Christmas - As easy as possible please.

bossymoo

Our gammon will be in the slowcooker from the night before. No starters here, veg prepped night before, stuffing already made and in freezer. Ditto pigs in blankets.
Puddings are bought in too I wanna see my tots having fun with the family and their new games and toys.

NiceGuyEddie_2

Ok preppers, I have a stuffing question. Being a slovenly wench, and with the meal already having sausages and chipolatas, I'm using a packet mix for the stuffing - can I make up the mix, shape them and freeze them? Cook from frozen or defrosted?

I know it's not much effort to make the mix on the day, but the more time I can spend out of the kitchen the better

PetuliaGristle

My advice is to buy anything and everything ready-made except the turkey crown, potatoes and sprouts. I peel the sprouts on Christmas Eve, usually whilst watching The Snowman, and put in resealable plastic bags in the fridge.

Buy a turkey crown instead of a whole turkey, unless someone really likes dark meat. Lidl and Aldi ones are just as nice as M&S imho (yes, really, we them tested one year, had Aldi crown at Easter and was just as tasty). We always roast the turkey using Delia's instructions and timings, parceling the turkey up in foil, then resting it for at least 30 minutes, wrapping it in foil and putting towels over it to keep it warm. I put loads and loads of butter on it, after all it's only once a year...

Bread sauce from Sainsbury's tastes the same as Delia's imho (sorry Delia) and can be frozen and microwaved saving time on Christmas Eve/Day.

Buy an expensive Christmas Pud in the January sales and put it away for next Christmas. Have the Christmas pud at tea time, we're always too full up to enjoy it after lunch. Oh, and cook the pud in a slow cooker, I rest the pud on an upturned saucer in the bottom of the SC, put in boiling water, I've never had to top the water up yet. The SC sits in the corner of the kitchen out of your way, until you're ready to eat the pud.

No starters here either, though everyone gets to choose their favourite Christmas breakfast instead.

[Deleted User]

I was a bit shocked when I read the above posts to be honest - I thought a family was about TEAMWORK , you ALL enjoy the day so why not work together & prep the food together on the day???

I used to give my kids ''jobs'' to do , we were all allocated something & they were used to it anyway as in everybody doing their bit...

I have some very fond memories of us sitting together prepping the veg etc ( not when they were tiny of course but as they got old enough to do it )

It hasn't changed as am staying with one of my daughters for Christmas and always work together so no one person is EVER overwhelmed and it is actually more enjoyable for everyone to COOK TOGETHER as a team with everybody chipping in , family bonding and all that , they actually ENJOY inputting into the meal & get a sense of satisfaction out of it plus there is NO WAY they would sit there and LET me do EVERYTHING and we automatically just get on with it , not Mum the slave in the kitchen at all , and it really is smiles all round! :D x

( We have 8 adults , 2 kids & a baby coming over in all , possibly more , but its all part of the fun .... smoked salmon , bagels & scrambled egg for brunch ( easy ) prawn cocktail starter and roast duck & lamb with all the trimmings for the later Christmas dinner itself , can't wait!!! )

themull1

I use packet mix for the stuffing, but i add it to good quality skinned sausages, a chopped onion, chopped apple and one raw egg, make up stuffing mix, let it cool completely, use two packs pork sausages take skin off, mix everything up, put in loaf tin, and cook til ready, maybe an hour. i prepare veg on the day, but do the stuffing, trifle and pigs in blankets the day before.

I have christmas pudding - just microwave, and rum sauce, just heat up, gateau, just open, and cream.

Soup, make the night before, or have a cold starter like salmon mousse etc, just to be put on plates on the day with a bit of salad. I cook a turkey crown and beef, beef joint in dead early christmas morning, then i cook turkey afterwards, when meal is nearly ready, slice meats, put in shallow dish with a bit of water/gravy, cover with foil and reheat in oven - lovely.

themull1

I never have anyone else in the kitchen, i work better on my own.

cazpumpkin

I lay the table the night before and thats it.

I start at 8am and write down everything to be cooked and the approx times to put them in the oven,. i have a small oven so cook things two at a time then remove and put to one side

stuffing is a packet of sausage meat to which i add one egg, some herbs from the garden, a crumbled up slice of fresh brown bread and half a packet of cranberries from poundland and a chopped brown onion and a small packet of made up paxo sage and onion stuffing mix , which goes into a greased dish and baked for 30/40 mins 180%

i cook the stuffing and pigs in blanket which are ready made from sainsburys first and put to one side, by now its usually 9am

then i put in a sainsburys turkey crown which was a frozen one but thoroughly defrosted, they normally only take about 2 hours, i drizzle with olive oil and butter and wrap in foil , then cook and put to one side for a good few hours.

while the bird is cooking i peel and parboil everything carrots, sprouts, peas, cauli, cabbage & leek, but not the potatos at this stage.

gravy is bisto brown, after years of slaving in a kitchen and making things from scratch i prefer bisto, ditto the bread sauce from a sainsburys packet just add milk cant tell the difference, so i make those

yorkshire puddings are aunt bessies frozen and i nuke them for 5 minutes and put to one side.

at this point i stop and have a cup of tea and wash and dry anything hanging around and clear the worktops as much as possible.

so usually by doing the veg, washing up and having a cuppa its now 11am ish.

next job is slice the turkey and transfer to a large container/plate/dish and cover with foil and wash the oven pan.

then i get out the plates, condiments and lay them all out on the kitchen counter.

usually by now im bored lol and off i go and get washed and dressed and do my hair, im so slow its usually midday by now and i dont even think about going back into the kitchen till around 1 oclock when the roast potatos get parboiled then go in the oven for the final hour and at 45 minutes to go i chuck in a packet of frozen sainsburys parsnips , i hate parsnips but 2 of my kids like them so they dont seem to have noticed theyre frozen yet lol

the veg which was par boiled and left in hot water to cool continued to cook in my absence due to the heat of the water so normally just needs bringing to the boil and draining

now i have a small table and many people so cant do it like the xmas adverts with big heaped bowls of veg on the table so this is the part which makes me blush

i put everything onto the plates in advance a bit like school dinners and at 2 oclock each plate is heated in the microwave for 2 minutes one by one and i take the potatos from the oven and add a few spuds and each person collects their plate one by one, its not ideal but its what we have always done and nobody minds, with 5 of us it means person one has eaten as person 5 gets their plate but they dont leave the table they just eat a bit slowly or have a glass of wine

everyone clears the table and one person washes, another dries a third puts it away, someone else wipes the table, then we go back into the kitchen for a microwaved xmas pudding from poundland, a defrosted sainsburys cheesecake and a sainsburys ready made yule log,

im not great at cooking but this dinner is fool proof and ive not had any complaints ever from anyone , hope this helps someone,

the only part i do myself from scratch is the stuffing and roast potatos as i dont like those items from frozen or trust me theyd be frozen as i dont care if things are made from scratch or not

the best bit for me is everyone saying theyre stuffed and then sitting round after watching xmas tv and eating quality street

Meadows

NiceGuyEddie wrote: »

Ok preppers, I have a stuffing question. Being a slovenly wench, and with the meal already having sausages and chipolatas, I'm using a packet mix for the stuffing - can I make up the mix, shape them and freeze them? Cook from frozen or defrosted?
I know it's not much effort to make the mix on the day, but the more time I can spend out of the kitchen the better

Well Aunt Bessie's can be cooked from frozen so why not NiceGuyEddie's

clairefun

This is really interesting to read, we've only done Christmas dinner last year and now this year, and hubby does it - I decorate the house (he helps with the tree) and buy & wrap the majority of presents, so it feels fair. Our son and I will prep the sprouts Christmas Eve with Muppets Christmas Carol playing, and we buy a crown as there's only the 3 of us and my mum. He's made a cake but this year we bought a pudding as he was ill all of November. We do prawn cocktail starter too but that sets made up / dished up in advance. We can't do much in advance as we have a cat & we can't keep her off the table or worksurfaces very easily. This year we have a daft beagle puppy too so it'll be even more chaos - cant wait!

Jo_F

Cook the turkey Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day my trainee chef daughter does the rest of it.