Heather takes us up to Christmas with her sauce recipes. She tells us about what we can eat with the turkey and a little sweetness to go with her Christmas pudding.

Heather reminds us to spare a thought for those living alone not only in the expat community but also those who are living near us anywhere. If you have made mince pies, Christmas cake and puddings following Heather's recipes, why not share a glass of wine and a bit of something festive? A small thought can mean an awful lot to those alone or in difficult circumstances.

Bread sauce Heather tells us is easy.
Start with white bread. White sliced bread is fine but it must be at least three days old. Leave it out in the kitchen and let it go stale. Remove the crusts and crumble up into bread crumbs. You can do it in your food processor if you wish. Make the crumbs chunky not fine.
Take 1 pint of milk and an onion that you stick three or four cloves into plus 1 large or two small bay leaves.
Put the onion and the bay leaves into the milk and bring it to the boil. Take it off the heat and leave it to infuse in the milk until it goes cold. Take out the onion and remove the cloves. Chop the onion up really fine, remove the bay leaves and pop the chopped onion back into the milk and bring back to the boil. Add a pinch of salt, ground black pepper and once the milk is up to the boil, start adding the bread beating all the time. You will need about three good handfuls of bread for a pint of milk but don't throw the rest