Under the influence of mulled wine I have just offered to provide Christmas day tea. What will be on your table?

[littleredsquirrel]

I'm generally fine when we host Christmas. I'll have been thinking about it for quite a long time and will have been picking up bits a pieces each week in the supermarket. This year we are having family over for drinks and mince pies on Christmas eve and MIL is hosting Christmas day. SIL and her family will be staying there and we will go over for lunch and for the evening.

Having just heard a tale of woe about how SIL doesn't help at all and how MIL might have to stay at home on Christmas Eve because she'll have too much to do I stupidly just piped up "Don't worry I'll provide and sort out tea".

Now I need to think about Christmas buffet tea for 12 including 5 veggies that can be prepared mainly in advance and transported over to ILs house on Christmas day. I need inspiration. The DSs have suggested sausage rolls and got no further than that!

What are you eating on Christmas Day evening?

Well, the obvious answer of turkey sandwiches with really nice chutney is out, as the turkey will be at MILs.

But, unless MIL is a woeful and skimpy hostess, people will be pretty full. So how about quiches, some cold meats, lots of cheese and crackers/bread plus some pate, big thing of crudités and dips. Big fruit bowl. Mince pies, cake and tin of chocolates?

Ooops - misread that you're transporting the lot to MILs. The turkey sarnies could happen after all.

We will be at ILs house which is part of the problem but turkey will be out since she only buys a very small one, generally a crown since five are veggies and two of the little ones won't eat turkey (not mine, they guzzle anything!). The turkey will therefore be gone!

A lovely big ham cooked fresh. Boiled and reboiled and then put in the oven for ten minutes with a honey and wholegrain mustard coating.

Fresh tossed salad. Houmous and dip. Crackers and a decent selection of cheeses. Nice pickles, caramelised onion chutney, red currant jelly. Breadsticks. Perhaps some cottage cheese and coleslaw. Hard boiled eggs, quails if you're feeling adventurous.

That should do I bloody hope.

Good luck!

Look at M&S food ordering for inspiration or if you can order it from there. Lots of ideas for all courses / vegans. They do ready to go platters - so ideal for transporting.

Right I shall go and peek at the M&S website and see what they are offering this year.

So far on the list then:

A ham - good idea, can do in advance and easy to transport
good cheese board with bread and crackers, grapes, pickels chutneys etc
dips, crudites and breadsticks
coleslaw (completely forgot about that)
quiche - good idea since I can do a veggie one (and just hope it survives the journey)
salad
the all important sausage rolls

DMIL has just sent a text to remind me that a certain relative says Christmas isn't Christmas without trifle that'll be easy to transport on a 50 minute car journey then!

Crisps!!

What would Mil normally provide? Will supermarket freezer party food be okay or a terrible no-no.
I would try and keep it quite basic. People will probably just want snack type things. Maybe cooked ham and chutney with nice rolls, cheese board and crackers, sausage and cheese rolls, Samosas, spring rolls. Those little individual cake bars like mini rolls (so uneatten ones don't go to waste)and a triffle for the adults.

We only have tea on xmas day when we are at the pils where it will just be xmas cake, cheese and biscuits and a cuppa. Or in my case just a cuppa as I will still be full from lunch.

At home.om our own we tend to have a brunch then our christmas dinner around five so we dont want tea.

If we were here I would do lots of freezer party food nibbles to go with a good cheese board, salad and cooked meat but MIL has a teeny tiny kitchen and its hard to have much in the oven at once so ideally I'll avoid lots of stuff that needs heating up.

Christmas cake! Nobody will eat it of course but its got to be there

Buy a trifle,
I like smoked salmon with a horse radish and creme fresh dressing on watercress, nice and zingy and light.
Mushroom pate is dead easy to make and delicious

Oh mushroom pate is a great idea since the veggies can eat it too!

We only ever have a few crackers and cheese and a mince pie, we have dinner at 3 though - what time will you be eating dinner?

Generally eat lunch at 1pm and have "tea" at about seven

cold meat and salad
christmas cake and cheese

Oo could I have your mushroom pate recipe please nilby?

Vegetable quiche & vegetable spring rolls
couscous salad
normal salad
stuffed veg with herby rice
Grilled haloummi cheese with plain or flavoured olive oil & chilli flakes
Nigella Lawson clementine cake or a citrus pudding to counter balance rich lunch

Yes to citrus pudding, a lemon tart or lemon meringue pie would be good. I hate trifle but it seems to be de rigour for Christmas.

Crackers and cheese, nice pickles etc
Crusty bread (could get the part baked and bake it then it's nice and fresh, Waitrose do a Tiger bread one which is pretty good)
Ham or pate
Cheese straws, crisps etc
Salady stuff, couscous salad, dips or similar

Definitely just M&S it - they do huge trifles too. I'm for easy options atm as you can see.

Waitrose might also do food orders - too far from me to pick up, so haven't looked at site.

Mushroom pate, I'm a bit of a bung it all in chef, so not great on amounts....
But this would feed 6 adults, so double it up?
1 large onion, fine dice
About 5 big handfuls of mushrooms (various varieties, or just button), fine dice
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Sauté the lot in a pan slowly for 15mins.
Add the juice of 1 lemon.
Then drain off in a sieve, so the mix is not wet.
Transfer back into pan with no heat, add a tub of full fat Philadelphia, a good pinch of cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Blitz half the mix with a blender, and leave the rest chunky. Add a small amount of finely chopped parsley, check seasoning.

I sterilised a kilner jar, let that cool, then put the pate in that with a sprinkling of cayenne on top. Chill. Will keep for a week. Serve with granary bread and I like cornichons on the side.

It's a delicate flavour, so I add maldon salt to mine as a topping!

Serve and await the compliments!

Actually raisah's supper sounds much more exciting than mine, I think I'll pinch some of her suggestions too.

You could do a lemon trifle with a lemon drizzle cake/sponge/lemon swiss roll and lemon jelly for those who love their trifles.

Thanks nilby - sorry for being a bit late responding but I've only just seen it.