How to simplify christmas dinner

SilverFrost

My 78 year old Mum is insisting she does xmas dinner for the family as she has always done. But she is getting older now and is starting to not cope with things as well as she did. We all love roast chicken & trimmings for dinner. So is there a way to simplify the dinner? For example, could I buy a chicken now, cook it, slice it and freeze it? How would you then reheat the chicken portions? I could peel and freeze the veg I guess:xmassmile

Oakdene

SilverFrost wrote: »

My 78 year old Mum is insisting she does xmas dinner for the family as she has always done. But she is getting older now and is starting to not cope with things as well as she did. We all love roast chicken & trimmings for dinner. So is there a way to simplify the dinner? For example, could I buy a chicken now, cook it, slice it and freeze it? How would you then reheat the chicken portions? I could peel and freeze the veg I guess:xmassmile

Defrost the chicken then heat it through in the oven on a tray.

Stuff like red cabbage, cauli cheese etc can be made in advance then cooked from defrost.

Farway

SilverFrost wrote: »

I could peel and freeze the veg I guess:xmassmile

Just buy ready frozen veg, so much more convenient, especially for someone not coping as well as they used to

jackyann

I think we all have things that we notice, and things we don't. I personally dislike the texture of cooked, de-frosted and re-heated meat. This is what I would do:
Prepare, freeze, then cook the stuffing separately ( better for food safety as well).
I agree about frozen veg. I would not have anything complicated (personally I don't 'get' cauliflower cheese with roast dinner). I oven cook the peas in a casserole dish with a dab of butter, salt and a sprinkle of sugar, they keep nice for ages.
Make gravy and bread sauce in advance. You can keep the juices for a nice gravy a few days later.
But some of this depends on what your mum and the family like. My m-i-l would never have had bread sauce made in advance!
I think that oven cooked peas, carrots, roast parsnips and potatoes plenty of veg for Xmas dinner. If you like red cabbage, that can be cooked and frozen, it is very forgiving. Others would not think this was enough!

strawberryfield2233

If budget allows then a trip to M&S for a whole chicken ready to roast in a bag or chicken joint ready in foil tray, they do plenty of vegetables ready to cook eg roast potatoes, veg, beef dripping yorkshires, gravy everything you could need including pigs in blankets etc If you wanted to cook chicken in advance you could slice freeze then warm through on the day in Good old bisto gravy and serve with ready to roast veg.

Linda32

If you use Bisto which we do, then you can re-heat the sliced chicken in gravy, gas mark 6 for 30 minutes is long enough for two portions for us. We have ordinary chicken dinner like this.

Veggies for Christmas dinner in my opinion should be parsnips and brussels only. It is as simple as you want to make it or as complicated as you want with lots of different types of veg, stuffing, pigs in blankets and goodness knows what else.

trailingspouse

Good for her. Has she suggested that she isn't coping so well? I think you need to tread very carefully - her pride is at stake.

Rather than doing it all for her, it might be better if you let her do what she normally does, but be prepared to step in if things aren't going to plan. Maybe suggest that you work alongside her (joke that you are her scullery maid...), keep an eye out to make sure the bird is properly cooked, insist that she delegates veg prep, keep the washing-up ticking over. You can buy ready made pigs in blankets, stuffing can be made ahead of time, ditto gravy. That really just leaves the bird and the veg. Frozen roast potatoes are easier (and involve less hot fat...) that the real thing.

She might enjoy a mother/daughter trip to the supermarket to do the big shop.

And make sure the family joins in with things like setting the table and clearing up afterwards.

VJsmum

jackyann wrote: »

I agree about frozen veg. I would not have anything complicated (personally I don't 'get' cauliflower cheese with roast dinner).

It's something we never used to have, but DD eats very little meat and wouldn't eat roast meat at all. A cauli cheese goes very nicely with the other roast accompaniments for us, it means she gets something to go with it all - and we all find ourselves dipping in

back to the OP - good for you, and agree with the poster who suggested she can "Project Manage" it with others doing the physical work...

MMF007

2 years ago my mil began struggling to do the family xmas but she didn't want to give it up. She can barely lift a half full kettle so you can imagine the struggle with a roast. I took the opportunity to offer to do the roast when fil had a major op in Dec. When I offered she resisted (it is a matter of pride and self-reliance, understandably) and said she could lift the roast. Oh, says I, I know you can but what if fil sees you doing it and rushes to help? He could burst his stitches. So I was looking after his interests and not implying that she couldn't cope. She, reluctantly agreed. She prepped all the veg and we all made a fuss of the veg and didn't mention the turkey:)

This year we have just said we'll get the turkey and cook it and she jumped at this :rotfl:

It is just a case of finding a way so no-one loses face. Are there grandkids who 'really want to do it to show off to you mum'? Obvs you could assist them and gran could supervise!

PasturesNew

With the right equipment it can be easy. You've not listed the "trimmings". You could precook it all and nuke it at her house, but many people would complain about that as "but it's XMAS!"

e.g. unless anybody's particularly desperate about skin/crispy skin, then she could simply drop a raw chicken into a slow cooker first thing in the morning, rather than faffing about with hot pans and hot oil and stooping.

All veg can be done in a steamer, you can get cheap stackable electric steamers.

Roasties can be cooked to the point where they're light brown, then just shoved in the oven to finish/heat/brown for 20 minutes on the day.

Stuffing - depends if you usually stuff the bird, or oven bake stuffing (and in what format) what'd be the best advice for that.

SilverFrost

Thanks all. Some food for thought.