Inspire me please. Xmas eve lunch, just the 2 of us

[nannyl]

Thats it really.

Me and OH dont often sit down together and eat a nice lunch together, so (as he has the day off) I thought it might be nice for us to sit down for lunch.... (In between visiitng family, Xmas dinner prep, and eating mince pies!)

Bear in mind we will be having hot ham for dinner on Xmas eve, followed by turkey and all the trimmings on Christmas day and Boxing day, (and cold meats etc for tea)...

I dont really want to cook that much for lunch, as we will also be prepping Xmas dinner on Xmas eve, and doing the Ham.
Also we will be stuffing our faces for the next few days (and will have had a big dinner out, the night before so nothing too filling)

Just having a mind blank...
all i can think of is soup with fresh bread (I have a breadmaker and only make my own bread, anyway, so fresh bread isnt necessarily as much as a novelty for us as it is for others)

Im a pretty confident cook
We both eat pretty much anything

TIA

When dp and I eat together, sans children, we tend to go for the things they don't like! So it would be something like:

mushroom stroganoff with rice and salads;
asparagus quiche with roasted garlic new potatoes and salad;
garlic mushrooms with good bread and salad.

Soup and homemade bread is so lovely though...

A nice seafood platter from marks.

How about just some nice picky type food, nice bread, olives, cheeses, chutneys etc?

Thought of another one:

a baked camembert, little roasted new potatoes and roasted chanteray carrots; radishes, celery etc and nice bread to dio in it. Tis yummy.

oh yes yes yes to baked camembert

Nigel slater has a lovely recipe here

mmmm

[drool]

I do it like that but chuck some fresh rosemary and thyme in too. Just fancy it now!

Oooh!

Yumm

what a lost of great ideas. Love the idea of seafood or garlic mushrooms.

Also i might be pregnant (and but wont know by then) so will give the cheese a miss i think (although OH would be in heaven lol)

thanks very much

For us, Christmas Eve does mean a seafood buffet- with a pasta salad for ds3 who wont; eat it. It's by far DH and my fave food anyhow, and much lighter than the Christmas Day fayre.

It's the Waitrose platter that takes our fancy though the M&S one is nice if pricey.

I'd go for a grown-up salad of some kind: maybe sauteed pheasant breasts sliced into some frisee with orange segments and toasted hazelnuts? Ie something not too filling, not every-day-ish, but delicious and a bit of a treat.

PS - fingers crossed re pregnancy

Baked eggs on a bed of spinach & lovely crusty bread with proper yummy butter?

Avocado & smoked salmon & bread

Garlic field mushrooms on toast

Baked camembert & crusty bread to dip in (fine for you to eat)

Antipasti

Fresh LARGE prawns with homemade sweet chilli dip

Garlic prawns

Tilapia sizzled in butter & capers with new potatoes & salad

Steak and salad

wow

i had no ideas at all and now i cant decide what sounds best....

thinking something seafoody (wish i had waitrose to get a seafood platter from but now ive moved ooop norf, i have to drive for at least an hour , where as when i lived in hampshire i had 3 within a 5 - 10min drive!!... how i miss waitrose and Ocado Xmas slots had gone before i had a chance to book one so no waitrsoe food for me this Xmas... sob)

or maybe steak and salad

Steak and salad sounds great. That way if you ARE pregnant and certain foods are putting you off you can go one way or the other - hearty or light

or doorstep bacon sandwiches with a lovely cold beer / glass of champers

Me and DH always go for some yummy fresh seafood on xmas eve. I usually have oysters and he'll go for huge succulent prawns which I help him out with!!
That and some fizz of course!

Just seen a post that says you might be pregnant so just ignore everything I wrote!

nannyL and fishmongers could do it- we just don;t happen to have a local fishmonger at all. Would be lovely

What about trout? Should be able to find that in the supermarket? Really delicious fried in butter with lime juice and capers.

ooh we LOVE trout... had it this week actually. Agree its very nice and light