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Christmas food: the (rich) pickings

Photo by sxc.hu

I’ve got my Christmas presents more or less organised now and am looking forward to only having to buy DELICIOUS CHRISTMAS FOOD for the next couple of days.  Hurray!

I won’t be the one cooking Christmas dinner this year so don’t need to get a turkey or a ham, but do need to get the makings of some other meals and the customary ten thousand snacks.  I’m putting together a mental list – is there anything that you would add to this?

  • Spiced Beef to cook and slice for sandwiches and crackers, with horseradish or mustard
  • Some good pastries for breakfast on Christmas Day
  • Antipasti style food – cured ham, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, gherkins, etc – for snacking
  • Crisps and nuts
  • Crackers and cheese
  • Some good quality bread
  • Fresh fruit and fruit juices for those vitamin-deprived moments
  • The makings of some kind of chocolatey cake for Christmas Day (my contribution to Christmas dinner, along with some stir-fried sprouts with bacon).

Christmas Eve supper is important, as you want it to feel like a treat but it probably shouldn’t be too heavy considering the foodmageddon that follows the next day.  Last year I made crab linguini and it was a lovely change of pace from all the meaty Christmas food. What do you like to cook for Christmas Eve?

Your Christmas scoffing tips are warmly invited… 😉

7 Comments

  1. Don’t forget the sweets, including a few that are disgusting any other time of the year. Quality Street (screw you, Roses), mince pies, trifle, some kind of box of hideous jellies, ChocMallows, Caffrey’s Snowballs…

  2. Chocolates, biscuits and sweets are very important, yes, but those are all TERRIBLE suggestions. Boo. Bad Peter. For shame. Etc.

  3. Of course they’re TERRIBLE suggestions: it’s Christmas.

  4. We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, Christmas day is usually nibbles and leftovers. So the dinner needs to be festive without being overly rich: a few canapés (ready made), some Irish smoked salmon on Guinness bread. Main course is salmon with crandberry couscous. Dessert is forest fruits crumble with vanilla ice cream.
    Traditionnally, we would have brioche, dried fruits, nuts and clementines, all left on plates for people to nibble on. Also some fruits jellies, but I am not sure you can find them here (they are kind of sweets, made with fruit juice cooked with loads of sugar).

  5. A few litres of cidona and tanora! (but not the manky new tanora, some vintage bottles that were squirrelled away)

  6. To Nanazolie. I saw those fruit jellies coated in sugar on sale in Iceland. They may still have some left.

  7. Thanks Catherine. My parents brought some over, but I’ll have a look in Iceland to stock up