Making Christmas dinner easier

[GiraffeNecked]

1. DH is doing most of the cooking.
2. Managed expectations of family already - it's a roast with added pigs in blankets, bread sauce and a jar of cranberry.
3. Buying pigs in blankets, turkey crown, bread sauce and gravy from M&S.
4. I do a good roast potato and don't mind doing that. Carrots and parsnips are easy enough roasted. Something green - probably brocolli.
5. Minimal decoration for dining room. It's packed full of junk as we are in the middle of a house renovation - so it's a bit of tinsel tacked on the moving boxes.
6. Family bringing pud.
7. No starter.
8. Wine and beer delivery.

Anything else that can make that easier? It's me, DH, his ex and their grown up kids and his parents.

Short of paper plates and getting someone else to eat it for you, not sure how much easier you need it to be made...

Anyone not cooking to wash up

Lots of non bags

Kids to lay the table and sort drinks - we have a breakfast bar with drinks so everyone themselves

Don’t forget the gravy

Do all the peeling and chopping on Christmas eve keep in air tight boxes in fridge (except potatos keep them in pan of water) then just dump things in the pan the next day. Who wants to peel potatos while admiring contents of stockings

You may need ....

Managed expectations of family already - it's a roast with added pigs in blankets, bread sauce and a jar of cranberry

What do your family think Christmas Dinner is if they need to be told that?

I'd be more upset if there wasn't any sprouts.

Disposable oven trays

Sorry not sorry planet

You can buy parsnips already sliced and in honey.

I find it helps to write all the going-in-the-oven times down in advance to save having to recheck packets/timings and count backwards from our eating time.

Yes, make a timings plan.

Start by putting the turkey in. Then you have time to get the veg prepped.

If you have space in the oven you can make a start on the roast potatoes, stuffing and pigs in blankets before the turkey has ended, but if not, not to worry. You can cover the turkey with foil and a tea towel to keep warm and finish things off afterwards. Once the potatoes are in, then you can do the veg, which doesn't need much time.

I do that sort of Christmas Dinner in 2.5-3 hours with lots of breaks for sitting down with a glass of fizz, guided by my spreadsheet that says what needs to happen when.

Sprouts! That’s the green thing.

I like to ge5 out for a walk on Christmas morning, a decent one...a couple of hours or more. But if there’s 2 of us peeling and we don’t eat. Till 3 that’s all possible.

Disposable oven trays. Top tip.

Spreadsheet
I love that

Does stuff come out the same if you use disposable?

If you do use disposable oven trays please remember that they aren’t very sturdy. You can risk trying to take them out of the oven and then collapsing, covering you and the floor with whatever was cooking in them (including hot fat etc).

*them collapsing. Not you collapsing. Obviously.

Yes, I agree that the larger disposable trays are best used as liners for conventional cookware, that way they still save on the washing up, but you won't need to rescue your hot bird from the kitchen floor!