Stuffing ready to go!

Last year on Christmas Eve I spent my evening stressing out wrapping presents and getting the stuffing made and ready to go in the oven the next day.  I didn't enjoy my Christmas Eve and went to bed tired and stressed out instead of relaxed and anticipating the kids opening their presents the next day.  I promised myself that this year would be different.  So, here I sit on Christmas Eve eve (see what I did there!) with a Bulmers (or Magners if you aren't from Ireland) in hand congratulating myself on how much better prepared I am this year.  Well done me!

Just before sitting down this evening I finished making my stuffing and it's in the fridge ready to go in the oven on Christmas day.  For the last few years I have made the same stuffing for each year - chestnut and cranberry roll - which was published in the December 2007 Goodfood magazine.  If you haven't decided what stuffing to make this year, do yourself a favour and make this.  Take it from me, it looks impressive, but it is fairly simple and straight forward to make.


The first year I made it my parents were spending Christmas with us and I decided that I wanted to try something different from what we would usually have and my husband was extremely glad I did.  Not only was it delicious with the turkey, but it was even nicer cold, sliced thinly and put in the turkey and ham sandwiches we had later in the evening.  He has been talking about this years stuffing since about August!  I mentioned the possibility of trying a different stuffing this year and gave such a protest that I had to agree to make the chestnut and cranberry roll again.  To be honest, this stuffing is so good I think that I would run a pretty high risk of ruining Christmas dinner with an alternative as I doubt it would live up to this one.

The recipe makes two rolls and a portion for stuffing in the next of the turkey.  It keeps for 2 days in the fridge once it is made up, or you can freeze it for up to a month, so this is why I have made it so far ahead of time.  To be honest, I think if I was really thinking properly I would have got all the ingredients a week or two ago when the shops were a bit calmer and taken my time making the stuffing one evening after the kids were in bed and frozen it.  Then I wouldn't have had to worry about it at all in the week leading up to Christmas.  Next year!  This is the plan for next year!!

Oh - and I have all the presents wrapped for over a week now!  Again - yeah me!