used to cooking for more than one person at a time (that would be me), let alone multiple dishes, so it will a challenge! But I’m organising, scheduling and prepping in order to stay calm - you know that’s the kind of person I am - and I’m looking forward to giving back to my parents.

 

I have a menu planned and if it all turns out and I remember to take pics on the day, I shall tell you about the dishes in detail afterwards. There’ll be some ricotta-parmesan puffs for pre-lunch nibbles, BBQ lamb cutlets (dad will be in charge of the grill), and lots of salads and vegies, depending on what the garden delivers or looks best at the fruit and veg market. Easy, delicious, healthy food. Dessert however will be a fanciful thing of chocolate brownie layers sandwiching ice cream and raspberries – what would a Tassie Christmas be without raspberries?

 

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on and generally supported Dig In with your kind words and positive energy. I started - only a few months ago - purely to write, but Dig In has become a diary of my kitchen and garden ups and downs, a way of sharing these adventures with my current friends, and, wonderfully, a way of making some lovely new friends in far-away towns, states and countries.

 

This will probably be my last post for the year; I need a break from sitting at a computer! Have a safe, delicious and happy Christmas and see you back in 2013.

 

e XX