What do you do for Christmas dinner?

purplepardalis

What a fab thread! I never cook turkey for Christmas and when I say so to friends and colleagues they normally look at me as though I have just grown an extra head in the last two seconds! :rotfl:

Until this year I have gone to family for Christmas but always done the cooking there because I love it so much. This year we are staying at home and it is four of us on Christmas day (2 adults and 2 kids) and then on Boxing day my mum and uncle are coming and we will be having the 'big lunch' then.

Now I love cooking from scratch and although it's exhausting I enjoy it and wouldn't have it any other way. For those of you opting for M&S ready made - if you don't enjoy cooking and can't be doing with the hassle then I'm not going to be shooting you down in flames! I'd do the same in your position.

Christmas day will be a simple roast. A good chicken, a small amount of veg. To start we'll have a prawn cocktail. Not too much food!!!

Boxing day will be:

Lamb cooked two ways - a shoulder slow roasted - this will go on when I go to bed and get out in the morning. We'll also have a leg of lamb. Shoulder will be tender soft 'fall of the bone' meat whilst the leg will be carved muscle meat. Yum :-)

Veg all cooked from scratch - I am looking for some inspiration to liven up carrots and brussels. Any ideas are welcome else Google will be my friend!

Starter is homemade smoked mackeral pate. Yummy, can be made in advance and money saving. Good job considering what everything else will cost!

I want to bake a ham but I really want to do a 'bone in' one. I haven't seen any in supermarkets - so I'll be asking specialist butchers. All other meat will be bought from Borough Market as I am lucky enough to live in London and get there easily.

I also want to cook some beef in advance to have cold. I'm not sure on what cut to get. I don't want anything huge but I want to be able to cook it rare, chill it and then slice.

I'll also make home made horseradish sauce and mint sauce. So much better than shop bought - if anyone wants the recipe for either then let me know. Horseradish root is not easy to find - I get mine from Borough Market.

Also, home made stuffing - Paxo is pretty tasty. Home made is just scrummy.

I am looking forward to enjoying the leftovers - as I've not normally been in my own house they get left behind.
Pickled eggs are another family tradition. I'll do these about a week in advance. They do not need much pickling

My biggest dilemma is fridge space! Time to get rid of all the jars of various things sitting on the top shelf not doing much

I'm so excited and looking forward to it!

zippychick

Purple, I looked you out a thread on What to do with carrots - as there will be various ideas in there . I like them sweet, done with brown sugar and butter!

Oodles of carrots

Also, spruce up your sprouts.

Confuzzled

BilberryCharlotte wrote: »

Whilst you are thinking how lovely these new born lambs are, do you ever feel like whispering to them that they might be on your plate within a few months?

i once lived in a sheep infested area where the crofters never bothered to keep their sheep properly fenced in and had a lot of damage to my car on several occasions due to sheep suddenly headbutting it as i tried to ever so slowly creep by them on the one track roads (after having waited for up to 15 minutes for them to get out of the damned road!) needless to say after the last event where one had acted like it was moving away from me then decided to headbutt my GLASS headlamp (which cost me more than 100 quid to get replaced and fitted) i soon took up my (now) ex husbands moniker for them... wooley maggots!

i also started walking past the lambs in spring and baaing at them then licking my lips and telling them how tasty they will be in few months... MUAHAHAHAHA :rotfl:

childish? probably, but it did make me feel a little better

Mags_cat

purplepardalis wrote: »

Veg all cooked from scratch - I am looking for some inspiration to liven up carrots and brussels. Any ideas are welcome else Google will be my friend!

Get some sweet chestnuts - fresh if you can, otherwise most supermarkets do a can of vacuum packed ones for £2.50 or so. Not a lot for a once a year treat

Fry up some chopped streaky bacon and add in cooked sprouts and chestnuts. Nomnomnom :T

Confuzzled

zippychick wrote: »

Katie, OS is different from person to person. There is no minimum criteria If you are using OS to suit your lifestyle, needs and family , that's the main thing.:D

also something people sometimes forget is that we all make choices of what to do both in our OS methods and with the money we save from being OS based on our own past experiences, personal preferences and current circumstances... there is no right or wrong way to be OS there is just the way you are OS in a way that suits your life at the time.

meanmarie

We will be 13 for Christmas dinner and will have turkey, ham, roasties, roast carrots and parsnips, mashed swede and red cabbage, cooked with raisins, caraway seed, apple, cider vinegar and brown sugar. Pudding will be hm Christmas pudding, fruit pavlova or trifle.

St Stephen's Day (Boxing Day) will this year be a roast of beef, most people will be doing their own visiting that day so probably only about 8 for dinner, maybe with roast sweet potato and mash and peas....not marrowfat although my brother would have these for every meal given a choice.

Peace and goodwill to all

Marie

Ada_Doom

ooo some lovely sounding dinners here! There seems to be no point standing in judgement on what people eat to celebrate Christmas, I love the variety of meals in this thread. Personally I like the excess of Christmas, the indulgent food are integral to what I am celebrating. We are atheists so for me Christmas is a chance for a bit of light and sparkle in the middle of the cold and long winter. I love to gather family and friends round and drink and eat slightly too much and it has to be a big fat turkey with all the trimmings and lots of leftovers for turkey,bacon,stuffing sarnies. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!:j

wogglemaker

last year was very quiet in our house (lung problems becoming chronic), so just a chicken with all the trimmings with hubby and 2 grown kids.

This year I'm up at the severe asthma unit on 23rd just two miles from parents so will be bringing them down to Gloucester for a few days (providing everyones health holds up).

Dinner will be a turkey crown, belly pork (family tradition) roast taters, sprouts (for OH) green beans (from garden) and broccoli. Pudding of fresh fruit salad natural yoghurt or single cream sprinkeled with musli.

Boxing day is always Soup, cold meats, salad, cheese board, pickles, jacket taters etc.

Hubby was on a sticky wicket Friday, there was a yellow stickered turkey crown in Mr M's and he would not let me buy it! :eek:

Olliebeak

wogglemaker wrote: »

.......Hubby was on a sticky wicket Friday, there was a yellow stickered turkey crown in Mr M's and he would not let me buy it! :eek:

I got one a couple of years ago - with a four day use-by on it - straight in the freezer :j!

Peartree

No objection whatsoever to the full M&S approach but Xmas day is one of the few times in the year I entertain with time to do it (ie, on leave from work) so I really enjoy the planning and the cooking. We're a limited number and my guests arrive on the day. As my parents like to be on their way home before it gets dark (!) we tend to eat around normal lunchtime. We've done a rib of beef for a couple of years (after everyone admitted they weren't struck on turkey) and it was gorgeous. However, this year, the opinion seems to be we're missing the turkey (go figure) so it is probably going to be a turkey crown. Usual trimmings and stuff but as we're Irish there's always a ham, there's always cabbage somewhere and there always my Granny's stuffing of mashed potato, bacon and leeks (alongside the more traditional sausagey stuffing).

I'm always perplexed by the starter. None of the family have huge appetites so it needs to be something light so as not to spoil the main course. For the last few years I've done a variation on salmon/trout pate of some description with soda bread and salad leaves. This year I might revert to an old habit of having a starter of canapes whilst we open the presents and then a gap before lunch. That probably would mean M&S as I don't think I'd want to be dealing with a variety of canapes AND a full Xmas lunch!

Some years ago we would all stay over the night before at my late sister's house and do Xmas there. For breakfast I did 'breakfast mini kebabs', boiled quails eggs, little rolls of bacon and cocktail sausages together on a cocktail sticks (she cooked the dinner so I had time to faff with breakfast!). Went down very well and can be eaten with one hand whilst the other is present opening!