Merry Christmas everyone

A very introspective and bittersweet time of the year when we remember our fierce new friendships forged in Ann Arbor and wish we could be closer to everybody. It’s the same for all of you in Brisbane, London and Melbourne.

To ease the pain we eat, honouring culinary Christmas traditions as the best way we know how to feel a little bit closer to you all. Here’s a new tradition brought back from Ann Arbor: gingerbread. I picked up a packet on a whim after I couldn’t find (fruit) mince tarts anywhere, and I remember devouring it, piece by piece, curled up on the couch with my new Christmas books with the snow-covered lake just outside the window.
Our lake in Ann Arbor. A long way from the sandy feet and frangipani of a Sydney Christmas!

I didn’t have any luck finding real gingerbread in Sydney so I made my own, and now its heady perfume fills the house. It’s dense, rich and moist: sticky with golden syrup and black treacle, with the rasp of fresh ginger. Tastes perfect with a cup of green tea or a glass of Prosecco, but I’m going to crumble it into a loaf of stuffing with onion, ham, apples and allspice to go alongside tomorrow’s Christmas pork dinner with Jemima and Mark.

I love eating at Jem and Mark’s. Last month we had a decadent meal of cacciuco – the garlicky seafood stew from Livorno – because Jem was reading Michelangelo’s account of it in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Their house a real Aladdin’s cave with the ever-changing display of their latest canvasses hanging from the walls, stacks of books and journals by the squashy lounges, and an eclectic mix of great music pumping out of the living room. They truly live a creative life, and their food can take its cues from the same places their artistic inspiration is sourced. And they’re real hedonists, like me. We’re spoiling each other with food this year, and we have a long menu lined up for a full day of feasting. As well as the gingerbread stuffing, I’m making a quivering jelly made with sparkling shiraz and studded with plump strawberries, raspberries and blackberries – a Maggie Beer recipe from Maggie’s Table.

Merry Christmas, all. We'll toast you tonight with cups of chilled egg nog and Sufjan Stevens' holiday album.

And bring David Hicks home.