To not do a Christmas dinner this year ?

[mamatomany]

We have a big roast most Sundays on beef and the trimmings, that's the only meat i like so i don't bother with a turkey anyway.
My MIL always makes a big fussy about how she'll pay for ALL the food and drink and then gives us £50 to cover three adults and three kids, ie about a third of what it actually costs lol.
To be fair DH does a lot of the cooking on the day but we will have a 6 month old baby this year, all the usual commitments, Church, school stuff etc by the time the actual day comes around I like the idea of bunging a couple of pizzas in the oven and then having a nice cheese cake for pudding.
What do you think, will the world stop turning if I bow out ?
The alternative is to eat out but that will cost over £200 and MIL thinks she will be paying for it, but her contribution doesn't and I haven't the heart to ask.

I did once consider doing that Nigella thing of putting the turkey overnight in a huge bucket of brine with spices, but luckily I saw sense in the nick of time. I don't think Christmas dinner should be fiddled with too much frankly. We have 364 other days to be experimental with our food. Every year there is always a rash of magazine articles about how to 'ring the changes' or 'pep-up' the 'boring' Christmas dinner. Why? Is it really so boring to eat it just the once a year?

God. What am I even DOING on this thread? It's September.

"I make my stuffings weeks in advance and freeze them, same with the sausages in bacon"

why have I never thought of this before.. you're a genius wubbly!

rolf @ Fellatio

Alouiseg says she parboils potatoes, ready for roasting, and then freezes them (not for Christmas particularly - just generally.) I might try that in advance this year and see how they turn out. If you take them out of the freezer the night before then all you've got to do is roast them, that saves on loads of peeling and faffing and washing up and saucepan juggling. Could work with parsnips too.

And I've still got in my freezer a leftover homemade Christmas pud from last year so that's one less job!

If you make a roast dinner every Sunday - with beef - then you could manage the same on Christmas day for less than £50 I am sure. Take MIL's £50 to buy a Christmas pudding etc if you like. It just seems a bit daft to eat frozen pizza on Christmas day and a roast dinner the Sunday after

Could you do a chicken, OP? Should feed 3 adults and 3 children, esp with all the trimmings. Nice stuffing and roasties frozen and ready to go, as suggested above. Then just veg (which can be prepped on Christmas Eve) and gravy on the day.
You can still have your tiramisu

...esp as the Sunday after is Boxing day

fellatio, my BiL does soak the turkey in brine and it's delicious. He's a really good cook and completely laid back so makes it look so easy.

You'd hate him.

Stop making such a big deal about it all! My BIL and I did roast goose for 22 people the year before last, it wasn't that hard, its only a slightly bigger sunday roast.

I don't like frozen veg. Imo it has a spooky texture. I think potatoes if frozen before roasting would go all woolly.

Oh I love Fellatio. She has said what I think.

It is no fuss to cook a roast dinner - as someone who cooks one once a year. I certainly don't spend all day in the kitchen.

I would much, much rather have dinner at home, whether it is roast turkey with knobs on, or pot noodle, than pay something like FIFTY ENGLISH POUNDS A HEAD to eat a very inferior christmas dinner in a pub. Bollocks to that for a game of soldiers.

nocake - the thing that put me off was that Nigella said you can't use the juices for gravy as they are too salty. And I like my (unadulterated) turkey dripping on toast for Boxing Day breakfast! It's the highlight of my Christmas. That and a snowball with a maraschino cherry like my Grandpa used to make me when I was about 8.

I have heard that the turkey itself is really delicious though. I might talk myself round one year - or try it for Easter!

OK, now I said the words 'bubble and squeak, snowball and turkey dripping' I'm all Christmassed up. And it' still only September.

I'm going up in the loft.

do 2 roast chickens if turkey is too ££, you can even buy them now on offer and freeze them or Lidl do frozen geese in lead up to xmas very cheaply. Then 1 bag of spuds, 1 bag of parsnips, 1 bag sprouts, 1 boat of gravy...how is that £50?!?! you can have crumble for dessert, so 1 bag apples, flour, sugar and butter...you can start buying chocolates etc now in the leadup when you see special offers.

I dont see why MIL should cover the booze for all 3 adults, and frankly i think pizza for christmas is odd if you can quite easily make roast beef every sunday...your post doesnt make much sense. It really costs no more to feed 1 extra mouth and if she provides £50 i think she is very generous!

Fellatio the brine turkey is really lovely - mind you the tenderness could be due to the fact that I smear about half a pound of butter up inside the skin as well.

No you can't make gravy out of the juices, however I make gravy on Christmas eve with some chilled stock and shallots. I am shite at making gravy anyway.

OOOH at snowballs. I love the whole runup to Christmas. My day sounds similar to your Fellatio - loud singing of christmas carols and Wizzard/Slade etc, visiting family and a walk after dinner. Don't watch telly - but on boxing day we generally slump in the sitting room and eat leftovers, watching loads of crap films.

OOh am all excited now.

YANBU, Do what you want to for Christmas Dinner. We have ben known in the past to have atake away curry. Bought on Christmas eve and heated up on the day ( there is a takeway round here that sells cold dishes ready for you to heat up when needed). Dh hates anyone spending hours in the kitchen on Christmas Day and the Kids loved it. They are now 23,20 and 18 and would still like t do that.

One of my neighbours says that one year when her kids were small she asked them what they wanted and they said mince and mash - so that's what she did and everyone was happy. (She told me that after I'd pureed the turkey liver and was in the market for some common sense.)

OK Getorf, You've talked me round on the brine turkey - I'll give it a go. Maybe I'll do one for Thanksgiving to test it out and if I don't like it nothing lost. I don't celebrate thanksgiving but turkey testing seems like a good reason to start.

Plus I can use my homegrown pumpkins for pie or something.

OK, I'm starting a Ponce's Christmas thread. I have VERY poncetastic Christmas habits, mostly involving arty bits of twig, and silver spray paint. And things in kilner jars, with dinky hand written labels and raffia ties. No amount of effort or martyrdom is enough for me.

I'm doing it.

Good luck with your pizza mamatomany but I'm off. This is clearly not the thread for me.

Loving the idea of Christmas pizza.....!I am looking like hosting Christmas dinner this year for all comers (about 12) and we haven't actually got 12 chairs! Not so much the food that is the problem - I'd happily spend the day cooking, probably safer than most of the conversations which will be going on! - it's the space. Need to clear areas for time-out chill zones.

Also there's no time?!?**!, when I am working right up till Christmas Eve and have numerous carol services etc to take up the evenings.

Can one do "tiny Christmas dinners" as a buffet option do you think? Would it even help? (Something on the lines of those mini toad in the holes from M&S )

BTW half the family who are coming want to go to a hotel instead.....and have offered to pay. I don't like the idea much - having to wait around for someone else's not very good cooking doesn't appeal - but maybe it has its merits?