Pizza. That's what I'd really like. After a long shift at work....the spicy pizzas from the Mistletoe pizzeria with okra, onions and chillies are calling. Except what I'll probably do is go home and have a bowl of cereal, because I'm a boring, health-conscious child at heart....

Why do I adore mince pies (the sweet variety, although the real meat ones aren't bad) but hate Christmas pudding and Christmas cake? It's just one of those bizarre anomalies...

It was the Christmas gathering on Sunday, with everyone cooking their favourite Christmas recipes. I ate goose for the first time (I have to say it tastes fairly similar to duck, and that sneakily I rather prefer turkey) and also had my first foie gras experience. Nice, smooth and livery (no kidding!)...but no idea how the French manage to eat it and then combine it with all of this... Still rather uneasy at its methods of production too...

Sad isn't it, when your main meal is beans on toast...but I just can't get my eating habits right now I'm working from 3-11pm. I don't feel like a large meal at lunchtime (I blame my mother for years of sandwich lunches at school) and by the time I get home it's definitely too late. Ah well, back to the joys of 5am starts next week. If that doesn't throw out your body clock, I don't know what does.

We've decided to have sushi for Christmas dinner, mainly because it's unlikely that there will be an oven in the kitchen in three week's time. It's rather liberating not having to think about buying turkey and all the trimmings (and to be honest we'll get enough turkey visiting the family anyway). Have been trying to find some good recipes, but not come across any good sites yet. Even the Worldwide Sushi Restaurant Reference doesn't have anything north of Watford Gap. Is the UK a sushi wasteland?

It's interesting trying to cook in a terrible scratty kitchen with only a microwave and two hobs....lots of pasta and sauce is heading our way until the builders arrive and demolish everything.

I really miss not being able to have cheese on toast, so I may invest in one of those strange lean mean fat fighting machine grill things. A girl can't go without her cheese on toast with worcestershire sauce for ever, you know.

Did discover a rather good sandwich recipe this evening though. Take a pitta bread, warm it in the toaster, split lengthways and then fill with some mushroom pate and a handfull of baby spinach. Marvellous.