When Jane from Is That You, Darling said she was going to be hosting her next Photo an Hour session on the sam day I was making my annual Christmas dinner for friends, I knew immediately I would have to join in. Every year I post a few photos of the turkey or the food-laden table… this year, you’ll be getting a behind-the-scense look, so to speak. I couldn’t always stop what I was doing straight away, so most of my photos were actually taken at 10 or quarter past the hour, but I’m labelling them with the full hour anyway…
8 am. Up far too early on a Saturday! But my new slippers almost make up for that 🙂
9 a.m. A large cup of tea is needed before I can face starting all the cooking!
10 a.m. Making a list of timings and foods so I don’t forget anything! (Now you get to see my terrible handwriting…). The list says “sweet potato dip” but I ended up doing an avocadon one instead because Jan didn’t go shopping early enough.
11 a.m. Decorating… because you can’t have Christmas dinner without making the flat look festive, too!
12 noon. This marks the start of a whole lot of photos taken in the kitchen. Look how sexy my apron is 😉
1 p.m. Preparing the starter… could this be the biggest garlic clove EVER? (Pictured next to half a lemon for scale).
2 p.m. Two dips down.. two more to go!
3 p.m. Chopping and peeling for the main course has commenced…
4 p.m. Time to make the stuffing. First step: Chop up the celery…
5 p.m. Making progress! These pans contain potatoes, bread sauce and stuffing.
6 p.m. Time for the carrots to join the potatoes in the oven.
7:30 p.m. (Because at 7 I was too busy taking things out of the oven and putting other things in bowls to take a photo). Most of the food is on the table… do you think I made enough? 😉
8 p.m. Dinner time! And a bonus photo for you… the actual “photo an hour” picture is the one on the right. Ten minutes earlier, I took a photo of my starter even though it wasn’t photo time yet.
… and that was the point where I stopped taking a photo and hour because I was too busy stuffing my face and chatting to my friends. I did take more photos of the evening, but most of them are of people and none of them were taken at an assigned hour.
And in case you were wondering, the verdict on my Christmas dinner was: delicious! (A special shout out goes to my friend K, who made an amazing sweet potato side dish and also provided dessert!)
Confuzzledom 
You performed a Christmas miracle…
Because I didn’t poison anyone? 😉
We hope! 😉
You made an entire meal for more than two people – that counts as a miracle in my book.
Haha 😀
Yum! This makes me really excited for my own Christmas dinner with friends on Christmas day. 😀 I’m not hosting, but I’ll probably make a salad or something. I might even pick up a pumpkin pie if I’m not too lazy to go to Costco. Oh, but you’re from England, right? So pumpkin pie basically means nothing to you. 😉 Have you ever tried it? I introduced it to a few people earlier this fall and they loved it, even when they thought they might not like it at all.
I have had pumpkin pie. My step mum made it years ago. I seem to remember liking it.
Oh good, glad you liked it!
I love that you get together with friends for a Christmas dinner – even though it’s a lot of work – I think, in the end it’s so worth it. We used to have people over all the time but friends either moved away or we lost touch for various reasons and now we don’t do it nearly enough. I miss it!!! Maybe a good resolution for 2014 – to make the time and effort!!! Merry Christmas!!!!
It’s always worth it – I love cooking for other people, even if it is stressful.
That meal looks absolutely delicious! What is the second thing on your ‘Sides’ list? Oh, and another question – did you make a pudding?
Prinzessbohnen… I don’t know what they’re called in German. They’re a type of bean. I actually didn’t even end up making them though!
My friend made chocolate Guinness cake for dessert.
Mmmm, I bet that cake was delicious!
YUM! That looks amazing! And now I can’t wait for Christmas dinner! So impressed you own an apron – you’re like a real grown-up 😉
The apron was a gift from my grandma 😉
My grandma usually gives me stuff other people gave her. That’s why I have a nightie that’s 4 sizes too big, slightly worn leather gloves and a tea towel I can read through 😉
I am majorly impressed. Not only by your organisational abilities, but also by your exceedingly groovy slippers (want). Hope you are feeling happily full of good yumyum- it looks delicious!
It really was delicious!
The slippers came from primark. I couldn’t resist!
I love this post, and may just do my own photo an hour! Who doesn´t love a photo project. Ditto about the slippers. WANT!
I love photo an hour posts. They’re so fun.
The slippers are from Primark. When I came home with them, Jan said “But you’ve got loads of pairs of slippers.” Me: “But not ELMO slippers!!”
congrats on cooking all that food, it’s crazy trying to get the timing right on things I think!
Yeah, the timing is always the hardest part!
I absolutely love that you make Christmas dinner for your friends! It looks wonderful 🙂
I did it once and they then insisted it’s tradition, so I have to do it every year 😀
This is super impressive, especially on your own!
LOL, thanks. Jan did steam the broccoli for me 😉
Oh wow, your slippers are so awesome. 🙂 I love these kinds of posts! Thanks for sharing!
Pigs in blankets!! You serve the finest roast, my lady!! A woman after my own heart!!
Jan said the next day that we should start making pigs in blankets throughout the year, not just at Christmas. I think he likes them 😉
He is a good man. Never let him go.