Come and Critique my Christmas Menu

[Kendodd]

Breakfast
Fruit salad, croissants, yoghurt, coffee and posh juice.

Mid morning snack ???? Ideas please

Lunch
Starter- Not sure, maybe prawn cocktail in a filo pastry case with some salad leaves, any other ideas?
Main- Roast turkey, home made stuffing, roast potatoes and honeyed parsnips, sprouts with chestnuts, mashed carrot, swede and garlic, red cabbage, pigs in blankets, gravy, white and cranberry sauce.
Pudding- Christmas pudding with the usual sides.

Evening snacks- Cheese board, gala pie, chocolate log, mince pies, fruit, nuts

Sounds pretty boring actually.

Any suggestions for a starter? What are you having?

[Mynameismina]

I do good old fashioned cheese straws for mid morning.

There is a lovely Mary Berry recipe for salmon and prawns in filo which makes a nice starter.

Otherwise it all looks lovely.

Port for the men

[Bunbaker]

I really like the sound of a three course meal spread out like that. I might give it a try.

[WaitingForMe]

I'm not a cigar fan but there is no way I'd miss port over the fire put.

Actually, I have a fire pit! I'm doing this!!!

[PedantMarina]

If DD wants to try lobster, don't paté it - half the fun is the texture! Maybe just have lobster tails and Do Something with them - a bruschetta, perhaps.

I'm thinking, esp if you want to get all this into normal-sized bellies, that you do "starters" for mid-morning snack, and instead have soup for a starter, with only token amounts of bread. A seafood bisque is brilliant - very classy, but easy to make.

I am a cigar fan (haven't had one for years), not so much with the port, but if anybody wants to invite me to the fire pit, yes, please! And I'll bring some Kraken rum to sup instead.

[Confusedbyyou]

You're not allowed Pendant .. unless you have a penis.

[olibeansmummy]

Personally speaking I'd do a bigger breakfast and no mid morning snack, but that's coz I'm not a fan of pastries. You lunch menu sound fine but I'd also do Yorkshire puddings ( maybe that's coz I'm a northerner or just a pig). I like the idea of having Christmas pudding in the evening though. And if your having port, please let all the adults have some lol!

[busylizzie76]

We don't do breakfast as we're busy with kids stockings but do have scrambled eggs, smoke salmon and champagne at about 10/11am. Lunch is usually at about 2/3pm and lasts a good 2 hours....the normal fayre....then cheese/biscuits/chocolates in the evening if we have room

[deepfriedsage]

I like the fitepit idea when someone else cleans up. sadly port and cigars doesn't appeal do much.

[EverythingUnderControl]

Sounds good. Not sure about the mashed carrot though. Little Chantenay carrots roasted in the oven with a little sprinkle of cumin are nice

[QuickQuickSloe]

I have googled gala pie you uninformative nest of vipers and have found to my dismay that it is some kind of giant scotch egg in pastry.

Bitterly dissapointed.

[QuickQuickSloe]

I am also disappointed

[RhondaJean]

Our breakfast will be pancakes, bacon and maple syrup most years. One year we have slice sausage on morning rolls. This year I'm getting the DDs a new Christmas bowl each and going to pack it up with a little box of lucky charms and one of pop tarts (two items I don't usually allow in the house!) in cellophane for their breakfasts.

We do Christmas dinner on Christmas eve now and takeaway on the day but if I was cooking here is what I would do

Roasted garlic and lentil soup
Chicken liver and sherry page served with artisan oat cakes and a home made apple chutney
Turkey, mash, roasties, homemade gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade bread sauce, cider braised red cabbage, sprouts ?ith with chestnuts or creamed with nutmeg, carrots, some type of stuffing
I would buy puddings - a good Christmas pudding and an alternative from markies probably.

Evening would be a cheeseboard with grapes and biscuits and the chocs to nibble on.

[deepfriedsage]

Who has a scotch egg as a fancy Xmas day started? [Shock]

[Chottie]

I love the idea of port around the fire pit too :)

My grandma and her friends always used to drink port and lemon as their tipple.

OP - I wouldn't bother with a mid morning snack either.

DC are grown up so we have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs at about 11ish with champagne and then our main Christmas meal is at about 4.00pm by candlelight. We spend a couple of hours eating, drinking, talking, opening table presents, remembering past Christmases.....

Christmas menu either Turkey or beef with Yorkshire puds, roast potatoes, carrots, peas, brussels, pigs in blankets, gravy and either horseradish sauce with the beef or cranberry with turkey.

Mince pies and Christmas pudding to follow (home made)
I don't serve anything else, but there is plenty of food if anyone is hungry later on.

[HeyJudith]

I'm going to do port around the firepit too :)

(I haven't got a firepit though, would the barbecue do?)

Some lovely ideas here.

[Mynameismina]

We have eggs benedict for breakfast, dh favourite.

Lunch is cheese, crackers, ham etc

Main event in the evening, turkey, roast potatoes, roast chantenays with fennel seeds, cauliflower cheese, broccoli, little veggies pies. Last year I did little quails from sainsbos.

[pettyprudence]

Is my family the only ones that has christmas dinner in the evenings? Far less stressy to get it ready and the dining room is far more atmospheric lit with candles in the evening . I am hosting for the first year ever this year and I am terrified! I am hoping that I will just provide the house and my dad will still do everything else as usual!

Our eating goes something like this:
Pre breakfast - chocolate in stockings

Breakfast - toast, mini kellogs cereals (special treat when we were kids), croissants, juice etc.... a selection to help yourself to

Midmorning - chocolate obvs!

Lunch - toast and pate, smoked salmon

Dinner (6/7ish) - Turkey & Nut Roast with all the trimmings followed by ice cream (Vienetta when we were kids! Usually something like ben & jerry's now), maybe christmas cake/pudding

Late evening snack - cheese & biscuits, nuts, more choc

[pettyprudence]

Myname finally another sensible evening eater

[marriedinwhiteisback]

Well when ours were little they had chocolate for breakfast after breaking into their stockings by about 5.30/6am and we and other grown ups had tea or coffee and may be a biscuit. Mass at 9.30 and immediately after we have smoked salmon triangles and champage with the presents. We have a late lunch at about 2.30/3pm. No starter but Turkey, blankets, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry, roasties, parsnips, sprouts and the last of the runner beans frozen in the autumn and saved for Xmas with yummy gravy. Followed by Christmas pudding and usually the most extravagant chocolate Christmas themed pudding I can buy from M&S for the non Pud eaters.

After that we don't want much more than a nut or two and perhaps a teeny snack at about 9.30/10pm.

[Confusedbyyou]

Evening eating seems sensible until you have to clear up ...

[Lizzylou]

We have pannetonne and champagne in the morning, lunch at around 2pm.
Never any starters, main this year is 3 bird roast for 12, lots of years we have had a capon. Last year we had duck. Always gratin daupinoise, sprouts for weirdos that like them, chestnut stuffing, goose fat roasties, the other veg is interchangeable. Homemade Christmas pudding with brandy butter or cream, something chocolatey for those weirdos who dislike Christmas pud, cheeseboard.
Evening just put some salads, crusty bread, cheese and pate out. And homemade Christmas cake and yule log.

[Throughthelongnight]

I have always preferred evening eating, mainly because I like to drink with the food, but if I start at midday I will be asleep for the rest of the day!

The other advantage for evening is there is no rush to fit in other meals or risk being too full up (I am quite anal) so dcs and DH can have stocking chocs and leisurely breakfast, and lunch is just a snack really.

[SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots]

For dessert, M&S have the most delicious looking opera cake this year. (For anyone watching GBBO) But don't you lot go ordering before I get mine booked!

But to answer your mid morning snack question, champagne. Or bucks fizz for the feeble.

[ravenAK]

Port around the firepit has been noted. Just acquired a washing machine drum to use as a firepit .

We do:

Breakfast/brunch - dh's scrambled eggs, bagels, smoked salmon, super fierce Bloody Marys (Bucks Fizz for the wimps).

Dinner at 4ish - roast meat of some kind (immediate family are veggie but ILs not, no one likes turkey - so I usually do either a chicken or joint of beef), Veggie Thing (JO chestnut risotto filo pie is easy, but some years I buy a posh Veggie Thing from M&S if they have a good one), Quorn roast, roast potatoes & parsnips, stuffing, yorkies if serving beef, little vegetarian sausages, sprouts, carrots, peas, red cabbage, sauces & gravy. Followed by Xmas pud.

Later - mince pies, cheese, bowls of nuts etc.

I do all the prep on Xmas Eve, as the breakfast Bloody Marys render me beatifically pissed & I stay that way all day, wafting in an out of kitchen just to shove things in the oven...