I am one those people that stops everything come December 1st and goes into full Christmas mode. Nothing gets seen to at work until the second week in January at least; don’t email, don’t cc, don’t need nothing from me or you will shit outta luck.
12 Things for Christmas will break down the 12 things I think you should do in the run up to Christmas Day, its all for you and in the words of Tupac, its all about you because we often times forget ourselves as we prep for the holiday season. Not this time love.
The Menu (this is more for your sanity than anything else): raise your hand if you spend hours in the kitchen on christmas day slaving over the kitchen stove cooking so much food and at the end of it you are way too tired to eat? uh huh. So to avoid any kind of overly stressful time in the kitchen I say have a menu and stick with it. It doesn’t matter if you are spending Christmas on your own or hosting family and friends over the holidays, set a menu. A menu of your greatest hits that you whip out only one special occasions, a few signature dishes and something unexpected. Now don’t play yourself trying a new recipe on Christmas day, have at it days before, have a test run on yourself, your friends, and trusted people. If its too complicated dump it, there is no need to be about that life, you want something you can rely on, something that will set mouths alight with happy tastes but not break your back.
My Menu for Christmas Day:
Breakfast: full English nothing beats a plate of full english breakfast. Scrambled eggs or sunny side up, sausage, bacon, hash brown, mushrooms, (beans or no beans) black pudding, grilled tomatoes. Mimosa- I don’t like tea and I rarely drink coffee.
Lunch: Turkey, of course Turkey! Lamb… I come from a big family of different tastes, that, and my mom makes a mean lamb. Jollof rice, fried rice, salad, potatoes, grilled fish, moi-moi… my mama’s table is always lit for the holidays and these are all our favourites so she cooks to appease each child, forget that we are all adults and what not. Come christmas day, we are rugrats.
Dinner; too stuffed to eat any more, I go for turkey and salad.
Dessert: a friend of my mom’s makes the best, the absolute BEST christmas cakes; soaked currants in brandy, absolutely moist and delicious. With vanilla ice cream… my heart is heavy with happiness.
For drinks, my mom has done this for years, freeze them outside to make more space in your fridge. Winter gives us a natural refrigerator so put the drinks in a bucket and leave them out in the cold. 😉
May your table groan with the pleasure of great food and lots of laughter all around it this holiday season.