How To Find Tasty Christmas Recipes

Let me see. Christmas dinner. What did I serve last year?

Starter: Prawn cocktail

Main course: Roast turkey with all the trimmings. Nut roast for the vegetarians.

Dessert: Christmas pudding with brandy butter

All accompanied by plenty of wine!

If you're like me, you've probably served something like the above menu for years and years. OK, so it only gets served once a year. But what happens when you want to ring the changes but stay in the seasonal mood?

Then it's probably time to get out the recipe books. Except that most recipe books don't really concentrate on cooking the Christmas meal.

This year I thought I'd be more organized than usual, so I started tracking down some recipes that were still seasonal but slightly different.

I discovered a Christmas cookbook that looked interesting and wasn't going to break the bank. Then I trialled some of the recipes (you can't leave the Christmas Day meal to chance, now can you).

Particularly delicious were the brandy cheese balls for starters. My mouth still salivates at the thought of those!

The vegetarian members of my family will definitely appreciate the vegetable rice pilaf.

And the Christmas pudding may be taking a back seat this year as I've discovered a cherry mocha mousse pie that isn't as heavy as a traditional Christmas dessert (although I can always microwave a ready made Christmas pudding for anyone who wants to stay traditional).

One snag I've found with online cookbooks before is printing out a recipe. After all, most normal people don't keep their computer on next to their cooker. The recipe book that I discovered has taken this into account and lets you print out each recipe individually.

You can get hold of the Christmas recipes I've found enjoyable here.