It is the time of year for all the pigging out.
All of it. The fruit mince pies, the turkey, the chocolates, the trifle, the ham and seafood.
Bring it all and bring lots of it to the table.
Have you heard there is a nationwide shortage of dim sims?
I swear it’s true.
Our family has a strange tradition of eating at a Chinese restaurant in Caloundra, wearing novelty Christmas T-shirts every festive season.
Nothing says Christmas like special fried rice and sizzling steak.
Despite being lousy in the kitchen, I also love a great cookbook at this time of year and I have found one of the best called RecipeTin Eats by Nagi Maehashi.
You may know this self-made cook, who has close to five million followers on Instagram and 335 views of her website in the past 12 months.
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Nagi’s strength is sharing fail-proof and delicious dinner recipes.
This is what is under my tree this year (in the hope her recipes really are disaster-proof).
My family is hoping this Christmas miracle is pulled off in the form of magnificent dinners in 2023.
We tried to make chocolate crackles in the house today.
But they turned out more like chocolate melted mounds of sticky bits.
The other book I am obsessed with is Christmas at River Cottage by Lucy Brazier.
It is fancier in its recipes and photographs, but it is my favourite form of escapism to read about old-fashioned meals that come from home-grown crops and are eaten in cosy little country houses with babbling brooks outside and blazing fires inside.
And I have been giggling a lot at misleading food names of late.
This comes after I had the lightbulb moment that plum pudding contains absolutely no plums.
Champagne ham? Not a drop of bubbles in that stuff.
Prairie oysters? Well, this one boggles my mind as it is not a seafood delicacy but bull testicles.
Other strange food dishes that gladly do not reflect their literal names include devils on horseback, soldiers, grasshopper pie and hot dogs.
And lastly, I give you spotted dick.
I sigh with great relief in reinforcing the fact that it is a type of British pudding.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami, tune into Mix FM.
