A Happy Homemade Christmas - part 4 - All over Red Rover

And so, the Silly Season is over for another year. Though I didn’t achieve perfection (by a long shot) in my Quest for an entirely Handmade Christmas, I was happy with my efforts.

I made the salads for our Xmas lunch. I supported local business by getting the chutneys and pickles at the markets.  I wrapped my presents up in lovely rustic twine and brown paper. I bought handmade for some of my gifts.

It wasn’t easy though. Particularly the gift side – I’ve discovered not everybody can be catered for by the handmade or locavore movement.

Books, for example. You have to buy them, you can’t make them or get one from your friendly local author. You CAN, however, support authors by buying from independent bookshops. Or DVDs. Again, something you can’t hand make or buy local. But you CAN purchase them legitimately from a shop or online retailer, thus ensuring everyone involved in their production receives their cut of the profits. Piracy helps nobody.

So what did I learn? Well, I found that handmade gifts for the men in my family are extremely difficult. They just don’t want or need leather hip flask covers, stamped silver bottle opener keyrings or manscaping smelly things to splash on their chiseled jaws. They’re not into fashion, and wear no jewelry. Thus, sites like Etsy are a little of a lost cause for me when shopping for males. The one exception is t-shirts – there are some great, original artwork tees out there.

I also learned that you just can’t do everything and work full-time. I worked right up to Xmas Eve, and found that hand-making gift tags, co-coordinating a decorative colour theme for the dining room and trialing a tablescaping idea were not within my abilities. However, I found some lovely handmade-looking tags, bought crackers that matched the baubles on my tree and threw some pinecones in a wire basket for a centerpiece. And it worked out ok.

The loveliest part of the day was having the chance to bring out and use some of my vintage Pyrex. I used a divided casserole dish, an old amber glass pie dish and a large mixing bowl for the salads.

I hope your Christmas was just as nice as mine. x

Dinner parties with ease

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Last night, we had four people over to dinner. My dearest partner had taken the liberty of extending the invitation without consulting me a few days prior. You can imagine my first reaction – one of incredulous exclamation.

Fortunately I swallowed the “You did WHHAATTT?” that threatened to explode from my mouth and instead took a deep breath and asked, “Well, what are you cooking?”.

Yes, I'm patting myself on the back here for being crafty. I have discovered a stress-free way of dealing with unexpected dinner guests – let C do all the work. My plan evolved as follows.

• Step 1 – as already indicated, I made it clear that he would be cooking. By doing this, I ensured that it was something easy, as C's repertoire is somewhat limited in scope and imagination (as is mine, but that's beside the point).
  
  
• Step 2 – when I pointed out that we had nowhere to sit 6 people, he immediately suggested we sit outside under the patio. And offered to clean it up. Which he did. All I did was wipe down the table and arrange some chairs. Voila. Dinner setting done.
  
  
• Step 3 – make sure we had actual ingredients to cook dinner with. C had decided on a simple pasta and sauce, but as we only had one jar of sauce in the house, he volunteered to go get some more. Off to the shops he went, coming back with a block of chocolate as well that we could serve with coffee, and two bag of Doritos for entree. Posh, I know, but cheaper than a platter of sun-dried tomatoes and goat's cheese or whatever it is people are supposed to serve these days.
  
  
• Step 4 – our guests wanted to know what they could bring. I said BYO drinks, but they showed up with dessert as well (apple pie and custard). Mental note for next time – ask your guests to bring the dessert course!
  
  
• Step 5 – shower and dress, then relax with a drink until guests arrive.

I was amazed at how well it worked. I was completely stress-free all afternoon, apart from some initial whining at about 4pm that I don't like having people over. The dinner itself went great, and most people had seconds. We were fortunate in that our guests are easy-going and not in the least pretentious, and were completely satisfied with what was served. And so was I!

By the time I was nibbling some chocolate with my cup of hot tea, I was as full as a goog (to borrow my mother's phrase. No, I don't know what a goog is) and a very happy hostess.

So now I've discovered a great formula for keeping things relaxed and tension-free when having people over to eat, I'm interested in your tips. What do you do to make entertaining easy on yourself?