I absolutely love the Christmas period and my home has now started to get a very Christmassy vibe in it, where the conversation always seems to steer towards Christmas planning; what presents to buy and for whom, what social events are there to look forward to, where will the tree sit this year and most importantly in my opinion, what food will there be in the house!

Thanks to my favourite cook, Delia Smith, I know that the family favourite recipes are well and truly taken care of and it is in recognition of her that I dedicate at least one Saturday or Sunday before Christmas as 'Delia Day'.

Delia Smith is a classic British iconic cook, who simply infuriated some top chefs by showing people how to boil and egg, but in Delia's defence, if no-one has ever shown you, or you've never been told how to, would you know how to cook one correctly? OK, so most people would answer yes, how hard could it be; but for others it was a revelation that there was someone who could strip cooking back to the basics without presuming that people already had these skills.

Now I believe Delia is worth her weight in gold and I trust her recipes to come out exactly as she describes because she is simply one of those cooks that tell you step by step on how to do the most simple or complicated of recipes, to full success. The secret is to follow Delia's instructions, word for word, step by step. Even the most inexperienced of cooks can produce a culinary masterpiece.

There are some of Delia's Christmas recipes in particular that I look forward to preparing this time of the year as it gets me in the Christmas cooking mood, most of which are prepared in advance and either frozen or stored until the big day. Recipes taken from her Christmas book such as Delia's Mother's sausage rolls, her 'vegetarian' sausage rolls, Parmesan baked parsnips and her traditional mincemeat for the mince pies. (All of the recipes that I've mentioned can also be found on Delia's website). They are prepared well in advance and stored either in the deep freeze or in the case of the mincemeat, a dark cupboard. Doing much of the preparation now will save a lot of pressure on the days leading up to Christmas and the big day itself, giving me much more chance to be able to sit down and relax with my family and friends and enjoy the festive time rather than running around like a headless chicken!

My favourite bit of planning ahead with festive recipes is for my Christmas cakes. The dried fruit have been slowly seeping in a combination of sherry, brandy and rum all year round so when it is time for me to bake my traditional Christmas cakes for my family and friends, I can rest assured knowing that they will have the most amazing flavour courtesy of the alcohol and the length of time the fruit has had to absorb all of the flavours.

So with the Christmas songs playing, quietly in the background and the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg wafting throughout the kitchen, let Delia Day commence!