Traditions old and new – our BIG family Christmas with Tesco

In my mind, it’s Christmas.

Except, given that the sun is blazing down and it’s close to thirty degrees outside as I write this (in July!), it’s more like the Christmases the Other Half would have experienced growing up.

He’s from New Zealand, and tells tales of trips to the beach and family barbecues; of new potatoes and fresh garden peas.

That’s all pretty inadvisable for a standard English Christmas unless you want to stand shivering, freezing your hazelnuts off whilst the kids wail to be let back inside to continue exploring in the warm what Father Christmas might have bestowed upon them this year.

But given that the Other Half is a a part of the family, and of course we have our children now too, plus the addition of ‘proper Craig’ (my sisters’ new husband) and my mum’s partner who has also bestowed upon us two quasi-siblings, ‘Traditional Christmas’ as we know it has now changed to encompass some new traditions.

And most of them revolve around food!

Being our own little family now, as part of the larger extended family, we operate a ‘one year small, one year BIG’ Christmas policy. Last year it was small, with just the four of us at home enjoying a quiet Christmas lunch together. But this year it is the the BIG Christmas get together, and it’ll be at my mums.

As part of the merging of traditions, and also to prevent my mum from having to prepare a colossal feast on her own, everyone is assigned a task for BIG Christmas. Mum always does the turkey of course, but we all chip in with the turkey procurement and it always comes from Tesco’s, mum’s closest and very frequently visited supermarket. This year I’m hopeful we’ll be getting a Norfolk Bronze Free Range turkey – a large one of course!

Stuffing comes next, and I do like the look of the pork, apricot, cranberry and port stuffing portions on offer in the Tesco’s Finest range. We’ll probably have a second type of stuffing too, of the homemade variety as mum’s partner likes to experiment – you can never have enough stuffing!

I am usually in charge of the vegetables, and I don’t like them to be boring. Simple steaming is out – we like flavours and textures that complement each other and add something to the meal. But, given the Kiwi infiltration we also like to have some peas in the mix – and since it’s pretty hard to get fresh garden peas in the midst of a British winter I have a feeling we’ll be visiting the frozen aisle for some of those!

Peas aside – of the frozen, petit variety – I’m thinking perhaps brussel sprouts with some chestnuts and diced pancetta this year. Spiced red cabbage of course too (Grandee makes an awesome homemade one) and not to be forgotten, some lovely lovely parsnips.

Potatoes are important too. Tesco roast mix with goose fat, onion and rosemary sounds like a real winner – I like to parboil some lovely roasting potatoes, bash them around the pan a bit and season them properly and the roast mix sounds perfect to get them tasting divine.

But really, I’m getting ahead if myself. Mum’s partner is a big starters man, and so he’s generally in charge of those. Since my Other Half is firmly in the ‘doing dessert’ camp, the starters can’t be anything too stodgy, or we’ll never fit everything in. I’ve seen some mini coquilles st jaques and smoked salmon canapes that might be right up his street…

Moving on to desserts, I really rather like the look of the Ultimate Christmas pudding. It’s just not Christmas without a good one! We do have a tradition of having a ginger pudding too, going back to when I was a child celebrating Christmas with my cousins who weren’t Christmas pudding fans. So I’m very excited to see that Tesco have a Finest stem ginger sponge pudding available this year – and it promises to be absolutely delicious.
Lastly for Mum, who is a panettone fiend, the Chocolate, Orange and Grand Marnier panettone is right up her street. I’ve no doubt we’ll be seeing one adorning the table come Christmas Day…

That might seem like more than enough, but of course what is Christmas without complete overindulgence and stuffing your face between meals too? The create a Gingerbread Tree Kit will it the bill nicely, as well as keeping the kids entertained whilst the adults prepare the main meal. I could also be really tempted by the Finest cranberry, raspberry and chocolate squares – light enough to not spoil the main meal and a welcome contrast to all the other much richer fare on offer.

Just in case we haven’t eaten enough, Father Christmas is always very generous in the sweet treats department every year too. I’ve got a few suggestions to direct him towards, in case he wants some inspiration:

• Every year we have some Lebkuchen provided in our stockings. Why make this year any different?
• I’d quite like a Finest Beauty Box with Chocolates – yumminess with a lasting purpose!
• Chocolate coal for mum’s partner – he’s always going on about the coal he got ‘when he were a lad’ so I reckon he’d see the funny side…
• And the kids would love the rocket cookie tin and princess cookie tin 🙂

Finally, there must be cheese. Being from ‘oop’ North, Mums partner is keen on cheese of the Gloucestershire or Lancashire persuasion; whilst the Other half likes a nice mature cheddar, and the Southerners in the family are happy to indulge in a bit of Stilton and also work with their closer proximity to the continent through consuming a healthy amount of Brie, Camembert and other foreign offerings. Personally, I’ve kind of got my eye on the cheese cake tower (that’s cheese in the shape of a cake, not cheesecake, if you’re wondering…) And don’t forget the chutney! A caramelised red onion, whiskey and chilli kilner will do nicely please 😉

It’s still a few weeks off, but my mouth is watering at the thought. Did I mention we celebrate a Kiwi Christmas as well? It’s only fair that if they get to celebrate earlier* we do too!

*Actually we celebrate much, much earlier…like early December…but I’m not one to be picky when there’s great food on offer…

 

This post is part of the BritMums project with Tesco

The Tesco Christmas range is out in store now! In fact, I’ve just been and picked myself up some mince pies and a pretty shopping bag. Mmm…