Page 24 of Mistletoe and Mulled Wine at the Christmas Campervan

‘No worries, pet. I was just checking it out for lunchtime,’ the balding middle-aged chap answered with a smile.

‘They are so good,’ added Abby, ‘I can absolutely vouch for them. Lucy’s pizzas are legendary. All made to her Italian grandad’s recipe, you know.’

‘They sound great. The real deal, then. I look forward to trying them,’ answered the bobble-hatted lady who was stood close beside him.

‘Hah, Abby, you’re a star,’ Lucy laughed as the couple wandered away, arm-in-arm. ‘Who needs advertising, when I’ve got you?’

In fact, Lucy couldn’t wait to start serving her new ‘Turkey and Trimmings’ pizza. A bit of a festive experiment, to be honest. But who knew, it could well turn into the new pizza craze for Christmas. With tasty bite-sized slices of turkey, mini pigs-in-blankets (chipolata sausages wrapped in streaky bacon), little sage-and-onion stuffing balls, a sprinkling of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, and with, of course, for those who wanted it, a drizzle of cranberry sauce. It was a real festive feast. (She’d drawn the line at sprouts, feeling it was a topping too far!)

She’d experimented on Jack a few days ago, back at her cottage kitchen, and this was the combination that stole the show – all the right components and the tastiest of flavours. It had come out of the oven looking delicious too, and had smelled roast-Christmas-dinner pizza divine. She couldn’t wait to see how the market-goers would take to it. Eek – the proof of the pizza and all that!

There were other tasty options, of course, including her classic margherita with the sweetest of cherry tomatoes and mini balls of mozzarella, a roasted Mediterranean veg-and-feta combo, a spicy Italian nduja sausage, chicken with pesto and rocket, plus her Northumberland ham and portobello mushroom – always a crowd pleaser. Pizza paradise.

Soon, the logs were glowing in the oven and they were ready to go. Her first order came in for … a Turkey and Trimmings Christmas Special. Yay!

Abby prepped the festive toppings just as Lucy had shown her, and into the wood-fired oven on the big paddle it went. Forty-five seconds and one half turn later, it was pulled out, golden and crispy and meltingly cheesy on the top. It slid tantalisingly into the All Fired Up cardboard takeaway box. And the couple who had ordered smiled broadly as the piece de resistance was handed across.

‘Wow.’

‘Looks amazing, thank you.’

‘Cranberry sauce drizzle to finish?’ Abby asked with a smile.

‘Oh absolutely, why not. Let’s go the whole hog.’

And with a flourish, Abby trailed some arty cranberry lines in zig-zags over the top. ‘There you go. Enjoy, folks.’

Lucy held her breath as the couple stood to one side, then took up a slice each and … bit down.

‘So, what’s the verdict?’ Abby called across chirpily.

They stood munching for a heart-stopping second or two longer, then gave big smiles. ‘Really tasty.’ ‘Delicious.’

Phew.

‘In fact,’ the woman took up, ‘I think I might just forget about spending hours slaving over cooking roast turkey dinner this year. Let’s get a few of these in instead.’ She grinned.

They all laughed. And, as the couple moved off with their pizza box to hand, Lucy and Abby gave them a big thumbs up and a wave. The girls then turned to give each other a high-five.

As more pizzas were made, yet more customers were drawn to find where those delish-looking pizzas had come from. A queue began to form. It was going to be a busy lunch shift, and Lucy didn’t mind at all. She was always happy to work hard if it meant her clients were happy and her new venture was taking big steps forward. She set about her work, humming away to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’.

The early afternoon went by in a whirl, with pizza after pizza going out, resulting in Lucy getting a bit of a sweat on beneath her woollen Christmas jumper. At last, there was a bit of a lull around 3:30 p.m., and after letting Daisy out of the Jeep for a quick toilet stop, she let Abby take a break. She was more than happy to continue prepping and cooking by herself for the next twenty minutes.

Abby came back with several bags, looking pleased with herself. ‘You need to take a look around, Luce, there’s loads of lovely bits for Christmas. Look, I got a gorgeous scarf for my mum, and some scrummy mince pie fudge for Nanna and Grandad. I even got to have a taste test. The salted caramel one was lush, so I got us a little bag to share on the way home.’

‘Oh, that sounds scrumptious.’ With that, Lucy’s tummy started rumbling. In all the pizza-making rush, she hadn’t managed to have any lunch herself. ‘Well, it’s pretty quiet just now, Abs, so I’ll nip out now and take a look around while I’ve got the chance, if you don’t mind. Just for ten minutes or so, so you can let anyone wanting pizza know I’ll be back very soon. Keep an eye on the oven, but that’s all you need to do. Enjoy a bit of a breather while you can. I have a feeling the supper-time shift will come around all too soon.’

‘No worries.’ There was an art to baking the pizzas, and Abby was more than happy to leave the oven as Lucy’s domain for now.

Lucy took Daisy with her, and they wandered off into a twinkling paradise of stalls and shops, finding, firstly, the pet stand just over the road. Unfortunately, there were no mini antlers, but there was a gorgeous red-and-white Fair Isle-style jumper perfectly sized for her Dachshund, and a cute holly-patterned dog neckerchief which she couldn’t resist buying.

‘What do you think, Dais? Could this be your Christmas look this year? Like it?’

The dog wagged her tail excitedly.

‘I’ll take these, please. I just love that jumper.’ Lucy handed over the goods to the friendly-looking lady behind the trestle-table, who was sporting her own red Christmas jumper with a white West Highland terrier on it.

‘Oh, we’ve a wonderful local lady who knits for us.’ She popped the items into a crisp white paper bag. ‘Is she a short-haired?’ She nodded in the direction of Daisy’s lead, craning to see.