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Christmas is a most wonderful time of year. Family and friends meet to celebrate, and everything seems abuzz with excitement as festivities fill the air. The atmosphere should be one of happiness and giving.

However, so often as Christmas approaches, panic surrounds us as we worry about how to entertain, what to serve, how much to cook, and so on.

The holiday spreads over several days and even into New Year's, so careful planning is essential. Plan for each day of this hectic period. Consider which foods will be left over such as poultry and produce), and select recipes using these ingredients.

Freeze food for unexpected arrivals.
Make a fish and meat pate, and freeze whole, or slice (to thaw more quickly):
Served with a salad and crusty bread, a pate makes a delicious, impromptu meal.
Freeze a few puddings or Gateaux for impressive desserts.
Frozen finger foods also make marvellous standbys and certainly take the pressure out of entertaining at short notice:
Prepare a tasty selection of these tempting, bite-size foods to serve with drinks.

Once you have planned menus and calculated how many visitors are expected, determine which recipes can be made in advance and frozen or stored until required, such as Christmas cakes, puddings, and mince pies.
Make a detailed list of food to be purchased in advance and at the last minute.
Stock up on drinks and ingredients for nibbles several weeks before, avoiding the rush in the days leading up to Christmas.

As for edible gifts, preserves, brandied mincemeat, fruits in liqueurs, pretty sweets, and cookies are most attractive in baskets, boxes, or dainty glass or china dishes.
Assorted cheeses make a nice last-minute present and look especially good in a basket with crackers, butter, and a pretty, festive napkin.
Cookies or gingerbread houses serve as perfect novelty gifts for children.
And a mini-Christmas cake with a few mince pies is a most welcome offering for someone living alone, or make a mini-basket of home-made goodies, such as pate, preserves, cake, Christmas pudding, and cookies.

First of all start to make the lists of all the things that you think that you will need.

Use lots of different headings,

Jobs to do e.g. tidy freezer, shelves etc.
General Food Shopping e.g. flour, sugar etc
General non food shopping e.g. Turkey size foil, cling film etc.
Week before food shopping e.g. eggs, bacon, frozen pastry
Last few Days Shopping e.g. potatoes, vegetables, fruit, bread etc.

Next clear out the freezer of all out of date food and empty boxes to make as much space as possible.

If you are going to buy a frozen turkey go and buy it at the beginning of December when the shops are quiet.

You need to allow 12 oz / 330 grams of meat per person.

Shopping with Children

When you can't avoid taking the children along shopping for food, try incorporating them in the task. For youngsters who already know how to count it can be an experience in counting or a form of language development and learning, as they discover the names of their favourite foods.

Line containers with plastic bags and when frozen remove the plastic bag and store in the freezer.

If you line a casserole dish with foil, you can freeze the dish and then lift out the foiled package for long term storage in the freezer.

When you want to cook the dish, remove the foil and place in the original casserole dish to thaw and cook.

When freezing a cake or Gateaux, cut into portions and separate with greaseproof paper and then put back together to freeze.
You can then remove the number of portions that you need without having to defrost the whole cake.

So with good planning and thinking ahead we can take the stress out of Christmas. Here are some great jobs that you can do whilst the children are at school.

Its not too late to make a Christmas Cake, and if you use a skewer to make a few holes and brush over with sherry everyday before putting the marzipan you can make it taste more mature than it really is.

Christmas Cake

Cake

1 kg mixed dried fruit
185 g quartered glace cherries
118 g cut mixed rind
90 g flaked almonds
finely grated rind of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
125 ml brandy or sherry
375 g all-purpose flour
15 g ground mixed spice
75 g ground almonds
355 g dark brown sugar
280 g butter, softened
2 tablespoons molasses
5 eggs

Decoration

3 tablespoons apricot jam, boiled, sieved
875 g marzipan
1 kg ready-to-roll fondant icing
red, green food colourings
red, green ribbon

Preheat oven to 275F (135C).
Line a 2-1/2-inch deep 8-inch-square or a 2-1/2-inch deep
9-inch-round cake pan with a double thickness of greased parchment paper, extending parchment paper above sides of pan. Place pan on a double parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine dried fruit, cherries, mixed rind and flaked almonds until well mixed.

Add orange rind and juice and brandy or sherry; mix well.

In another bowl, combine flour, mixed spice, ground almonds, brown sugar, butter, molasses and eggs with a wooden spoon, then beat until smooth and glossy.

Add mixed fruit to cake mixture; stir until evenly mixed.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan.

Level top with back of a metal spoon, making a slight depression in centre. Bake in oven 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 hours.

Test with a skewer; when inserted in centre, skewer should come out clean. Cool in pan.

Invert cake, remove paper and place on a cake plate.

Allow to go cold.

Brush top and side of cake with apricot jam.

Knead marzipan and roll out to 1/4-inch thickness.

Cover top and sides of cake; trim to fit at bottom.

Roll out fondant icing on a lightly sugared surface.

Cover cake. Press icing over top and down side of cake.

Trim off excess icing at bottom.

Knead trimmings together; colour 1/3 red and remainder green with food colourings.

Make tiny berries with some of the red icing.

Roll and cut out holly leaves from green icing.

Mark in veins with knife; let stand until set.

Arrange on top of cake with berries.

Cut out 'NOEL' from red icing and place on cake.

Let cake stand until dry. Tie with ribbon.

Brandied Mincemeat

1 kg raisins
500 g currants
125 g dried apricots
125 g dates
185 g candied rind
125 g whole almonds
500 g cooking apples, peeled, cored
finely grated rind of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
532 g light brown sugar
250 g unsalted butter, melted
15 g ground mixed spice
155 ml brandy

In a large bowl, place raisins and currants.

Chop or mince apricots, dates, candied rind, almonds and apples. Add chopped fruit, nuts, lemon rind and juice to raisins and currants. Mix well.

Stir in brown sugar, butter, mixed spice and brandy.

Stir mixture until evenly blended.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 days.

Sterilise 6 (1-pint) jars and lids and keep warm.

Stir mincemeat thoroughly, then spoon into hot jars, filling each to top. Cover each with waxed paper and seal with lids.

Makes 6 jars.

Boneless Garlic and Rosemary Rubbed Rib of Beef with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

1 x 2.5kg boneless rib roast, left at room temperature for 2 hours before cooking
30 ml olive oil
20 g salt
15 g ground black pepper (you can grind whole peppercorns in a blender)
8 large garlic cloves, minced
3 g minced fresh rosemary
0.3 g minced fresh rosemary for the sauce
200 grams assorted wild mushrooms
235 ml beef stock
180 ml red wine
15 ml Dijon mustard
3 g cornflour dissolved in 10 ml water

Adjust oven rack to centre position and heat oven to 250 degrees F/120c.

Heat a large pan suitable for the oven over medium-high heat. Rub roast on all sides with oil, salt and pepper. Add the roast to hot pan and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes total. Transfer roast to a plate. When cool enough to handle, rub garlic and rosemary all over.

Meanwhile, pour off all but 2 Tbs. of the beef drippings. Add mushrooms to hot pan and saut� until well browned, about 8 minutes. Mix stock, wine and mustard; add to mushrooms and simmer to blend flavours and reduce slightly, about 3 minutes. Pour mushroom sauce into a bowl; set aside.

Set a wire rack over the pan and set roast on rack. Slow-roast in oven until roast reaches an internal temperature of 135 degrees F/57 degrees c for medium-rare and 140 degrees F/ 60 c for medium, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Transfer roast to a cutting board; remove rack from the pan. Pour off excess fat, if any. Set the pan over medium-high heat; return mushroom sauce to pan heat to a simmer. Add corn flour and continue to simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about a minute. Carve meat and serve with the sauce.

I have included my evergreen Turkey Timetable, it ensures a stress free time!!!!!!!

PLEASE NOTE. This assumes you have a 121b/5.4kg turkey, which you will be eating at 1.00 pm

8.45am Turn on the oven. Stuff the turkey and weigh it again to calculate the precise cooking time

9.00am Put turkey in roasting tin and put in oven.

10.00am Lay the table.

11.00am Parboil the potatoes

11.30am Put beef dripping or oil into a roasting tin and place into oven to get hot, ready for the potatoes.

11:30am Put the pudding on to steam, keep checking the water level

11.45am Put the potatoes into the oven.

11.50am Put parsnips into the oven.

11.55am Put sausage and bacon rolls into the oven.

12.00pm Check turkey, as it should take 3-3½ hours to cook..

12.10pm Make the bread sauce.

12.15pm Check the contents of the oven.

12.30pm When cooked, put things on serving dishes and return to the turned-off oven.

12.30pm Make the gravy. Strain into a saucepan for easy re-heating. Warm the plates.

12.45pm Cook sprouts, and carrots, reheat bread sauce and gravy

1.00pm Serve, checking:
Turkey
Sausage and bacon rolls
Stuffing
Gravy
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Potatoes
Parsnips
Sprouts
Carrots

Here is a blank timetable, if you have a Turkey of a different size or eating at a different time! Just put your own times in.

Turn on the oven. Stuff the turkey and weigh it again to calculate the precious cooking time

Put turkey in roasting tin and put in oven.

Lay the table.

Parboil the potatoes

Put beef dripping or oil into a roasting tin and place into oven to get hot, ready for the potatoes.

Put the pudding on to steam, keep checking the water level

Put the potatoes into the oven.

Put parsnips into the oven.

Put sausage and bacon rolls into the oven.

Check turkey, as it should take 3-3½ hours to cook..

Make the bread sauce.

Check the contents of the oven. When cooked, put things on serving dishes and return to the turned-off oven.

Make the gravy. Strain into a saucepan for easy re-heating

Warm the plates.

Cook sprouts, and carrots, reheat bread sauce and gravy

Serve, checking:
Turkey
Sausage and bacon rolls
Stuffing
Gravy
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Potatoes
Parsnips
Sprouts
Carrots

Luxury American Style Cranberry Sauce

235 ml water
200 g white sugar
336 g fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and pureed
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pear - peeled, cored and diced
155 g chopped dried mixed fruit
120 g chopped pecans
3 g salt
2 g ground cinnamon
2 g ground nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to simmer, and stir in cranberries, pureed orange, apple, pear, dried fruit, pecans, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature.

This is a great way to use up leftover Turkey, and it makes a change from making Turkey Curry!!!!!

The Big Chefs Christmas Cottage Pie

300 g cubed cooked turkey
180 ml turkey gravy
110 g carrots (cut into small cubes)
400 g prepared sage and onion stuffing
1 can sweet corn, drained
420 g warm mashed potatoes

In a greased 2-qt. baking dish, layer the turkey, gravy, carrots, stuffing and corn. Top with potatoes. Bake, uncovered, at 325f/160c for 45-50 minutes or until edges of potatoes are browned.