Christmas Gravy plus Ten Things That Will Make Christmas Easier

One week and counting until Christmas Day. Whether you are hosting a big festive celebration at home or heading off to a loved one's house for the day, here are some thoughts to make your celebrations a little smoother:

1. Get the drinks organised now - you will have enough to cart home from the supermarket next week. Get the mineral water, soft drinks, wine and champagne so you can cross them off the list. PS Always buy more mineral water than you think you will need because if Christmas Day is stinking hot, you will drink every last drop. Fill up your ice trays as well.

2. Go through the fridge and get rid of anything you don't need or want. Fridge space is more valuable than a city car spot at this time of year.

3. Finalise your menu. Whether you are planning a ham and turkey traditional baked dinner or a "cooler" seafood feast, decide on everything now. Make a list starting with nibblies with drinks, moving through the meal, side dishes, dessert and finishing with chocolates tea and coffee. Last minute menu decisions are more stressful than the queue for a photo with Santa. And by the way, make sure that you can manage what you are planning, from an oven and fridge capacity, as well as from the man hours needed to get the food on the table.

4. Make a master shopping list from your menu, and double check it against what you have in the fridge or pantry. Just because you think that you have enough apricot jam to glaze your ham, it is still worth double checking because you might be wrong and you will find nothing is open on Christmas morning. I speak with authority on this point. Then divide your shopping list in two between perishables and non-perishables (use 2 coloured highlighters). Buy all the non-perishables this weekend, and leave only the perishables for Dec 23 or 24.

5. Get out all the platters and serving dishes you are planning on using, and check what needs washing or polishing. A lot of this servingware won't have been touched since January, and may be a bit dusty, so get this tedious job out of the way this weekend.

6. Ditto for all the napery you will be using: cloths, napkins, hand towels, may all need a press to look welcoming on Christmas Day.

7. Decorate your table - steal some tinsel and ornaments from the tree for a Christmassy centrepiece.

8. If you are entertaining people who either don't know each other well or don't get along (surely every family lives through this at one time or another), plan your seating. You do not want people who don't get along rubbing elbows at the table. Opposite ends of the table works much better

9. Don't forget to put the crackers on the table. More than once I have realised after the Christmas meal that we forgot the crackers. Christmas just isn't Christmas without silly hats and stupid jokes.

10. Make the gravy ahead of time and freeze it. I would never have thought of this, but Jamie Oliver told me to do it, and you know how I like to keep him happy...

Get Ahead Gravy

Jamie Magazine Dec 09

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

2 large carrots, roughly chopped

2 large onions, roughly chopped

5 fresh sage leaves

5 fresh bay leaves

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

2 star anise

2 rashers of smoked bacon, diced

8 chicken wings, smashed with a rolling pin to break them up a little

30ml olive oil

4 tbl plain flour

60ml sherry or port

Put the vegetables, herbs, and star anise in a baking dish. Scatter over the bacon and chicken wings. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 200C for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, and place over a low heat on the stove. Grind all the ingredients with a potato masher. Gradullay add the flour, continuing to fry. The longer you let this phase go, the darker the gravy will become. When the flour is combined, add 2 litres of water, turn up the heat and boil for ten mins. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer for another 20 mins or so, adding the port or sherry if you are using it. Strain through a sieve, pushing down on everything to extract as much moisture and flavour as possible. Store in containers/bags in the fridge/freezer. On Christmas Day, take gravy out of the freezer when you are putting your turkey in the oven and let it defrost as the turkey cooks. Warm up in a pot, tip in any pan juices from the turkey (drain fat first), and serve.

Asparagus Hollandaise for A Taste of Yellow

When I first discovered the world of food blogs, one of the first that I started reading was Barbara at winosandfoodies.com. Barbara always has food that inspires, but it is her photos that I really love, particularly the photo essays she posts from time to time. Barbara was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and has had several rounds of treatment since then. To support the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Barbara holds an annual "Taste of Yellow" cooking event, challenging fellow bloggers to cook and post a yellow themed dish. (Yellow is of course the colour of Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG campaign).

Obviously cancer is a disease that impacts all of us directly or indirectly, sooner or later. I wanted to participate in this event firstly to thank Barbara for inspiring me to start blogging, and secondly to remember the people around me who have battled cancer. Some are now officially cancer-free, others have passed away. And for the rest of us, I see hope ahead. There is a constant trickle of scientific developments that promise to slowly crack the code of cancer. Vaccines against some forms of the disease are now available, and treatments are improving. I would love to think that in my daughters' lifetimes a cure is discovered. Donate if you can.

For my Taste of Yellow dish, I chose Asparagus Hollandaise. The new season asparagus seems to me a very hopeful vegetable. I was able to buy tiny spears that were incredibly tender to serve with a gorgeous hollandaise from my encyclopedic Stephanie Alexander. The recipe was easy and the emulsion seemed to hold without problem (unlike many other recipes). Perfect nibbles with drinks, or as a light entree.

Hollandaise Sauce

from "The Cook's Companion" by Stephanie Alexander

200g unsalted butter

3 tbsp white wine vinegar or verjuice

pinch of coarsely ground white pepper

2 tbsp water

3 egg yolks

juice of 1/2 lemon

Melt butter gently and allow to cool a little. Place vinegar, pepper and water in a small saucepan and reduce to 1 tablespoon liquid. Transfer liquid to a small bowl that fits comfortably over a stable small saucepan half-filled with hot water. Add egg yolks and whisk well over moderate heat until thick and foamy. Make sure that they do not get so hot as to become scrambled eggs! Whisk in butter a little at a time, still over heat. When all butter is incorporated you should have a bowl of thick creamy sauce. Add lemon juice to taste. Herbs can be added too , if you like.

Bread Sauce For Roast Chicken

Regular readers would have gathered by now that I am very keen on a roast chicken as an easy family dinner. And I am loathe to mess with a good thing. But sometimes a little mess is a good thing (I've been arguing that point for decades now). And today I have found an addition for roast chicken, if you want to mess with it, that really makes the bird sing. Unlikely as it sounds, this magical addition is bread sauce from Mr Neil Perry? I know it looks like nothing special (apart from my poor photography skills, a camera crisis involving a leaking water bottle is to blame), but it is really wonderful.

In my mind, bread sauce is one of those ultra-traditional recipes that belongs with Yorkshire pudding as part of the English culinary heritage that never really arrived in Australia. I have made bread sauce before, but a slightly odd version with horseradish and melted cranberry jelly as the base, to serve with Christmas turkey. This version, which comes from "The Food I Love"

is beautifully introduced by Perry; he describes his first taste prompting him to wonder, "how could something so wonderful taste so good?" I can only agree.

Bread Sauce

80g day-old white bread

1 brown onion studded with 2 cloves

2 fresh bay leaves (I used dried)

1 mace blade (I forgot to buy)

500 ml milk

100 ml cream

30g butter

Remover the crusts from the bread, then whiz it in the food processor until it forms crumbs. Put the onion, mace, bay leaves and milk in a small saucepan so the milk covers the onion. Bring to the boil. Stir in the bread crumbs and simmer gently for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Remove onion and spices and add the cream, then cook again for 5 mins. Remove from heat, then whisk in butter. Season to taste. Serve with any roasted poultry.