Easy Boxing Day meal for 14 people for parents of newborn?!

[OliviaMumsnet]

Is there such a thing?! Looking for something vageuly festive and feastlike with minimal effort for my family.

Everyone will have done the turkey and full trimmings on Xmas day itself but in my house it will just be the 4 of us so not enough turkey leftovers to stretch to 8 adults and 6 kids(!)

So emphasis on the EASY as baby may be only 4 weeks old.

TIA MNers,

Magnums!

If I wanred a shite ice cream I would go to a crappy corner shop or a salmonella ridden ice cream van (actually I wouldn't but you get my drift)

The idea of someone assuming that handing them out is tantamount to 'entrtaining' is unbelievable.
I'd rather stay home with a cheese sandwich and a good book.

Moondog, we don't live near our families so any large dishes etc. wouldn't have been returned for ages afterwards. We also don't have a dishwasher/large freezer/microwave in our flat but did have a tiny baby who'd spent her first few weeks in and out of hospital. No-one minded at all.

Oh, and we're a family full of teachers so we're all pretty good at bossing one another around and, bizarrely, quite like it when someone else does the bossing.

Sounds great.
Not

Big vat of chilli and loads of crusty bread and butter.

I often do this and it always goes down very very well.

Moondog I am glad you're not coming to mine in the near future, sounds like you are a very demanding guest! I like to think friends and family want to spend time together for the pleasure of it, not because they think they will get a posh meal. When you have a brand new baby it is unrealistic to attempt full on entertaining and I am sure most normal people will fully understand that!

Very easy but amazingly tasty chilli recipe:

Brown beef mince
Add some veggies - peppers, courgette, aubergine, onin, etc - whatever you have (infact the Oacdo/Waitrose frozen grilled vegetables is perfect for this and works really well)
Add spices: teaspoon or so of ground cumin, ground coriander, croun cinnamon and 3 or 4 crushed ardamon pods
Stir in a couple of big squeezes of sweet chilli sauce
Add tin of mixed beans
Add tub of passata
Season
Cook for min of 20-30 minutes
Ideal to make in advance and reheat - chilli always tastes better on reheating

Veggie quorn mince works very well with it too for a veggie version.

I think that is it - it is a big favourite here and DH, who has eaten many chillis in his time, believes this to be his favourite chilli of all.

I'm glad I'm not coming either, believe you me!

There's a very fertile ground between magnums and bringing your own food and gourmet spreads.

Nigellas ham in cherry coke. Dead easy and goes down really well with everyone.

Sorry but I agree with moondog
magnums or any other ice lolly etc on boxing day ? No no! Sherry trifle all the way

I was going to say ham in cherry coke too, mash and the red cabbage. Get someone else to do pud and bring it with them.

If you don't want to entertain or go out, then that's fine really it is.
Don't then however invite people to yours but get them to do all the food and the clearing because that isn't entertaining, that is taking the piss.

Go out instead.

Fwiw I was bullied into having had the whole family for Xmas dinner one year when I was 38 weeks pregnant as I am the only one with a dining room big enough to fit us all in.

Everyone brought something and everyone pitched in to clear up. It was one of the best Xmas dinners we have ever had with no-one getting stressed out.

Olivia, Scandinavian cooking is your FRIEND in this instance.

I recommend a HUGE gravadlax of salmon, you possible need two, or three. You need the proper variety with lots of dill on top, cut into 2 cm thick "strips". With a dill and mustard sauce.
In addition you need to boil potatoes, and make a massive salad, with halved eggs on top, and sweetcorn, and pineapple. Delicious. Cooked and slightly salted with rock salt, ASPARAGUS on the side.

Most of your meal will therefore be cold, as the only hot food items are the potatoes and the asparagus.

This is divine.

A nice and easy pudding, try to make chocolate fondants, all individual in 14 ramekins, can be made beforehand, and just cook for 8 minutes in the oven. Nice with custard, or vanilla icecream.

A HOT pudding is nice after a cold main meal.

i disagree moondog, in fact i hate going to people's houses when they want to do everything and won't let guests pitch in. plus, it's faaaamily, they will want to help.

i vote ham, olivia. boil it in advance, then do it in the oven on the day with some brown sugar and mustard on. meanwhile, have some lentil soup on the go, made with the stock from the boiling.

serve with winter salad and crusty bread.

i think it could pretty much be a freezer job, apart from the salad.

and get someone to bring a trifle and a cheeseboard.

see, this is how it looks like whole

oooooooh re gravadlax. maybe MNHQ will send you a hyuuuuuuuge side of hot smoked salmon as a gift? my best new baby present evah. justine knows the company. honestly, seriously, it was fucking GORGEOUS.

Sounds great Quint.
Love that kind of food.

Awitch, oh I'm all for helping. I live having people grating cheese or whipping cream or stirring a risotto or dressing a salad in the kitchen with me. That's completely different kettle of fish to doing everything.

yes but if one person brings one thing that can mean pretty much everything. in our family, whoever cooks just does goose and veg, everything else appears by magic. and the dishwasher will be on and kitchen cleaned by the time anyone leaves. with everyone pitching in this all takes milliseconds. (it's why i think i would take so well to having staff... )

I do a chilli, very similar to Hulababys on bonfire night, keep it warm in the slowcooker, served with crusty bread and jackets - it goes down a storm.

Yes, but Aitch that is still different to telling people when to come/go/what to bring/what to take home.

It is the ordering about bit that sticks in the craw. In your family (and in mine) these things happen spontaneously becasue peopel want to ,not becasue they have to.

Dh and I once, years ago, invited to a party where they asked you to bring your own booze, food and sleeping stuff (was a long way away). Unsurprisingly, we stayed home and did the hoovering instead.

I'm so glad I came back to this thread, because moony never fails to make me laugh :o.

Quint, that sounds like heaven. There was this big spread about such a Boxing Day meal in a Martha Stewart mag and the host, a Swedish lady, served it all with ice cold berry voddy.

Mmm, salmon. I'm the only one in this house who appreciates lovely smoked salmon, so whilst everyone else had coronation turkey rolls, I have my own private gorgeous Boxing Day lunch: Loch Fyne's finest smoked salmon in a sandwich on homemade rye bread with horseradish and cucumber slices. Mmmm.

I'll have you know Expat, the host of that terrible party was from Missouri.
Are thay all miserable swines up there?

Oh, god! Misery! That's the state nickname. There's a very good reason for it, too. :o

Mmm, smoked salmon. Their smoked mackrel is to die for, too.

And the smoked mussels.

And, well, everything.

Gah. Times like this I miss my mother. We used to have mussels on Boxing Day because no one else liked them. Mussels and pommes frites and cold white wine . . .

Couldn't you find nothing more intresting to do than hoovering? And did it really require a joint effort?