A Sunny Christmas Day

Christmas really is the best time of the year. We were so blessed to have a warm and sunny day to spend with the family. And what a bonus to see the children laugh and play in our chilly swimming pool.

​To start of this wonderful day, I made a special Christmas cocktail called 'The Grinch". It's a sweet fruity drink made from melon liqueur (not easy to find), vodka and Sprite, finished off with a sweet blushing red cherry. The melon liqueur made the cocktail sweet and refreshing, and I went back for more. Definitely a new flavour I'll use in future cocktails. 

In our family, it is tradition to have yummy snacks before Santa hands out the presents. Initially I wanted to move away from snacks this year but I kept on coming back to it, and decided that it's a must for the menu. Although we only did secret Santa for the adults, we gave presents to all the children, so snacks were appropriate in this case. I made three different snack platters, in the form of Christmas trees - so cute! The first platter consisted of fresh elements, mostly fruit, including watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe and honeydew melon and sweet and tangy gherkins. 

The second platter comprised crackers, cheese and cold meat. I decided on four different salt crackers, three types of cold meat, one of which was salami and the other two variations of sliced ham. Finally the cheeses - blue cheese, cheddar cheese slices and mini cheese cubes, mainly for the kids.

Lastly the best of the best if I were the judge of it all. A meat and cheese platter, with two types of cocktail sausages, the best meatballs (thank you Mom), sweet milk cheese triangles, tomatoes and some of the best grilled halloumi cheese one will ever find! The perfect start to the festive day!

I wanted to serve a small starter to compliment the main meal, but still light to leave enough room for the delicious main meal. A go-to of mine is phyllo pastry cups, easy to make and so many filling options. For fillings, I decided on a prosciutto and melon salsa, spicy avo and tomato mix and creamed spinach with feta cheese. I must admit, prosciutto isn't my cup of tea and wasn't for most of the family, but now I know and I'll never attempt this combo again! The avo mix was nice, if spicy was your thing, and creamed spinach with feta is always a winner. At the end of the day, not much were left!

For mains, I tried not to go all out, but I never seem to be successful in this task. As I was a late sleeper to get table decorations, I could only get hold of a red and beige table runner with an additional small Christmas tree. In hindsight, this was enough as the table would've been too full with more decorations. I was lucky enough to get the good looking Christmas crackers.

I decided to serve two meat dishes for the mains, juicy chicken breasts covered in smoked red pepper puree (which is also a great sauce for pastas) topped with pecorino shavings as well as pork fillets wrapped in bacon - you can never go wrong with bacon - accompanied by deliciously sweet cranberry sauce.

To accompany the juicy meat dishes, I served crispy baked baby potatoes, grilled cauliflower and broccoli (my husband's handy work), delicious ciabatta as well as garlic ciabatta warmed to perfection, with three salads. The first salad was an all time favourite, roast pumpkin and beetroot salad with baby spinach, feta cheese and pumpkin seeds (I later realised I forgot to add the pecan nuts). The second salad was a refreshing coleslaw with a touch of honey, which is always a winner, especially with the pork. And lastly, a grilled peach and apricot, and fresh plum salad, with a mix of watercress, rocket and baby spinach leaves, toasted almond shavings and pecorino shavings, drizzled with almond oil. I must admit, the grilled apricots went a bit acidic to my taste and the cheese was a bit strong, but overall the salad was good.

I came across a mango and passionfruit cheesecake recipe and decided that this had to be the star of Christmas menu. I decided on one mini cheesecake per person instead of one large cheesecake. To make the cheesecake base and filling was extremely easy, and so good to eat! The base of the cheesecake was a combination of delicious caramelised oats and ginger biscuits. The cheesecake filling comprised cream cheese, sour cream, fresh mango puree, passionfruit curd and lime. After the cheesecakes were set and ready to serve, I topped each one off with a fresh cherry and a slice of dark chocolate with mango and almond. This is a definite go-to dessert for future events and dinners.