M&S Christmas food - what a disappointment !

[Nearlyadoctor]

Had an email from M&S this morning with the Christmas food online catalogue, and three things we normally order aren't there this year.
Christmas saver menu - whole meal to include turkey, veg, dessert, cheeseboard etc ( not that I would have chosen this again this year)
Venison with red currant sauce, which was going to be our Christmas Day meal - tried it last year for New Year and it was amazing.
Game Pie - always features in our Boxing Day buffet.

What a disappointment - back to the drawing board!

[SymphonyofShadows]

Thanks Miscellaneous, I almost cracked and did an M&S order yesterday as I need to be organised! I'm going to have a good look as it sounds great.

[Nearlyadoctor]

M&S didn't give wine for just ordering a turkey it was on orders of £70 and above previously so £10 increase in minimum spend.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Symphony, here's Cook:

www.cookfood.net

It's a good freezer food company (some might say posh!). I just made a dash to a cook store yesterday as DS longed for their meatballs, and sainsburys / M&S/ waitrose just Would Not Do!

The shop person was laughing as DS ran in feverishly searching freezers to find it then ran with it to the till, but got the wrong bit so was standing behind the till looking like he was just going to get on with buying it himself as the grown ups were being Too Slooow.

(I have no idea what's in them to make my 6 yr old so obsessed by them. They're all natural ingredients no nasties type stuff, so perhaps they sprinkle some locally sourced free range cocaine lovingly on top?!

[confuugled1]

Hmm. I was thinking of ordering a Marks turkey this year having had Waitrose for the last few years and been unimpressed with them the last two years in which they managed to lose one order and bring out completely the wrong thing for the next year, leaving me scrabbling around on the shelves on Christmas Eve morning.

I also noticed that last year you got a free bottle of wine if you ordered your turkey before the cut off date (early november) - this year you have to order £80 of food before the cut off date in order to get your free bottle of wine.

The M&S beauty advent calendar has also been increase by £10 TO £35 this year after it was so successful last year - sounds like they want to extract maximum £££ from everybody this Christmas!

Haven't seen the Waitrose Christmas order book yet this year to see what their offerings are.

Last year I got a couple of chicken pasta bakes from Costco for Boxing day as had hordes of relatives coming and didn't want to spend all of Christmas day cooking. They didn't look particularly fancy but they tasted really good and there was a lot of nice chicken in them. They also had a bizarre but nice greek filo pastry around spinach and feta tart thing (imagine the filo wrapped around the spinach and feta to about the size of a banger sausage, then the whole thing wrapped in a spiral to about the size of a large pizza) which was frozen but also very nice and handy to have in the freezer as something to bring out if you need something in reserve.

Maybe I'll investigate their turkeys this year... Not sure why, I don't even like turkey, it's only dh that likes it. Maybe I can persuade him to have nice steak joint of beef...

[SymphonyofShadows]

What is the Cook book? I've never seen it

[NotCitrus]

I've just got my Cook brochure. It's got everything, though I prefer simple veg and local butcher for Christmas. Will stock up on their tagines, Dijon pork, a fish pie, beef bourginon and dauphinoise potatoes - the meat stews will serve 3 if you have rice/spuds and veg so great when someone is over for dinner.

I have Lidl round the corner so I'll be swiping their canapes etc as soon as they are in stock! Their Christmas food is pretty good and for NYE it's loads of gannets who eat anything. My foodie friends can get excellent dinner another time!

[Blueberry234]

I have had the cook book and it looks good they are doing the meal for 2 which has always fed 4 of us with an extra pack of pigs in blankets and extra veg! The puddings look great too!

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Cook was great last year. Not sure what they're doing this year.

I loved the video showing how to fit it all in one freezer drawer too!

[QueenLizIII]

Exactly. I wondered how the hell they got it like that. Weird.

[AlbertaDewdrop]

Looks interesting

or disgusting depending on your viewpoint. Turkey doesn't come in that shape. What have they had to add/and or do to get it like that?

[QueenLizIII]

What do we think of this?

christmasfood.marksandspencer.com/british-oakham-turkey-breast-parcel-with-pork-caramelised-orange-and-fig-stuffing-boneless/p/p60074387

Looks interesting

[ClashCityRocker]

Having had a look at the Facebook page, it seems the general consensus is that this year's offering is a bit shit.

M&S have said that they have 'streamlined' this year's offering.

It is really poor. With the less ostentatious supermarkets upping their game it seems a foolhardy move - certainly last year both tesco and morrisons party food (albeit the extra special range) was well on par with m&s whilst being much better value.

We only really buy food from m&s at Christmas time because it felt like a real treat, and I suspect there are a fair few people who do the same who will go elsewhere this year.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

We switched to booths for the first time last year and was equally disappointed as the poster above. I found some of the timings really off, and was hugely disappointed with the veg!

[StubbleTurnips]

[Thequilltosurvive]

The meat was really good, just the veg was a bit rubbish. The year before it was fine though so we were probably just unlucky and got a dodgy batch. DC2 is due in December so I might take a chance anyway for convenience. If it's crap I'll just eat the whole B&B pudding myself instead .

[StubbleTurnips]

Ah blast quill - I'm the boss of indecision... Might wait to our farm shop does their chrimbo box to compare. Trying to make it easy this year.

[Thequilltosurvive]

Just to warn the people thinking of using Booths instead of M&S. We had some food from there last year which was disappointing - the pre-prepared veg was pretty dodgy. Carrots and parsnips were an odd colour and a bit grotty, red cabbage was very sweet and strange. I walk over hot coals for their Marsala bread and butter pudding though, it's gorgeous.

[StubbleTurnips]

Just about to order the Booths Great Christmas Dinner

Symphony were using mail order as I'm due on the 21st and it can be left with our neighbour if we're out. I trust them not to scoff it Also were In the NW so if it goes wrong we can always go to our local store baby permitting

[SymphonyofShadows]

I'm disappointed in M&S too. Why is that one cut of beef only £15 when the others are so much more?

I had the Booth's book last year and was sorely tempted to order but I'm in the south east so I was worried about using mail order and ending up with nowt. Has anyone else used the mail order option?

[Sloegin2]

Disappointed here too.
Why did they do away with the saver menus? We usually order but won't be this year.

[Autumnchill]

Booths is food porn at Christmas. The book is gorgeous!

[PippilottaViktualia]

Hmm, I must say I'm quite disappointed this year. I look forward to this every year, sad, I know.

My friend and I were just discussing it, the selection is not great this year and the photography we felt was rather poor.

What I will say, as a Coeliac, I did like that I could filter gluten free rather than having to find my specs and hope that I spot the crossed grain symbol in the corner. But frankly if the best thing I can say about it is I like the filtering system, well...

[StubbleTurnips]

Glad there's a thread ok this! Am gutted by m&s this year..... Baby due on the 16th and was going to order m&s in for ease on chrimbo day. There's nothing there.

Stupid m&s.

[lk26]

Just reading my Booths catologue. Can't afford much but it's a beautiful book

[HungryHorace]

The Booths offering is lovely again this year!