Please share your Christmas dinner menu...

[LokiBear]

Disclaimer - I'm posting this on the Christmas thread. If it pops up on your active posts then please accept my apologies, roll your eyes at me and move on :)

I mentioned on another thread that it is our first time hosting Christmas and people gave some excellent suggestions about preparing good and freezing ahead of time. I'm going to have a trial run of preping and cooking in a few weeks - coinciding the practice with a special birthday dinner. Would you please share your menu? As a veggie I am most interested in the non turkey bits and the starter, as we do not normally have one.

Many thanks in advance :)

Oooh, my first Christmas thread of the year!!!

We don't do a starter as the children aren't too interested in sitting at the table for hours so my day goes like this:

9am ish: breakfast - reindeer pancakes or smoked salmon and scrambled egg (generally a young/old divide but I've had grown ups request the pancakes - look them up on interest!!)

11am: first glass of champagne

1pm: canapés. I make them quite substantial so that they are lunch/starter. Normally have breadsticks, crudités and hummus (so the children eat some goodness). Mini sausages in honey and sesame seeds. Smoked salmon blinis and anything else that takes my fancy from the canapé shelf in Waitrose. Just remembered brie and cranberry film things which are obligatory for Christmas.

4pm: Christmas 'lunch': All of the usual suspects but I realise it is meat heavy which is of no use to you…. I once made a vegetarian 'Wellington' for a vegetarian main course. Nice because she could eat all of the accompaniments until I realised no goose fat potatoes, lardons in the sprouts, turkey gravy….

we are at the table for ages playing games etc so normally do the pud at around 7pm - I do a traditional pudding and a chocolate self-saucing one too.

We still have a few rounds of turkey sandwiches at about 10pm!!!!

We will have the usual turkey/ham/maybe goose for those who eat it.

The stuffing and vegetables are prepped in such a way as to be OK for vegans, so:

sage & onion stuffing (lovingly made by moi),

root veg and squash roasted in olive oil,

Cranberry sauce, gravy etc.

shredded cabbage, and saurkraut,

sprouts (plain and unadulterated!).

Last year I did a kind of vegan mushroom/chestnut/cranberry wellington, but the fairly heavy puff pastry made it a bit headachy and heavy. I didn't like it much at all.

This year I (the token vegan) am going with mounds of stuffing (seriously the best bit!), and roasted veg.

We don't do a starter, and puddings are shop bought, and hardly ever eaten.

brie and cranberry filo things!!

Last year was my first year doing the Christmas dinner and it went really well. I basically did nigella lawsons menu from her Christmas book!

Roast potatoes in goose fat,
Mashed potatoes,
Sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts,
Maple glazed carrots,
Gingerbread stuffing.

For starter I just her bourbon ribs and everyone just had a few with some drinks, it was our first year without a starter and was great because we were actually hungry for the main meal!

The nigella book has some lovely vegetarian main course ideas and she gives a great run down of timings which was so helpful! Really recommend it!

Thanks these ideas are great! I'm the only veggie and I am happy to fill my plate with extra roasts and veggies rather than have something else in place of meat. I'm going to leave the meat to DH as I haven't eaten it since I was little and have no idea how to cook it!

Loki - I consider myself to be a good cook but I always buy Waitrose's bacon lattice, butter basted turkey breast joint thingy!! I have never cooked a whole turkey despite roasting a chicken on a weekly basis. The breast thing takes about 1hr40 to cook I think, carves like a dream as there are no bones and is always so moist and juicy. I'm sure all the major supermarkets do a similar thing. (The WR one is part of their 'entertaining' range so you pre-order it.)

Last year it was £28 - I bought two as I planned on cooking one on boxing day for leftovers but actually, on Christmas Day 12 of us only ate half (including sandwiches!!) as we also had ham, sausages, stuffing etc.

I think it is really good value and makes the cooking so easy. If you are limited on oven space, cook it earlier in the day and just wrap in foil while you do everything else.

Nigella says if the plates, gravy and potatoes are all really hot then everything else can get away with being cooler. I run the dishwasher to heat the plates (they come out so hot!!) and only take the potatoes out of the oven and put gravy in boats after everyone has started dishing up.

I bloody love my Christmas dinner!!!

also, this gravy recipe is fantastic to make in advance if you are planning to make it meat based.

this is the turkey I was talking about. I fully expect a purist to tell me off but, honestly, I'm normally really fussy about meat but this is great.

DH and I are vegetarian, the DC will have chicken

Pre-DC I made nice main meals , DH and I would spend ages over dinner. Now with DC it's changed.

In years gone by , I made :
Delias Roulade (toasted nuts and breadcrumbs with a cheese souffle on top, baked then covered in pureed root veg and rolled up

Good Housekeeping WhiteNut Loaf

A Delia Savoury Cheese Choux Pastry filled with cooked mushrooms

Filo Pastry stars with mushrooms

Camenbert/Brie in pastry with either pine nuts and spinach or brocilli or cranberries

Now, I do a straightforward 'Traditional' meal and save the more involved ones for before, between Christmas and NY or NY itself.

No starter
Chicken breast for DC (one each roasted in skin. Must be nice Free Range)
Quorn Roast (DH is but it slices well and it's not the main star )
Carrots (sometimes with butter and almonds but usually plain)
Roast Potato
Roast Parnsnips (rolled in breadcrumbs)
Sprouts
Gravy
Bread Sauce
Yorkshire Puddings (DS favourite)
Roasted red cabbage (Waitrose/Sainsbury or M&S)
Stuffing Balls
Peas if DD wants them

Pudding is a steamed syrup pudding with ice-cream or custard but later in day.

Christmas breakfast is a selection of homemade pastries- croissants,thumbprint jam pastries, pain au chocolat, cinnamon rolls etc. I also make my own take on Christmas morning muffins. Homemade jam and nut butter and the DC have milkshake in little retro milk bottles with straws, we have eggnog.

Lunch is cheese and tomato baguettes. This is a strange tradition, it started three years ago when we didn't know what else to have to keep us going until dinner. We had baguettes that needed using so DH chucked some cheese, tomato and mayonnaise in them and it was sooo good, it's just stuck.

Dinner we have when it gets dark. This year the starter is cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup and gluten free rolls.
Main is all homemade as well- chestnut stuffing, braised cabbage, apple sauce, roast potatoes, sprouts, roasted parsnips and chanteney carrots, onion gravy, I make a vegan version of pigs in blankets and every year we have a different main. One year it was mushroom Wellington but that didn't go down too well, another year we didn't actually have a main and just had a lot of veggies and stuffing but felt really odd, last year we had a vegan roast and it was quite nice. This year we've decided to trial a few different mains out with our Sunday dinners and then we all get to mark it out of 10, whichever is the winner gets to be Christmas main. We drink champagne, DC drink a naice fruit juice.
Dessert is a selection of Yule log, gingerbread chocolate cheesecake and trifle (all homemade as per.) I make Christmas cake and we usually have that in the evening with a cheeseboard and chocolates.

Ooh I can't wait .

Pukkabo is the cheese you eat vegan? I'm veggie but have always wondered about vegan cheese.

We start the day with breakfast, something light and quick so the kids can get back to their toys.

Christmas dinner is usually

Roast turkey/chicken
home made roast potatos
sprouts
beans
peas
carrots
mashed swede in Jersey butter
DH home made stuffing
home made gravy

Desert: We usually have no room

I don´t have time to post today but I will come back and post properly when I can.

I second the Waitrose Turkey joints, they are stunning and no fuss which if you aren't used to cooking meat is good :) Just order it in time as they rush out of stock.

Last year it was just DH and I for lunch, normally there are more of us but we had:

Dressed lobster platter (think it was from sainsburys Christmas range)

Then
Waitrose turkey joint,
2 types of stuffing,
roasties in goose fat,
pigs in blankets,
parsnips,
brussel sprouts sliced thinly and fried in butter with thinly sliced leeks(this is yummers!)
carrots,
gravy

We then went to the parents to have desert :)

Food and Christmas, my two favourite things

Breakfast for the dc's is usually the individual pack of coco pops they each find wrapped up in their stocking from the elves.

Our dinner is very traditional and we usually have it as it's getting dark too.

We always have turkey, pigs, roasties, sprouts, Carrots, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy. Dm always insists on mash, parsnips and Yorkshire puddings

pukkabo can I ask for your recipe for chestnut stuffing please, I don't eat red meat so would love to make a veggie one.

Breakfast, about 7am - champagne and chocolate for me, a bacon sandwich for dh, coco pops for dd

Brunch - 11am, after a long and hopefully frosty dog walk - blinis with caviar, smoked salmon, pickled red cabbage and horseradish creme fraiche. More champagne.

Lunch happens about 4pm and this year I am breaking with my traditional offer (goose - creates too much fatty havoc in my oven and costs a bomb) - we are having:

Rib of beef - as rare as I can get away with
Goose fat roast potatoes
Spiced red cabbage
Cauliflower cheese
Yorkshire pudding
Sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta
Stilton and port gravy
More champagne

No idea on pudding yet. Last year I did a chocolate and pistachio semifreddo that was rather disappointing, and nobody has room anyway. Probably just more champagne, with a selection box chocolate bar on the side..

Anoth

Oops, posted waaayyyy too soon!

I have hosted the last couple of years, and this year we are eating out, but I plan on doing my usual Christmas dinner on the Sunday before Christmas.

Every year I do Jamie's get ahead gravy, and every year i'm disappointed. No idea what i'm doing wrong, but it's quite bland. His pork, sage & chesnut stuffing is a must in my house, it's amazing. I'm another person who insists on yorkshire pudding with Christmas dinner, and I also have to have my chantennay carrots roasted in honey, a splash of olive oil and rosemary & thyme - delicious. And it wouldn't be Christmas dinner without spiced red cabbage.

Christmas breakfast is always hazelnut coffee, bucks fizz, chocolates, fresh orange, pain au chocolat and sausage sandwiches. My local butcher does the most amazing sausages.

We don't usually have a starter but dessert is usually a vanilla cheesecake with fresh cream, as well as a chocolate yule log & fresh cream. A bit later on we get the cheese, crackers, pickles & chutneys out.

Love Christmas, cannot wait for it.

We do beef (much to Mil's disgust!!!)

Roast pots, roasted carrots, parnips and sprouts
Pigs in blankets
Yorkshire pudding

Breakfast is bacon and eggs served about 8, lunch is served at 1.30

For tea we have picky food, left over beef, crisps and nuts all washed down with gin and tonic.

Mil swears we are alcoholics after staying with us this year ;-)

I always used to have a picky tea when I lived at home! Will definitely be doing that!

It will be an m&s job this year I'm afraid, will have a newborn and a onr year old but I will keep an eye out for ideas on this thread.

Dh will cook a large turkey as we make tonnes of curries etc and they will come in handy

I will make my own mince pies though (might even buy the pastry but I can make the mince in sept or oct)

I will also cook carrot and parsnip for the freezer, buy stuffing, roasties, pre made gravy and red cabbage

Stupid question alert: when you freeze your toasties, do you thaw before cooking? When do you add seasoning?

Watching this thread with interest as this is the first year where DH and I are not going to a relatives for Christmas lunch, so it's just the two of us and I don't know what to have.

We just have our usual breakfast. Lunch is turkey, roasties, boiled potatoes, sprouts, carrots, cauli, broccoli, HM stuffing, Yorkshires and lashings of HM gravy. Usually do HM rice pudding as im the only one who like xmas pudd. Then we eat loads of chocolate. For me its a glorified sunday lunch with a cracker on the table.

We just have our usual breakfast. Lunch is turkey, roasties, boiled potatoes, sprouts, carrots, cauli, broccoli, HM stuffing, Yorkshires and lashings of HM gravy. Usually do HM rice pudding as im the only one who like xmas pudd. Then we eat loads of chocolate. For me its a glorified sunday lunch with a cracker on the table.