Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

For me, Xmas thoughts don't start until the weekend after November 11th!

When I was a kid, my Gran would make he Xmas cake and New Year pud hat weekend, 6 weeks before Xmas amd 7 before NY.  Each weekend after that she'd  do a bake or prep something for that special week.  We'd also start getting or making small items for everyone's stockings over thise weeks! I really do love these old-fashioned rhythms to life.

Cherryfudge

rtandon27 said:

When I was a kid, my Gran would make he Xmas cake and New Year pud hat weekend, 6 weeks before Xmas amd 7 before NY.  Each weekend after that she'd  do a bake or prep something for that special week.  We'd also start getting or making small items for everyone's stockings over thise weeks! I really do love these old-fashioned rhythms to life.

What a lovely memory - and what a practical Gran! I'm guessing mince pies, but do you remember anything else she would make?

Mine starts at October half term, when I bake the cake - in theory. In practice, not always. Incidentally a friend told me you can make it last minute and mature it quickly by freezing it, but I never have enough freezer space for that.

Primrose

As n oldie I am so bemused with all the planning for festivities starting so early that they all seem to lose their individual.  Christmas anticipation for me in wartime and post war austerity didn't start until December.  I guess everything was in such short supply tthat an extended period of planning didn't make sense.
i guess now the dommerciallement has taken over everything so obviously they will extend every festivity as long as possible.

Cherryfudge

I'm sure it's all just a ploy to sell more, @Primrose. Buying tins of chocolate in September... they're never going to last till Christmas, are they? Some of them are eaten already. Then people 'have' to buy more for Christmas because they feel they're missing out if they don't.

I'm going to sound a real Scrooge here, but actually, we don't need any extra calories at Christmas.

I'm sure you're right about the commercial extension of festivities. As soon as Christmas is gone, Easter eggs will start to appear - I think in 2023 I saw the first creme eggs on Christmas Eve - and then we have Valentine's Day as soon as possible after that, then we mustn't forget Mother's Day so they start hyping that. If we got paid back every penny we'd ever spent of greetings cards, we could fund a holiday!

I wonder when all this extended planning started? I mean, in some ways people have always planned ahead but there's a difference (isn't there?) between planning to have stores in against a cold spell when we can't get to the shops, and buying Christmas food as soon as the school summer holidays end?

zafiro1984

Christmas :- not even thinking about that yet. 

'Expensive friend' is going home again tomorrow, I think I have enough in the fridge to last at least 4 days, and then there are the bulging freezers. I think Sept will be a cut back fugal month on spending to make room both in the cupboards and freezer.
Maybe I'll have time to convert some meat and veg into casseroles - batch cooking - for when the weather turns colder.

I didn't plan very well this year on freezer space. I've more to store (veg and fruit) than I have room. - all my neighbours have a 'share' table there are just 9 houses here so things don't really get wasted.

Lunch will be wraps and cold chicken or eggs with salad. Tea probably gammon/mushroom/chicken/veg in a sauce with puff pastry. Pudding HM coffee ice cream.

Suffolk_lass

And of course, hot cross buns have not been removed after Easter in recent years. I am sure you are right, @Cherryfudge, but if you make puddings or cakes, they do need to be able to improve with a bit of age. Tastes change, of course, and after confessions that few people actually like Christmas Pudding, I no longer make these, and if I make any cakes, they are in milk saucepans, not my large cake tins

Cherryfudge

I like Christmas pudding! In fact I bought some in the sales and they have been 'improving' since January! I like to make Christmas cake in October so it can mature, though I've heard that freezing it somehow matures it too.

rtandon27

Cherryfudge said:

rtandon27 said:

When I was a kid, my Gran would make he Xmas cake and New Year pud hat weekend, 6 weeks before Xmas amd 7 before NY.  Each weekend after that she'd  do a bake or prep something for that special week.  We'd also start getting or making small items for everyone's stockings over thise weeks! I really do love these old-fashioned rhythms to life.

What a lovely memory - and what a practical Gran! I'm guessing mince pies, but do you remember anything else she would make?

Mine starts at October half term, when I bake the cake - in theory. In practice, not always. Incidentally a friend told me you can make it last minute and mature it quickly by freezing it, but I never have enough freezer space for that.

Haha - @Cherryfudge - I didn't even know what a mince pie was until I moved to England 18 years ago! - She did make something that with a similar flavour profile that resembled tiny pasties, but with a very delicate pastry and filled with raisins/currents, coconut with flavours of clove, cinnamon & cardamom - I have no clue what it was called!  Other treats included shortbread petticoat tails, cardamom butter biscuits, gingerbread men, hand-made marzipan fruits and glacéed pineapple & citrus segments.  I am a lazy cow by comparison - we purchase a biscuit tin from the Swedish store and buy a tube of pringles, a box of marzipan fruits and some qu@lity street chocs!  Our seasonal dinner is usually a roast bird or joint of pork with the usual sides , but on Xmas day it's usually a pickety bits tea with charcuterie and seasonal cheeses.

rtandon27

Having returned from a mini-vacation spent visiting friends in Wiltshire and Dorset, we have done well to eat from what we have in-house - reverse planning on the fly.

Friday night dinner was steamed chicken & mushroom bao from the freezer and an american style hotdog - not a veg to be found unless you count the crispy onions!

Saturday brunch was our usual veg heavy frittata style omlette with toast and strong coffee.  Dinner was shredded duck with plum sauce in steamed bao with cucumber and spring onions - very tasty indeed.

Today we had poached eggs & italian salami with toast for brunch.  Japanese noodles with chicken and mustard greens for linner and for a late evening pickety bits snack houmous & crackers with the rest of the salami, the last of the chili cheddarand some grapes and easy peelers.

We have pork belly strips marinating in bulgogi sauce in the fridge for tomorrow dinner. - that will be had with pak choi and steamed jasmine rice.

Other than that, I simply must do a stock-take and plan out meals for the rest of the week as it's back to work for me & I'd like to involve the annoying conversation that OH & I have during my commute about what he needs to use up for tea!

Cherryfudge

@rtandon27, I hadn't realised mince pies are a peculiarly British thing! Your family recipes evoke Christmas baking so well... no wonder you have nice memories.

I put your ingredients list into a search engine and it gave me this (below), but I don't think either is quite what you're describing.

"It sounds like you’re describing a delicious pastry! This combination of ingredients is reminiscent of several traditional treats. One example is the Guyanese Goja, which features a filling of coconut flakes, brown sugar, warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, and often includes raisins1. Another similar treat is Mary Berry’s Coconut Tarts, which use a buttery shortcrust pastry filled with a sweet coconut mixture and spices like cinnamon and cardamom2."