Nigella does Christmas

And isn't this just a fabulous photograph of the stunning Nigella?

I have really been enjoying the Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen show on Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1. She does shows like this so very well and clearly she enjoys Christmas and all the festive paraphernalia a huge amount (deep breath, D!) and she certainly does a good party! On the first episode we saw gingerbread Christmas tree decorations (I know you think it’s cannibalism flamed-haired H!) made which the aid of her children Bruno and Mimi (Cosima) who looked almost as glamorous as their mother! We also saw a aromatic spiced ham, a chocolate fruit cake and amongst other things some very interesting mulled cider. If I hadn’t already plumped for Winter PIMM’S for ‘the gathering’, I think this would be the drink.

On the second show my favourite idea was the Parma ham bundle but my version will NOT contain goats’ cheese in any shape or form but will still be very, very tasty! And another drink that caught my eye was the ‘Christmas in a glass’. The party poussins looked really great though I’m not crazy about couscous and some of the other bits so I’d probably do the little with less of a Moroccan vibe and perhaps do Jamie Oliver’s “Roasted Hamilton poussin wrapped with streaky bacon and stuffed with potatoes and sage" from Return of the Naked Chef. I’ll definitely be tuning in on Wednesday for the final episode with recipes for Spiced and super-juicy roast turkey with all the marvellous trimmings.

A lot of these recipes come from Nigella’s last book Feast and it’s definitely encouraged me to get out my copy and consider some of her recipes for this year’s festivities. In fact there’s now one heading up North to make this plan a bit easier! Ding dong merrily on high.

And looking at this book again I've had a yen for one of these big cooking pots ever since Nigella waxed lyrical about them and brought both a shiny and brushed steel version out in her living kitchen range. But I really wanted the shiny one, and it seems I could have left it too late because everyone seems to have the brushed steel one only. Shame!