Does anyone else cheat at the Christmas meal? And I mean really cheat?

[bbface]

I keep hearing and reading about everyone making their own Christmas cake, cranberry sauce, cooking roasties in goose fat, making a trifle, delicious home made stuffing, ordering the turkey from a local farm shop... The list goes on.

Fact is, I cheat at almost everything, and without M&S I would be up the creek without a paddle. I buy one of their ready stuffed turkeys, I buy their sauces, their trimmings, their mince pies. Everyone basically. Oh, I make my own roasties, but the fuss and the mess I create.... You would think I was doing something truly special and inventive, as opposed to peeling potatoes and then bunging them in the oven.

I have to go very quiet when discussions turn to recipes, as I have nothing to contribute, other than the latest new trimmings at marks. I love reading the Sunday supplements about how to cook the tastiest this and that, but I never actually deliver the goods.

My family are all very sweet about about it, and make a big deal about what a lovely meal I have served, when in reality my job has been to manage all the different oven timings for my various dishes.

Does anyone else cheat? Or is it just me, as it sure as hell feels like that!!!!!

Haha we're going out for a meal on Christmas Day so DH doesn't have to cook.

I am an expat and I am getting mine delivered from the Ritz! Last year we ate fab leftovers for three days and it was cheaper and better than sourcing it all locally. I will do roasties and pigs in blankets. And I will play with my toddler and DH and sister and friend (visiting) and not sweat over a stove - beach time!

MIL is hosting this year and I am so excited.

She's doing a usual roast dinner, except with turkey. I think she's throwing in some sausages/pigs in blanket to make it "special" which is more than I've ever done

This frees me up to do the desserts, so I get to make a Yule Log on Christmas Eve

I'm only doing it because I like to. I could produce a shop bought gateaux and everyone would be just as pleased. You shouldn't get stressed about cooking at Christmas (though it is an excuse to get the out).

We go out! I can't even be faffed pretending to like cooking.

It's not cheating, it's making use of things available to you!

I buy a stuffed turkey, gravy, dessert, but make the ham, cranberry and apple sauce. My DM is an excellent cook and made everything by hand and always says I'm lazy. It's a wise woman who knows her own daughter 😂.

The ham (boiled in coke), cranberry (heat with orange juice, mixed spice and sugar) and apple sauce (microwaved, mashed with sugar, salt and vinegar) are easy recipes - hence why I do them!

I buy the sauce, gravy and stuffing and do everything else myself. This year (if covid allows) I am going away and somebody else will prepare my dinner.

It’s not cheating! You have no moral obligation of any kind to make everything from scratch.

I've done it your way for so many years that I don't even think of it as cheating. I do make my own soup and we have two options, one turkey one steak pie and I make the steak pie myself but that's really easy.

The fact I'm timing everything to be ready and warm for up to 18 people is enough!

I make roasties, cabbage, carrots, and parsnips from scratch. The turkey is usually a crown ready to go in the oven. The Yorkshires and pigs in blankets are ready made and the stuffing is Paxo because that's how my mum did it and I like it that way. I prep everything the night before so that it's just swapping trays and doing the cabbage and gravy whilst the meat is resting on the day. I really like cooking but if I am cooking for 10 people I like to make it easy on myself and not be in the kitchen getting more and more hot and bothered all day.

I'm sure your meal is delicious, OP, and I wouldn't be embarrassed at all

And actually lots of things I do are helped by ready made stuff. I have made Madras from scratch and it is very nice but so is Patak's Madras paste. I don't make my own stock or mayonnaise - I have made both but neither are really worth the time they take and they don't keep nearly as well either. I tend to make shortcrust pastry on the rare occasions I need it for a pie as I don't like shop bought, but I would always buy puff pastry because life is too short to make that from scratch. I prefer Birds to custard from scratch because that is what I grew up with and it sets better for trifle. We all have little shortcuts to some degree.

This thread is 8 years old!

No I don't 'cheat' - as I love cooking!
I make everything - chestnut stuffing, ordinary stuffing, bread sauce, all my own veg, giblet gravy etc etc
And my own Christmas Pudding too - but it has to be with custard [home made] as I can't stand brandy butter!!!

But I love to look through the supermarket magazines advertising their Christmas lines - it gives me ideas!
But it's each to his own.

Why why why would you bump a zombie Christmas food thread that is 8 years old?! How did you even find it?!

My memories of childhood is of my parents grumbling about preparing the simplest meals, late Sunday lunch waiting for my dad to come home from the pub, sometimes no meals at all! I quite like cooking if I am not coming in exhausted from work, but whilst I mostly do cook from scratch I have plenty of what Delia Smith called her ‘little cheats’.

And marks and spencer food is wonderful!

Don't think of it as cheating, you are just outsourcing the preparation 😄

I spent years getting myself into a flap preparing an amazing Christmas dinner from scratch. Starting a Christmas cake in September and all sorts of mad crap things.
Then my oldest’s first Christmas was shit (for me) I spent the day in the kitchen getting progressively more and more hot and frazzled while the guests played with the baby and her new toys and took wonderful pictures. Looking at the photos afterwards of them all chilled out and merry and festive with me in the background and absolute hot mess with flour all over my apron I vowed never again.
Since then I buy everything I can ready made. Prepared mash, roasties, pigs in blankets, stove top stuffing (add butter and boiling water and leave to sit for 5 minutes) frozen Yorkshire’s, Bisto gravy, prepared vegetables.
FIL turned his nose up at a turkey crown saying it’s not the same as a proper turkey- he’s now in charge of buying a turkey and cooking it and bringing it with him. BIL is in charge of desert.

I buy ready made mince pies for guests and on Christmas Eve I make a batch of mince pies with dd’s for us and Santa using ready made pastry and minced meat.
So much less stress

Ready made pigs in blankets and stuffing balls x 2 from our butcher - £6 - yep.
M and S red cabbage/cauli cheese - yep.
Prepped veg - yep.
Ready made gravy - you bet.
All I do is stick a turkey and roast potatoes in the oven.
Job done.
In fact I buy the first few thing 2 weeks before Christmas, freeze and get them out on Christmas eve.
More time for sherry and chocolate Christmas morning 🤗

The shame that the patriarchy forces upon women who don't produce a perfect meal from scratch whilst impeccably dressed is always a current issue!

The easier, the better. 🤷‍♀️ And more time relaxing with your family. Why wouldn’t you?

I’d do what suits. If you enjoy Cooking from scratch (like my DP) then go for it. If not, buy as much of it ready made as you can. I have to say when DP cooks from scratch sometimes it is such a faff and so expensive it isn’t worth the bother. Sometimes what he makes isn’t that nice either and I would much rather have a ready made version so cooked from scratch doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Good old paxo, Turkey crown, my dp prefers frozen ain't Bessie's roast potatoes and Yorkshire, buy a chocolate pudding of some sort as no one in our house likes Christmas pud. I will also make roast spuds n mash mind as some of us prefer home made. Custard out of a tin saves me messing about making it. Oh and I hate to say it but I'm one of those who use the silver foil trays at Christmas to save me the washing up where possible as I am the prep chef the cook and the dish washer.

@Shantotto

Why why why would you bump a zombie Christmas food thread that is 8 years old?! How did you even find it?!

I also wonder this 🤣

We do all the veg from scratch, the turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, and the chestnut and sausagemeat stuffings. DP makes the gravy, because he is the King of Gravy and it's better than any bought gravy by some distance. I make brandy butter a day or two beforehand, because bought brandy butter never has enough brandy in it for my liking.

I buy cranberry sauce, Paxo stuffing to make stuffing balls, the pudding and cake.

But there's just the 2 of us, so there's not loads of prep. We have a turkey crown, not a whole bird.

We cooked for DP's entire extended family a few years ago and it was great. We had a team of minions helping with the prep and the grannies clearing up as we went along. It was a breeze, despite being in unfamiliar surroundings and there being 18 for lunch, and largely due to us cooking in SIL's massive kitchen, which was bigger than the entire ground floor of our house.

They still talk about it and are convinced I'm some sort of domestic goddess, even though the pudding was bought.

Zombie turkey thread!