This year, for the first time ever, I will be cooking Christmas dinner. I've never hosted Christmas before so this seems like quite a big milestone in my life and despite being confident in the kitchen, there is something so epic about Christmas cooking that is making me a little nervous. Thankfully, Paragon Books have brought together every Christmas recipe I need in one book - The Perfect Christmas.
The Perfect Christmas is a very festive looking hardback book which could act as a single point of reference for all your Christmas cooking needs. The Perfect Christmas is part of the Love Food range of easy to follow recipes, presented in a no-nonsense, mouth-watering simplicity - exactly what I need to stay Mellow this Christmas.
Obviously, the very first thing I checked for when I opened the book was for how they recommend to cook the perfect traditional roast Turkey as this is something which is a great unknown to me. Next on my list of worries was Bread Sauce (it will take a lot to live up to my Mum's bread sauce achievements) and I followed the recipe last weekend and froze the sauce ready for Christmas day. There are ideas for ways to approach vegetables and gravy as well as a couple of stuffing recipes which will come in handy. The book features a ribbon to as a bookmark and I can imagine his to be very important on the busy day in question.
But The Perfect Christmas isn't just about cooking Christmas Dinner, it is packed full of ideas for festive party food, appetizers, boxing day roast dinners and more. There are several ideas for festive main meal alternatives for vegetarians too (though they aren't awfully inspiring).
My favourite parts of the book are the ideas for puddings and bakes for the Christmas period. Cranberry muffins look comforting and warming and spiced rum cookies are definitely going to be served as snacks this Christmas. Large parts of The Perfect Christmas are dedicated to festive baking ideas and some of them look REALLY beautiful.
The last third of the book is about cookies and biscuits. This is Lara's favourite part to sit and browse. There are some advanced recipes for tasty looking Christmassy cookies but in fact many of the recipes are a very basic biscuit recipes but with fun festive ideas for decoration that would all be great fun for cooking with the girls. Guess what we will be doing this weekend!
The Perfect Christmas by Parragon has an RRP of £12. I think it could well be a Christmas classic that I bring out every year.
The Perfect Christmas is a very festive looking hardback book which could act as a single point of reference for all your Christmas cooking needs. The Perfect Christmas is part of the Love Food range of easy to follow recipes, presented in a no-nonsense, mouth-watering simplicity - exactly what I need to stay Mellow this Christmas.
Obviously, the very first thing I checked for when I opened the book was for how they recommend to cook the perfect traditional roast Turkey as this is something which is a great unknown to me. Next on my list of worries was Bread Sauce (it will take a lot to live up to my Mum's bread sauce achievements) and I followed the recipe last weekend and froze the sauce ready for Christmas day. There are ideas for ways to approach vegetables and gravy as well as a couple of stuffing recipes which will come in handy. The book features a ribbon to as a bookmark and I can imagine his to be very important on the busy day in question.
But The Perfect Christmas isn't just about cooking Christmas Dinner, it is packed full of ideas for festive party food, appetizers, boxing day roast dinners and more. There are several ideas for festive main meal alternatives for vegetarians too (though they aren't awfully inspiring).
My favourite parts of the book are the ideas for puddings and bakes for the Christmas period. Cranberry muffins look comforting and warming and spiced rum cookies are definitely going to be served as snacks this Christmas. Large parts of The Perfect Christmas are dedicated to festive baking ideas and some of them look REALLY beautiful.
The last third of the book is about cookies and biscuits. This is Lara's favourite part to sit and browse. There are some advanced recipes for tasty looking Christmassy cookies but in fact many of the recipes are a very basic biscuit recipes but with fun festive ideas for decoration that would all be great fun for cooking with the girls. Guess what we will be doing this weekend!
The Perfect Christmas by Parragon has an RRP of £12. I think it could well be a Christmas classic that I bring out every year.
