Coffee with the Girls - Afterwards

I know this works – on several counts :

One saucepan for the sprouts

One frying pan for the fillet steaks – pan used, with juices for gravy or “jus” if you want to be cheffy.

It matters not if there's food leftover – in my case my Sister and Nephews have enough food for the following days that they are not sick of because they've chosen what they'd like to eat.

Text message from my Sister – Tuesday supper – cheese and potato pasty “it was heaven”.

One of the Girls at the pre-Christmas coffee therapy session called me – she'd cooked lunch for family on Boxing Day – in a tiny kitchen and was not looking forward to it – she'd served the gammon exactly as suggested. No stress – all went really well – one very happy Girlfriend – my work here is done!

So, serve food that you know your family likes, not what tradition dictates – cook as much as you can and freeze and it doesn't need to take up huge amounts of space.

I know this is going to sound bonkers in the aftermath but you could keep your lists and create a Christmas food file ready for tweaking in 2017.

Caramba!