to NOT be stressed about cooking Christmas dinner. It's only a roast FGS

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Why the stress?

Loads of threads on here. And SIL harping on at the weekend about how stressful it is, she always ends up tears on the morning, there is so much pressure.

I actually said to her 'it's only a jumped up roast dinner, what's so stressful about that' and she looked just looked at me and started talking about sprout preperation.

Just get on with it.

"We have a roast dinner once a week. it's just roast meat with mash, veg and gravy"

No, a roast is not a Roast unless you include roast potatoes.

Dooin ok i admit that we buy a better joint but other than that it's no different. I do the roasts in the meat juices anyway.

Like getorf it's done when its done too.

As for sprout prep.....only DH eats them in our house so he does his own!

No pudding!!!??? I'm not coming to yours for Christmas.

lol @ xmas dinner top trumps!!

I AGREE!

MIL , FIL, BIL and SIL have invited themselves to ours for Christmas this year.

I said: fine.

But I will not do a "Traditional English Christmas" as I happen to not be English, and I don`t like mince pies, turkey, sprouts and especially not christmas pudding, yuk.

My DH and DC are not into any of the above either, so ILs will have to "make do" with a continental Christmas meal, ie some fancy meat in a nice sauce, maybe mash or gratin potatoes, a green bean salad, and a merengue dessert.

MIL has already asked if I`m going to do turkey or goose, and I have explicitely said I will do Christmas dinner, but not an ENGLISH one.

It`s so annoying as they called up to invite selves, and now have all kinds of expectations.

LOts of people here echo the feeling that if you do dinner, it has to be "right", ie "traditional and English".

I like England, I love it here, but I dont buy into the nostalgia over roast dinners, or stodgy food, I just dont get it.

Last year I banned everyone from the kitchen and bagsied cooking as my job. It was blissfully calm and serene. I actually felt guilty because I was escaping the emotional family minefield and screaming DC and having a nice bit of me-time. The problems start when other people are in the kitchen/trying to "help" in a kitchen they're not familiar with, or when two or more people have different ideas about what to do.

I hate Christmas actually, I do find it incredibly stressful, but not the food. That is its only saving grace IMO :)

Getorf - i do carrots and parsnips in honey - yum!

This thread is making me hungry :(

I love sprouts.
I always do far too many roasties, sprouts and mash, on purpose, so we can have bubble & squeak the next day.

YANBU

I buy better things at christmas - venison this year. I do more vegetables and side things, like sausages in bacon.

BUT in terms of cooking it, it IS just a roast. There's no need to get your knickers in a twist and be planning it for months. Nowhere is going to sell out of sprouts.

YANBU - cooking the meal shouldn't be stressful in itself. Though I suspect what causes the problem in many households is the other people involved! So, the fussy ones, the "helpful" ones, the drunk ones, the ones who turn up an hour later than they said they would, the ones who suddenly announce they "don't eat x" or "it's not a proper Christmas without y"

Chandon, you should definitely make what you want to if you are the one doing the cooking.

I also lurve roast parsnips, liberally sprinkled with freshly milled black pepper.

Pfft...NO need for planning you say, yet you already "planned" venison!

Bit of a contradiction, haha

I do agree about veg prep the night before - all mine will be peeled and chopped and in the fridge. I don't care if they lose their vitamins, the world wn't end if we get a few less vitamins one day of the year!

And DH does the sprouts while sitting in front of a film!

And where are the yorkshire puddings!? it's not a proper christmas dinner without yorkshires as well!

"Nowhere is going to sell out of sprouts."

Ah, but perhaps this is where the stress started. In the good old days, there were shortages and you had to order your turkey in advance with the butcher.

Planning? I'm not sure what planning is. Last minute x-mas eve rush to the shops/market I know what that is. But planning? Never heard of that concpet before.

DH normally orders the meat about a week before hand and I pick them on x-mas eve. That's as close to planning as we get.

I can never understand the thing about having a turkey so big you have to get up in the middle of the night to Put It On.

Unless you are feeding thirty people, why does it have to be the size of a pterodactyl?

Perhaps so you can bore the gonads off everyone talking about what you are going to do with all your leftover turkey in the run up to the day.

[Clearly still haven't got over being an innocent bystander to one of these discussions among hausfraus I worked with about twenty years ago]

Dooin - peel your carrots and/or parsnips, lay them in a tray lined with foil (you need loads as you ake a kind of bag) drizzle olive oil over them and brush with runny honey, make a kind of bag with the foil and roast at the same time as potatoes - ish. They are all lovely and soft and sweet.If you have no honey, demerara works well too.

"hear hear".
We have done the last 6 or 7 christmases (at least.. memory only goes back so far) and I actually LOVE doing it. It's just a roast on a slightly bigger/grander scale with licence to add absolutely anything you want

GOML -your Traditional Xmas menu matches ours, but where is your bread sauce?!?!?

We are doing Wellington Boot this year. Sorry to be rather unfestive, but having done Rib of Beef last year, I am quite enjoying the journey away from Turkey for a little while.....

Oh yummy. Thank you DOTDS.

Balloon, we have a large turkey. It means that I don't have to cook for the rest of the holiday; we live on left-overs.