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| I want to buy a high end Christmas Hamper for my mother |
The week before Christmas
Finalize your shopping list and make a dedicated trip to the supermarket just to buy non-perishable items.Getting items like napkins, candles, toothpicks, and plastic cups and plates all sorted well in advance frees your mind to concentrate on the big ticket items like food and presentation.
Spend a morning making your chutneys, relishes, jams, chocolates and fudges so they can be resting and the flavours developing that lovely complexity.
It is also the time to get a few foodie friends around and put together you gingerbread house, mince pies, shortbread, biscotti, panettone, panforte and whatever other regional delicacies you include in your Christmas Celebration.
Especially in Australia, freeze ahead – one of the best things about most Christmas fare is that it can be made ahead of time and frozen – so on the day you can slowly release the frozen products and they can act as cooling agents around the kitchen.
