would this be a shit Christmas dinner?

[Lullabyebye]

DP and I are hosting this year - first time ever. It’s my parents, his parents and his brother. My mum is a retired chef (a very good one) but with age and arthritis, she gets super stressed with Xmas and so we are completely taking over.

As a family we hate Turkey so usually have beef. We have preordered fore rib and a gammon joint. We will have all the normal trimmings. We like Yorkshire puddings and MIL has demanded them (I know there’s some strong opinions on this!) so I bought nice ones that I’ve put in the freezer.

My plan is to just not stress. It should be a nice meal but it’s just a fancy roast eh?
So for starters, my mum was going to make coquille st Jacque. But I tried some frozen ones from Aldi and they were delicious. No one else (in laws) needs know... that would be starters.

Dessert - we asked MIL to contribute and she said she’d make Sticky Toffee Pud, we have also got some Christmas puddings.

We are cooking everyone a big fry up first. We have some smoked salmon which I will probably do vol au vent style with cream cheese as a snack.

Is this lazy? I just don’t see the point in not enjoying the day because we are stressed. I’m usually quite efficient in the kitchen and I’ve smashed out a few roasts, but I’m not a regular cook.

Opinions?

YABU - just bloody cook it properly
YANBU - it’s not just about the food and it sounds fine

Definitely no to the fry up.
It all sounds good, except for the frozen Yorkshire puddings. I’ve never come across a frozen pre-made Yorkshire that wasn’t a MASSIVE disappointment- and I am no food snob or purist!

It sounds like more than plenty. There's no medals for cooking everything from scratch on the day. I already have spiced red cabbage in the freezer and will be licking up meat, veggie stuff, pud and sides from m&s. All that will need cooking from scratch is roast potatoes and some veg.

Do not replace your fry up with frozen almond croissants and pastel de nata from tesco with bucks fizz. It will be awful (and there might not be any left for me)

@Lullabyebye are the Aldi coquelles good? I saw them last visit but I’ve only had the M&S ones (part of their dine in menu). If your mum likes them...they must be!

Don't do the fry up. Apart from everyone being stuffed it will add to the washing up. We are also doing a stress free dinner this year and have ordered veg pre prepped from our butcher and also pre made stuffing and I plan on serving smoked salmon and a few other bits beforehand and not doing an actual starter. At the end of the day it is just a fancy roast dinner.

where did you buy your yorkshire puds from OP?

fwiw the meal sounds lovely. Obviously a bit full on but duh! its xmas.

I would probably go for a lighter pud but thats personal tastes
don't forget your after eights obviously

Mmmmm after eights.

@Cocomarine

Definitely no to the fry up. It all sounds good, except for the frozen Yorkshire puddings. I’ve never come across a frozen pre-made Yorkshire that wasn’t a MASSIVE disappointment- and I am no food snob or purist!

Me neither but there is no such thing as a good/nice frozen yorkshire.

Please make fresh ones,sooooooooooooo much nicer

There's nothing wrong with your choices except there is far too much & you won't do it justice.

I say skip the fry up and the starter. A starter makes it 100x harder to get a roast right which is very last minute finishing off, as well as filling you up too much.

I would recommend nibbles instead a couple of hours before the roast, mini sausage rolls, smoked salmon blinis, that sort of thing, with bucks fizz.

And yorkies are essential with roast beef, it's only with roast turkey that they're controversial.

I do fresh fruit salad (pineapple/melon strawberries or raspberries with clems) with vanilla/or custard or nice Greek yogurt

It will be lovely. Just make sure yo get decent quality veg, the ‘right’ potatoes for roasting, a mustard for the beef and you’ll be grand.

I clicked tabu by mistake- I thought just vook it properly meant just get it all in the table without burning! But I see you mean cooking from scratch. So, no you are doing fine, it is just a bit fancy roast dinner and if it tastes good who cares?

for brunch/with croissants & brewed coffee or decent tea leaf tea in a tea pot perhaps with mango lassi.....

No to the big fry up. Salty, greasy, bulky. If I ate that earlier in the day I wouldn’t appreciate your Christmas dinner later. All delicious of course but too much in the one day...and smoked salmon as well? My digestive system wouldn’t thank you for the overload.

Why are people suggesting OP skip the starter? Coquilles St. Jacques is a really light starter that won't fill people up at all. It's literally just scallops in garlic butter on a shell. Soup will fill people up much more than that.

@Lullabyebye your menu sounds fine. I'm guessing the fry up is because your guests want it and prefer a savoury/salty breakfast rather than a sweet one?

@Bloatstoat you can tell your father in law from me that he is a complete arsehole

Take the pressure off even more and get a load of blinis to put the smoked salmon on rather than make vol au vents.

I'd definitely stick with the frozen yorkshires. That's one less thing to stress over and some of the 'finest' ones are lovely. '

The rest of it sounds fine. I'd maybe just do bacon rolls rather than a full fry up though.

It all depends on the timings. We used to have a fry up on Christmas morning at around 9am, snacked on fruit and chocolate later in the morning, and dinner was served at 4pm or 5pm (no starter). If we'd had Christmas lunch significantly earlier we wouldn't have had the fry up. Nowadays we have a lighter brunch after parkrun at 9am (not this year ), but we still have the main meal in the late afternoon, by candlelight (and the lights from the tree).

Menu sounds fine!

Sorry - I think the fact I’m using frozen Yorkshire’s and ready made St Jaques - we aren’t making the dessert either

In laws said they would come at 11 for breakfast. What time would dinner be if this is the case?

Why are you doing a fry up? No one wants a fry up before Christmas dinner.

And I've never provided a stater in 3O years of cooking the Christmas meal - maybe some smoked salmon canapés if you want something to nibble.

And why two meats? This seems to be a Mumsnet thing, surely one joint of meat is enough?

Don't invite them for breakfast, that is just such hard week, say you will look forward to welcoming them for coffee after they have had breakfast at home.

@Changedmynameagain1 I really loved them - it was the ones in champagne. My mum didn’t try them but takes my word for it. The issue we have is that everyone has weird food quirks.

I have also been asked specifically for the fry up