Christmas Menu at Provenance, Westhoughton

Now that Halloween is safely out the way, our thoughts start to turn towards the looming celebrations and the festive foods that we may stuff into our faces with impunity for the next couple of months. Christmas menus have been a big thing in the last few years, with seemingly all pubs and restaurants laying on special set menus offering two or three courses for somewhere around the £20 mark. Truth be told, these menus are often anything but special, with fairly predictable options that often don't extend much beyond traditional turkey and the obligatory salmon option (although there are, of course, some notable exceptions).

How nice, then, to see a restaurant keeping to its normal à la carte menu but supplementing it with a few seasonal specials on a tempting-looking set option in honour of the festivities. Provenance in Westhoughton have maintained their place in The Good Food Guide for a second year, and are the only Bolton restaurant to feature; on the evidence of their recent Christmas menu preview, their continued presence is entirely deserved. Head chef Lewis Gallagher is still at the helm, and still knocking out a great selection of daintily-executed but deeply-satisfying dishes; here's what we had.

A Selection of Christmas Fayre Canapés. I'll overlook the use of the word "fayre" here in view of the general excellence of these bitesize portions of starters from the Christmas menu: Potted Salmon, Sauteed Chicken Livers, and Wild Mushrooms on Toasted Sourdough. The mushrooms were my favourite of the three but I would happily eat the whole lot all day, every day, and the Christmas Fayre menu from which they're taken looks outstanding value at two courses for £16/three for £19 between 30th November and 23rd December.

Cauliflower Espuma, Granny Smith Apple. "I don't like cauliflower," said my date for the evening. "I shall try it though." The inevitable conversion-to-brassica robbed me of a second ramekin of this smooth, earthy foam lined with a hidden layer of tart apple; must try harder to find someone pickier for next time.

Scallops, Butternut Squash and Chorizo. A straight-up knockout dish: two fat, caramelised scallops, salty chorizo and - just showing off now - butternut squash done three ways.

Onion Tatin. This is one of the mains from the Christmas menu, and underwhelmed me a little - I love an onion tart but prefer a squishier version rather than the sturdy half-an-onion approach adopted here. The deeply bitter ash on the side was utterly addictive though.

Pan Fried Cod, Chorizo Cassoulet, Basil Pesto. Another from the Christmas menu, this one sounded an outright winner - something that I would order from a menu on a regular basis. In practice, this dish was the one real letdown of the night for me; the cassoulet was far too sweet and lacking in texture, with only a tiny amount of the chorizo that would have brought it into a better balance of flavours and a jarring swirl of herby pesto that fought with the rest of the components. My piece of fish was one of the thinner ones (it's the first of the two you see above), and simply couldn't cope with the cloying mass beneath. Other people on our table felt less strongly about the dish, so this may well just be a case of personal taste.

Duo of Lamb, Potato and Celeriac Dauphinoise. Hurrah - right back on form, with a splendidly pink cutlet, a gloriously sticky piece of stuffed belly and - one of the out-and-out triumphs of the evening - one of the best examples of daupinoise I have ever had. EVER HAD. And I've had a LOT.

Oops Chef Dropped the Manchester Tart. A bit of a foodie joke, this one, inspired by the legendary Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart created by Massimo Bottura after a bit of an accident one evening at Osteria Francescana. I'm not the biggest fan of Manchester Tart anyway, so this wasn't really for me; nice enough, as such things go, and handily smashed up to save you the effort of having to do it yourself.

Coffee and Treats. This was a treat indeed, and reminded me that, actually, some desserts are worth the calories - mini versions of some of the desserts from the Christmas menu and an utterly splendid Christmas pudding-flavoured macaron. I was too full to eat this on the night, so I wrapped it in a napkin and took it to work the next day, where I was the envy of everyone, even the uncouth individual who asked me why I was eating a cake shaped like a boob.

I've eaten at Provenance many times now, despite it being quite a drive both from where I live and where I work, and it's been worth it every time. This was a press preview and therefore a freebie, but I've revisited on plenty of occasions as a paying customer, both from the à la carte and from the crazy value weeknight special deals. It also has a deeply splendid food hall downstairs, so you may well accidentally find yourself dining with a few sausages and some stinky cheese in your handbag; my kind of place.

- Provenance is at 46-48 Market Street, Westhoughton, Lancs, Bolton BL5 3AZ, and is well worth seeking out.

Christmas Made Easy: Giving the Gift of GIN this Festive Season

Much as I adore it, I do try to avoid mentioning the C-word - Christmas - until the end of November or so. It really isn't easy. The Boots Christmas catalogue has been in store so long I've had ample time to select which Soap & Glory gift set I require this year (the twisty-tin with ladies on, just in case you've got a spare item in your 3-for-2 basket). A colleague admitted this week to having had Christmas pudding for his tea on Monday. There is a box of biscuits in the staffroom, which makes no direct mention of Christmas but which bears a drawing in which several of the biscuits are sporting festive hats. All this, and we've not even had Halloween yet.

And to be honest, the presents are the least interesting bit of Christmas once you're a grown-up with a house full of tat and very little room to put any more (twisty-lady-tin excepted, obviously); this means it's hard to come up with a meaningful answer when people ask you what you want. Well, no longer, thanks to a PR email I received a couple of weeks ago: had I thought of gin as the perfect Christmas gift? Astonishingly, I hadn't - but it makes perfect sense. If there's nothing you really need, the whole point of a present is for it to be a treat that makes you happy: and if that isn't the very definition of gin, I really don't know what is (bourbon or rum maybe, but that's for a different post).

Thus a happy quartet of four mini gins arrived through the post, along with the promise that there would be one here for every palate. Obviously I immediately broke up the little family by opening and drinking them - purely in the interests of providing the following Christmas gift guide, of course.

BLOOM Gin. This comes in a beautiful bottle and has a slightly floral flavour that explains why it is so beloved of Manchester cocktail bars. BLOOM is distilled by one of the world's few female Master Gin Distillers, Joanne Moore, who is celebrating her 10th Anniversary as Master Distiller this year. This, along with the three main botanicals that go into BLOOM Gin - the flowers of chamomile and honeysuckle and the citrus fruit pomelo - perhaps explains why this is suggested as being a perfect gift for a woman. I'm not sure about this as I think most people would enjoy this gin, but as long as that woman is me I don't really mind.

Available from: Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Harvey Nichols and Ocado. RRP £24.00 for 70cl. ABV: 40%.

Opihr Oriental Spiced Gin. This is billed as a unique and different style of London Dry Gin made using exotic botanicals, herbs and spices; it also comes in the most beautiful bottle. I'd had this once in a cocktail and decided I didn't like it, but it turns out it must have been the cocktail I didn't like - this makes a very fine gin and tonic indeed and I am converted. My boyfriend has favoured this gin for some time, but warns that the attractive tassel that decorates the bottle can be used as a rope by cunning dinosaurs with a taste for Opihr.

Available from: Tesco, Morrison's, Waitrose, Ocado, Booths and seven regional Harvey Nichols stores nationwide and 31Dover.com. RRP: £23.00 for 70cl. ABV 40%.

Thomas Dakin Gin. I'd had this one before as well, courtesy of Manchester legend Alix Walker, and been impressed - it comes in a sexy apothecary-style bottle and is nice and savoury thanks to botanicals including horseradish and English coriander (which explains why it's so perfect in a Bloody Mary). And, it's named after the forefather of English gin, which makes it educational too.

Available from: Waitrose and Harvey Nichols, Booths, Ocado.com, 31Dover.com, GinFoundry.com. RRP: £29.00 for 70cl. ABV: 42%.

Greenall's. This one has a freshness thanks to its rounded juniper notes and mature citrus flavours, but was for me the least interesting of the four. That said, I would much prefer this to the Gordon's (particularly as they are similarly priced) that my mum uses for our lunchtime gin and tonic on Christmas Day, so she may well find that Santa pops a bottle of this in her stocking this year. Even better, it comes in a gift box that looks like a green phone box, so Santa may as well bring me one as well while he's at it.

Available at Waitrose, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Master of Malt. RRP: £15.00 for 70cl. ABV: 37.5%.

In short, I've made Christmas easy for you - you're welcome. And if you can't decide which one to buy me, may I helpfully draw your attention to the fact my birthday is in November - once again, you're welcome.

- the gin samples were sent to me for review purposes (thanks to MPR Communications, who also provided some of the photos you see here - the professional ones and those without dinosaurs), but as I think this post makes clear, this will end up costing me dearly in the gin aisle from now on.

Festive Crafternoon Tea with Vintage Afternoon Teas and French Knots Craft Studio: Wonky Robins ALL THE RAGE

It is absolutely not a case of false modesty when I say that I cannot sew. I'm reasonably certain that there is a vital link missing between my brain and my fingers: the link responsible for carrying out crafty activities such as knitting, and crochet, and threading sewing machines, as well as more practical things like wiring plugs and, erm, linking sausages (as Bobby's Bangers Sausage School will confirm). So whilst I liked the look of the Christmassy collaboration between the lovely Zoe from Vintage Afternoon Teas and the equally lovely Jo from French Knots Craft Studio, I did not initially think it was for me, due to the inclusion of an alarming interlude where one would make one's own robin decoration for the Christmas tree. Still, as Zoe helpfully pointed out that what I lack in needlework skills, I more than make up for in cake-eating ability, I enlisted the company of a friend who can sew and set off to a village hall in Dunham Massey to make my very own wonky robin.

And unbelievably, thanks to Jo's patience, the robin wasn't even that wonky - a minor miracle considering that large quantities of mulled wine appeared the moment we sat down at the long communal table covered with pretty scraps of material, buttons, needles and myriad different coloured threads (note to self: it is apparently easier to thread a needle after two glasses of wine). We began by cutting our robins out of felt using the templates provided, and then had free rein to decorate however we saw fit; I actually really enjoyed cutting out little pieces of material and amateurishly applying them to my robin, for whom I felt a shameful fondness as soon as he began to take shape. Jo and her team of helpers were on hand with lots of advice and encouragement but - hand on heart - the only bit I had to have help with were his legs. I found the whole process exhausting (I am not good at concentration, and people were laying out an afternoon tea behind me) but am genuinely both proud and fond of my little bird, seen here below with his new best friend.

Then - hurrah - it was teatime. Vintage Afternoon Teas have been around since 2010 and specialise in providing (you guessed it) afternoon teas for events from weddings to hen parties, and won "Best Event Service" at the National Vintage Awards in 2014. It's fairly easy to see why - everything is homemade and served on beautiful vintage china (I wanted the teapot, but had neglected to bring a large enough handbag), and Zoe's idea of serving size is clearly similar to my own. The finger sandwiches - turkey and stuffing, Brie and cranberry, smoked salmon and cream cheese, egg mayonnaise - were nice substantial affairs, and my friend and I, both experts on the matter, deemed the egg sandwiches amongst the very finest of their ilk that we have ever been pleased to consume. There was a scone each with jam and cream, mince pies (I took mine home, lest I burst), florentines, a show-stopping mulled wine bundt cake and a spectacular red velvet cake which I was too full to partake of. Tea was kept generously topped up throughout and Zoe had even helpfully brought plastic bags to allow the greedier amongst us to take the leftovers home.

In short, the whole thing was marvellous - a properly festive, good-value occasion (£30 per head) where, for once, I actually exercised some skills other than those required for stuffing my face. I would go out of my way to attend another event where the Vintage Teas were catering and, even more terrifyingly, I am seriously considering attending another of Jo's sewing workshops. Now I've mastered the art of the wonky robin, the world is surely my oyster.

- You can find out more about French Knots Craft Studio here - Jo runs a whole raft of classes from her studio in Sale - and more about the Vintage Afternoon Teas here (sign up to the newsletter and Zoe will send you the recipe for the mulled wine bundt cake, which you can then make for me).