GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

This year it looks like it'll just be The Old Girl and me for Christmas lunch.
This is unusual as normally we are entertaining a host of people or are away being entertained. Last year we were in Napier staying with The Old Girl's cousin whose husband is a professional chef so we had a really nice Christmas dinner.

I don't think that we'll go 'the whole hog' as we aren't into eating massive amounts of food and besides, since my little hospital incident this year I'm eating even less. I don't think I'll go to the extremes that Richard and Robert are going to though.

Richard, who usually breaks tradition by cooking Indian, Thai or Italian pasta dishes for Christmas lunch is, this year opening a can of baked beans I think.

Robert has stated that his Christmas 'brunch' will be eggs and salmon followed by Pavlova or Pavlova eggs or something. Weird anyway.

Oh, well, À chacun son goût I say.

What we will do (I haven't yet discussed this with The Old Girl) will be to have a cut down version of a Christmas dinner. I'll see if I can buy a capon which is a larger and more flavoursome version of a chicken. I'll have this with roast potatoes and, instead of a lot of other roasted or steamed vegetables will make a couple of seasonal salads.

The Old Girl makes some impressive desserts but I think we'll just settle on having one this year. I'll leave the choice to her but hope that it will be one of trifle, Pavlova, fruit flan or Napoleon cake.

Yum.