Nigella Lawson’s holiday hosting advice? Keep things relaxed and informal

The holidays are frantic times, full of hustle and bustle and cocktail parties and big dinners. It’s also a time of high anxiety for a lot of people — it’s the one time of year even folks who can’t normally find the stove feel obliged to prepare a multi-course menu and invite everyone they know.

But our favorite Domestic Goddess says we should stop the madness.

Nigella Lawson, author of 10 cookbooks, including 2000’s “How to Be a Domestic Goddess� and the recently published “Simply Nigella,� says when she entertains at home, she follows a few simple rules, paramount among them: “I can’t invite people over to eat if I wouldn’t be comfortable were I in my pajamas and no makeup.�

RECIPES: Brazilian cheese bread | Sweet potato and chickpea dip

She’s got a chapter in her new book devoted to this kind of relaxed entertaining, “when I want to feed people but, most importantly, want to make my friends feel welcome, and all of us to feel happy.�

Instead of an elaborately laid table, there might be a canister of mismatched flatware and a stack of napkins for people to choose from. Rather than plated appetizers, she’s much more likely to serve what she calls “picky bits,� such as a dip made by puréeing roasted sweet potatoes and garlic and chickpeas. Or a cheese bread she learned when she recently visited Brazil.

“The perfectionist drive makes life hell for host and guest alike,� she writes in the book. “An informal atmosphere is not only the most welcoming one, but — for me — the only way to ensure that I don’t regret inviting people over in the first place.�

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