Christmas menu

I’m a man and if there’s one thing that men like to do it’s make lists. You may have noticed my obsessive lists of books that I have read, am reading and will read in the future. I think I’m rehabilitated enough not to bore everyone with those lists any more. However, I’ve channelled my list-making urges into something far more constructive. I make weekly menus for our meals and translate those lists of meals into even longer lists of shopping, which I then go to Sainsbury’s and purchase (while listening to Tito and Tarantula, of course)

As I’ve been the one choosing the meals, I couldn’t really complain about them without seeming completely mental. This has pleased NE to no end as she’d had enough of my bellyaching. Any increase in harmony in the household benefits all.

So, when it came to thinking about the Christmas Eve/Day and Boxing Day meals. It was only natural that I make a list, then more lists from those lists and possibly lists from those lists of lists. In the past we’ve just winged it, you see, and what that’s led to was a huge over-buying of food and then a huge over-eating of food. This year we’re going for the surgical strike, the laser-guided bomb of cuisine. Only the food we love made with the best ingredients that we can reasonably find. Limit the leftovers.

This we will do the  following:

(LIST!!)

1. One meat for Christmas – a turkey in our case

2. No Christmas cake! We had a talk and realised that none of us even liked it. We’d made it for everyone else.

3. Go to Sister-In-Law’s for Boxing Day – Great company and cocktails!

4. Figgy pudding! And not some bitter/twisted Christmas pudding.

5. No sage in the stuffing. Having lived in the land of Sage for a great number of years, I loathe the stuff. We’re having chestnut stuffing instead. Delicious.

6. Kenyan AA coffee served with cream and/or Baileys – Best coffee in the world.

7. One kind of potatoes! That’s mashed potatoes with cheese and not roasties this year. Next year, who knows…

8. When cooking Christmas dinner… be a little tipsy.