frozen roast potatoes are for emergencies not for Christmas day

[PrincessScrumpy]

I made a double chocolate baked cheese cake for Christmas with the in-laws - they didn't eat it and chose tesco value chocolate cake over my homemade dessert. I had to laugh - my dessert was yummy and dh and dd both ate mine. dh was horrified that his family were so rude and also by their taste buds.

I was alarmed when I went to the fridge on Christmas eve for dd's milk to see no sign of a Christmas dinner. My assumptions were correct - all from the freezer - even the veg including roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings to go with the Iceland roast pork and lamb.

Luckily, my aunt made a fab Christmas dinner on Monday so at least I've had real Christmas dinner.

Don't mean to sound snobby, but I come from a family that enjoys homemade food.

I think I bumped into you at Haslemere Waitrose the other day, Bupcakes. I was the one ransacking the store for products without unfunny jokettes on the labels, which seem to add an average of £2.50 to the cost.

Couldn't find any, so I stole your Audi.

YABU.
I discovered frozen parsnips and potoatos this Christmas- and Oh how I wish I had dicovered them earlier. Many a Sunday Lunch and Christmas meal has been ruined for me, with the stress of wandering how I am going to get my parsnips to cook perfectly. They are either half raw or burnt to a cinder. I also have an issue with my roasties- even after following Heston's guide to a perfect roast potato!!I always cook Sunday lunch for at least 8 people, and never have enough room in or on my cooker for all the food- and by the time I need to put the potatoes in, the heat has gone, and they are all soggy. Having used frozen parsnips for x mas dinner, and knowing I had another 2 Christmas meals to cook on Boxing day and then again on Monday for various guests, frankly I couldn't be arsed to peel another potato. ( I always use my grans farm potatoes which are perfect)So I brought a bag of Aunt Bessies- defrosted them, cut them up a bit then roasted them in a load of cooking oil, and I had endless comments everyone loved them. I shall never look back. I have even managed to convert my very middle class family , who would never be so crude as to buy frozen food, let alone admit to feeding it to anyone. I am proud to admit that I shall serve up frozen roasties again. I expect your in-laws were able to be good hosts to their guests, rather than being unavailable for most of the Christmas morning as I was- BEFORE i discovered frozen Potatoes. YOU ARE BEING UNREASONABLE ! But before this years discovery- i would have been right on your snobby middle class bandwagon.

I'm not wuite sure how this became about middle class v. working class?

Are you saying that only middle class people have good taste and high standards?

errmm yeah ....... but what is wrong with people having frozzzen roasties if they want to?

errmm yeah ....... but what is wrong with people having frozzzen roasties if they want to?

Our kitchen is fairly near to the sitting room. Agree with LeQ - unless you open presents and cook in separate bloody wings then why should it get in the way of spending time with the DC?

Besides, doing real potatoes gives you the perfect chance to escape for a few swigs of wine seconds

don't know about roast potatoes, but this thread is over-run with Waffle!

And my grandmother cooked gorgeous potatoes too. In her council house. All done in the meat juices

She boiled the hell out of the vegetables mind, but that was a generational thing I think.

Mine too, LeQ. Funny, I'd never thought of myself as a put-upon martyr before. I've managed to witness the opening of every present my children have ever been given, year in year out, reclining in my dressing gown, sipping Buck's Fizz and nibbling smoked salmon blinis, then I get the turkey in the oven, (it's only a giant roast chicken FFS) have shower, and put on a bit of make-up and a smart frock, throw the veg on that I prepped the night before, and still manage to play board games too. It's all about organisation, team-work and delegation, darlings. And it helps if you don't stay glued to the telly.

When grown adults say Christmas is too important to be stuck in the kitchen cooking Christmas dinner for the family, my immediate thought is, what else is it for, exactly?

I meant 'mine too' about managing cooking and quality time, not 'mine too' about my granny. She was an atrocious cook.

YABU and a snob. Get over yourself.

FWIW I personally have better things to do on christmas day than spend hours and hours in the kitchen making dinner. I'd much rather spend the majority of the day with my family especially my DD.

I do all of the main prep the night before; red cabbage shredded, sautéd and in the oven dish, tatas parboiled and ready to go, sprouts and carrots trimmed and in fridge, turkey dressed and put in oven on very low at midnight. I'm in the kitchen an hour, tops. No frozen tat in sight and I haven't neglected the relatives. It's a piece of piss, really.

Still wouldn't berate someone else for not being ip to my very high standard though. We should all remember the words of the Diff'rent Strokes theme song, I think...

We were glued to the Wii rather than the telly

That's because you don't have an enormous benefits-sized flat-screen usual

We never even watched the queens speech

Yanbu frozen roasts are rank

I would take hours bupcakes. I am a rotten cook think christmas night is so much more enjoyable when everyone is happily watching only fools and horses or whatever and not suffering dodgy bellies....

God bless Aunt Bessie! No wonder she looks so smug on the packet! She's a friggin' lifesaver!

[eyes Riven's allotment covetously]

I grow potatoes too so nothing against home grown produce - just against the never ending tales about it!

I made plenty of effort thank you very much ..do you know how much it makes your arms ache boxing on the wii