Christmas Dinner (preparing in advance)

waddy80

Right little update from me I have made:

Bread sauce ( good old delia)
Gravy - Cannot reccomend jamie's gravy enough. It was some work but it has produced a fantastic gravy.
Mince pies (I have 60 in the freezer, some for work some for home)
Mini tarts for starter, which were really easy and really scrummy. Tomato and mustard, pancetta and parmesan and cheese and red onion. Delia again!
2 x Christmas pudding (one is in the slow cooker now)

I had a trial run of roast spuds at the weekend, and they weren't fantastic. I've told hubby we will have a cook off between my homemade and tesco finest (my favourite) over the weekend!

ALIBOBSY

Waddy was that jamies gravy with the chicken wings that he did the other night on his family Christmas?
Fancied it myself, but wasn't sure if it was worth the effort. If it is that good will do it early this week and then freeze it for the big day.
I know alot do freeze the roast spuds, but I have always found them just as easy to bang in the oven on the day and can't seem to get the pre frozen ones nearly as crispy. Same with yorkie puds, but then my Yorkshire Gran taught me about yorkshire puds and she hated the frozen ones. She maintained it should be crispy at the top but a bit chewy on the bottom, then should line your stomach as they as supposed to fill you up. The frozen ones come out too light and crispy and never as tasty or a big and fluffy as the fresh ones.

My gran used to have hers as a starter sometimes with gravy as she said thats what they did when there wasn't a big joint of meat to line the stomach before the main meal. She would also eat leftover pudding with sugar or ice cream as a pud mmmmmmmm, like crsipy pancakes yummy.

ali x

ALIBOBSY

purpleivy wrote: »

I pray for cold weather over Christmas, as this means that I have extra 'fridge space' i.e. the cellar!!!

If you are trying to get ahead, then veg will sit in any cool space, e.g cellar, garage, porch. Save the fridge for dodgy stuff like meat and don't over pack it, as it means that it can't keep at a good working temperature.

I agree with this one year when it was V.cold outside I left the veggies and trifle out in the garage because had no fridge space left-all covered of course.

ali x

Pink.

purpleivy wrote: »

I pray for cold weather over Christmas, as this means that I have extra 'fridge space' i.e. the cellar!!!

If you are trying to get ahead, then veg will sit in any cool space, e.g cellar, garage, porch. Save the fridge for dodgy stuff like meat and don't over pack it, as it means that it can't keep at a good working temperature.

Despite having a fridge in the kitchen and another in the garage I still seem to need more space at Christmas time. My garage is my cellar. I Keep all fruit and veg there from November until early March. The cool dark atmostphere is as good as any fridge. Excess drinks that need to be chilled are often parked outside the back door (which we don't use much in winter) and even cooked meats and deserts (providing they're sealed/well covered) will keep well outside for a few hours at this time of year. My logic is that years ago they didn't have fridges and with a bit of common sense, at this time of year we can manage without them too.

Pink

cooking-mama

blueberrypie wrote: »

We take it one step further and *eat* it a day in advance ;-)

Well we did last year, and it worked so well we're going to do it from now on. I spent the 24th in the kitchen cooking and eating mince-pies and playing games with whoever wandered in, got it all on the table for about 6pm - usual main mealtime, so people were actually ready for it - and the kids weren't a) too full chocolate to eat it, and b) itching to get back to their gifts, so it was much more relaxed. Then we heated leftovers on Xmas Day. Nobody had to spend half of Xmas Day in the kitchen, so the adults had time to spend relaxing and being with the family too :-)

we did this last year too---only because i was working 12.30 til 9.30 last christmas day,I wasnt too keen on having christmas day dinner on christmas eve,(tho it was better than the "ping meals from M+S that we had at work:rolleyes:)but it worked a treat,amazingly so much less stressfull,and there was enough leftover for the family to have a 2nd christmas day dinner on the day itself,and i felt i didnt miss out due to work,my girls enjoyed it so much that they want to do it again this year...I dunno yet,i might..im not working christmas eve or christmas day this year(thankfully)but i am working boxing day,so it would be nice to have a stess free minimalist kitchen day on christmas day:think:

blueberrypie

cooking-mama wrote: »

we did this last year too---only because i was working 12.30 til 9.30 last christmas day,I wasnt too keen on having christmas day dinner on christmas eve,(tho it was better than the "ping meals from M+S that we had at work:rolleyes:)but it worked a treat,amazingly so much less stressfull,and there was enough leftover for the family to have a 2nd christmas day dinner on the day itself,and i felt i didnt miss out due to work,my girls enjoyed it so much that they want to do it again this year...I dunno yet,i might..im not working christmas eve or christmas day this year(thankfully)but i am working boxing day,so it would be nice to have a stess free minimalist kitchen day on christmas day:think:

Yep, the lack of stress element was one of the big advantages. OH usually gets home mid-afternoon on xmas eve, so eating on xmas eve meant I had to do more of the work, but because the cooking was separated from all the xmas day stuff, both days were far more relaxed. I actually really enjoyed all the meal preparation, rather than it being something that interrupted spending time with the family on xmas day :-)

foxgloves

I've already got homemade bread sauce, cranberry sauce and spiced red cabbage in the freezer for Christmas Day, also mince pies, sausage rolls, cheese & ham Christmas tree biscuits & a belgian cake I made & cut up & froze in individual pieces in case we ran out of things to give people calling in for coffee....tho' I don't think that's likely, so it will probably go in packed lunch boxes in January instead. Christmas cake & pudding made well in advance, so I think traditional Christmas fare is actually quite oldstyle......what mostly makes it expensive is being tempted by all the stuff which appears in supermarkets around this time. We need to pick up the turkey from the butcher on Christmas Eve & buy the veg fresh from the market and that's all we have to do now. We want to avoid the madness of supermarkets as one year when we went just before Christmas, the aisles were actually gridlocked and no-one could move...they had to put an assistent on to direct the traffic before shoppers started hitting each other. It was horrible! We said 'never again' & have stuck to it!

waddy80

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Waddy was that jamies gravy with the chicken wings that he did the other night on his family Christmas?
Fancied it myself, but wasn't sure if it was worth the effort. If it is that good will do it early this week and then freeze it for the big day.

It was yes. It is really good gravy. I would say it is worth the effort. Make sure you use a very good roasting tin. I used a big solid enamel one that could go on the direct heat after the oven. It is effort, but really nice!

Triker

Thanks for all the tips on here, I'm definitely going to give the roasts a go, and maybe the stuffing.

zippychick

Think i might try jamies gravy. Although I don't have somewhere near to get Star anise, and i don't know if my tesco will have sage leaves as it's a small tesco ! Boo!