Christmas Dinner tips

[CupCupGoose]

I know it's early but this is the Christmas topic and I just want to start planning as I love christmas so much!

So I'm hosting this year and cooking for 9 which is quite a big deal for me especially as my DB and his girlfriend (who I've only met once) are coming and are big foodies.

Please share your Christmas Dinner tips with me please!

I think I'm going to make some canapés and serve about an hour before the main Christmas Dinner. Any ideas of what I could make? M&S might just be easier....

Little crackers with Brie and cranberry on

Cheese straws?

Loving the idea of a permanent cheeseboard in the fridge - so simple, but brilliant!

My girls (grown daughters now but still my girls ) love our Christmas Eve picky bits - basically a selection of easy canapés which we have as our dinner on Christmas Eve. But you could easily serve about an hour before dinner with a glass of something nice, and skip the starter (leaving you time to get dinner sorted and also allowing you to just sit and eat dinner with everyone else instead of rushing around getting the next course ready).

I do the following:

Blinis (store bought) with smoked salmon, quails egg, sour cream and caviar

Vol-au-vents (again, store bought) with crab mousse, a tiny slice of cucumber and a little sprig of dill

German grain bread (the dark, dense stuff), cut into little bite size squares, half of them topped with rare roast beef, a little piece of cucumber and some horseradish sauce, the other half topped with liver pâté and a little slice of pickled beetroot

I estimate 8-10 per person.

Plus a cheese or two on the side with a chutney and some crackers.

Oh and a little of the Christmas ham! (Which can be done on Christmas Eve).

The great thing about the canapés is you can assemble them in the morning, pop them onto plates or platters and keep them in the fridge.

Turkey needs to rest and can easily sit for an hour and stay perfectly hot, leaving you time and space to crank up the oven and roast potatoes/veg/stuffing. Incidentally we’ve long since decided that we actually prefer bog standard dried sage and onion stuffing to all the fancy versions, so that’s what we have - we always have plenty of meat to go around, plus pigs in blankets, so for us a meat based stuffing really is overkill. Plus it’s just so convenient and easy.

We also only ever do one roasted veg dish (usually carrots and parsnips), plus one done on the hob (usually Brussels sprouts fried with pancetta), plus a microwave red cabbage from M&S.

Can I come to your house as those canapés sound amazing! I'm with you on the stuffing. I prefer boring old sage and onion too! Thanks for all the ideas.

Op it's now October - you do know the sprouts should be on already??
..

Sure! It really is a special meal, so dainty and pretty and just fun to eat, plus it’s different enough that it adds some interest. All you need is some bubbly to go with it and you’re good to go!

But I meant to change one little detail! I add a tiny piece of lemon on top of the seafood vol-au-vents instead of the cucumber (although I did used to do that) because I don’t like repeating toppings/garnishes so I keep the cucumber for the roast beef.

Totally agree with ExpletiveDelighted - lose the star anise from the Jamie Oliver Make Ahead gravy. It completely overpowers it. Otherwise can thoroughly recommend it.

Work out the logistics of trays, oven space and serving dishes so you know you have space to cook and serve what you want. Look out serving spoons too - borrow more if you need them. If you're struggling for oven space, see what you can prepare beforehand and reheat on the hob or microwave. We do red cabbage and it's a nice one to reheat in the micro.

For pudding we do Xmas pud in the micro and have a cold pud - usually a fancy cheesecake that I've made the day before.

Try and prep as much as you can beforehand and have a note of timings pinned up as others have said to help you stay on track.

Another thing I find really helpful is having a Xmas recipe journal. Mine is just a nice notebook where I write all my recipes in it, make amendments as the years go on and leave notes about what has or hasn't worked, what quantities were good - so if you had enough roasties to feed 20 you know to reduce it the next year. If anyone saw my notebook they'd think it was the ramblings of a mad woman with stuff like "don't double this it's plenty for 8" then the next year I've written "no really it's more than enough" as I've obviously doubted myself and ignored my own instructions. This has really helped me over the years.

OP, I wouldn't serve canapés an hour before a huge Christmas dinner. You'll kill everyone's appetite, you need to be "when's lunch, I'm starving?!" for Christmas dinner

Cooked my first on my own last year (have shared the duties once before). 2 adults 2 kids. We are up early ie 6am opening presents so I had dinner ready for 1.30pm. Only bit that went wrong was the potatoes par boiled for too long and went to mush so had to start again. We've got Alexa now so I will be setting lots of alarms this year!
We had a seafood starter from m&s served at about 12.30, kept the kids going till lunch. Otherwise they end up filling up on sweets and not eating the dinner, wanting to get down, and spoiling it for us (this is what happens when they dont eat till 3babd is one reason why I want to stay home from now on).
I used disposable foil trays for the turkey, roasted, and pigs in blankets. I also buy stuffing from m&s. I will only buy 1 tray this year we did not need 2!
I made my own cranberry sauce following Nigella recipe it was lovely and very easy. I made it in advance and defrosted xmas eve. However I've discovered I'm the only one who eats it!
I also made a yule log for xmas eve, if you have young children I recommend doing this as it's so festive, tastes delicious and lasts a few days. You can even slice up and freeze!

I could eat canapés and still have a Christmas dinner.

(But I’m greedy!)

My top tip is open bucks fizz around 10am and bung Turkey in, move to wine around 12.30pm ish check turkey, continue on wine whilst cooking veg, serve around 3ish with more wine and continue with wine until around 6ish when move onto liquors.

Spend it being slightly pissed and you wont notice what's missing / burnt / undercooked.

My tip is to avoid the Sainsbury's pre-prepared stuff. We had it last year and we're unimpressed - back to cooking from scratch this year. I'm not a great cook by any stretch of the imagination but home made is so much tastier.

We tried canapes for a couple of years but found they spoiled our appetites so at the most we have a few kettle chips or similar, maybe some olives. We have breakfast about 9 and dinner at 2.30, so a similar gap to a normal weekday which would be breakfast at 7 and lunch at 12.30.

I keep a Christmas recipe folder too, its one of those ones with plastic sleeves inside, I stick all my recipes and notes in there and keep all my Christmas day cooking timetables going back years.

And yes to cooking everything from scratch, its really worth the effort. We tried M&S pre-prepared stuff once and it wasn't a
patch on homemade.

Newborn twins and cooking dinner and entertaining 9 guests? Er...No. Do you know what you are letting yourself in for? Do you have other children?

And any guest who would accept that situation is kind of a bad guy.

I buy ready made gravy from m&s with my turkey, it much nicer than instant. I feel you spend so much on the turkey you need a nice gravy to compliment it.

Agree with others no need for a starter.

Have a few practice runs. It’s just a Sunday dinner, roast potatoes are cooked the same etc, just meat will take longer as for more people.

We peel potatoes but everything else goes weird and loses some flavour I think, we also make sweet pot mash or carrot&swede mash in advance and microwave it up and stick in oven to keep warm. Peas in microwave if you are running out of hob space.

There really isn’t THAT much to do, but you will need more than one pair of hands.

We also have one of those plate warmers as over space can be limited..

Tidy as you go and stick the dishwasher on when you go to eat as there is lots of tidying post dinner.

Ready made desserts - unless that’s your thing / your guests thing?

Sit down where you can esp if pregnant.
Drink wine where you can esp if not pregnant!

Good luck x

OP is entertaining 9 people. I'll have newborn twins.

I will definitely not be entertaining 9 people. I'll be having mum, dad, and that's it

Honestly? Sod it.
One year we did a bbq. Seriously. Coats out side cooking and then ate inside.
Homemade pigs in blankets, burgers and skewers. And some home made chips . Best christmas dinner by far

I am going to go against the grain here and say eat early so you can relax for the afternoon. We eat at 1pm.

If you buy a good fresh turkey it won’t take long to cook. And will be much tastier.

Start with an empty kitchen bin and an empty dishwasher/sink. Makes clearing up as you go along loads easier.

I never bother with a starter but canapés sound good. I would get someone else to bring them. Remember to tell them they will have limited kitchen access so they don’t turn up wanting lots of space and every utensil.

I prep all food the day before but don’t cook anything until the day. Except the gravy that is which I either do ahead and freeze, or buy. So all veg is chopped, pigs in blankets wrapped etc the day before.

Don’t do too many options. Roast and mashed potatoes is asking for trouble.

I make use of foil trays but whatever you use check you have enough and that they fit in your oven.

If you have a slow cooker it can be good for keeping things warm. So I usually put in turkey and pigs in blankets first then take out the pigs in blankets which then go in the slow cooker to keep warm, and put in the roast potatoes. When the turkey comes out the parsnips and stuffing goes in. Veg is on the hob. I don’t do Yorkshire puddings as it’s just too much effort.

Ask someone else to lay the table and sort out drinks.

Decide in advance if you are serving up or putting everything on the table. If the latter you need serving dishes. If the former you need to know what everyone wants.

Ask someone else to bring desert. Again should be already prepped.

I sit down with a glass of wine by 2:30pm having done lunch. Works very well!

Good luck and enjoy!

Last year fire brigades were advising people not to cook Christmas puddings in the microwave due to the risk of them catching fire.