Christmas dinner bores thread

[ItsGotBellsOn]

Go on then...tell me what you're having, what you're making from scratch and what you buy readymade and give me your tips on what to buy where and any great recipes, please!

Cooking for 5 adults and two kids. I usually do turkey and Nigella's ham in coke. Would like to try some different side dishes and maybe a new pud (nobody but me likes Xmas pud or sherry trifle).

Feel free to bore on! All contributions gratefully received.

Oh...and starter ideas, too, please!

Soooo bored of smoked salmon. But do like the idea of something fishy.

I'm cooking for the first time. We bought our 'forever house' this year so I've asked both sets of parents here so it'll be 4 parents, dh, ds and myself.

I'm going to do a turkey crown wrapped in pancetta, I'm going to order turkey gravy, red cabbage and cauliflower cheese from m&s as cheats and will make my own roast potatoes, parsnips, pigs in blankets, carrots and broccoli. I've asked my mum to bring the sprouts prepared in a saucepan on the day!

I'm thinking of doing a very traditional prawn cocktail complete with iceberg lettuce and brown bread and butter as a starter as all the parents love it and I can do it in advance.

Not sure about a pudding, no one seems to have any room after dinner! Will just buy a naice Christmas pud and if MIL tells asks me is if she can bring anything then I shall ask her to bring something for dessert.

First time doing Xmas dinner here, so I'm trying to make it (relatively) easy for myself!
Starter is supposed to be prawn cocktail (because FIL and DH want it) but I'm tempted by some sort of soup tbh. DD will prefer it too!
Then PILs will be bringing a ham, and I've ordered a prestuffed turkey ready to roast (in a roasting bag) from waitrose. Will be doing pigs in blankets, roast and mashed potatoes, honey roast carrots and parsnips, broccoli and sprouts for those that like them. (Can't stand them myself). I'm not going to bother with bread sauce as no-one else eats it, but there'll be plenty of gravy and cranberry.
For pud, we'll have a small hidden clementine Xmas pud for DH and MIL, and a heston blunenthal chocolate bar dessert for the rest of us.

Easy...?! :S

We dont do a starter, prefer to have pudding instead!

We are having slow roasted need rib with roasted carrots, roast potatoes, sprouts (only for mil) parsnips, peas and Yorkshire pudding. All homemade including the gravy.

Pudding is going to be hazelnut merangue cake and cheeseboard.

Tea is leftovers from Christmas eve and day!

Not need rib, beef!

Marking place for ideas!

So far, definitely making cranberry sauce. Also making a gingerbread cake of some kind as an alternative Christmas cake. Not planned the rest yet.

I've sat down with MIL and one of my SILs today to write the plan. There are 16 of us altogether and we've planned Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. I think pretty much everything is being done from scratch apart from cranberry sauce (jar) and the Christmas pudding.

We're not having a starter at lunch as we want to save room for multiple puddings!

We're having turkey and goose, plus a vegetarian main course with roast potatoes, pasrnips, butternut squash, two types of stuffing (one meat, one veggie), carrots, sprouts, peas, chestnuts, red cabbage, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and two gravies (meat and veggie).

For pudding we've got Christmas pud, yule log, chooclate bombe, toffee profiteroles and cheesecake.

Evening meal we're going for salmon pate on toast, with winter coleslaw, the cheeseboard and any leftovers :)

Christmas dinner will be a repeat of last year's British/Danish mash up.

We had roast duck, apple and prune stuffing, red cabbage, roast potatoes and parsnips, caramelised potatoes, sprouts, cranberry and bread sauce.

The great bonus of this was that 99% of it could be done in advance and then just chucked in the oven/heated up at the end. Was only really the caramelised potatoes that were stressful as I hadn't done them before but they were fine and a big hit.

Followed by Christmas pudding, this year to be done with Nigella's eggnog cream after I realised it was the work of moments to make. Am doing Nigella's Christmas pudding as liked the idea of it tasting of sherry not brandy and it will probably make 2 so I can save one for next year.

At some point over the Christmas holiday we will also eat a load of Danish Christmas biscuits and have Danish Christmas pudding (ris a l'amande) which is a cold creamy rice pudding served with hot cherry sauce.

Having enjoyed doing new stuff (OK my mum made the Danish stuff when I was a child but it was new for me to make it), I've now dreamt up a fancy Christmas around the world theme for New Year's Eve. Have ambitious plans to do Umbria, where we went for our summer holidays, so have ordered a boned chicken to stuff followed by a sort of biscuity thing. This is all highly experimental and way beyond my usual cooking skills although I do have a tendency to go slightly mad at Christmas.

I have not owned up to DH about this as when I asked him what he wanted, he said 'something that doesn't mean my wife is in the kitchen all day'

Goose, roast potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast carrots, roast parsnips, peas and broccoli. No starter, we usually have some sort of icecream cake for desert. I make it from scratch (peel the potatoes and prep the veg the night before).

Not sure about the starter, we had some smoked duck carpaccio in France this year that was amazing so maybe that, if I can't find it!

Beef Wellington with all the trimmings.. Including stuffing

Chocolate fondant, trifle, and christmas pudding.

Litres of prosecco.

Mmmm, beef wellington. Did a few years ago and was yummy but all the pastry collapsed down the sides in the oven, despite me having watched the GBBO masterclass and followed the instructions to the letter

Oh no :( did you make the pastry yourself?

Turkey, roast gammon, parsnips , carrots peas and sprouts.
Starter and pudding are usually decided at a family meeting around bonfire night

I think I am making Christmas dinner this year for my gran, my parents, my two siblings, my son and myself.

I'll be doing easy starters- choice of pate on toast, melon or smoked salmon.

Main course will be roast turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast squash, glazed carrots, sprouts, broccoli.

Pudding will be lemon meringue pie or Frances Quinn's ginger and mint cheesecake.

I have just decided to become vegetarian so I'll be leaving the turkey and chipolatas out this year!

No, I'm not totally insane! However I do have a pretty rubbish oven and I'm blaming that.

I used this recipe and the mushroom bit was to die for (although photo makes it look completely unappetizing):
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/dec/08/how-to-cook-perfect-beef-wellington

Just been informed by dd16 that we are also having garlic and thyme potatoes and she is making peppermint creams half dipped in plain chocolate for after the cheeseboard.

That's not the best photo in the world is it! Did you you pate in yours? I didn't in the last one I made and it was heavenly.

Were going to have to make 2 I think.. Dh's parents like their meat well done..we have ours barely cooked! But of a nightmare scenario really.. Well done fillet does not do it for me.

I'm cooking for 6-8 this year, same as every year. However, it it the first time for a while that we've had guests, so we'll have a lot less leftovers than normal (both DP and I love roast dinners so I cook loads and we have the leftovers for days)

Biggest challenge is that one of the guests doesn't eat pork for religious reasons so the whole meal has to be pork free and I need to decide on an alternative second meat to replace the big ham. Thinking of beef of some description.

I'll use this thread for ideas for starters. I think I might let the guests bring puds if they offer, but there's some gorgeous frozen desserts in Aldi atm so I might also look at those or make trifles, which is another favourite here.

No starter, unless I suddenly change my mind.

Roast duck I think, but if DH gets his way (and he usually cooks Christmas lunch) it might be roast boar.

With carrots, parsnips, bacon rolls (if I can get past him to shove some in the oven), sprouts, roast potatoes, gravy and stuffing (which is already in the freezer). Red wine with this.

Followed by shop-bought Xmas pudding and a nice dessert wine.

Later in the day there will much eating of Stilton and chocolate.

I can't wait.

Hi Methe - no pate involved. Meat was also on the rare side, nearly bankrupted myself buying it but it was lush, had some gorgeous steaks from it as well.

ILs also think food isn't cooked unless it's incinerated. Thankfully they live too far away to drive to ours but we will be going to theirs. Last year MIL worried whether the sprouts were hard as 'there's nothing worse than hard sprouts'. Um, well there is actually, overcooked sprouts that are about to disintegrate on the plate. Poor niece was being forced to eat hers while asking 'why doesn't Auntie Kundry have to eat them?' To which no-one had an answer

Our Inlaws are the same about sprouts. Sprouts are one of my favourite vegetables, We eat them 3 times a week all winter at home but they are inedible when they are served by MIL who boils them for about 3 hrs YUCK!

onilkeymoor - watch out for the gelatine in trifles!

I really fancy doing something different for christmas dinner this yr, but worry that everyone will moan it's not traditional if i change it that much!

We usually have turkey, pigs in blankets, roasties, parsnips (sometimes honey roast if I have time), broccoli, bread sauce & cranberry sauce. Then Heston's hidden orange Xmas pud & ice cream for the DCs. We don't have a sit-down starter, but I usually get some ready made party food from Waitrose for people to pick at while they're waiting

Pondering whether to stray away from the traditional turkey this year, although the PILs will probably pass out in shock. No-one really likes it in our house so I was wondering about goose but scared of messing it up as I've never cooked it before.

MehsMum - impressed you have stuffing in the freezer already - home made? Any tips?

Go for it Sixer - my mum announced one year she was no longer cooking turkey as she didn't like it. We all complained bitterly as 'it was tradition' but seeing as no-one else volunteered to cook, she got her way

We all then had to confess it was much much nicer than turkey and we never went back

Given that most of the trimmings stay the same, as long as you are doing another big roast and don't suddenly announce you are doing lasagne , the difference isn't that big.

Goose is brilliant, much easier than turkey as physically impossible to make it dry. And far less leftovers to poke about at for days after.