help novice cook doing Christmas dinner for 10

pjs_3

Can anyone offer some suggestions. Im cooking Christmas dinner for 8 adults and 2 little ones. (5 and 2)

Im planning my shopping list but how many carrots, parsnips,sprouts and potatoes do I need? I havent got a clue how many to buy?

MIL is cooking the turkey and bringing it over so thats a big help. Any ideas on easy preparation would be good too as I want to watch my kids my children open their presents and not be stressed in the the kitchen. I have delegated BIL to bring wine, my mum bringing crackers. Husband to do drinks and keep out of kitchen so we dont argue! FIL to entertain children. (Great granny is allowed to sit and do nothing!) Will find a job for my dad.

kathyd_2

I usually allow a carrot per person, 2 servings out of a parsnip, both depending on size of course (if they are quite small allow more). As we all like sprouts I usually cater for about 8 per person. 2 roast potatoes per person and for the mash I allow another 2 roast size potatoes per portion for mashing. This however, is only a guide. I always do slightly more as you can't tell folk you are only allowed 8 sprouts . If there are leftovers keep in the fridge and have as a bubble and squeak type meal with your leftover meat the day after boxing day. (I deliberately do more veg as it saves cooking that day :rolleyes: )

You could start your veg preparation now. I've already bought my sprouts and carrots, blanched them and they are in the freezer. I will prepare my potatoes and parsnips Christmas Eve and leave in cold water. Christmas day I par boil my roast potatoes and parsnips together for about 10 mins before they go in the oven. Change the water in the mashed potatoes and put on to boil. Take frozen veg out of freezer and boil until tender. Then take one glass of wine and enjoy

:xmastree: :xmassign:

pjs_3

thankyou for a quick reply. Could you tell me how to blanch the carrots and sprouts for freezing and do I just put them in a bag in freezer? (told you Im a novice.) Thankyou for reminding me about bubble and squek I used to love that when I was little. (Didnt realise I could keep everything until the day after boxing day, that will be great).

kathyd_2

pjs wrote:

thankyou for a quick reply. Could you tell me how to blanch the carrots and sprouts for freezing and do I just put them in a bag in freezer? (told you Im a novice.) Thankyou for reminding me about bubble and squek I used to love that when I was little. (Didnt realise I could keep everything until the day after boxing day, that will be great).

Just prepare your veg as you would normally and place in saucepan with a little salt. Instead of adding cold water, add boiled water from the kettle and bring back to the boil for about 2 mins (best done in smaller batches if you have a lot to do). Remove veg from boiling water (best put in a colander) and plunge into cold water or under cold running water. Allow veg to cool. Put in freezer bags and then place in freezer. They won't be anything like frozen veg you buy, they will taste as if you have freshly prepared them.

We all deserve a couple of days off cooking after Christmas, so all the leftovers are brilliant for bubble and squeak - provided you have refrigerated everything until needed.

pjs_3

thankyou I think I can manage that. I will also take your advice on having a glass of wine whilst making the dinner;)

nearlyrich

I usually prepare my Christmas veg on Christmas eve ( we feed between 14 and 20 for lunch) and just put it in the garage overnight. My saviour is my hostess trolley which is the best thing going when I am trying to juggles lots of cooking, we have a 5 burner stove top and a 4 pan steamer stacker whhich gets used to the hilt plus a double oven ( 2nd oven has only been used at Christmas so far.

I also do a big pan of HM soup for a starter.

I wrote this in another thread on here so appologies for repeating myself but my way of coping is to write a plan as per Delia Smith's Christmas, it takes maybe 10 mins to work it all out and write it out as a workplan, never failed me yet in 20+ years of cooking a big family christmas dinner!

Good luck and enjoy it:xmassmile

Snaggles

I peel and chop my veg the night before and stick them in bowls, filled with water. I also wrap the bacon around the sausages, put them on a baking tray and cover in cling film the night before too, and make stuff like stuffings, bread sauce etc. The less you have to do on the day, the more relaxed you can be.

One thing that helps me is making a meal plan so I know exactly what time I need to do everything (I just note down times that I need to do things on a bit of paper) - it might sound a bit rigid, but I know exactly what I'm doing and when I need to do it, so I can relax in between and enjoy time with the family. I set a timer too, so I can't get engrossed in something else and forget. My Mum laughs because she 'just knows' when things need to be done, but I would forget/burn something if I relied on my intuition.

Edit - cross posted, sorry - wasn't just nicking your ideas nearlyrich!

Snaggles

kathyd wrote:

2 roast potatoes per person and for the mash I allow another 2 roast size potatoes per portion for mashing.

I wish my family ate like this - I allow about 5 roast potatoes each, because the blokes will eat them by the bucketload if I let them (and then they wonder why they are asleep within 10 minutes of finishing the meal!).

pjs_3

I will make a note to do extra spuds just in case then as there will be 4 men! Also thanks for the tip on making a list of times that things have to be cooked Im feeling alot less stressed about it onw.:T

hollydays

Also plan out exactly what serving dishes you will need.

beachbeth

nearlyrich wrote:

I usually prepare my Christmas veg on Christmas eve ( we feed between 14 and 20 for lunch) and just put it in the garage overnight. My saviour is my hostess trolley which is the best thing going when I am trying to juggles lots of cooking

This is like me. We peel everything the night before and last year I even set the table too! As everything cooks it goes straight into the hostess trolley which gets it out of the way of the rest of the dinner. The main thing is to plan ahead and even write things down such as a list for Christmas Eve and a list for Christmas morning, eg For my Xmas Eve it would be:

Prepare Veg
Start trifle off ready to finish in the morning
remove stuffing and sausages covered in bacon from the freezer.
Make sure white wine, asti spumante is in the fridge.

Hope you have a lovely day!