What a year 2009 was, the fires came in and took the homes of our neighbours, the recession had us all working that extra mile, MJ danced his last moonwalk and the world says hello to America's first black president. It wizzed by so fast before i knew it Christmas decorations were up and plans for new years were on everyones lips.

Lucky me, being out of the hospitality industry this season gave me time with my family friends. Did a whole lotta nothing and loved every minute of it. Every other Christmas consisted of road trips out of Melbourne, or if lucky enough a 8hr flight out to Asia.

This year the festivities kicked off at my parents house, which at the time looked like a squater house! My father having excellent timing thought house renovations should start in November and work well into December and of course Christmas... (Thanks dad) working in a bomb shelter i was scrambling for idea on what to serve. I wanted a no fuss dinner, something that took little effort however making you sickenly full, after all its Christmas! Here's what I came up with:


Roast pork stuffed with garlic and rosemary
Sugar snaped pea salad with prawns
Roasted tomatoes stuffed with Mexican rice and beans
Roast new potatoes, pumpkin, carrot