Christmas dinner camping style

We celebrated Christmas two weeks early with my family since we'd be in the alps on the real Christmas Day. We cooked a proper, traditional Christmas dinner for six with all the trimmings in the relative luxury of our small kitchen.

So it wasn't really necessary to do it all again on 25 December for the two of us in a campervan that has no kitchen.

But we did.

The campsite electricity was 10 amps. That meant we could use 2,200 watts at any one time. So our festive feast required meticulous planning so it could be prepared using one electrical item at a time.

First, in a saucepan on our electric hob, we par-boiled the potatoes, followed by 25 minutes for the Brussels sprouts. The hob was then unplugged, but we put the carrots in the still-hot water.

The halogen oven was then to spend four hours cooking everything else. To leave the table in the van's living space free for other things, like boardgames, we set up the oven outside. First we cooked the Yorkshire puddings which rose perfectly. After they came out the turkey, draped in bacon and then wrapped in tin foil, went in.

With two hours to kill until anything else required attention we popped the cork of the magnum of prosecco which had been chilling in the snow, and then played boardgames.

With an hour of cooking time
remaining we put the par-boiled potatoes in a roasting tray above the turkey with a splash of olive oil. When they had begun to get some colour we made room for the parsnips. We also put in three foil parcels containing the pre-cooked carrots in butter, stuffing balls, and the sprouts mixed with lardons and chestnuts.

Ten minutes before the end the Yorkshire puddings were added back into the halogen oven to reheat.

Finally, we unplugged the oven while the gravy heated on the hob, and then the whole lot, which would have fed four, was served onto two overflowing plates.

Having produced an entire Christmas dinner using one electric socket in the confines of a campervan, I cannot possibly understand why people with a kitchen full of modern technology get so stressed about it.