First of all, let me begin by wishing everyone a very happy new year. Yes, it’s rather belated, but then everything has either been late or just not happened this Christmas time.

There we were, in the days leading up to Christmas, congratulating ourselves on how “together” we were, with gifts all bought and wrapped, the turkey cooked and in the freezer and everything that we could have done beforehand, done. As it turns out, it was just as well – as our son was the first to go down with this horrid flu bug, closely followed by myself (on Christmas Day) and his Dad a week or so later!

I managed to get through making Christmas dinner by the skin of my teeth. The fact that we’d cooked the turkey in advance, carved it and put it in the freezer in some stock, was just such a boon! It was a fairly simple matter, thereafter, of making a gravy with the stock and putting the turkey in gravy into the oven to heat through.

In the meanwhile, the pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, potatoes and parsnips were roasting, the other vegetables were steaming and I was making bread sauce. It was a simple matter of just serving everything at the right time, thereafter.

I can thoroughly recommend this as a course of action for the future, so long as you don’t have to present a bronzed and roasted turkey at the table, of course. I don’t think a casserole dish of carved turkey meat has quite the same appeal.

You might remember my Heritage Christmas Pudding that I’d made a little taster pudding of? Well, it was superb by the time Christmas came. I’d resisted all calls to “feed” it with booze and was very pleased with the rich, fruity flavours. In fact, my Mum commented that it was a bit too boozy – which was odd, considering all it had in it was best part of a bottle of Guinness and a couple of tablespoonfuls of spiced rum!

This Christmas was the first time we’ve ever managed to eat an entire Christmas pudding over several mealtimes. Ordinarily, the last few slices get tired of and wind up in the local birdies, but not this year. Sorry birdies!

I’m quite looking forward to next year’s pudding, now! I’m also going to have to do a few other types of steamed pudding, now that I’ve broken my duck so successfully.

So, looking ahead, what culinary challenges have I got lined up for myself?

Well, there’s the big old terracotta Tagine that I got for Christmas. When I’ve recovered sufficiently from this horrid flu, I shall have to find a suitable recipe and give a “proper” tagine a go. I’m sure I won’t have trouble finding a recipe, as I also got Yotam Ottolenghi’s cook book “Jerusalem” for Christmas. I’d found three recipes that I want to make, within the first five pages!

Then there’s the Rosti question. My hubby has yet to find his rosti-making muse and has (apparently) turned out some undercooked efforts, which have burned edges. This must have been before I met him, as I don’t ever recall such a thing. However, I have accepted the rosti challenge and shall be grating and squeezing potatoes in the hope of creating something worth eating! You’ll know if I get it right, as I’ll be somewhat cock-a-hoop and no doubt, telling everyone.

This horrid flu bug has meant I’ve been banned from the kitchen for a few days. Tonight though, I shall be reclaiming the space and endeavouring to make a yummy kedgeree with some smoked haddock. It’s an easy enough dish to make and hopefully will get me back in the cooking swing!

I do so hope you’ve all managed to avoid the various bugs that have been passed around and are looking forward to a successful and healthy 2013. Now, where did those potatoes go – I could fancy a rosti with a poached egg for lunch …