As expected, blog life week 52 has been a busy one. Finishing up my 12 Diverse Dinners recipes of Christmas, planning my Christmas day menu, and just living the life I have created, left me with a lot to do in a short space of time, but I did it.

I’m really pleased that I managed to successfully share 12 new recipes with you during the run up to Christmas, and all as delicious as the next. This project was so much fun to do, I’m definitely going to do this again next year. So many people reached out to compliment me on my choice of dishes, some have tried a recipe – mostly the easy ones, and so many have promised to try one some time in the future. I’m so grateful for the feedback from you all – THANK YOU!

Here’s a slideshow of them all.

Theme song: Nativity by Patti LaBelle.

My menu for Christmas day was another fun project, I really enjoy planning menus, putting dishes together that I know people will like.  I had a small group for dinner this year, just three, Jasmine, Wayne and Trevor. This wonderful trio are members of my crash test taster dummies team and as they are always up for trying something new and tasty I thought, why not test out a few new recipes? A bit of a risk on Christmas day, I know, but luckily everything was a hit. Although I still have some work to do on my potato crown to make it just right. Here’s our Christmas day menu.

Blog Life Week 52

A diverse menu with great flavors inspired from around the world. I wanted to add baked Patagonian shrimp as a first course, but decided against it as it was clear my guests appetites’ could not withstand  another course.  Also, I usually like to have two vegetable options for a holiday dinner, just for the sake of variety. But Jasmine insisted that what we had was enough, so I acquiesced and plan to serve my caprese salad in a bed of spinach and arugula in the next day or so. 

I did serve the Patagonian shrimp on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day). For those of you not familiar with Boxing Day it is a holiday celebrated in the UK and many other countries around the world. The tradition for a Boxing Day meal in the UK  is to eat leftovers from your Christmas dinner menu. As there were to be no surprises as to what would be served, I added Baked Patagonian shrimp in a lemon and white wine sauce as a first course. I’ll share the recipe with you in 2016.

So this is my last “Blog Life” post for the year. I’ve enjoyed sharing a little more than just recipes with you. In doing so, I’ve become more creative and learned a little more about myself. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I challenge you to do something new and different for 2016, add a new string to your bow. Trust me, it will be the making of you.

Blog life week 52