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.

Jewelled cous cous sounds good, but some of the guests are very conservative/fussy eaters so probably won't touch it .

Turkeywise, I can take it or leave it, but DP likes it and this year, I think the other guests will expect it too. I normally buy a single giant turkey breast to roast from the farm shop, so no dark meat or bones to deal with.

Normally I freeze the leftovers in slices and reheat it in gravy later on.

awww thanks PingPongBat.... I think our family like it because when others have done Xmas lunch they try to "poncify" stuff and it doesn't taste the same as normal food. We will for instance all eat sprouts, but 3 people out of our 9 don't like chestnuts - so WHY put chestnuts in the sprouts, or even do 2 sprout dishes? when everyone will eat them steamed microwaved in a bag .

I like it because it is easy...

Cinnamon buns for breakfast, and good coffee. There may be streaky bacon and christmas pudding spiced buck's fizz also.

We'll have our started at lunch time. It'll be some nice bread from the local baker, with a selection of homemade stuff to pile on it, as follows: fresh salted butter, pork rillettes, bacon jam, potted spiced beef, cornichons (not homemade!), and spiced quince and mustard jam.

We'll have dinner at about 5:30 or so. So far the menu is turkey porchetta style, cooked sous vide and then deep fried briefly to crisp the skin, ham from my sister's allotment pig (no recipe chosen yet but it'll have to be good to do it justice!), herb and onion breadcrumb stuffing, gingerbread stuffing, shredded sprouts with pancetta and chestnut crumbs and maybe a quick slosh of marsala, goose fat roast spuds, potato gratin, glazed roast carrots, bread and walnut sauce, roasted cranberry and clementine relish and turkey gravy.

Dessert will be Heston's mulled cider trifle, I think. It depends on how easy it would be to fit in the prep; I have to read the recipe a few more times and have a think about it. Definitely some sort of spectacular trifle though (I have a nice trifle bowl I've never used!). And the cider one sounds light and tasty.

Breakfast at about 8.30 : something eggy and filling: either scrambled with smoked salmon or eggs benedict.

Starters: probably chocolate/stuff from stockings.

Main course, eaten at about 3pm:
Turkey, gammon or pork, goosefat roast potatoes, two stuffings, chipolatas in bacon, port and cranberry sauce, bread sauce (bought as mine is always like glue), mashed potatoes or colcannon, red cabbage, sprouts, roast carrots and swede, at least 2 other veg tbc: I like to offer a choice. All done by me except the bread sauce.
Dessert: eaten from about 7pm:
Christmas pudding(bought), cheese, trifle (made), ice cream bombe(made), something chocolatey (made).

8 of us here! And everything has to be gluten-free. Plus, I don't want to be in the kitchen too much of the time, as I love watching the DC open their presents and play with them. Also, we go out all day Xmas Eve, so no time to do veg prep then - so I cheat with everything :)

Xmas Eve is at the grandparents, so I don't have to worry about that.

Xmas Day breakfast will be gf croissants / pain au chocolat and exotic fruit and coffee (Ocado).
Lunch, which we have early because the DC are small, will be crown of turkey and roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, shredded sprouts & chestnut and red cabbage - all from COOK - delicious, tastes home made, and no trouble! Gravy from there too. I usually make the cranberry sauce, but Ocado have some in this year which from the reviews tastes as good as homemade. Pigs in blankets - I found some gf ones last year, can't remember if they were from COOK or M&S but will get those.

Usually we have a break after the main course for a couple of hours - kids play with presents, grown-ups digest. Then re-convene for pud - Yummy gf Xmas pudding from Burford farm, brandy butter from Ocado, ice cream for kids. Lots of chocs (Ocado/Maison de chocolate) Cheeseboard and grapes if anyone can handle it (they never can, it usually waits till Boxing Day)

Boxing Day, I do a big buffet lunch. Leftovers from Xmas Day, plus a ham in coke, nice gf bread from Wheatfree Bakery, pate, salami, cheese, grapes, salads etc. Leftover Xmas pudding, a chocolate roulade from COOK, another gf pud from M&S.

Then the delight that is the 27th. Grandparents take the littlies out for the day and I slob around in my pyjamas with DH, eating chocs and cheese :) Looking forward to it already!

BuilderMammy - is there room for one more at your Christmas table? It sounds amazing.

I'm away at SILs but if I was doing it:
Starter - Buy in from M&S something involving salmon mousse, serve with extra prawns, small salad and Marie Rose sauce
Main - Roast turkey, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots with star anise, sprouts, brocolli, Yorkshire pudding, gravy
Dessert - Christmas pudding with white sauce. Ice cream for kids.
I have seen some Roulade things in Lidl which look lovely, I would start practicing now and try and make one of those if I wanted to do something different. Or, a chocolate mousse with raspberries and home made cookies.

Love hearing what others are having!

Ideas I'm currently pondering:

Xmas Eve dinner - for years we had something fishy, sometimes takeaway fish and chips. Then we started having a takeaway curry. I'd like to try something different this year. Thinking of maybe a Thai takeaway.

Christmas breakfast - always have either croissants and fruit salad or scrambled eggs and toasted bagels. Think I'll do the same this year. Any nice/different fruit salad ideas?

Xmas dinner
I'd like to do a lovely seafood/fish starter that isn't smoked salmon or prawn cocktail - any ideas?
I'll probably do tried and tested Nigella's ham in coke, turkey, roast and mash potatoes, honey roast parsnips, sprouts / cauliflower/ carrots/peas. Kids love Yorkshire puds, so will do them. Now...stuffing...I usually get a shop bought fresh sausage meat stuffing and then make Paxo balls, but quite fancy making from scratch this year. Any decent homemade stuffing recipes?

Any ideas gratefully received.

Stuffing is really easy as long as you aren't expecting something that looks like Paxo

My mum usually does free style with sausagemeat, cranberries, chestnuts and anything else that looks Christmassy and can be made into a ball Sausagemeat and a nut and a dried fruit is generally a good combo

I've more of a 'chuck some apples and prunes into the cavity, try to remember to remove and serve them' approach.

Neither of us is used to Paxo so don't like it and are surprised when stuffing looks like it IYSWIM, I think it makes it easier to be experimental. I don't think my FIL would recognize any of the above as 'real stuffing'