Cracking Christmas, December 2009

Hats off to all those who braved the cold to take part in our Christmas dinner cooking workshop at Chorlton High School on Thursday 17 December. Cracking Good Food had heard that the supermarket ingredients that go into an average Christmas dinner travel a combined distance of over 49,000 miles before they even get to our plates, so we challenged Nina to find an alternative that wouldn't cost the earth. Nina's 5-8pm session (co-hosted by Action for Sustainable Living as part of their I'm Dreaming Of A Green Christmas campaign) aimed to show how easy it is to create a delicious festive feast on a budget, avoiding unnecessary airmiles by using locally sourced ingredients and cutting back on excess waste with top tips on using up leftovers.


After first shedding their own layers, the group was straight into peeling parsnips, stripping sprouts off their stalks and rinsing the soil from the "dirty" carrots (here's one of the participants, Bernard, looking on eagerly!), and it wasn't long before the kitchen began to fill with some lovely roasting smells. The apple gluhwein soon warmed everyone up and there was a great atmosphere as we all sat around the big table together, chatting and tucking into the tasty dishes that never seemed to stop coming from the oven. It might not have been Christmas Day, but the party spirit was definitely in abundance and everyone was sorry when it was time to leave – although when they did, they had plenty of new ideas and a good bundle of recipe sheets to try out at home!

Clare