Oven about to die. How much of Christmas dinner can I make ahead?

[Monroe]

Just that really. My oven appears to be on its last legs. The fan on it gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and now it is being very tempermental. Some days it works fine, others it displays an error code and refuses to heat up. And due to a complete lack of any spare cash there is no chance of us purchasing a new one before the big day and I am convinced it is going to breakdown completely on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day

So while it is mostly still working I want to get ahead and prepare as much as possible. If the worst comes to the worst I have a neighbour on standby who will let us use their oven for the turkey but I obviously can't take over their kitchen on Christmas day and be popping in every five minutes.

So is there anything I can do? Any recipes I can use? Or am I completely doomed.

What do you usually have? And do you have a microwave?
Yorkshire puds can be made and frozen, then popped in a microwave for a few minutes if you don't mind them a bit soggy, or in neighbours oven if not.
I have par cooked roast carrots and parsnips before, chucked them in bags with a load of goose fat whilst cooling and frozen. Not sure if they'd be any good thoroughly cooked as the cooking and freezing might make them a bit mushy. They do need to be oven cooked though. You can do very nice steamed veg in the microwave instead though. Especially if you chuck in sme butter and parsley with the carrots.
Brussels, bacon and chestnuts can be cooked and frozen then heated in the microwave.
Stuffing can be totally cooked using a microwave, as can gravy and bread sauce.
Best of luck!

Bless you mogz!

We don't normally bother with a starter so usually turkey, stuffing, roasties, roast parsnips, Brussels, carrots mainly

I do have a microwave and the hob seems to be just fine so okay for most of the veg and gravy

so I could pre prepare the stuffing, potatoes, parsnips but really need an oven to finish them. How far in advance do you think I could do them? If I got my timings right I could hopefully finish them off in neighbours oven as long as I wasn't invading their kitchen all day. Maybe when I take the turkey out and it's resting could finish everything else off? So would only need one extra visit.

Could you look on Freecycle or even post an appeal? Sometimes people put perfectly reasonable ovens on there rather than pay to have them removed (I know I have) Maybe something temporarily until you can afford to replace.

Could you have beef instead of Turkey? I cook a whole joint of beef in my slow cooker and it's lovely. You can pick a SC up for £10 to £15 from argos

freecycle
british heart foundation
phone Salvation Army - they often have emergency free appliances
gas appliances are more tightly controlled re safety so rarer than leccy

fingers crossed

I will have a look on freecycle. The thing is, I'll be able to find the money in January, it's just all this month's money is spoken for and I've just had some work fall through for the new year.

We have a slow cooker so okay there but I don't eat beef so we definitely want the traditional turkey

Just thinking, would it be possible to cook the turkey Xmas eve? That way I'm only taking over their oven for half hour or so. I'm conscious that they are at home and will be using it that day too and if I'm waiting for them to finish their meal it could be 8 o'clock before we eat!

Would that be possible??

Have you thought of cooking it now and slicing and freezing it? Then you could defrost it and then re-heat it in gravy on the hob.

But yes, you can definitely cook it on Christmas Eve, my mum always did. I don't, because the oven is usually busy cooking an enormous gammon then, but if I wasn't doing that I probably would as it would save a lot of time on Christmas day.

Alternatively, are you a Costco member? They usually do a big platter of everything you need for Christmas dinner already cooked and ready to re-heat.

Where are you? I'm getting a new cooker, my old one isn't brilliant but would help you help. You just have to give everything 20/30 extra as it takes a while to heat it. But it would do till you got a new one.

Ilove that is a really kind offer, thank you but I'm hoping to tough it out till Jan and be able to get a new one then.

I've just seen neighbours dh, he was round watching football with mine. They are very good friends thankfully and he has said it's fine to cook the turkey round theirs Xmas eve. So would i carve that day, cool and store in the fridge and reheat in the gravy? I'm okay to do that on the hob? Believe it or not I can actually cook, just never had to do it this way before!

Also has anyone got any nice straightforward stuffing recipes

A colleague of mine had their oven give up on Christmas Day, they had a 3 bird wotsit so stuck it in tin foil and fired up the BBQ. He said it was the best bird ever!!

Our oven gave up on Christmas Day last year as well. We also did the turkey on the BBQ. It was so good we're probably going to do it again this year. Only downside is you don't get the lovely smell inside the house.....but less washing up afterwards.

Thanks everyone. Not panicking as much now. Touch wood, it's been behaving so far this week although making a bit of a funny noise.

But I know now if worst comes to the worst we'll be okay, and I'll put the barbie on stand by just in case