Christmas Dinner - Help its my first!!!

flitter

We do a really over the top Christmas dinner, it comes from growing up in a very large extended family. Once I got married and moved out we tried doing just a 'standard' Christmas dinner but I really felt it was a bit of a let down.

Christmas dinner is pretty much the same for us every year, and it's the only meal throughout the year that we splurge on.

Starters are smoked salmon, prawns, crabsticks, cream cheese, pate and crackers, just put in the center of the table and help yourself. It's basically a mix of what all the family consider their own favorite nibble food

main course is a turkey joint covered with bacon and flavored butter under the skin, roast beef and pork done on the rotisary. 3 different stuffing, chestnut, citrus and sausage, pigs in blankets and bacon & cheese rolls. Then we have mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots and parsnip, cinnamon carrot and swede, bacon and chestnut sprouts, yorkshire puddings and both beef and turkey gravy.

We don't usually bother with dessert, we tend to leave that for later in the evening but it's there if anyone wants after dinner.

I don't have to worry too much about left overs, Boxing day I won't cook so its leftovers for everyone. then with whats left I make different Christmas breads. So turkey, bacon, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce and chestnut stuffing in one, Beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and mustard in another, pork, sausage stuffing, apple sauce in a third then any left over roast veg/ cinnamon veg with the citrus stuffing in the last for the vegetarian members of the family. The whole family including aunts, uncles cousins etc. meet up just after Christmas and everyone loves the bread so even though Christmas dinner is way over the top nothing goes to waste and we don't have to eat left overs for weeks after.

Top tip, don't put fizzy wine/champagne in the freezer to cool down then forget about it. Ohh and make a planner for cooking times.

donny-gal

First and most importantly, make sure you rope all 3 adults in. You want to spend some time Christmas morning watching toddler enjoy his/her presents. Especially if it is going to be the first time they wake up starry eyed.
DH can prep all the veg, preferably the day before, the least you have to do on the day the better. They turkey or whatever was ready for the oven and in it before we went to bed the night before,so it could come on with the timer for the desired cooking time without me clock watching. Involve Mum, if she has normally cooked it she will be a bit lost, maybe make a sauce or stuffing or gravy, you may be quite capable, but then everyone feels involved.
Many recommend putting bacon strips over the a Turkey Breast, but I find it just makes the breast meat taste of bacon. Starting it upside down is essential.
Enjoy your toddlers Xmas. DG

babyshoes

As well as all the excellent advice here, I'd recommend one key tactic, especially as it's your first:

CHEAT! :cool:

There are lots of pre-prepared bits you can buy. The frozen honey roasted parsnips are excellent, frozen yorkshires are ok, and frozen roasties are good enough too. A prepared turkey or turkey crown which bastes itself is a great idea as you can just shove it in the oven and set a timer, then forget about it. Most other side dishes and puddings are available pre-made, and generally taste fine so just use them! I wouldn't recommend frozen sprouts or other veg as they tend to go soggy, but most veg can be cooked either in the microwave or shoved under the meat while it's cooking.

I also second the suggestion of asking your MIL to bring something such as a starter or pudding and to help a bit in the kitchen.

Also, you said you're doing a ham - we do ours a day or two before and serve it cold. Even if you want it hot, do it before and just warm it up well on the day - it's the type of meat that can handle re-heating gently.

Basically, I think Christmas should be enjoyable for everyone, and if you're spending so much time in the kitchen that you can't enjoy it too then what's the point?

MummyBobble

Only me, DD16 and DS13 here for Christmas dinner so we keep it simple. Turkey breast joint, pigs in blankets, mash, roasties, Yorkshire puddings (all ready made and in foil tins to chuck straight in the oven), microwave veg (broccoli, carrots and sweetcorn), tinned mushy peas and gravy made from granules. Hardly any washing up and lots of time to spend together This originally began because I am a single mum and didn't have time to cook AND spend all day putting together Playmobil pirate ships, houses, castles etc...

Neither of them like Christmas cake or pudding so DD and DS will make some sort of big fat chocolate cake on Christmas Eve (when we get back from the cinema where we will have watched a children's Christmassy film). The cake will have some sort of cake sparklers or ice fountain in it. We do make an effort to set the table properly with a Christmas tablecloth, candles, crackers and all the rest (DD and DS job while I chuck foil trays in the oven).

It's just the way we've found suits us best for Christmas Day and that's what's important. If you have any special requests (here it was the mushy peas!) then accommodate them if you can, but don't compare your Christmas meal to what anyone else does. It's your Christmas and you make it what you want it to be :xmassmile

notanewuser

valk_scot wrote: »

No1 tip? Make the things your family like, not what the M&S/Asda/Iceland etc adverts tell you you should make. And in sensible quantities rather than cook for 12 to feed three and a half.

.

Noooooooooo!! I want AT LEAST a week of no cooking after our Xmas meal (rarely on the conventional Xmas day) so loads of leftovers is a must!!!!!

krlyr

I would second (or third/fourth/fifth!) preparing ahead. Pigs in blankets can be made way ahead and frozen.

If you want homemade yorkshires, you can make these ahead and freeze - they then only need 5 minutes to warm through once defrosted, to me they taste exactly the same, and it saves with faffing around getting the oil hot and making sure you leave enough time for them to rise. I do this for normal roasts because I use a microwave oven and struggle to find room for a proper tin for yorkies - easier to just pop a couple of frozen HM ones on the bottom for the last few minutes.

Stuffing, I tend to make ahead and freeze into balls. Cheaper than buying frozen stuffing balls and saves faffing on the day boiling the water, leaving them to soak, shaping them etc. - though if you're doing just a tin of stuffing you could do that earlier in the day on Christmas day.

When my mum cooks a roast for large numbers (she can invite up to 12 of us round at times!), she cooks the veg ahead of dinner and then just reheats in the microwave quickly. This year she bought a hostess trolley cheap from eBay to keep everything warm though.

With big roasts, sometimes she even goes ahead and cooks the chicken/turkey the night before, and serves it up cold - we can add gravy to warm it through.

One thing I think helps when dishing up something complicated is to warm the plates, so the food isn't going cold on a cold plate whilst you're fetching the other veg, etc.

Also, to make things easier, at Christmas I tend to be put in charge of desserts. Saves my mum having to worry about it on top of dinner, and saves her trying to find counter space to make said desserts! Maybe you could ask the guests to bring a pud, if that won't offend? Alternatively, think of something that can be made ahead, e.g. the night before, or 'cheat' and buy a ready-made dessert.

PasturesNew

Think about the following now, while you've time to plan/buy:

- is there space in the fridge for the leftovers? Keep half a shelf completely free, stick an empty big tin in there now so you get used to the lesser space. You can use that space at the last minute for the meat you buy
- if you do buy a "whole bird" of any sort - will it fit in your fridge? will it fit in your oven?
- what dishes will be used on the table to serve up the dinner? Do they fit?
- what dishes/pans will be used to cook each item? Fit all the dishes into the oven while it's cold, work out the timings and which shelf things will be on.

A disaster is taking a turkey home to discover there's no fridge space for it, it won't fit in the oven... or it'll fit, but there's now no room for the other stuff.

Peel/prepare the veggies the night before and store them int he fridge completely covered in water.
-

notanewuser

blueberrypie wrote: »

We take this one step further and eat our Xmas dinner on Xmas Eve :-D

We started doing it a couple of years ago, and it works out really well. I spend Xmas Eve cooking, but it's much more relaxed because I've got the whole day and don't need to try to fit it in around everything else. Everyone is more up for a big meal in the evening than they would be at lunchtime or mid-afternoon, because the evening is when we're all used to having our main meal of the day. And the kids haven't been munching on their Xmas goodies, so they're more likely to eat a reasonable amount (and then I'm less likely to feel unappreciated LOL)

We have a lovely relaxed dinner, with nobody trying to eat fast and get back to their pressies, so we all sit around and chat. And on Xmas Day, we can all pick at whatever leftovers we want to eat - and nobody has to spend much time in the kitchen at all. I get to spend time with the family and play games with the kids etc, without having to think about when the next component of the meal has to go in the oven.

Since we started doing this, a few of my friends have decided to try the same, and all have felt it works well for them too :-)

We do Xmas on Dec 25th maybe once every 10 years.

We've had it in early December or even on New Year's Day.

I'd hate to be conventional.

bluebag

Keep it as simple as you can, my idea is I need to enjoy Christmas too. I plan about 3 weeks in advance and try and get as much either ready made of prepare as much as possible in advance.

Got some reduced parsnip so par boiled and cut that up in the freezer ready to go, stuffing from M&S. Turkey crown that can be roasted from frozen,

Nearer the time I buy prepared veg that just needs to be thrown in the steamer, frozen yorkies that need 4 mins, but I do make my own apple sauce, roasties and gravy.

I make a large apple crumble and use frozen desserts for the rest, select a few cheeses we all will eat and a few small xmas puds that will re-heat in the microwave.

I whip the cream early and keep it in a covered dish in the fridge, instant custard and cornish ice cream for the rest.

Set the table early and have a timetable so you know when to put stuff in and take things out. I take the meat out about 45 mins before eating so I have room for all the rest of the flippin stuff.

We eat about 6ish so everyone has time to do whatever they are doing then we all come together to eat, drink, chat and be merry.

daisiegg

All great ideas but you realise the thread is originally from 2009?