Each to his own

Yes, we have snow – hence the new header.

I felt very proud of myself on Christmas Day. I got all the fourteen items ready at the same time, there was no cross-contamination between carnivore and veggie food, and the roast free-range chicken was wonderfully moist. I can cook just fine, but roasting meat is a mystery because I so rarely do it - having no-one to share it with, and living with someone who finds the smell abhorrent. So every ON Christmas, I try very hard to GET IT RIGHT. This year I did. Go, me!

In the midst of the last minute flurry of serving up all the different dishes, the family member who declines to be named asked me why I always do so many things. Why don’t I keep it simple? The answer is that I am trying to recreate the Christmas dinners we had when I was little. This means that one of the most important items for me are weird things called force meat balls which are balls of a kind of stuffing made – in our family - from fresh white breadcrumbs, vegetable suet, lemon, parsley and egg. My mother would prepare them on Christmas Eve and the fragrant smell would pervade the house.

Such delights are not shared by the person who lives here and doesn’t like Christmas and especially doesn’t like Christmas dinner, and who keeps his Christmas supplies in the water trough because there is no room for them in the fridge.

But that is OK. It’s really OK. Each to his own.