What do you have on your christmas day menu

red_devil

we are having a turkey crown for our main dinner. We have lots of other christmas food in too.

aliwali

We are starting on Xmas eve with Danish Christmas at our neighbours, very excited as lots of new recipes I've never tried before.

Then pain o chocolat for Xmas day brekkie. Chicken roast for dinner with trimmings and chocolate cheesecake for desert.
Yum yum

Cheapskate

We've had more or less the same for years - sounds boring but we all like these things, and we do have variety at other times!

Christmas Day breakfast - croissants and bucks fizz (juice for the littlies), fruit later on with home made mince pies

Lunch - roast beef and pork, roast/boiled potatoes (the latter with parsley butter), carrots/swede mix, parsnips, sprouts with nutmeg & crispy bacon; Key lime or lemon meringue pie (not lovers of Christmas pud)

No tea as such, but there will be leftover meat to make into sandwiches, mince pies, home made biscuits and bowls of crudites for people to help themselves.

Boxing Day lunch - big salad with home made pizza, home made potato salad and/or pasta salad, leftover meat from the day before.

ash28

Christmas Eve - Lamb Tagine and couscous - followed by grandson's bedtime (he lives with us). Wait until GS goes to sleep sometime around 12 or 1am - fill in the time waiting by having a glass or two of wine. When he's asleep we wrap all the presents - my middle name is masocist.

Get to bed about 3 or 4am - get up around 5 or 6am, with GS, look a bit rough and will probably feel worse - let him start to open his presents - around 7am go to the kitchen to start breakfast usually bagels, smoked salmon and soft cheese with bucks fizz (got to get more champagne, we've already drunk the 2 bottles we had - the orange juice is still there).

Get everyone for breakfast only to discover GS has eaten his chocolate coins and most of a selection box. Have a mini rant about not eating sweets before meals go and have breakfast and some bucks fizz - start to feel a bit better.

Put the turkey in the oven - is it really 11am already.......prep the veg - make the stuffing - mix the yorkshire puddings.

Daughter and partner turn up - exchange presents - get the wine out.....son and his wife and girls turn up - exchange presents ....get some more wine out.......Make the trifle and put in the garage to cool. Whip up the cream ready to put on top.

Daughter makes the starter - usually prawn cocktails that are so large they would do half the street. Set the table - get the crackers out and we're 2 short - grab them off the Xmas tree and put on the table.

Take the turkey out of the oven and put in the pork - have another glass of wine and a handful of nuts with the neighbours.

Get the dinner finished and gravy made and have another glass of wine. Did I really forget to put one of the stuffings in the oven?

We like to sit down for dinner around 3pm ( with a glass of wine) - so we can go for a walk after dinner - sit down around 5:30 - go to round up the kids and discover GS has eaten the rest of his selection box, half a tube of pink smarties and all of purple ones out of the Quality Street - have another mini rant about sweets before meals.

Eat the starter and a little bit of the dinner have a bit more wine and feel full enough to bust.

Decide to leave the clearing up till later and watch tv - it's too dark to go for a walk. We settle down to watch a film - wake up just as the film is ending to discover GS has opened the Celebrations and started on the mini mars bars. Have another mini rant about too many sweets and teeth falling out.......

That is Christmas past - this year is going to be sooo different.

BargainMad_3

Just been to Waitrose and spent that long in there no time to get to Aldi.

Did one £25 shop and got a Delia cake kit free with the DM voucher. They had stacks of them and there was me worried they would run out!

Got a HUGE bag of King Edward spuds for £2 which will do for the mash and roasts on Christmas Day.

Also got two lovely little red cabbages (60p each) which I will cook with honey and sultanas for a nice side dish.

They had Delia cranberry sauce and Delia 18th century stuffing but I will be sticking with Ocean Spray and Paxo

I got quite a lot of stuff for £25 including two bags of marmite flavoured cashew nuts (2 for £2.50) which will do as one of the offers for nibbles and drinks.

Also some very good quality apple juice (Aspinals) on offer for £1.50 a litre in the chiller cabinet.

Big Sherry trifles were £6.15 each or two for £10 so am going back on Christmas eve with my other Delia cake voucher (believe me they had HUNDREDS so I don't think they will run out). So another £25 shop there, a £30 shop at Aldi and two £35 ones at Marks and that will be me done (£5 vouchers ready for those).






Waitrose was so much nicer than Marks's where people seemed to be miserable and which I abandoned empty handed !

sandy2_2

Well, in our village in Spain 25th is Chloresterol fiesta...a village BBQ with everything pork.
However I´ve decided to do a variation on Jamie´s Turkey Wellington.--Individual chicken Wellingtons using boned chicken thighs.
If you can give me some advice I´d be grateful.
I´ve boned the thighs, but what could I use instead of cranberry jam in the middle?
Also I´ve decided to pre-cook the thighs by poaching them in cling film, (to keep them moist). I´ve never done that before, so how long do you think they will take? I shall do this on Saturday then finish them off by browning the rolled thighs in a pan, then cover them with the mushroom stuffing and pastry then cook in the oven Sunday lunchtime. These will be served with roast potatoes, stuffing balls, ratatouille, pork sausages (from the BBQ) and gravy. For pudding slight change to Jamie´s sliced orange recipe with syrup and ground almonds, but I can´t find the recipe! Can anyone help with this please?
Sandy in Spain
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, mods please move if necessay

ash28

Can't help you with your chicken as I always boil chicken for a few minutes before putting on the barbecue or in the oven - keeps it nice and moist and means it is thoroughly cooked.

Is this the orange recipe?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/chocolate-clafoutis-with-oranges

pink_princess

Apricot & almond would be nice. I add these to chicken tagine & they go very well.

I'd simmer them for 12 mins if skinless, 15 if leaving the skin on.

kittywight

im not planning on making an actual breakfast ... maybe some toast for ds if he wants it
ill have plenty of snacks and nibbles (iced gingerbread, marmite and cheese pinwheels, cupcakes) that people are welcome to before dinner, and booze/tea/coffees ect


it will just be ds, my mum and stepdad and myself

starters :
goats cheese and caramelised onion filo parcels
goats cheese and spinach filo parcels

step dad (step dad is rediculously fussy and old fashioned!!) hes going to have a ham sarnie cut into stars!! lol

main :
roast chicken and coca cola slowcooked gammon
roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips
cauliflower and peas
homemade chicken gravy (and probably some bisto too)
yorkshire puddings and sausage meat stuffing

desert is being provided by my mum, strawberry gateau


all homemade except the gateau
did my caramelised onions with honey ..... so nice

BargainMad_3

sandy2 wrote: »

Well, in our village in Spain 25th is Chloresterol fiesta...a village BBQ with everything pork.
However I´ve decided to do a variation on Jamie´s Turkey Wellington.--Individual chicken Wellingtons using boned chicken thighs.
If you can give me some advice I´d be grateful.
I´ve boned the thighs, but what could I use instead of cranberry jam in the middle?
Also I´ve decided to pre-cook the thighs by poaching them in cling film, (to keep them moist). I´ve never done that before, so how long do you think they will take? I shall do this on Saturday then finish them off by browning the rolled thighs in a pan, then cover them with the mushroom stuffing and pastry then cook in the oven Sunday lunchtime. These will be served with roast potatoes, stuffing balls, ratatouille, pork sausages (from the BBQ) and gravy. For pudding slight change to Jamie´s sliced orange recipe with syrup and ground almonds, but I can´t find the recipe! Can anyone help with this please?
Sandy in Spain
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, mods please move if necessay

Certainly cook the chicken first as the last thing you want is any risk of rawish pink chicken in the centre of the cooked pastry. It doesn't matter that beef wellington is rare in the middle - that's the whole point of a Beef wellington - but you don't want any risk of the heat not getting to the chicken through the pastry and mushroom paste.

Thighs are the most tasty part of the chicken and and I think you would be better poaching them WITHOUT clingfilm with plenty of other stuff in the water - carrot, celery, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, stock cubes - so they can absorb the flavours. And this will make a wonderful stock for gravy. You can bring them to the boil for 15 minutes or a bit longer (depending on size of the thighs ) and then take off the heat altogether and let them stand in the boiling liquid for 30-45 minutes as it cools down.

I would skin the thighs after the cooking stage as it will add to the flavour and the skin will keep the meat moist.

With the chicken already cooked you won't need to worry about frying them before they go in the pastry. There should be no pink meat and the mushroom paste and pastry will create an enclosure that will also keep the meat moist. As for the centre bit a good quality cranberry sauce would suffice or even a fresh apricot.

This recipe has details on the caramalised oranges - is that what you were thinking of?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/chocolate-clafoutis-with-oranges



Let us know how you get on :rotfl: