Christmas - Essential Reading for Parents

[Kbear]

I copied this from a friend's facebook but good advice needs to be shared - Have a good Christmas everyone xxx

Right then here goes... ANNUAL RANT ALERT!!
Triggered by adverts and TV chefs😠😠
Christmas Dinner....
I have concluded that the inevitable stress of Christmas dinner is created by adverts, supermarkets and TV chefs...

It's a Sunday dinner for goodness sake!!! We do it quite happily 51 weeks of the year but can we the consumers be trusted to manage by ourselves on one day of the year...apparently not!
Here goes...

1. Turkey... It's a big blooming chicken that's all, 20 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes at 180 degrees - jobs a good un! Get yourselves a meat thermometer £3 off the Internet poke it in the offending bird if it says 75 degrees or over its cooked!

1. Stuffing - regardless of what Jamie Oliver says you do NOT need 2lbs of shoulder of pork, onions breadcrumbs,pine nuts and a shit load of fresh herbs to make stuffing....( no wonder he's bankrupt if thats what he spends to make stuffing!)

What you need is Paxo and a kettle!! If you wanna liven it up squeeze 3 sausages out of their skins and mix that in with your Paxo before cooking 😉.

1. Gravy - Jamie Oliver is copping for this one aswell....

Bisto Jamie.... All you need is Bisto! I ( nor any other woman I know) has got time on Christmas Eve to mess about roasting chicken wings and vegetables, adding stock and flour,cooking it for another half hour, mashing it all up with a potato masher and then straining the whole sorry mess to make gravy 😠😠😠

1. Vegetables... Never mind faffing round shredding sprouts and frying them with bacon and chestnuts to make them more palatable... If you don't like them don't buy and cook the blooming things!! If your family only eats frozen peas then that's good enough!

1. Roast potatoes... Yes I par boil mine then roast them in goose fat but Aunt Bessie also does the same 😉.

1. Trimmings /Christmas pudding and the like.... Aldi or Lidl!

(oh and while we're on the subject of pudding- if birds custard is what your family likes on the wretched thing then that's fine - you do not need brandy butter /rum sauce etc or anything else that costs a fortune and takes 2 hours to make!)

1. Family....

Children.. Feed the little blighters first separately, if they only want turkey with tomato sauce - fine leave em to it, it doesn't matter. Once they are fed let them clear off to play with their Christmas presents so that YOU can enjoy your dinner in Peace!

Adults... Anyone that can manage to get their sorry arse to your dinner table is also capable of helping to serve up/ sort the kids out/ clear the table /wash up /dry up etc.

And Finally.....

NO ONE.... And I mean no one APART FROM THE COOK IS ALLOWED TO GET DRUNK AND FALL ASLEEP BEFORE THE WASHING UP IS DONE!!!

Rant over 😂
Merry Christmas!!.. 😜🤣

I couldn't disagree more. I love Christmas Dinner and there is no way Paxo or Bisto are going anywhere near it. But then I don't find any of it stressful either.

Amen!!!

Or just don't do it at all. We asked DD what she wanted for Christmas Dinner and she said "sausages because daddy can cook them and play at the same time"

Nah I like Christmas dinner to be a bit special. I don’t make roasts every week either.

Christmas Day is the one day of the year when I get all available children (those not abroad or working) together, just me and them. I'm damn well going to pull out the stops!

(But I do agree with most of it, especially that JO overcomplicates things.)

It might help people who are stressing over the little things to look at the bigger picture though. I agree, it's nice to make an effort, but it's dinner, it's one day, this pressure tips people over the edge.

Paxo and bust I won't be on my table. That whole post is condescending.

The turkey temperature thing is very useful... I didn’t know that!

I do make a bit more effort than in the above ‘rant’, but agree with the sentiment. Certainly no one should be stressed and panicked by Christmas dinner: just do what’s best for you.

I use Bisto, and packet stuffing. This year I found a JO Supreme stuffing mix in Sainsbury. We shall see. I also use Aunt Bessies potatoes and Yorkshire puds. I can make Yorkshires, but there's only 3 of us and it doesn't seem worth it. My one failure is roasties-they never crisp up right; so frozen one are a boon.

If you want to pull out all the stops and don't find it stressful, crack on with it. Have a lovely Christmas and enjoy your lunch.

If you're stressing about it all and feeling overwhelmed then take notice of the rant, have a lovely Christmas and enjoy your (hopefully now stress free) lunch.

I don't see how its condescending but if it doesn't apply to you that's ok and have a good one

This made me laugh as I just made that Jamie Oliver gravy and I'm disappointed in the result and I don't think there's enough!!

Frankly I don't recognise any of these problems. I love watching the Christmas cooking shows but it certainly doesn't give me an inferiority complex. And as you say it's a roast dinner with a few extra items - but sure isn't going to include a stuffing mix or gravy granules!
If people feel overwhelmed DELEGATE! Don't be a martyr. At the very least if you do the cooking someone else can do the washing up!

The JO Gravy isn't so bad if you leave the star anise out. Otherwise it just tastes like Benylin...

I can't get worked up about Christmas Lunch, it's a roast with extras and nearly all the work can be done in advance. I've been making and freezing bits for ages, I'll defrost it all on Christmas eve and stuff the turkey then.

I use Paxo, Bisto, ready made bread sauce, Aunt Bessies ready made Yorkshire Pudding, Birds Trifle Mix and ready made custard. I'm not spending all day in the kitchen and missing out on the fun my kids are having with DP and MIL in the living room.

I really dislike any bought roast potatoes, even the posh ones done in goose fat....much prefer homemade.

As for stuffing...the supermarket posh ones are really good and I doubt more expensive than having to buy all the ingredients and making yourself.

Always buy cranberry sauce.

Never ever make Christmas cake or Christmas pudding yourself. It's hugely expensive and time consuming and doesn't even taste any better. Even the top of the range supermarket ones work out cheaper than buying all that sodding dried fruit and doing it yourself.

I made the JO gravy one year. Complete faff and not nearly as nice as the gravy I made with pan juices after the turkey had roasted. I now buy prepared braised red cabbage, stuffing balls and a carton of custard. Makes life so much easier.

totally agree OP. Christmas dinner is a sunday dinner although I do add parsnips which I don't usually have. Bisto and paxo are standard here too. Sometimes upgrade from paxo to sainsburys special brand. I don't want to spend all day in the kitchen.

I ( nor any other woman I know) has got time on Christmas Eve to mess about roasting chicken wings and vegetables, adding stock and flour,cooking it for another half hour, mashing it all up with a potato masher and then straining the whole sorry mess to make gravy

What about men? DH cooks our Christmas dinner (including making his own gravy ).
Paxo is rank. Bisto is rank. Wouldn’t have them on a normal Sunday dinner so won’t be having them on Christmas dinner. Also don’t like turkey so we won’t be having that.
Otherwise yeah, it’s just a meal. We have rib of beef, Yorkshire puddings, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, carrots and broccoli. DH cooks. Stress free

Oh and roast potatoes, obviously.

I buy tubs of good quality ready made gravy (M&S) or such like and add a glug of port. Gravy sorted.
We also have a ready stuffed boneless turkey crown which makes the whole meat side of things a lot easier.
Ready made cranberry sauce. Don’t do bread sauce, it looks like sick.
That just leaves the veggies and ready made Yorkshires.
Job done.

Do people still do a proper Sunday roast every Sunday?

Pimped Paxo and Schwartz bread sauce with extra nutmeg are my preferred short cuts. And I never thought I was unusual for either

My dp is doing dinner - zero stress for me

I've just spent all afternoon making Jamie's sodding gravy, what a faff. Mind you, I can't stand Bisto! Goodbye thread OP. Happy Christmas x