I think this is my favourite meal this year. A good roast chook is hard to beat any time, especially when served with roasted potatoes, chorizo (that we made ourselves) garlic and olives.

We made our chorizo sausages again this year. Ben and Sarah grew five beautiful pigs, which arrived on the kitchen bench killed, cleaned and sorted. Heaven. The legs were sent off to the Braidwood butcher to be cured and smoked ready for Christmas. There is still a lot of work boning the shoulders, and mincing to make the chorizo sausages.

This is our second year and with more experience it is not so daunting. Especially when we lashed out and bought a fancy, electric, efficient, expensive new mincing machine to make the sausages. The final seduction when buying this gadget was the fact that we can also buy an attachment to make our own tomato sugo in the summer. Bargain.

Chorizo seems to be fashionable at the moment as the following recipe is from Delicious magazine Spanish grazing food: and this edition has many interesting recipes using chorizo.

1 kg floury potatoes, such as bintji, scrubbed and cut into wedges

80ml (1/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil

1 head of garlic, cloves separated

2 chorizo, thickly sliced

100g green Spanish olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

30 ml fino sherry

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Oregano, to serve

Preheat oven to 200C. Place potato in a large saucepan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook until par-boiled (6-8 minutes), drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a roasting tray large enough to hold potato in a single layer in the oven (4-5 minutes). Add potato and garlic, season to taste, stir to coat in oil and roast, stirring occasionally, until starting to turn golden (15-20 minutes). Add chorizo, roast until crisp (10-15 minutes). Stir in olives, sherry and vinegar, scatter with oregano and serve hot.

Serve the potatoes with the rested roast chook and a green salad.