Food, freakishly glorious food

Merry Christmas readers, fans and amigos. As I slurp on a mango and dream of lunch, I'm happy to report Christmas Day was as divine as we hoped! We started the day with toasted, buttered panettone topped with cherries, peaches, apricots, blueberries, strawberries and cinnamon and a glass of Veuve Clicquot. (Yes, yes, we had a glass of deliriously delicious champers in the morning - first drink in almost 5 months. Straight to our topsy little heads!)

Lunch was poultry and piggy heaven. The stuffing I mentioned the other day was from Vogue Entertaining & Travel, Dec/Jan 2006. It was chunky and rustic and fantastically delicious. Here tis our version: Take 200g cooked chestnuts and simmer in 300ml of verjuice for ten minutes. Put in a heatproof bowl and set aside. In the same pot, melt 20g butter and cook two peeled, cored, roughly chopped apples until brown, add to chestnuts. In the same pot melt a little butter and oil and add one brown onion, roughly diced. Cook on low until translucent, add 200g smoked speck or pancetta, diced, cook for five minutes, add two squashed garlic cloves, leaves from a few sprigs of thyme, the meat from two or three pork sausages - cook until they're not so pink. Throw all ingredients into the same bowl as the chestnuts and apples, add about 150g sourdough breadcrumbs (roughly or finely chopped), fresh parsley and seasoning. Mix well, place in fridge overnight.

Hubby BBQ'd the birdie, a 4.5kg organic turkey, stuffed full, legs tied together for three hours - first hour at 220C, then rest at 200C. He pulled it out to rest when we sat for entrees (prawn, poached snapper, endive and watercress salad with lemon pepper aioli), so by the time he got carving it was perfect. He basted it with its own juices every half hour (and put a cup of water in the pan to start, I've never been more proud). I served with the pan juices (I can never be bothered making gravy, and this tasted amazing).

We had a salad of yellow, orange, red and dark red cherry tomatoes, halved, mixed with parsley, local kalamatas and marinated fetta. For the beans, I whizzed up some butter, oil, sambal oelek, garlic, basil, lemon rind and lemon juice in a mini processor and dolloped on top of the blanched stringies. Yum! We also had mashed spuds, natch, and a mouth-watering bottle of Cassegrain Fromenteau - 2006 Reserve Chardonnay.

To finish, a large pot of Earl Grey tea and Dad's candied orange, ginger and white chocolate cheesecake. Oh. Holy. Night. What a leisurely, gastronomically exquisite day. All with happy families (sorry we missed you bro and girls)... and perlenty of leftovers.

All I need now is a mumu and a good book...