​Everyone loves a potato salad. It’s really just a whole load of carbs dressed up as a salad. We can say we’re being healthy and eating salad when really we’re eating a whole load of carby, bacony, eggy, creamy goodness. Gross.
 
Enter the roast potato salad. It’s totally a winner. Yes, it still has the carby goodness of potatoes, but none of that other gross heart-attack-on-a-plate stuff.
 
Roast a load of potatoes in the oven. They can be those fancy small ones that cooking shows always use, or just chop up the regular two-bucks-a-kilo kind. We leave the skins on, they are full of goodness and taste great plus it’s way easier. I mean, who has time to peel stuff? No one, which is why so many people don’t cook!

We absolutely love this rice salad. It’s full of good things, and feels like a real treat, plus a big tub full lasts quite a few meals which saves work…I think that’s the real reason we like it!
 
First, get your rice cooker out. If you don’t have one, go and buy one! It’s seriously the best thing since sliced gluten free bread. Of course you can always use a saucepan, water and the stove-top and it will work just as well, but then you have to have some knowledge of how to cook rice, and it really helps if you don’t forget about it and head off to the arena to ride a horse. Enter the rice cooker.
 
Cook as much rice as you like. We’ve done this recipe with black rice, red rice and our very favourite basmati brown rice. We get our basmati brown rice from 2brothersfoods.com. It’s delicious, and way better for you than white rice.

​I’ve never understood the concept of the eggnog. I ate eggs as a child and well in to my early adulthood but I was always a little grossed out by them, I mean – it’s kinda like eating a baby chicken, but not really. What’s to like about that? Ok, ok, I loved the salty goodness of an egg burger with tomato ketchup on a cold morning at the Melbourne three-day-event but if the egg was under- or over-cooked look out for me gagging in the corner!
 
So I guess this ALWAYS meant that raw eggs were out of the question, even heavily disguised. Enter the Horchata. Not really an eggnog replacement at all, but a light milky coloured drink that’s yum and especially good on Christmas morning to enjoy during present opening!
 
I’ve experimented a fair bit with the horchata recipe looking for the perfect mix of rice, cinnamon and almond. I’ve tried rice only, almond only (gross!), more sugar and less sugar, but the winner was rice, almonds, plenty of cinnamon and just the right amount of sugar (plus a few extra teaspoons for the kids!).

You’ll want about a third of a cup of rice and a cup of almonds to 5 cups of water. Plus a couple of cinnamon sticks and as much fine sugar as you like for sweetness.