Mr Christmas feels the credit crunch

Britain's very own Mr Christmas - who celebrates Christmas every single day - said the recession had forced him to scale back the whirlwind of daily festivities this year.

Mr Christmas (a.k.a. Andy Park, a divorced electrician from Melksham*) said his weight had plunged after slashing his mammoth daily portions of mince pies, champagne, roast turkey and all the trimmings.

He used to blow £11,000 a year on his daily Christmas knees-up but has trimmed his budget down to £5,000 in 2009.

"Before the credit crunch I was eating a 14-pound turkey, now I'm down to a four pounder. I've cut down from nine massive roast potatoes to four," Park said.

"I used to have 40 peas on my plate, now its just a tablespoon. I now have to make a bottle of champagne last two days. From 40 mince pies a day I've gone to 12 and there's no double cream."

To read more, click here.

* What I want to know is was Santa cited as the 'other party' in his divorce proceedings.

Christmas Pizza!

As I sit at my computer this morning, looking out at houses and gardens iced with snow, my thoughts turn, once again, to food...

Fed up with the traditional turkey for Christmas or just wondering what to do with the leftovers the next day? Then why not make yourself a Christmas pizza?

Christmas Turkey Pizza

For the Dough
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

For the Sauce
250ml whipping cream
4 tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 strips crispy bacon, chopped

For the Toppings
1 lb. roast turkey or chicken
3-4 golden fingerling potatoes
1 small red onion
4 tbsp. whole cranberry sauce
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Preparation
1. Prepare dough – Mix all ingredients and let it rise until dough doubled in size, about 1 hour. Dust a pizza stone with flour. Roll out the dough to fit stone. Let rise for 20 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

3. Prepare sauce - melt butter over medium low heat. Add garlic and saute lightly - don’t burn the garlic! Stir in the cream and bring to a simmer and reduce heat. Add bacon and simmer until desired consistency is reached.

4. Spread sauce thinly on dough then arrange the remaining toppings as desired.

5. Bake in the center of the oven until the dough is golden at the edges, about 35 minutes. Remove, let sit for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.

And here's a recipe for a sweet Christmas pizza

Sweet Christmas Pizza

Ingredients
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pound white almond bark divided
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup rice cereal
1 cup peanuts
16 ounces red maraschino cherries, quartered
3 tablespoons green cherries
1/3 cup coconut
1 teaspoon oil

Melt chocolate with 14 ounce almond bark in large saucepan on low heat, stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in marshmallows, cereal and peanuts. Pour into greased 12 inch pizza pan. Top with cherries. Sprinkle with coconut. Melt remaining almond bark with oil over low heat. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over coconut. Chill. Store at room temperature.

And here's a Christmas pizza the Franklin family made earlier...

Grow your own drugs for the Hairy Biker's Twelve Days of Christmas

Two festive frivolities to watch on BBC 2 tonight. First there's Grow You Own Drugs for Christmas at 8.00pm with ethnobotanist James Wong concocting a Victorian hangover cure (amongst other things)...


And then at 9.00pm it's The Hairy Bikers' Twelve Days of Christmas, in which Dave Myers and Si King create an array of seasonal dishes that reinterpret the classic Christmas song...

Jamie's Family Christmas

Channel 4 continues its festive season of seasonal shows based around their most popular presenters with Jamie's Family Christmas. There's a double dose tonight at 8.00pm and 8.30pm.


Over the course of the series he'll be treating us to recipes for his own Christmas turkey, Festive strudel, Roast vegetable mega-mix, Christmas spirit cocktail and Turkey con chili.

Christmas curry?

A friend of mine is shunning turkey with all the trimmings and having curry for Christmas instead. As he puts it, "I actually like Christmas. I just think that turkey is overrated. Plus, if you go for a free-range, ethically sourced one you can be paying £60 up. Just for something that tastes a bit like chicken but drier and blander."

However, if you're still sticking with turkey (as we are in our household this year) then here's something you can do with the leftover bird the next day, as an alternative to living off turkey sandwiches for a week!

Christmas Roast Turkey Curry

500g Roast turkey
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Chopped coriander Salt
½ tsp Garam masala
1/3 tsp Chili powder
½ tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Ground coriander
4 tbsp Cooking oil
1 Onion chopped
4 Garlic cloves chopped
¼ cup Tomato puree
1 tsp Ground cumin

Put the oil in a hot saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Fry for 7 minutes. In a bowl, mix together: the tomato puree, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, garam masala and salt to form a thick paste. Tip the paste into the onion mixture and fry for half a minute. Stir in the turkey pieces and cook for 1 minute. Add 400ml of hot water from the kettle and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Mix in the ginger and the lemon juice.

Christmas dinner for £1.83?

Apparently, the powers that be as ASDA believe they are offering Britain's best festive bargain... a full Christmas meal for £1.83 a head.

The luxury lunch has turkey, spuds, carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce and stuffing, followed by a Christmas pudding and six mince pies.

But if it looks anything like this, I'd personally think twice...

BACON BUTTY IS OUR FAVOURITE NAUGHTY SNACK

Apparently, the humble (yet delicious) bacon butty is the nation's favourite 'guilty' food. You can read more about the sublime-smelling and terrific-tasting sarnie snack here.

And of course bacon is a vital part of the traditional 'all the trimmings' Christmas dinner. But what if you fancy something a little different this year but you don't want to go without your bacon? Then why not try this savoury Christmas roulade?

Savoury Christmas Roulade

Ingredients

1 pack of unsmoked bacon

1 pack of pork sausages

1 pack of stuffing mix

Preparation method

Roll out some cling film on a work surface. Place the bacon on top of the cling film and overlap the edges of each rasher so there are no gaps, thereby forming a rectangle. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausages (or just buy sausage meat) and spread the sausage meat over the bacon. Make up the stuffing mix (it helps if you add some butter to stuffing mix) and then spread the stuffing over the sausage meat. Now roll the roulade into a log using the cling film to keep it all together. Place on a lightly oiled baking dish, remove cling film and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and slice into portions. Serves 2 with roast potatoes and vegetables, or 4-6 if used as the 'trimmings' for a turkey Christmas dinner.

Delia's Happy Christmas

What would Christmas be without Delia?

Well the queen of cookery writing has a new title out this season, with Delia's Happy Christmas.

Delia has long been the person we turn to for stress-free Christmas celebrations, and this year she celebrates 40 years of writing recipes.

Delia's Happy Christmas is the definitive guide to all aspects of cooking for Christmas. This cookbook will actually help you to plan your Christmas festivities to the very last culinary detail, even acting as an invaluable Christmas organiser from reminding you to make your Christmas pudding and chutneys in November to giving you a crucial countdown for the Last 36 Hours.

So what are you waiting for? Go here to pick up a copy for yourself so that Christmas this year can be as stress-free as it must be in Delia's household.