The Kingly Seekh-Kebab

The nan is just crispy enough to enjoy but still soft enough to get a firm grip on the lamb kebab inside. The spices were well-balanced but personally I could have done with some more chilli kick. If I’d been drunk, I’d have liked a lot more chilli. Let’s face it sublety is wasted on a man full of cooking lager.

European Christmas market breaks with thetrainline.com

Let’s face it, the majority of London’s  Ã¢â‚¬ËœChristmas Markets’ are grim excuses for the real spirit of festive commerce felt throughout Europe’s more traditional town squares. £50 for a night spent shivering in a mock chalet scoffing lukewarm bratwursts and glugging glogg? No thank you. We’ll get a cheap deal off thetrainline.com and pop off to one of these destinations instead.

A selection of rather nice festive menus

Who hasn’t had that awful feeling of sitting down, stomach pleasantly a-rumble, only to have those stirrings of gastric yearning turn to icy needles of dread upon having a cheap paper crown plonked on your bonce and reading the awful incantation’prawn cocktail; turkey with all the trimmings; Christmas pudding; mince pies and coffee’ on a holly-trimmed menu?

Festive Book Review: Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann

Ooh I do like a fuggy kitchen on a cold day, with all those lovely cooking smells wafting about like the Christmas Fairy. Especially these Scandi  bakes with their liberal use of cardamom. And my own majestic love for those cakes and cookies knows no bounds. So those smells are about the only things that are going to resemble the Fairy this Christmas.