If you think about it, Christmas is all about making wishes. Children write letters to Santa with their wish lists for presents, while adults make wishes to bump into other adults under the mistletoe.
And if that’s not enough we’ve even planted wishing traditions in the Christmas nosh. Take the Christmas pudding (also called plum pudding although it contains no plums at all). This is traditionally stirred from east to west in honour of the 3 wise men and each family member gives the pudding a stir and makes a secret wish. Sometimes a euro piece is stirred into the pudding bringing luck to the finder on Christmas day, as long as it’s not swallowed, of course.
And then there is the turkey wishbone, which is said to bring good luck to the person who comes away with the largest piece of bone in a little tug of war for two. Again, the winner gets a wish.
If you’re the host of a Christmas lunch for twenty or so, your wish would probably be that the food you’ve just presented on the table is edible enough. It is a known fact that the majority of families in Europe will serve up a succulent roast turkey as the centre piece of their festive meal this Christmas. It will never be a game up for the turkeys, bless ‘tem.
But what goes on behind the scenes to get that turkey looking good on the Yuletide table? Ah. Mild panic, hysteria, stock which won’t reduce, vegetables which are over steamed, gravy which is overboiled and family members rowing furiously. A good idea would be to take it out on Henry VIII – he was after all the very man, the king, who came up with the stuffed turkey idea (or so the legend goes).
But this year, right at the point before lower lips start to wobble, Taste of Home shall come in, in the form of an angel from the heavens heralding the good news. Our stuffed turkey breast recipe is so easy to follow that you’ll be wishing that you’ll be hosting Christmas lunch everyday.