What do you do for Christmas dinner?

honey

Ooo I like reading what everyone else is doing, great thread jenner.

Well ours will be for 5 and we will either have a slice of pannetone or maybe a croissant for breakfast.

We'll probably have our christmas dinner about 1 and we'll have turkey, sausages wrapped in bacon, roasties, roast parsnips, mash, brussels, peas and carrots and turkey gravy. Christmas pudding for pudding!


We'll probably just have bits and bobs for tea.

After reading other peoples ideas I'm going to cook gammon on christmas eve when we make sausage rolls, scotch eggs and mince pies.


I can't wait! :T

charliee_3

good thread!!

hmmm.. this is my first year doing xmas in my own home (i have cooked it for many years at my mums so i'm not a total novice

saying that I am trying to make a lot of things from scratch this year..

at the moment i am undecided about the starter.. traditionally it is always prawn cocktail as anything that requires cooking is a nightmare when you have every ring and oven taken up wth the main event so.. not sure..
nothing too heavy.. i'm think maybe an antipasti platter, but they can work out pricey with all the lovely bits and pieces..

we are pretty traditional so main course will be free range turkey and another type of meat.. either pork or beef (so we have lots of cold meat for boxing day!)

roast potatoes, roast parsnips, a couple of types of stuffing, yorkshire puds (if i remember to make them), sauages and bacon, sprouts and chestnuts, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, peas, carrots and giblet gravy with cranberry sauce (think im going to buy this this year unless i can get some bargain cranberries) and bread sauce.

followed by homemade xmas pud with cream/ custard

or

some sort of chocolate dessert (bought or homemade)

or

trifle

and mince pies made with hm mincemeat and (hopefully) hm choccies with coffee

then on boxing day its debris-tastic, cold meat, mash, salad, pickles galore, leftover veg fried into bubble and squeak... mmmm.. i dont know if like this day even better than xmas day! :rolleyes:

charliee_3

jenner wrote: »

thanks everyone, yes thriftlady, i knew that it would upset some people, marks and spencers is NOT money saving, but everyone has different levels of stress and although I like cooking for people, OH and his kids are v fussy. Im not keen on chicken for a start, OH's kids love chicken, no one likes turkey and kitchen is v small, so to meet everyone's needs and to allow me to feel as relaxed as poss, I like it ready made.

i would like to do that but i always find ready made food potions too small.. i'd worry about not having enough .. (hmm maybe explains a few things! :rolleyes:)

seriously.. part of me thinks i'd love to buy everything ready made and i think buying your christmas dinner off the shelf, if you have budgeted for the ready made stuff, is fine.. some people arent natural cooks and struggle a bit when cooking for more than the usual number, plus having the exta time to enjoy the day rather than be chained to the hot stove and not coming to the table looking like a stressed lobster has to be a bonus.. but i think i'd miss it!! i love the cooking, trying to get everything ready at the same time, the last minute panic and then the moment when it all comes together on the table...

its only once a year after all...

sunflower76

fatlad9 wrote: »

my ideal christmas meal would be:

chicken vindaloo, special egg pilou rice, keema naan, onion bajhi, poppadoms, and mint yoghurt.

looks like we're going to my parents, where i'll have a traditional xmas dinner.... would still prefer a curry though.

As there are only two of us we're doing the above. Our local Indian restaurant is opening (again) on Christmas day and doing a four course meal for £14.99. So we're heading round the corner at 2:30 for our Christmas lunch.

For breakfast we'll be having bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese and tea will be nothing most liekly as we'll be stuffed from dinner. :j

Although it isn't a traditional Christmas menu I'm sure my mum will be cooking a roast at some point and we usually go to MrS's parents house for a Christmas cold buffet so we will get some turkey! Everyone thinks that we're nuts but there will be time for our own traditions when we have kiddies I reckon

lil_me

If you want disposable turkey tins LIDL has them in cheap now, I have bought them in £1 shop before too. Cheaper than M&S.

I am no natural cook, I spend Xmas eve & Xmas day with the laptop in the kitchen, so my Old Style friends are on hand to help, plus youtube videos if I need to bone meat etc.

PS my sister worked in a poultry factory, one day they labelled M&S the next Asda etc etc...no different food just the sticker.

thriftlady_2

jenner wrote: »

thanks everyone, yes thriftlady, i knew that it would upset some people, marks and spencers is NOT money saving

It's not the fact that M&S is expensive Jenner- I'm not going to divulge how much I pay for my free-range local goose:o I just can't get my head round the idea of Christmas lunch from packets. But if you don't enjoy being in the kitchen then I suppose it makes sense:)

charliee_3

lowesy wrote: »

:rotfl: LOL thriftlady LOL!

My Mum is a Christmas day veteran and as such is yet to accept any suggestions from me as to how to make things easier for herself. For example, cooking up the bread sauce, mashed swede and cauli cheese in advance and then reheating in the microwave. I think she's still a bit scared of the micro tbh :rolleyes:

We have roast turkey, roast pork and pigs in blankets with loads of veg and gravy (which is made in Pimms jugs as there's so many of us!), bread sauce, cranberry sauce and of course, stuffing. Mmmm could eat it right now actually. We tend to have a piece of Christmas pud each for afters and then everyone collapses in the lounge room and looks at their pressies.

Later in the evening Mum will say, "Is anyone hungry? and be met with a resounding no, so she'll say, "well I'll just do a bit of tea" and she'll prepare cold sliced gammon, pork and some of the turkey with some salady bits and my favourite, the pickles!!! And even after the resounding no from all of us, we sit there eating like we've never been fed before :rotfl: After that it's Christmas cake and cheese or mince pies.

Blimey, we do go through a lot on Christmas Day but we love it and it's never wasted!

Oooooooooo I excited now I can't wait for the big day :xmassmile

lol.. this has actually made me a bit weepy... sounds exactly like the christmasas we would have as a child round my nan's. my grandad passed a few weeks ago and my nan isnt up to cooking anymore.. i do christmas now, but its sad to think i'll never have that back again.. sob

Lady_Tara

jenner wrote: »

its not really money saving, but what do you have on the table for Christmas dinner and how many does it usually serve?

I'll start. I usually get nearly everything from Marks, even though its expensive because its v tasty.
yum

I'm with you on this, bought it all from M&S a few years ago and because we never have their food it was a real treat. I love cooking, but sometimes you just want a rest and something a bit different, so I will be going there to get my veggies, having already got a chicken from Aldi, ready stuffed! It'll just be 3 of us this year, I got fed up with always hosting, doing all the cooking, clearing up and washing up while everyone else sat round playing games, especially last year as I was ill with a throat infection too, but still ended up doing it all. Enjoy your M&S food, I know I will!:T

katholicos

charliee wrote: »

lol.. this has actually made me a bit weepy... sounds exactly like the christmasas we would have as a child round my nan's. my grandad passed a few weeks ago and my nan isnt up to cooking anymore.. i do christmas now, but its sad to think i'll never have that back again.. sob

I'm sorry for your loss.

Although you will not have Christmas like the ones you knew before, at least you have the lovely memories and i'm sure that you can make your family Christmas special for everyone so that you can create memories that people will happily recall, years from now.

floss2

Think we're having beef wellington this year as there will probably only be 2 of us.

Last year we had goose (5 of us), 2007 was pheasants (3), 2006 was a huge 3-rib of beef joint (4) and 2005 we had a turkey crown (4) & froze the remnants, as we all went to Italy for a skiiing holiday on Boxing Day.