We’re mostly about the Duplo still in this house, though we do have a couple of Lego games (Creationary and Shave a Sheep, both brilliant games) and a small Harry Potter set. (The shop in town that sells Lego and Duplo has the Hogwarts and Hogwarts Express sets and I just stand and stare at them for ten minutes whenever I’m stocking up on Duplo – one day… one day… I will have the Harry Potter Lego!)

For ages, we just had a basic Duplo set, which was fine, though fairly limited in scope. LaLa was getting really in to building very tall towers with it, so we and others gave her Duplo sets for Christmas – the Zoo and the Alphabet sets – and suddenly, both LaLa and RoRo exploded into little Lego construction engineers.

They’ve built zoos, houses, jails, parks, castles, schools, hospitals, space rockets and trees, with the range expanding considerably once we invested some of their Christmas money in some bases. (I have to say that you cannot fully appreciate the versatility of the stuff without some bases to keep your constructions together.) LaLa especially enjoys playing with the three Lego people we have (‘man’, ‘man’ and ‘lady’ as she has imaginatively christened them), while RoRo is getting the most out of coming up with new things to build and working out how to do so. She’ll do things like build walls with striped patterns, or make sure a tree has a yellow and brown trunk and green leaves and the sea has a blue and green base. And she’ll work out how to connect walls together and build stairs and roofs and turrets for castles.

So… why in the name of all that is holy, do we need pink and purple Lego with girly girly sets and interchangeable hair and fashion accessories for the characters? Why? Some of the sets in the Lego Friends range, actually look quite good – a tree house , a vet , an invention workshop , for example – but why do they have to be steeped in this whole Moxie-girlesque 21st century post-feminist girly backlash? Why not just have these sets as generic sets and throw some different coloured blocks into all sets? Differentiating between Lego sets for boys and Lego sets for girls is sad. It is taking away from a toy that has always been reassuring gender-neutral and bowing to the purveyors of pink peer pressure.

Girls have been playing with Lego for many years and have happily been able to build whatever they wanted – be it shops and castles and ironing boards, or rockets and dinosaurs and cannons. Are there really girls out there who refuse to build with Lego because it’s ‘for boys’ or ‘not pink enough’? If so, that’s surely a very worrying thing? A worrying attitude to be bringing up our girls (and our boys) with?

By all means, Lego, throw in some pink and purple blocks to the sets and introduce some new sets that are more wide-ranging in appeal, but please, please, please, leave the sexualisation and gender stereotyping to Barbie.

Other people have already written about this – Sally Whittle wrote about Why she used to love Lego, there’s a Huffington Post piece about the uproar this new range has been creating worldwide and Mum’s the Boss wrote about her anger at the new range as well – and there are plenty more out there (yes, I’m a bit late to the row, sorry).

I read a few articles and blog posts about Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother when it was causing so much controversy in the US. And I admit to feeling outrage at many of the incidents and attitudes described. But, like many of the authors of these pieces, I had not actually read the book. I recall Chris suggesting I blog about it at the time, but I never got around to it and also felt wrong about ranting about a book I hadn’t read.

So, when Bloomsbury asked if I’d like a copy of the new edition (due out in paperback and ebook on 9 February 2012), I jumped at the chance. Let’s see what all the fuss is about, I thought, and I also warned the publicist that I might not be positive in my reaction to the book.

Well, I’m very glad to have had this opportunity, particularly as I think it’s quite unlikely I would have gone out and actively bought a copy myself.

I loved this book. It was a fascinating read and while, yes, there were some incidents and attitudes described that did make me feel uncomfortable, the overall read overshadowed these. I enjoyed the writing, I enjoyed the glimpses into another culture (I love getting inside another culture and having my world view challenged – I usually do it through fiction, but it was equally appealing to do so through a memoir) and I also enjoyed, somehow, a little element of relief that I’m not doing awfully as a mum.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is not a parenting guide. Amy Chua never set out to write an instruction manual on how to bring up a musical prodigy or how to get your children to receive constant A grades. This is a memoir, an engagingly and sometimes comically written one, that centres on the author’s attempts to bring her children up in the traditional Chinese way. It looks at her successes and her failures – both in terms of her children’s achievements and in terms of their happiness, the importance of which the book shows her growing to appreciate over time.

Amy Chua is self-critical – she is emphasising the extremes of the ‘Chinese parenting’ that she was adhering to. She admits to its failure for her younger daughter and father. She shows how she had to adapt her ideas and principles, because no two children are identical (something most of us with more than one child discover soon enough).

One of the things Amy Chua talks about in the postscript to this new edition of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and her eldest daughter talks about in the letter she wrote to the New York Post (which is reprinted at the end of the book) is that the book cannot possibly convey the whole story of their family dynamic. Of course, it can’t. As someone who blogs about her children I can testify to this. There are a million incidents in our family life that never reach this blog – both positive and negative (and, of course, plain boring). There are things I don’t write about because my children or husband (or other family members) don’t want me to. There are things that I choose not to share because they would paint me in a bad light and, in a rather British way, things that I don’t write about because they would sound too braggy.

Amy Chua’s book conveys mostly one element of their life – a very big element, admittedly, but not the entirety – her efforts to raise her children to excel in academics and music. It shares some parenting methods and strategies that will make many people (myself included) cringe. But, as she mentions in her new postscript, it doesn’t show the laughter and hugs that they share and the fun that they do have together.

Amy Chua’s parenting methods (or the Chinese parenting method, as she calls it) are definitely not ones that I want to adopt. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t get some interesting and useful insights out of reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. One thing in particular that struck me, is something I’ve talked about in a post a few weeks ago – how we sometimes need to adjust our expectations of our children. I talked about expecting both RoRo and LaLa to be more mature than the actually are, but I also mentioned the problem of having too low expectations of a child and therefore preventing them from pushing themselves. I do think that we (or more I, really) am often too quick to let RoRo (and LaLa, actually) give up on something. With reading and spellings, if she’s not enthusiastic I tend not to force the issue, even a tiny bit. Because I know she does fantastically well when she is enthusiastic. But sometimes a little bit of a push is all it takes and putting that extra effort in can make all the difference.

But, no, I’m not going to give up on playdates (actually, we only have time for one playdate a week as it is, with all the overscheduling we already fit in) and have the girls drill times tables and Latin conjugations or spend lots of money on tutors. But I might expect them to a bit more now and then and reassure them that they can do something, rather than letting them accept defeat.

I would definitely recommend reading this book, whether you see yourself as an authoritarian parent, a laissez-faire woolly liberal or a progressive something-or-other. You might scream and shout at Amy Chua, you might gasp in astonishment, you might put your head to one side and wonder, but you might just enjoy a good read, without having to take any particular learning or message away from it.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of the book by the publisher, but this review is my own honest opinion.

We love Oliver Jeffers here. My dad bought RoRo How to Catch a Star when we were on a day trip to Weston-super-Mare a few years ago. Reading it always brings tears to my eyes. Because it’s such a lovely story, but also because it has the added effect of reminding me of my dad.

Lost and Found brings tears to my eyes, too (yes, OK, it’s not a major accomplishment as it doesn’t take much to get my tear ducts streaming). The fairly simple tale of friendship and misunderstanding is made more evocative by Jeffers’ beautiful (and, again, seemingly simple) illustrations.

The Lost and Found Pop-up book has all the magic and emotion of the story and illustrations, with the addition of houses popping up, tabs to push and pull and flaps to open up. Both RoRo and LaLa are enchanted by the book – in particular the house that pops up at the start. Corina Fletcher has been stunning with the paper engineering.

The Lost and Found Pop-up book doesn’t feel especially robust, which has lead me to admonish ‘Be careful!’ or ‘Gently!’ to the girls as they look through it and also to keep it out of reach and only allow supervised reading. Which is a shame. It might well stand up to a good pulling and pushing read and, even if it doesn’t, I should probably let them explore it at their leisure.

But I’m not going to. It’s too nice to risk spoiling it!

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of the book by the publisher, but this review is my honest opinion.

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Carol at Make It, Bake It has set up a new monthly In Season Challenge to make something from an in-season ingredient.

And I have to say, what a brilliant idea! We started trying to cook more with in-season ingredients a few years ago. This was brought on by a need to cut down on our outgoings, however, we soon discovered that fresh, local, in-season produce tastes a lot better than the stuff that’s travelled hundreds of miles on a boat or a plane, artificially chilled and so on.

We don’t manage to cook entirely with local, in-season produce, but we definitely try to use it as much as possible. And it tends to fit with the weather, too. Root vegetables feel better in the autumn and the winter; salads feel better in the spring and summer.

The ingredient for this month is Savoy Cabbage, which is a great vegetable. It has a lovely colour, texture and of course taste. It’s great in soups and stews, but can also be used to wrap other food, as a side dish in itself, as vegetable lasagne and probably a whole bunch of other things, too. Head over to Make It, Bake It on 6 February to read others’ Savoy Cabbage posts.

Three Cabbage and Chick Pea Soup

Warming, tasty soup, which can be served puréed or ‘au naturel’. You can vary the cabbage types as you like, but keep the Savoy as the dominant one.

Ingredients

• 2 onions
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ Savoy cabbage
• ¼ Sweetheart cabbage
• ¼ red cabbage
• 1½ litres vegetable stock (I use 4 Kallo stock cubes, rather than recommended 3)
• 1 (400g) tin chick peas
• 2 tsp ground coriander (or handful fresh coriander for a different flavour)
• 2 tsp paprika

Method

1. Peel and chop the onions into rough 1-cm cubes.
2. Heat the onion in the olive oil until translucent.
3. Meanwhile, chop all the cabbage into 1–2-cm chunks.
4. Add the cabbage and stir.
5. Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes.
6. Add the stock and simmer for half an hour.
7. Add the chick peas, coriander and paprika and simmer for a further 30 minutes.
8. (Optional) Purée the soup.

Serving

Serve with buttery chunks of crusty granary bread. Small bowls as a starter, big bowls as a substantial and nutritious main course.

I was sent this a couple of months ago now and used it for probably around six weeks before taking a yet-to-be-curtailed break for Christmas (and ‘stuff’!). I loved it and I know that once I’ve done a couple of sessions I will be fully back into the Zumba rhythm, with all the enthusiasm I had at the end of last year. … … I just have to take that first step.

Contents of the Zumba Fitness DVD Exercise Kit

The kit comprises two toning sticks, four DVDs and a workout guide. The workouts on the DVDs are Basics, Express, Sculpt and Tone, Cardio Party, Flat Abs and Zumba Live.

The Basics workout is 60 minutes long and takes you through the steps and moves. As a very unco-ordinated person, I spent three hours replaying each bit trying to get the steps right, before I realised that an approximation would be OK and I’d probably improve over time. Now I can do most of the steps pretty well, but there are a couple that I just can’t do fully – mostly these are Salsa steps and I’ve always found Salsa steps hard. However, I do them well enough to get benefit from it, so that’s fine by me. So, I would say don’t worry about trying to get your steps perfect before you move on from the Basics workout – just do it once or twice and then jump in.

The Express workout is 20 minutes long and is ideal for doing daily (not completely daily, of course, as it’s important to take a couple of days off for recovery in any exercise programme). You can fit it in without too much hassle – in the evening after the children have gone to bed, in the morning, while they’re eating breakfast… – but it’s long enough to make a difference to your fitness.

The Cardio Party workout is hard work, but very exhilarating. You can definitely feel that it’s working and I would make sure you did a week or two of just the Express workout before jumping into this if your fitness level is pretty low to start with.

The Sculpt and Tone workout uses the toning sticks and if you’re anything like me your arms will ache at the end.

I haven’t tried the Flat Abs or Zumba Live, but I’m sure they’re as effective as the rest.

My ideal programme would be to do three Express, 1 Cardio Party and 1 Sculpt and Tone each week, with two days off for recovery. Usually, though, I’ve tended to end up doing two Express workouts and 1 Cardio Party or Sculpt and Tone.

How I found the Zumba Fitness DVD Exercise Kit

This is by far the most fun exercise DVD I’ve ever tried. Every other one, I’ve done two or three times and then given up. With this one, when I finish a workout, I’m already looking forward to doing another one the next day. I tend to still be dancing a bit in the shower afterwards. I remember a lot of the steps and sometimes put on some Merengue and do some steps while cooking or dancing with the girls. The music is great, the steps are fun and, while the presenters can sometimes come across a little irritating, they’re actually very motivational and positive.

As I’m not a very co-ordinated person and have a very changeable schedule, I really appreciate the ability to do this at home in my own time, rather than in a class. I am very self-conscious and really hate exercising with anyone – even Chris or my sister! I’d also recommend it to get to grips with the steps first if you’re just a bit unco-ordinated, or to do extra sessions at home on top of your weekly Zumba class.

As with all exercise DVDs (or routines or programmes), though, you have to keep it up for it to have an effect. While I kept it up for longer than any other exercise DVD in the past, I did stop when it wasn’t really necessary. My schedule had been to do my workouts while Chris took the girls to school three days a week, so it fell by the wayside over Christmas. However, there really was no reason not to just change the schedule around – do it in the evening after the girls were in bed, for example, or do it when they were around and let them join in or watch.

You can buy the kit on Amazon for (at the time of writing) £29.99 or from the Zumba people themselves for £59.98 at www.zumbafitness.co.uk.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of the DVD Exercise Kit to review and keep, but the content of the review is my own and based on using the kit.

An old school friend of mine writes a blog about what she sees and thinks about when walking her dog. If you’re not a dog person, you might not understand the whole dog-walking thought train, but if you are and regularly walk a dog, you’ll probably recognise the feeling.

I’ve taken to walking Wesley every evening after Eleanor’s gone to sleep and while Chris reads to Rosemary. It’s usually a half hour walk, or round-about – to the edge of town and back. It’s a half hour to think about whatever I want to, which is weird, scary, empowering and all kinds of words like that.

Sometimes I use it to run over things that have happened during the day. If I’ve shouted at the girls, I might be thinking about what I could have done differently to prevent that. If some work has gone badly, I might be thinking about how to fix it the next day. I quite often have arguments with people – Chris, clients, the girls, random shopkeepers or car drivers – who have wound me up during the day and tell them what I wish I’d said then. And every now and again I congratulate myself on what went well – getting out the door in the morning on time and with no shouting from anyone, meeting a deadline – or three – spending quality time with Chris, making a nice meal, booking in a new job, getting lots of hits on a blog post…

But mostly what I do is dream. I make up scenarios, usually about our life and future. I don’t think there’s anything especially new or different about these fantasies or dreams. They frequently centre on winning some money on the lottery (just a £500,000 Thunderball win, nothing outrageous like a Euromillions rollover, mind), or getting a huge advance for that novel I still haven’t finished writing. But sometimes they’re slightly smaller scale, like working out a blog redesign, imagining how to move the furniture around in the bedroom, picturing myself sewing up all those clothes that need fixing. OK, so they may well be as unlikely as the lottery win.

And then I picture us living in one of the houses I pass on my walk. One of the big houses that would probably require a lottery win, and quite possibly one bigger than that Thunderball. There are a few contenders, but there’s one in particular, right at the edge of town. It’s quite big, though not outrageously so. It looks like it would comfortably house a big family – in fact, I have a feeling the Bennets would have been quite at home there. It has arched sash windows and a big arched door. A walled garden. An annexe that would make a perfect office, or studio, There’s a driveway and quite possibly a paddock, though that’s just a guess.

I have no idea what it looks like inside, but I have a very clear picture in my head. The large kitchen, with the huge scratched wooden table, double range, scruffy but cosy sofa, dresser full of tea pots and large mugs, hanging rack draped in copper pans. The utility room with the muddy boots cluttering the corner and coats hanging by the door. The lounge with the roaring wood fire, flanked by walls of books, and the large mirror reflecting the dark red walls and floral wallpaper. The playroom strewn with wooden toys and Lego and train sets and kitchens and garages and blackboards – walls papered with bright and colourful pictures…

I’ve even gone knocking on the door to ask if it’s for sale – in my head, of course – and had the fortuitous conversation with the woman who’s splitting up with her husband and so has to sell the beautiful house they’ve lived in for eight years. I’ve gone and sat in her kitchen and drunk tea and sympathised and chatted about the coincidence that we’re both children’s book illustrators (in addition to my thriller-writing career, of course, which has provided the funds to enable me to come knocking on her door). I’ve moved in with all the family and had parents from school come round for tea and even drinks. I’ve seen Wesley running around in the walled garden, finally happy to wander without having to bark at passing dogs.

Some people set the world to rights while walking the dog – solving the economy problems, ending war and famine… some people meditate… some people watch the skies and the trees and nature… and some people spend huge amounts of money furnishing houses that are far too big for their family.

Hmm… that does make it sound bad. But there we go, that’s what I do. When I’m not writing a chapter of my novel or a blog post, that is.

Vegetarian Christmas Pie

Serves 6–8

This makes an attractive centrepiece, especially when cut into. You can adapt it quite easily for different tastes and diets, too.

Ingredients

• 8 eggs·        
• 2 large carrots·        
• 1 tbsp honey·        
• 2 tsp mustard·        
• 2 tbsp water·        
• 500g spinach·        
• 75g ricotta·        
• Salt·        
• Pepper·        
• Nutmeg (optional)·        
• 8 red peppers·        
• 50g butter·        
• 250g mushrooms·        
• 5 gloves garlic·        
• 50g butter·        
• sweetcorn·        
• puff pastry (thawed)·        
• 1 egg yolk for brushing (or milk)

Method

1. Hard boil the eggs and allow to cool.
2. Peel the carrots, then slice them lengthwise into about 0.5cm thick slices.
3. Heat them in a pan with the honey mustard and water on a low heat for 10–15 minutes. Set aside.
4. Wash the spinach then wilt it in a covered pan.
5. Mix the spinach in and season with some salt and pepper and ground nutmeg (if desired).
6. Deseed the peppers and cut into thirds (roughly).
7. Place skin up on a baking tray and put under a high grill for about 10 minutes.
8. Allow to cool slightly, then peel the skin off.
9. Melt the butter in a saucepan or frying pan and then heat the peppers for about 5 minutes.
10. Chop the mushrooms into slices (about 1cm wide).
11. Melt the butter in a frying pan.
12. Finely chop (or mince) the garlic and add it to the pan.
13. Add the mushrooms and cook on a low to medium heat until they are softened. Set aside.
14. Make sure all the vegetables elements and eggs have cooled.
15. Roll out the puff pastry – I normally roll out two pieces to make two large sheets that are a bit bigger than my baking sheet.
16. Grease the baking sheet and place one puff pastry piece on the baking sheet.
17. Layer on the vegetables, leaving 2–3 inches of pastry around the edge. You can layer them in any order you want, really, though its best to put the egg layers in the middle not at the edges.
18. Place the other puff pastry sheet on top then join the edges together, fold them over and crimp them (kind of folding at an angle).
19. When you’re ready to put it in the oven, brush with egg yolk (or milk).
20. Bake in the oven (on a medium to high heat) for around 40 minutes or until the pastry is brown (not burnt!). You can cook the vegetables at the same time.

Adaptations

To make it vegan, leave out the ricotta and egg and brush with soya milk instead of egg or milk. You can change the vegetable layers considerably – go for bright colours for the best effect, but you can also go for strongly contrasting flavours or complementary ones. You could make it into a particularly Christmassy pie, by putting Brussels sprouts and parsnips layers in. You can pretty much change it entirely to your liking – or have a layer to suit all your different tastes – a cheesy pasta layer for the children, a nutty mushroom layer for Granny… and so on…

Accompaniments

Well, it’s Christmas dinner so you’ll be wanting all the trimmings, won’t you? Roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, carrots and some lovely gravy (I use 2 tbsp marmite, 1 tbsp tomato puree and one Kallo stock cube with 1 litre boiling water, then thicken up a bit with 2 tsp cornflour and 2 tbsp cold water mixed into the stock). And don’t forget the Christmas crackers! It’s also delicious cold on Boxing Day with a light salad.

Drinking suggestions

Red wine or dark ale. Orange juice and sparkling water. Or the Co-op’s sparkling raspberry juice is also very nice with it.

If you need to move furniture around, then you should wait until all possible children are home and in the room. In fact, it would probably be advisable to arrange a couple of playdates, so that you really have maximum numbers of helpers. This works particularly well when moving the furniture will expose toys, mementos and dead spiders who have not been seen since, well, probably last Christmas. That way, when you’re cleaning out the space for the tree, you can have small children running between your legs and tripping over bits of Lego. It’s also particularly helpful if you try to move as much furniture as you can all by yourself. You never know, this might help you find a way to A&E in the run-up to Christmas.

If the children somehow manage to escape the lure of sparkly tinsel and baubles for the lure of the television, giving you far too much time to actualy clear the space and put the tree up, do make certain that you call them back before you put the lights up. Especially if you are likely to have any dead bulbs that need replacing. Because impatient children are really essential to the whole process.

If you’ve bought new decorations, do make sure they’re all still in their box, preferably secured to each other or the box by means of impenetrable wires. It’s a strong bonus if you have bought decorations that include some shaped like teeny tiny presents, because then you can have the fun of watching one child open one out of curiosity, while the rest copy the leader. You can then be sure to throw in that most Christmassy of Christmas traditions, threatening to send a small child to bed for opening a present too early – and you don’t even have to damage a real present in the process. Perfect.

Any old decorations should, of course, be as tangled up as possible, requiring hedge trimmers and Vaseline to extricate them and work out which two can actually be reused this year. By this point, you will probably have lost your child helpers and may well be left to finish clearing up the various messes all by yourself. If so, large doses of alcohol should be administered in order to mimic the effects of small children.

Once you have children, though, making home-made cards takes on a whole new dimension. I had intended to get Rosemary to do a drawing of a Christmas tree or similar, scan it in, funk it up a bit in Photoshop and/or Illustrator and then print multiple copies. However, time was running out, toner was running out and I also thought it would be nice to do something that could involve Eleanor as well as Rosemary. My first idea was potato stamps. I cut out some Christmas tree and star shapes from some potatoes and Rosemary tried to print them onto cards. All we got was big blobs of paint. Not a success at all.

But the next idea worked out really well.

Cut and stick Christmas cards

You will need

• Different coloured (preferably bright) A4 card
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Glitter shakers (optional)

I prepared the cards and shapes the night before, but if you have older children, you can get them to do that too. I made four cards out of each piece of A4 card – cut into four then folded in half. (I made a total of 28 – but obviously you can make however many you need.) And then I used a couple of pieces of each colour (with extra green) and cut out squares and triangles of different shapes. I made extra green triangles because they’re very useful for Christmas trees. (I did this while catching up on TV shows on Sky Go and drinking a glass of beer. Of course, you could watch or drink different things.)

I then presented the girls with blank cards, glue, shapes and glitter shakers and they made a bunch of cards, and had lots of fun doing it (which is important when you’re using your children to do your work, really). We made Christmas trees, stars and also some random patterns. And then sprinkled some of them with glitter. Eleanor did a few just with glitter, too.

Here are Rosemary’s cards (she got a little distracted and ended up creating pictures instead of cards in the end):

Here are Eleanor’s (she had a real production line going):

And these are mine (I had a great time, too):

You probably haven’t left it this late, but just in case, I believe it’s the last posting date for second class tomorrow, so you could prepare the materials tonight and get the kids on the job in the morning, if necessary!

We have quite a lot of left-over shapes, so maybe we’ll use them for Thank You cards, too. If we actually manage to be organised enough to write any, which is certainly not guaranteed!

One of the first questions people ask me when they find out I’m vegetarian is ‘But what do you eat for Christmas dinner?’ And the answer to that is along the lines of ‘Anything I want to’. To be honest, I think being vegetarian actually opens you up to more adventurous meals – the everyday ones as well as the special ones. It’s quite easy to come up with seven varieties of meat (or maybe fish) and two veg to get you through a week, whereas it’s less so to do the same without the meat (and fish – let’s get something straight right away: if you eat fish, you are not vegetarian). These days, you can probably manage it with a variety of Quorn products or vegetable burgers, but for the most part, if you’re vegetarian you’re still more likely to be preparing and cooking your own food (yes, I know there are plenty of exceptions).

It’s easy, too, to fall into a tradition of what to eat for Christmas dinner – and, actually, that’s not exclusive to meat eaters. So many people seem to have roast turkey (and all the trimmings) or roast chicken (and all the trimmings), with the odd leg of pork thrown in. We always used to have a mushroom and nut wellington. My aunt’s family usually have a sweetcorn, potato and cheese pie. And we all still have these with all the trimmings. Christmas dinner really isn’t the same without roast potatoes, is it?

I try to do something different each year – both for the big meal at our house every other year (where I’m cooking for my folks who are vegetarian) and when I’m up in Scotland with Chris’s family, where I’m the only vegetarian (though it’s always important to make extra, because everyone wants a taste of whatever I do) – oh, and we usually have a second Christmas on New Year for my folks on the years we’re in Scotland. But I do really only ring the changes with the centrepiece. I still do (or share) roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots and parsnips. Sometimes I have a traditional (but veggie) gravy and sometimes a different sauce, such as cream of red pepper sauce, or cream of asparagus.

Here are some of the centrepieces I’ve made over the years. The majority of them are wellingtons of some kind (that is, something rolled up in puff pastry), though there is an occasional meander of this path.

Mediterranean Wellington

Halloumi surrounded by couscous and wrapped in roasted Mediterranean vegetables (courgette, aubergine, pepper), all wrapped in puff pastry – looks beautiful when sliced (which is one of the main things to look for in a vegetarian centrepiece, in my opinion). (Make it vegan by leaving the haloumi out – you could replace it with some vegan cheese, but I don’t think that would be necessary. Or some tofu might work nicely.)

Nutty mushroom and sausage wellington (vegan)

This one is closer to the one we had when I was little. Large Sosmix (vegetarian sausage mix that you can get from most healthfood shops and a lot of supermarkets) sausage in the middle, either with stuffing inside or wrapping it, wrapped in fried garlic mushrooms and then coated in crushed nuts. Again, the whole thing is wrapped in puff pastry.

Egg and vegetable wellington

This is what I did last year for Christmas Number Two. Different vegetables cooked in different ways and spread on puff pastry in separate layers, include a couple of layers of egg. Vegetable layers can include honey-roasted carrots, spinach and ricotta (or goats cheese), garlic mushroom, olive oil and olives with courgette, sweet peppers and butter… or anything you or your family particularly likes. Bright coloured vegetables make this one look particularly spectacular. (Leave out the egg and swap the butter for marge or olive oil, and you have a vegan version.)

Here’s a recipe for a version of this.

Roulades of courgette and goats cheese and sweet potato and red pepper

Make roulades with pureed vegetables and egg white spread out in a Swiss roll tin and baked for about 20 minutes on a low heat. When they’ve cooled roll them up with a filling – goats cheese and rocket, red pepper and cream cheese, avocado and chilli… whatever you fancy and will go well with the matching roulade. Once prepared I then sprinkle with some parmesan and sesame seeds and reheat for maybe 15-20 minutes. You then serve a thick slice of each to everyone. They look pretty stunning.

Puff pastry pasta cake

Make a cheese pasta – with macaroni or smaller pasta. Roast some vegetables – could be seasonal ones, such as carrot, swede, butternut squash, etc. or Mediterranean, such as courgettes, peppers and aubergine. Put a large circle of puff pastry on a baking tray. Put a layer of the pasta at the bottom in a circle (leave a really good amount around the edges – maybe 10 centimetres), then add the vegetables in layers. Top with the pasta, and then try to spread the pasta around the edges too, so that the vegetables are completely surrounded. Put a smaller circle of puff pastry on the top and then fold up the edges and seal round the edges. Bake for around 35-40 minutes on a medium heat. Serve like slices of cake. (You can do the same but wrap it in roasted aubergine slices, too, rather than puff pastry.)

I’d serve all these with the usual Christmas Day trimmings – roast potatoes and parsnips, with carrots and Brussels sprouts. I’d serve the sausage and egg wellingtons with a traditional gravy (I make mine with a stock of marmite, Kallo veg cubes and a bit of tomato puree and then thicken it with cornflour and water mix). I’d serve the Mediterranean wellington and the roulades with a cream and red pepper (pureed) sauce, and the pasta cake with a tomato and courgette (pureed) sauce.

I should really try to ring the changes a bit with dessert too, though. I’ve served up Delia’s chocolate roulade for the past few years (with a Chantilly and preserve filling, rather than her chocolate mousse). I did make a very nice one many years back, which was individual panetone bread and butter cheesecakes – panetone and butter base, topped with mascarpone and sugar cream and finished off with a berry puree of raspberries and strawberries.

I hope this is of some use to anyone trying to come up with something to cook for a visiting vegetarian, for any vegetarians looking for something new to cook – or maybe even to some meat-eaters who would like an extra centrepiece to accompany the goose or fatted calf.

If you are cooking for vegetarians, take note that a lot of us will not eat roast potatoes and vegetables cooked in the same oven as the turkey (or whatever you’re having). Chris’s parents have a double oven, so when I’m coming to stay the veg gets cooked in the little oven, but before they had their new kitchen I got sauteed potatoes instead (par-boiled then deep fried). You could also roast some in advance and then just give them a quick zap in the microwave.

Whatever you do, do not serve a vegetarian roast potatoes cooked in goose fat – they might be the most delicious thing ever (so I’ve heard, anyway), but they are most certainly not vegetarian. (And while we’re on the tips for cooking for vegetarians, don’t ever use chicken or other meat or fish stock – there are plenty of vegetable stock cubes available, these days (Oxo vegetable stock cubes aren’t very nice, but Kallo are fantastic – just my opinion). A lot of vegetarians also want to have vegetarian cheese (made with vegetable or synthetic rennet, rather than the cow-derived stuff), watch out for jelly which often contains gelatine (try agar agar flakes or there are quite a lot of veggie jelly mixes available these days) and check the ingredients on sauces, sweets and even cakes and any ready meals. If you see the words ‘suitable for vegetarians’ you should be OK, especially on pre-packaged food.

If you’re feeding a vegan, please be extra careful. Honey is not vegan. Eggs and dairy are not vegan. You should also be very careful about cooking utensils and serving dishes (though you should be if you’re feeding vegetarians, too!).

If you’re vegetarian or regularly feed vegetarians for Christmas, I’d love to hear what you have made or are making this year.

And I hope you have a lovely Christmas Meal, whether it’s vegetarian or not.

EDITED TO ADD: This post is getting a lot of visits from people searching for something to cook for vegetarians and vegans for Christmas. I’ve added some notes on a couple of the ideas for how to make them vegan. If you want me to do a separate post of any of the recipes in full, leave a comment, and I’ll try to do so before Monday 19 December, so you have time to plan your shopping.