Is it too soon to talk Xmas day food 👀

[Washingforweeks]

What’s on everyone’s menus? Or thoughts etc? I might do Xmas dinner Xmas eve so I spend the day with the kids

Not too soon at all. Do you know there is a year around Xmas topic, this was discussed months ago !

In the strangest way for me the meal kind of makes the day .one of my favourite moments is sitting down to my first drop of alcohol and smoked salmon starter.

Ooo really I’ll have a look! Yeah I know what you mean, I’m abit nervous trying it this way round

My son ordered a dressed turkey crown (it was huge) last year and it was really good, plus pigs in blankets and pork for Boxing Day roast from his local butcher. My daughter cooked the Christmas Day meal with the usual trimmings (carrots and green beans, sprouts, roasties, sweet potato, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, parsnips, we also have had Yorkshires last couple years). I don’t think we had a starter as that just dulls the appetite for the main event. We tend to have a decent breakfast (I like french toast and bacon with maple syrup) and then we eat the main meal about 4ish. If we get hungry later then turkey sandwiches. Oh can’t wait! Favourite meal if the year.

This year I'm not cooking!! My sons want to cook the Christmas dinner so I've splurged and got the whole lot from cook. All they need to do is cook and serve lol.
The cook range is fantastic, we even got the pudding's ❤️

Christmas Day food is the best, non-negotiable and the same every year in our house. I personally couldn’t do it on Christmas Eve - that’s my favourite day of the whole Christmas period so wouldn’t want to spend it cooking. Without the smell of the turkey cooking Christmas Day wouldn’t seem right.

Have you had it from here before? Very tempted 🎄

@Sunshineandrainbow it will be my first time...eeek!!! It's got very good customer reviews though so fingers crossed 🤞

Have been eyeing up a 4 bird roast that plan to do myself from scratch but have never attempted anything like that before. Or might do a jacket potato

I bloody love food from Cook. I usually have a couple of meals a week from them, but not had their Xmas stuff yet. This year will be my first on my own without my mum (hosted for around 20 years and the last 2 since she died I’ve had lovely friends host me). I’m planning on a chicken crown and doing my own roasties, but aiming for the Cook carrots and parsnips. What puddings did you go for? I’m not normally a dessert person, but I might go against the grain this year 🍰

There is a whole lovely shiny Mumsnet board/topic dedicated to Christmas chat.

But that's for year-round Christmas chat. 6 weeks from Christmas is ok to chat on other boards. We've already had invite dramas on AIBU.

Anyway OP, food/plans came up yesterday as we had PILs over.

We're having melon and Parma ham for starter. Main will be roast spuds, carrots and parsnips. Then pigs in blankets, chicken wings and mini game roasts. Plus sprouts. The idea being that it's very quick and simple to cook.

MIL makes the Christmas pudding. It's a WWII recipe with carrots added so it's a bit lighter.

@Ijwwm I'm sorry about your mum. Its always a difficult time of year. Pudding wise i got two individual lemon tarts and two individual mango and passion fruit cheesecakes. Something light but nice. They will do for Christmas day tea if we don't eat them at lunch

Thank you, much appreciated. And thanks re the puddings, I like the sound of the lemon tarts. I had a 10% off voucher through the door last week, so think I might stock up early!

Enjoy ❤️ I'm really looking forward to it this year ☺️

The Cook range does look great. I think I’ll go for the turkey for 4!

we finally settled on turkey crown and rib of beef. All the trimmings and veg, no starter and pudding will be sorted by a guest. We decided to have cauli cheese, sprouts, carrots and broccoli as veg. Roast spuds along with mashed for those who like it. Pigs in blankets and two types of stuffing. Yorkshire puds as always. There’s 18 of us this year and we all settled the menu this week. Now it’s settled that’s it and we all know it and stick to it.

I'm thinking:

B: homemade crumpets & homemade butter

CD: A pear & bre starter, I had this recently and it was delicious. Lamb, roasties, yorkshires, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, gravy. Peas as a token veg.
D: School butterscotch tart & custard or ice cream

In reality, we normally end up eating Christmas eve ham with bread and cheese and pickles etc for brunch and being too full for a 3 course meal and then end up splitting it and cooking it in parts over the next few days. Maybe I will ban the ham on Christmas day this year 😂

I’m intrigued by the chicken wings on Xmas dinner! Are they as a side like the veg etc. x

What is the school butterscotch tart please x

Its a tart we used to have at school. Its similar to gypsy tart. I came across the recipe on reddit this morning and decided this is what I'll make

Butterscotch tart
https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/12652sq/school_dinners_butterscotch_tart_for_those_that/

It references the cornflake tart recipe here https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/126q718/school_dinners_cornflake_tart_a_popular_request/

This user posted loads of school recipes from a book called school dinners:

Gypsy tart
https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/1264zvg/school_dinners_gypsy_tart_its_a_relative_of/

Jaffa tart
https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/126qaft/school_dinners_jaffa_tart_yup_its_got_a_pastry/

Chocolate concrete
https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/12cvfcm/school_dinners_chocolate_concrete_many_requests/

Nope, that's the meat. After DH spending ages trying to make the chicken perfect most years, I suggested we try DS's favourite plus other little meat things that don't need keeping an eye on. Plus leftovers are easier to deal with.

Home made cinnamon rolls for breakfast with fruit and Buck’s Fizz. Them roast pork and lamb for dinner with roast spuds, sprouts and bacon, red cabbage, carrot and swede and cauliflower cheese. Home made Yorkshire’s, pigs in blankets and plain stuffing and cranberry stuffing . A choice of mint gravy and sage and onion gravy. Then a clementine cheese cake and a chocolate dessert for pudding . I go all out on a cheese board for the evening too.

can’t wait!

@cuckoolodger - clementine cheesecake sounds amazing!

8 of us this year, no starters.

Main is turkey and or ham, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, pigs in blankets, veg, yorkshire puddings, stuffing and gravy.

Then we have an open house and I am expecting about another 14-18 people. They all come for desserts and cheese and biscuits. After all of that chocolate and crisps and dips. Plenty booze and soft drinks. Everyone heads home about 8 pm ish.

It’s definitely not too early. If you want to order meat, you’ll need to get a wiggle on.

Breakfast: I’m quite partial to a bowl of coco pops while DH will probably go without but pick at turkey and home made sausage rolls as he’s cooking.

Lunch: Turkey, roast potatoes, chipolata sausages from the butchers, wrapped in streaky bacon, Yorkshire puddings, home made sage & onion stuffing, cabbage and sprouts boiled for hours, eighties mum style (nobody eats either apart from me and DN, and we like them like that), sweetcorn, peas and carrots. None of us like parsnips or swede so we don’t bother. Vegans will be having vegan equivalents but with Paxo stuffing without added butter. We’ll have M&S Black Forest iced gateau and they’re having the M&S vegan chocolate torte with chocolate ice cream.

Tea isn’t usually a thing as DH has no sense of portion control and cooks extra but there’s always plenty to choose from.

I prefer Boxing Day, cold meats, pigs in blankets, DH’s stuffing and bubble and squeak. I prefer it to Christmas dinner. I did treat myself to a proper trifle bowl recently so I’m thinking about a clementine trifle but haven’t seen a recipe I love yet.