To be dreading a crap Christmas dinner?

[Napqueen1234]

Prepared to be told IABU as I should be grateful to get one at all/someone to cook for me. Basically we alternate years with MIL and my family and this year it’s my in laws. For context I’m 8 months pregnant so as a non drinker food is v important to me this year 😂.

My MIL is a terrible cook and takes no joy in hosting. We offered to host but were declined (DH family all 5 mins away from each other and we are 40 mins from there so it’s easier for them I suppose). Won’t cook food she doesn’t like e.g sprouts, pigs in blankets so we end up with a dry turkey crown, not much veg as she doesn’t like it and just a slightly depressing meal.

My dad loves Christmas and goes all out is good cook etc. I just feel so sad to be missing out on my normal Christmas meal the other years it hasn’t bothered me and is obviously part and parcel of taking turns and just life etc but this year I just feel gutted.

Snap me out of this ultimate first world problem please! We have offered to Help (we are making a hamper as a Christmas present of treats and taking Christmas pudding etc so have tried that!). My DH is an only child and not going/ having lunch at home is not an option!

Jesus broad beans and cauliflower cheese made with Stilton ??? . Not envy
My DH would like cauliflower cheese with his roast but I can’t imagine the slop of cheese sauce and gravy on the plate but with Stilton it sounds horrendous. Boak. 🤮

OP I feel for you. My ExMiL is a terrible cook. Can you bring your favourite ready meal and say it's all you can stomach atm? That way, she doesnt feel insulted and you get something tasty, that you like, then as others have suggested do your own Christmas dinner another day.

I hope you're all happy. All this talk of sprouts and roasties has resulted in me making myself some for lunch! love a nice sprout.

I'd definitely be taking some of my favourite side dishes along with me under the guise of 'cravings' op. Life's too short for a rubbish Xmas dinner.

Oh you are so not being unreasonable! I would hate this, especially if pregnant! Really irritates me when people don’t put the effort into cooking and making sure guests are well catered for. Bad hosts generally piss me off!

Bad, dry, bland food and sobriety are not a joyful combination. Pregnancy is a good excuse to bring along the missing essentials.

DH's family are no fans of gravy, and usually a pathetic little gravy jug to serve one is put down to lubricate the hoardes. At one branch of the ILs they have at least provided gravy since the dried up chicken/ turkey/ pork (whatever it was, it was too chewy to distinguish) was only rendered edible by ketchup to make it moist enough for mastication to take place. It's not helped by the choice of drinks being water or diet-headache-in-a-glass. Maybe I should be daring and rebel bringing some real Coca Cola with actual sugar

@Divebar cauliflower cheese (not stilton) is really nice with the Christmas dinner. And what cheese sauce slop?

Ffswhatnext.... ha ha in my head I see white cheesy sauce mingling with gravy on my plate and that’s not a nice prospect for me. Happy for my DH to crack on though if that’s what he wants. Cauliflower cheese with Stilton though is a big no from me

Take your own..blame it on your bump

Veg placement stops the gravy heading towards the cauli cheese. Also a plus for the dry, dry, bland and did I mention dry meat. The lovely thick cheese sauce helps to give it some taste and moisture in a none obvious way 🤣
Also helps for the dry, bland, dry mash.
Macaroni cheese works just as well.
I've also suggested that I will bring along a potato gratin in the past.
And for some odd reason, although I've made these dishes countless times, I always seem to make to much sauce and it would be such a waste to not use it. Which ensures you avoid the lumpy/too salty/bland/watery gravy.

Veg placement stops the gravy heading towards the cauli cheese

You can also build a meat barrier (or mash) between the gravy and the cauliflower cheese.

I think it should be illegal to have a roast without cauliflower cheese to be honest, but stilton sounds a bit odd.

Oh god, I hate going to in laws for Christmas. No cooking skills whatsoever but fil thinks he's amazing. Last time there was a hideous dry gammon thing with minging shop bought gravy.

Is anyone else suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about their own cooking skills after reading this thread?

Although spare a thought for my DM, who last year went to a family friend for Christmas Eve - Eastern European origins, the sort of food you have to be brought up with to like - and spent Christmas Day in agony. Blamed it on her gallbladder but the fish was done with a lot of butter and I suspect she"s lactose intolerant. She's going abroad this year. I don't blame her.

Not even a little bit self conscious. I always put on a spread.
Turkey (never dry! If some of you can sneak a mugful or so of hot water into the roasting tin when your otherwise poorly-skilled host isn't looking, it keeps the meat moist and provides plenty of juices for gravy!)
Coca cola ham
Roast potatoes
Mash
Sprouts
Carrot & swede mash
Cauli cheese
Roast parsnips
Gravy (buckets of it)
Mushroom sauce (my Papa's recipe)
And the most controversial.... Yorkshire puddings, any number people want!

All cooked beautifully, with plenty of leftovers for Boxing Day!

Aargh, and pigs in blankets. Obv.

Yes just turn up with your own side dishes and heat them up! Nothing wrong with that. Say it's a pregnancy craving!

Take anything you want, I would too, but absolutely expect to cook it yourself.

Slightly OT but since when did pigs in blankets become an essential part of the Christmas meal
My parents always cooked them as part of the Christmas meal and that was in the 80s, so I guess since a long time (my parents were not avant garde cooks)!

Yabu! Just remember that part of Christmas is having a dodgy mil, a drunk aunt/uncle and a crap Christmas meal! Why don't you make a lovely Christmas dinner for you and family this weekend or the weekend after Christmas, complete with crackers, sprouts, pugs in blankets and whatever else you want! On Christmas day just do what the rest of is do - get drunk and get through it and have a laugh about the craziness of it all (when else are random relatives who don't even get on forced to be together and fake happy! It's quite a laugh when you think about it all, so just enjoy!)

(sorry - maybe avoid the pigs in blankets and go for the pigs in blankets instead!! ... Bloody typos!!)

Ahhh...I mean avoid the 'pugs' in blankets!

@nevergotthehangofthursdays yes, I am conscious. I'm not a great cook and hate to think people are judging but at the same time, tbh, a lot of the posters are just plain rude.

On another note..@wehttam, how bloody rude are you, describing a crap Christmas dinner as "council food"? I was bought up in a council flat, my mum was and is the most fantastic cook I've known. Living in a council place doesn't mean you can't cook you know!

Good luck op, definitely turn up with your own sides and enjoy

I think what they probably meant by council food was “ institutional” food.... well that’s what I was imagining anyway. Hospital food not food from people living in council houses.

I hope so!