Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities

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The book begins with Christmassy cocktails, canapés and how to cater for lots of people without getting crazy (the later applies throughout the book – Nigella is a practical goddess), and moves through soups, salads, and sauces to suppers, big main dinners, sweet stuff and baking, edible presents, a full scale brunch menu, hot drinks, and two serious cures for overindulgence (as you might expect, they aren’t pristine – “I will never be a nil by mouth kind of person”). Lovely recipes,easy to follow very tasty, amazing choc fruit cake, easy and quick parsnip and potato gratin fab for boxing day, and lovely mince pies! Granted, most of this food is very holiday'ish and if you are anything like me and ate this rich food everyday, the hips would be continuing their outward journey. They are bright and vibrant and there are so many of them and of all kinds of things, not only food. If you feel in need of some real seasoning this holiday, then get this book for yourself, well in advance of Christmas.

And, of course, exciting and inspiring variations for the Main Event itself - from her traditional super-juicy turkey with all the trimmings, to festive ginger-glazed ham and the Ultimate Christmas Pud; from goose, rib of beef, stuffed rolled pork, all the way to a special vegetarian Christmas feast, a chocolate pudding for Christmas pudding haters, a French Yule Log, Australian Christmas Pud and the Boozy British Trifle. My first cooking of rib and it was perfect- followed Nigella's timings to the letter and got delicious rare beef, that was melt on the mouth tender. What is the use of fabulous food and blip-free efficiency if everyone is cowed into misery by the stress you give off? Her style of presentation is often gently mocked by comedians and commentators, particularly in a regularly-occurring impersonation of her in the BBC television comedy series 'Dead Ringers', who perceive that she plays overtly upon her attractiveness and sexuality as a device to engage viewers of her cookery programmes, despite Lawson's repeated denials that she does so.

Her Furby recipe is to die for, but her attempt to BBQ the cast of Friends leads to multiple lawsuits. The gingerbread recipe is a tried and tested Christmas Eve favourite to make with the kids and my Christmas dinner veggies come from here. I could distinctly "hear" her speaking the introduction while I read it, and that made the words even more enjoyable. Here is everything you could wish for to make your life and your Christmas easy and enjoyable: from party canapés, cocktails and manageable mass catering to scrumptious Christmas cakes and puddings; from no-fuss brunch to quick and easy homemade presents (chutneys, preserves and other delectable standbys) and edible tree-decorations. Nigella Christmas comprises reliable, practical, easy-to-follow recipes and reassuring advice about planning and cooking ahead, presented in a gorgeous glittering package which will make this the ultimate gift to yourself and for family and friends.

In true Nigella style, Kitchen is about the food we eat now, the way we eat and live today; feel-good food from the most important room in the house.I made this cake as it was suggested as a good alternative to a more traditional Christmas cake for those who don't like fruit cake. The next two titles are not themselves Christmas books, but have yielded, between them, three uber-Christmassy recipes. Made these last week, substituted almonds for the pecans and dark choc chips for the white as those were what I had; also chopped my cranberries as they seemed disproportionately large. However it scores highly on being incredibly easy to make and it tasted like a mature Christmas cake without any maturing! I really love this cookbook and it would make such a great Christmas gift for the cook or aspiring cook on your list.