Pause for thought …

Before moving on with the method in my madness and the creaking table can I ask you to pause for thought. I am concerned lest you become overwhelmed with stress as the Festive Season approaches and to borrow a most appropriate quotation from our esteemed hero Buzz Lightyear – are catapulted “to infinity and beyond” so, take a moment or two and read on.

Is there anyone out there who is thoroughly fed up with cooking the same old thing for Christmas Day lunch? Dare I suggest – and please don't shoot the messenger – ring the changes and do something different.

My Christmas Day with my Family is, I think, a little outside the norm. There will be a choice of turkey crown, gammon, rich steak casserole, fillet steak or Russian Fish Pie with cheese sauce. A little over the top – absolutely not. The fillet steak will be cooked to order, otherwise the other choices will be cooked in advance and ready to roll when we are.

The jewel in the crown of the meal will be my Sister's chips – yes it's chips with everything. No-one makes chips like my Sister and so when we were having our pre-Christmas committee meeting, the motion for chips was carried unanimously! There are five of us for the holiday and so I concede that cooking chips for 20 isn't such a practical idea. If however you are like us and a smaller number, there's a thought. I can also reveal that there's no fancy plug-in fryer – a small investment has been made and a new old fashioned chip-pan has been purchased – no expense spared! A word of caution – to be used by responsible, alcohol free adults only.

It's “fess up time” – are you sucked in by all the party food adverts on the television? If you do succumb how much of it do you buy and, more to the point, how much of it do you throw away or find buried in the freezer as you create space for Easter – tell the truth!

Before I go here's my final bonkers idea for Christmas Day lunch. These days you can buy really good quality disposable table cloths – you really wouldn't know the difference. If you have a large table to set and have decided to use said disposable cloth engage the services of the younger members of the family and get them to design each place setting. Use a felt tip pen and trace round a place-mat for each of your guests. Give the kids felt tip pens and let them create unique place-settings.

I did say bonkers!

P.s. After all a chip is only a roast potato in a different form.