The ladies and I have a lovely tradition of a very long Christmas dinner.  This year was no exception I am delighted to say.

Sometimes the hostess does everything and other times we all help out which is what we did this year.  I took along a red cabbage dish I had made at home.  I have made this before and the recipe is on the blog.

This is red cabbage cooked with onions, apples, cloves, cinnamon and red wine.  It’s a Sophie Grigson recipe.

I had an extra portion left over which is in the freezer now, ready for Christmas Day.

Armed with cabbage, runner beans, booze and gifts I set off for Lucy’s.

Saturday was a beautiful day; the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining.  Being mindful of the feast ahead of us, we set off for Bodiam to walk around the castle.

It was gorgeous outside; crisp and bright which I think is perfect for walking.

I have done this walk several times now but never have I seen the water so high in the canal.

As the sun began to set

We completed the walk and it was time to get back to the kitchen

Whoever said ‘too many cooks…’ had never met us before!  A bit of chit, chat and chop and we were ready.  We fitted in a trip to the local pub and Gini’s canapes with champagne before finishing off the cooking.

The table was laid

The music was playing

The food was ready

What a feast!  We dined on Lucy’s slow roast pork which was fantastic, served with brussel sprouts, carrots, red cabbage, runner beans, roast potatoes and butternut squash and apple sauce.  It was delicious.  Really really good.

Sally brought along a home made Christmas Pudding which was excellent.

Michelle provided a lovely range of cheese.

It was such a delicious dinner and fun evening followed by a sleepover with my lovely ladies, I felt very lucky to have had such a wonderful 24 hours.

Back at home I made an effort to eat more healthily.  Some kale and mushrooms cooked up and served with

some blue eggs

and a large glass of orange and pink grapefruit juice was a decent breakfast.

I made another juice today and this one had orange, grapefruit and kale.

It was good.

Harvey and I were talking about the Christmas Markets we have visited in Germany for the last 2 years and which we are not doing this year.  We remembered the delicious hot cooked salmon sandwiches we had there.  I didn’t have any dill but our sandwiches made with salmon, cucumber and mayonnaise were simple and tasty enough.

Harvey made some Christmas cookies.  We were going for a walk with my Aunty Marion this afternoon and then back for tea so I wanted to bake something to take and Harvey wanted to cook so we had great fun.

To say the flour went everywhere was no exaggeration 🙂

They were not as colourful as the cookies in the recipe book but I massively dislike artificial colouring so we had a little bit of bling but not too much.

They looked good and tasted even better – well done Little Fella.

I am not at work for 3 weeks so who cares how much mess we made or how late we returned from our afternoon walk and tea with my aunty and cousin?  I am enjoying being at home and having time to cook.  It is certainly not all healthy or diet friendly but there is enough nutrition and a lot of fun being had.