Christmas Good Books to start with

I am talking about cookery books here to help you on the way in preparing for Christmas.  I have four which come out every year.  The original Delia Christmas cookbook, the Nigella Christmas cookbook and Good Housekeeping preparing for Christmas and a Good Food Christmas one. There are numerous other books as well but these are the four that I gravitate towards each year. They give an overview of the sort of things that you can prepare for Christmas and the recipes are particularly good.  The more I have gone on though the more recipes I have added along the way by way of expanding my repertoire as it were.  However where I come from in Lincolnshire there is an old saying "Don't Brock it if it don't need mending" which basically means why meddle with it when there is nothing wrong with whatever you are doing. Change for changes sake is not necessary.

I am one for cookery books of all descriptions and have quite a collection.  They are used regularly and I often get into trouble when researching a project for having a stack of books in a pile down by the side of my chair whilst I fine tune whatever it is I am going to do.  I am a bookie OH is not and my books are very important to me but I know it drives him nuts!

Of all the books Delia's Christmas one is the one I gravitate to each year.  I use her Christmas cake and Christmas pudding recipes - with a little extra here and there.  There is also a M & S Christmas food book that I also use for cake and puddings but more often than not it is Delia's I use.

I also have various other recipes my Nan's Plum Loaf, which is always made at Christmas and then served slathered in butter with sliced strong cheddar and an apple such as a Cox as they compliment each other very well. Crispness from the apple which cuts the sweetness of the fruit loaf.  One of our family traditions and one which will be passed on to my two nephews.  I have the recipe and it is here on the blog for those of you who want to have a go at making it.  Mum always made this about three weeks before it was required to actually let the loaf mellow.

I remember as a child mum cooking the Christmas pudding in the gas boiler done in a pudding cloth.  I am 60 next year in May and have problems remembering stuff on a day by day basis but my long term memory seems to remember everything in some detail. I think I just have a wandering mind half the time!

Do you have recipes and books that you use on a regular basis for Christmas?

I am off into town shortly to meet up with a friend.  Sun is out at the moment but the wind is more than a little blustery.  I shall be doing my Mary Poppins act at this rate.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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