Tell me about your Christmas day menu please.

[ChooChooWowWow]

I know it's early but I'm a control freak I like to be prepared well in advance for Christmas. So I have spent the last few days planning the menu for the big day. I like to offer several appetizers and puddings So far:

Thai Crab Cakes
Mushroom and Asparagus in a cream sauce on a crouton.
Smoked Salmon with herb toast.
Melon Cocktail for the DC

Roast Beef and Turkey
Yorkshire Pudding
Roast Potatoes
Roast Parsnips
Honey Glazed Carrots
Sprouts with Pancetta
Sage and Onion stuffing

Raspberry and Champagne Jelly
Lemon Tart

So I need two more puddings (not Christmas pudding) they need to be light and I would like one to be chocolate based.
Also my DB is vegetarian. I would like to offer him something other than nut roast .

So tell me about your menus so I can pinch ideas please

Marks and spencers is providing ours this year (smile)

You could do a yule log - chocolate and seasonal.

Baked pears with Christmas-y spices and a boozy sauce for grown ups.

I roast my parsnips is maple syrup - delish.

I also throw in green beans with the sprouts and pancetta, chestnuts go in with them nicely too.

Bacon wrapped chipolatas are a must for us.

Erm... I sometimes have a terrine or foie gras for the starter. And prawns.

We have a cheese board after as well, with crackers, grapes and apple slices. That is normally after pudding, often a bit later so that it serves as a sort of light supper.

I think your menu sounds lovely, by the way. How many are you cooking for?

I'm also getting a lot of mine from M&S this year

We're all veggie apart from dp and I will be cooking for just the four of us so:

• no starter - we usually just have olives/picky bits, or nothing at all

I will have a big stuffed mushroom and the girls will probably have stuffed peppers - or I might do stuffed butternut squash

Stuffing (probably bought not homemade);
Big pan of roast vege to include: new potatoes, parsnips, carrots, baby onions, butternut squash if not used as main, rosemary;
dauphinoisse potatoes;
honeyed carrots;
green beans, savoy cabbage, sprouts
port gravy
veggie little sausages

Dp will probably have a turkey breast portion from M&S or something of that ilk

Christmas pudding (probably Duchy originals) and brandy sauce (probably Waitrose!)
Mince pies

No idea yet.

Hoping to get some help from here tbh

thinking of a buffet as there is over 20 to cater for.

For vegies, how about a butternut squash orzotto? Goes very nicely with the other Christmassy flavours.

As for a chocolate pudding, how about some homemade icecream with vicious amounts of high % dark chocolate?

My menu btw is always very trad.
A Kelly bronze stuffed with a sausage meat and dried fruit stuffing.
Bacon wrapped chipolatas.
Roast pots.
Roast parsnips (another fan of maple glaze here).
Carrots.
Green beans, peas, mangtout.
Cranberry sauce.
Christmas pudding with cream or icecream.
Mince pies.

Re: puddings - I'd deffo go for a trifle as one of the options but it's not light! Maybe a clementine one. Or you could do a chocolate trifle - maybe with pears.

Good lord OP you are far more ambitious than me.

My Christmas dinner has been the same for donkey's years, I will serve the same meal when I am 70 (probably to resentful mutterings from grandhcildren).

No starter - we have bacon sandwiches and mulled wine (with amaretto chasers ) in the morning.

Mice pies with clotted cream at some poinbt in the day.

Roast turkey with homemade stuffing
Roast potatoes on duck fat
Parsnips in honey and mustard
Mashed swede
Carrots in lemon
Sprouts in pancetta
Red Cabbage with sultanas and mulled wine
Pigs in blankets
Homemade gravy
Horseradish and cranberry sauce

No pudding - I am not a pudding lover (or baker) and we have nice shop bought Christmas pudding on Boxing day.

Boxing Day - a great big ham which I cook in the morning, leftiver turkey, bubble and squeak, pickles and cheeses and homemade bread.

My stepson is vegetarian, I make a mushroom dish on Christmas eve for him. The worst was the year he was vegan, as I put probably a pound of butter in all the veg, so he had to have everything cooked separately.

I prep all the veg on Christmas eve, accomapined by a large pan of mulled wine. Make the swede mash so just need to be reheated on the day, ditto the red cbbage, par boil the sprouts so they just need to be fried in the wok with teh pancetta on the day. I love the veg prep loser

Getorf - I've just been reading about a cocktail which is composed of Amaretto and cranberry juice and allegedly tastes like Bakewell tart - sounds lovely.

I am doing Lorraine Pascal's Christmas day trifle for pud this year. Only me and my dad actually like xmas pudding and i saw this in this month's Red magazine and it looks gorgeous - strawberries, vanilla cream and amaretti biscuits. Can't find a link on internet but if you are interested I will post the recipe. Otherwise I think we will stick to tradition with a turkey etc.

remus I have had amaretto and cherry brandy (it was a pissed concoction with me and my SIL). It did taste like bakewell tart. But DEAR GOD it tipped us over from pissed into completely hammered!

Amaretto is the drink of the gods.

My dd is 15 - last year she helped me with the veg prep (well, in truth she sat there at the kitchen table and pointed at things) and she had a few amarettos with me. We had a lovely companionable and tiddly evening

:) Fortunately, I don't like cherry brandy - so I'm safe from that particular headache!

My 16 and 14 year old dds like the occasional v small Baileys with me when their dad is out - it's our girly treat whilst he's at the pub once a month or so.

Breakfast - chocolate

Lunch - Turkey, roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing, pigs in blankets, carrots, sprouts and pine nuts, bread sauce/gravy and.....Yorkshire puddings (doesn't go but we all like them)

Christmas pudding

Later in the evening - any all of the following crackers and cheese/pistachios/chocolate/biscuits/crisps/mince pies/sandwiches/trifle

Considering:

Parma ham and sprouted bean and pea salad. Want to go with roast rib of beef with red onions and a mustard pepper glaze, red wine gravy, roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips and carrots, braised sprouts with onion and bacon, red cabbage and grated horseradish. Tarte au citron and Delia's chocolate torte with the liquid glucose; cranberry and raisin ice cream.

Next day will be a roast ham, and Christmas pie/potted meat leftovers will commence on the 27th with lots of fresh bread/stinky cheeses and fruit. Hopefully.

Not finalised yet!

Breakfast- whatever is wanted.

Dinner- Roast turkey, roast potatoes and parsnips, sprouts, carrot and swede mash, stuffing, pigs in blankets, yorkshire puddings, thivk gravy and cranberry sauce.

Chocolate fudge cake

Evening- crackers and different cheeses, pickled onions, chutney etc. Eat a few chocolates as well.

Boxing day- buffet as family come over. Turkey, gammon, potato salad, cocktail sausages, mini pizzas, cheese and onion rolls, cheese and pineapple, crusty bread, beetroot, mixed salad etc

Then will probably have rest of chocolate fudge cake, some small chocolate logs, mince pies etc.

We buy a selection of drinks which last us for weeks. Baileys, Malibu, Martini, few Beers etc

I don't eat meat and my favourite would just be a jug of cheese sauce to pour over my yorkies and roast veg. No need to make something extra.

It is just me, DH and DD for christmas day dinner this year (bliss!) but we are having my family over on Christmas Eve for a buffet lunch, I havent worked out the whole menu yet, I want to keep it all 'Christmassy' but so far:

Cold slices of gammon
A cheese board (The waitrose one is lovely and a good size for small gatherings) with crackers
Mini pigs in blankets
Mini turkey and cranberry pasties
A smoked salmon and dill tart
Hummingbird bakery recipe sticky toffee pudding cupcakes
Christmas shortbread (so bsically tree and star shaped haha)
A big bowl of caesar salad (My sisters favourite!)
A christmas cake using a Mary Berry recipe

Christmas Day is pretty traditional:

Usually a prawn starter of some description, although I am leaning towards crab cakes this year.

Roast Turkey with sausagemeat stuffing
Roast potatoes (using goose fat)
Honey roast carrots and parsnips
Sprouts and broccolli florets cooked with butter and pancetta
Peas

Pudding will probably be a mini christmas pud with cream for me, DD and DH will want somethign chocolatey, so will make (if I ahve time!) or buy in a chocolatey Christmas cake.

What is Maple syrup and what does it taste of and are Roasties really better cooked in goose fat or just normal oil.

My belly is rumbling reading about all this yummy Christmas food.

Vajazzle Roasties cooked in goose fat are amazing imo, I really notice the difference. I think my cholesterol level does the high jump just looking at them though, so I only cook them that way at Christmas.

Mmmmmm. Yummy. Will definetly try the goose fat this year then.

Mine's fairly simple.
Croissants, fresh coffee and bucks fizz late morning while opening prezzies.
Traditional dinner -
Roast turkey
Mushroom and walnut roast for the veggie Uncle
Roast parsnips, roast pots, steamed sprouts, carrots with honey and cumin, creamed leeks, stuffing, pigs in blankets, turkey gravy and a veggie gravy, cranberry sauce.
Christmas pud, mince pies and brandy cream or Panforte or good chocolate some time after.
Pringles, dips, cheese and crackers and more booze in the evening while we watch a film.
Collapse in stuffed heap afterwards!

Creamed leeks sound yummy. How do you make that.

Breakfast - smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, bagels, bucks fizz

Lunch - tapas style nibbles to start with (cream cheese stuffed chillies wrapped in pancetta, chorizo cooked in wine, garlic mushrooms)
Cauliflower veloute with a fancy parsnip crisp on top!
Turkey and all the usual
Xmas pudding, Chocolate roulade for the non pud eaters.

Supper - turkey sandwiches with home made pickles.

Drinks - already mentioned Bucks Fizz, wine (obv) and home made damson gin with tonics - last year I made Nigella's Lycheeni cocktails and my dad got so pissed he fell asleep at the table before the turkey was served....

We've scored the stepchildren for Christmas eve and Christmas morning. After opening their stockings, we're taking them via the inlaws back to their mother's for lunch. We have then managed to endure a massive guilt trip but stayed resolute avoid going back to the inlaws for lunch and are instead having lunch just the two of us (as we'll be newlyweds and about to try for a baby).

It's pretty decadent!

Sole, prawn and spinach roulades au gratin with hollandaise sauce
with
Roualet Desbordes Champagne NV

*

Roast duck with a light gravy served with goose fat roasted potatoes and parsnips, bacon wrapped chipolatas, stuffing balls, caramelised carrots, brussels sprouts with pancetta, cranberry and bread sauces
with
Rio Zancara Tempranillo 2010

*

Individual Christmas puddings lit with spiced brandy and served
with filo-baked vanilla icecream
with
Tabali Late Harvest Muscat 2009

I'm salvating at the thought.

We then get the kids back for Boxing Day lunch and are hosting the inlaws for:

Chicken liver pate with melba toasts and cranberry sauce

Roast gammon with bubble and squeak patties

Trifle or Yule log