By the time you read this, I'm probably already in Tassie a few kilograms heavier than I was before Christmas - I bet we are all making weight loss resolutions for the new year, am I right?

This year I didn't have much headspace for the family Christmas dinner - but there was heaps of food anyway. My contribution was foccaccia with camembert and cranberry sauce, which was a little insane but hey I've seen some more insane things on Instagram. My nephews adore foccacia, I mean, who doesn't? And as I make it all the time, I didn't think I'd stuff it up too much - though the dough did rise over the bowl. Dammit.

Lucky I made two - one for the road.

It's quite simple to make - any foccacia recipe, and stuff bits of camembert into the dough with globs of cranberry sauce. I did want to sprinkle pistachio over the top as well but I didn't get round to buying any. I think one of the tricks for focaccia is give it a good knead to start, add some honey and olive oil to the dough, a fair whack of salt and let it rise twice, if not overnight, for better texture and taste.

My other contribution was a salad with mangos and asparagus, served in this lovely Christmas bowl that my Aunty bought me one Christmas years ago. In Australia, mango season is around Christmas time and they're cheap and delicious. I chargrilled the asparagus with some lemon juice which is always delicious.

Australian Christmases are certainly non traditional food wise. Jamie misses bread sauce and turkey, and sausages wrapped in bacon, but that's just not our style. Even by Australian standards we have fairly healthy Christmases, except for my uncles garish trifle with both red and green jelly and my cousins chocolate ripple cake. I feel sick even thinking about it.

With Love,

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