Although I consider myself a fairly flexible person and pretty much of a live-and-let-live frame of mind, there is one area in which I remain doggedly stubborn. If one chooses to eat meat on Christmas day, that meat must roast beef. Turkey on Thanksgiving, roast beef on Christmas and ham on Easter, that's the rule.


I'm mostly kidding, of course. I've been around enough to know that these kinds of culinary rules don't wash in our pluralistic society and that there are so many modes of gustatory beliefs and convictions that no one could possibly claim to have a lock on holiday feasting. So I amend my statement to say that in our house the Christmas meal revolves around roast beef, full-stop. I have willingly foregone an Easter ham (for vegetarian, Hindu and Muslim guests sharing the day) and I am more than happy to dispense with a Thanksgiving turkey in favor of a homemade macaroni and cheese but when Christmas roles around I become as dogmatic as your Great Aunt Melba. It's got to be roast beef or I'm not coming to the table.


After my marriage, the Yorkshire pudding made way for Polish potato dumplings and the mashed potatoes moved on to make space for pierogie. White bread rolls are now more often than not usurped by a risen saffron bread. None of these replacements bothers me in the least, but when it was suggested that I might replace the roast with a haunch of venison or some kind of game bird I drew a line in the sand. No. A thousdand nos.


However, as I said, I am a flexible woman. If your Christmas tradition involves yet another turkey with all the trimmings, or even if it doesn't, try this cranberry chutney. It's extremely delicious and even those with their own snobberies toward canned cranberry jelly or gelled cranberry salad find it to be, well, worth adopting a more flexible attitude.


Place a pound of picked over cranberries in a large saucepan with a cup of water, a cup of orange juice and a half a cup of sugar. Allow to come to a light boil and, when the cranberries begin to pop, add in a cup of chopped celery, a 14 oz. can of crushed pineapple (not drained), a half a cup of crushed walnuts, a cup of mixed raisons and about 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper (or to taste). Mix well and allow to stay at a low simmer until the mixture is hot and gelled. This may be cooled and served within a couple days or packed into jars and processed in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. When I intend to process the chutney for storage, I usually at least double the recipe and use half pint jars.


This recipe can be easily messed with and still comes out great. Some people use lime juice instead of orange, or pecans instead of walnuts or no nuts at all but maybe some citrus rind. Whatever your fancy, working within these basic parameters will never let you down. If it looks too tight, add a bit more water or jucie. If it's too loose for your tastes, try a couple more cranberries and some pineapple. One friend even adds some coconut and leaves out the pineapple in favor of the chopped flesh of a blood orange and I've often thought about using a diced fresh hot pepper of some kind instead of the dried flakes. So, you know, whatever.


So, I'm curious. What are your holiday food biases and snobberies?