The perils of cooking for the masses

My kids used to go round to my mother’s after school occasionally, and she would delight in giving them their supper.

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a cooking for guests can be a challenge Liudmila Chernetska

One day, I picked up one of our sons. He was walking rather oddly. When I got home, I realised why. It turns out he hated the sausages my mother bought and served him, and when she wasn’t looking had picked them off his plate and put them in his shoe.

The result was that his shoe was running in grease and very smelly for a long time to come, not to mention his strange gait.

My sister-in-law talks of hiding food in her apron pocket at her grandparents' house. We've all done things to get out of eating food we don’t like. The proverbial plant in the corner has probably experienced much of it.

I’m on a roll, enjoying entertaining. It’s great to get back to winter food, log fires, beefy wines and hunkering down in a warm house. And I know I’m so lucky to be able to do this. It's this time of year that makes, or should make us, think of those who have Christmas coming and have no one and nowhere to go to. Often no food or a roof over their head. So when the Salvation Army put together their brass bands, I’m glad to be able to support them in a very small way.