I don’t want to cook but I’m hosting. What’s the best pre-made?

[broceaulys]

No option to eat out because I’ve baby twins and a toddler. Hosting for the kids, me & DH, my parents and my sis. I would love to do the works from scratch and I did when I only had DD but with baby twins it’s just out of the question. Do I go all M&S? Or all Waitrose? Is there anything where shop bought just isn’t as good?

Pre prepare as much as you can.Pigs in blankets prepared and frozen.Take out from the freezer in the morning and they are ready to pop in the oven by lunch time,get all your relatives peeping the veg Inthe morning.I like a turkey but a crown is easier.Stuffing and gravey can be made and frozen or easily bought.
I don't to the whole thing now but for years has a timing list ,it started early with stuffing the turkey and putting it in the oven low then the oven timer was set for the next job etc.This way on the year sil and I had too much Champagne and ignored the timer others stepped in and picked up the times until I remembered I was supposed to be cooking.
DH always did breakfast,meal was at 3 so no further cooking needed just cheese and biscuits later.
Hand the kids out for the busy bit at the end and relax,this is your family they're on your side.
In our family mostly the women cook and retire to sit down after themeal while the men clear up and do all the washing.Sexist,maybe but I know which job I prefer.

have you got a large slow cooker i cook a whole leg of lamb in mine saves room for the oven and very easy.It will allow you all the room you need to shove pre made stuff in the oven.Plus you can cook a gammon in advance if you need more meat .Gammon half fill with pineapple juice low 6hrs .

250ml water,beef oxo,a chopped onion/carrot/crushed garlic, the leg(use hand saw to trim bone to size) lea perins high 6hrs done.

use a steamer for veg makes life much simpler.peel chop place inside steamer.You dont have to turn on till 20mins before you need them

Buy a turkey crown, stuffing, Aunt Bessie’s honey roast parsnips, a jar of cranberry sauce, pre-prepped sprouts and carrots, pigs in blankets, posh ready made pudding of your choice, microwaveable red cabbage, microwaveable bread sauce and (if you like it) microwaveable root veg mash. Ask DM/DF to peel and parboil the spuds in the morning (save the water).

Put turkey in oven. Get family to lay table. Once turkey is done hand babies to in-laws. Require the return of DH at this time. Remove turkey to rest. Shove oven up to hot, insert spuds, parsnips, pigs in blankets and stuffing balls while you make gravy and DH sorts the veg.
Serve. Eat.
Remove posh pudding from fridge. Serve. Eat.

slow cooker casserole (basically bung in ingredients & let it cook itself) this could be pot roast ie little oil throw in carrots onions & pots & any root veg you fancy peas place joint on top (lamb?) throw in a tea spoon (or more) of cumin on top of lamb some rosemary salt &pepper dash of Worcester place lid on & forget for 3 or so hours make other veg (can use frozen for convenience) make crumble (can use frozen fruit ready prepared serve that with custard or cream. final bit cheese & biscuits & nice coffee or tea

sorry missed that it was Christmas!!!! could do same with turkey mind!!! but do mince meat crumble with apple & cream! & buy frozen extras!

Thanks for the slow cook gammon tip rosy

I'm a Cook convert. Unfortunate, because we don't have the income to buy from there but we grabbed some bits which were reduced which I don't mind not being at their prime just because they've been frozen a little longer. If I was hosting a dinner party, that would be where I'd go. The quality is unbeatable, it certainly tastes what it costs.

If you're lumbered, do what is easiest for you. If you get a load of markses food to order and people don't like, tough shit for them.

Lots of places are doing very good quality pre made options for Xmas and in your situation I’d do that; M and S are good. Cook looks great, Waitrose, Ocado, Lidl... whatever your budget there’s good options.they normally add something a bit extra than I would ever bother with at home too-so carrots aren’t just carrots they have been soaked in a a Christmassy concoction and taste lovely. I’m sure all of your family will appreciate this is a difficult time with such young children a don will just be glad to be fed at some point!

If you can afford it, I'd just get everything ready made from M&S.

When paying for my turkey plus a few bits one year, I was behind a woman at the checkout who'd done that - absolutely everything. Her bill was eye-watering but she did look as if she could afford it!

Or, what you could do is ask your various guests to bring this or that from your ready-made list. But I'd be very specific or else people will bring the wrong thing or stuff you don't want or need.

Personally I wouldn't want sundry random helpers in the kitchen - except for someone (dh?) who knows where everything is etc. They can be more of a pain than a help, not to mention getting under your feet, constantly in your way at the sink or the cupboard you need to get to.

I think you have to be careful with what you buy from Cook tbh. I can walk to a shop with their range in 5 mins but find a lot of it a bit sloppy, not necessarily things you would buy for Christmas.

Their lemon cheesecake is v good though!

I agree, buy semi prepared and just right the timings down.

I think the easiest thing to do is to prepare everything the night before. You have four on tap babysitters. Put turkey in and veg and leave. Ask for help to check on things if your busy with kids. Ask someone to help lay table. Ask someone else to carve turkey and make gravy while you serve. Get oh to do Xmas pudding.

We had three under four and barely noticed what we were eating each year so decided to not do turkey. Instead it’s

Slow cooked gammon with brown sugar and a tsp grain mustard to make sauce

Bought potatoes dauphinois. Sainsbury’s and m and s are both indistinguishable from my own.
Green veg medley in a packet.

Xmas pudding
Yule log
Lots of cream

Put some effort into dressing the table, we have a tablecloth and we make a centrepiece with church candies and Xmas tree bits and ribbon round the candies.

Done.

*candles

Get a veg steamer, I love mine at Christmas - you can throw in 3 layers of veg and it all cooks together. Get a turkey crown, cover in butter, wrap in foil then let brown for the last 20 mins. Get ready made pigs in blankets, stuffing, yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes from Waitrose, and ready made bread/cranberry sauce. Easy as. It's just a case of using a timer then!

Oh god don't even think about doing any of this in advance! Marks and Spencer is awesome for Christmas dinner. We do it every year and there's only ever 5 of us every Christmas. Just means everyone can relax and enjoy it and no-one is stuck in the kitchen. The food is absolutely gorgeous. My MIL books her pick up slot and gets it up on Christmas Eve morning.
We don't do starters but buy lots of party food instead and start nibbling on this and drinking champagne mid afternoon. Then have turkey then dessert later on. I love it!

I like cooking Christmas Dinner , I like the kitchen to myself ( our kitchen/dining room/family room are open plan so I can set the table , watch TV and cook . Multi-tasking , me )

You need your list (I do mine on a wall blackboard in the kitchen)
Everything you are serving. Work out the cooking times .
Work out when you want to serve up.
Make a note of when each item has to go on to cook.

Get someone to take the DC out to the park or for a walk ( have you got a buggy board or a pushchair for the toddler ,)?

Roast potatoes are essential and no bought ones will ever match ones you make yourself . Make loads . Use Maris Piper or King Edwards .
Peel, boil or steam 10 minutes . Drain, Cover with a teatowel. Shake a bit to roughen up. I let mine go cold . Into hot oil in a heavy baking tin (none of this foil tray Nigella crap,) . Baste and turn every so often.

Get all your veg cut and peeled the day before if you are doing your own.
Buy a turkey crown (I have no idea about turkey , I am vegetarian)
Buy some cauliflower cheese ( Sainsbury is nice)
Red cabbage
Stuffing ( I bought some good sausagemeat and added Paxo then baked in a loaf tin to slice)

If you do carrots, sprouts and roast parsnips you can prep these the day before .
I put pre-pack chestnuts (Teddy Bears Noses ) in the sprouts .

Get someone else to set the table .

Get the turkey cooked and rested in advance .

If you go to Waitrose for anything , check the use-by dates they tend to be short .

And most of all - enjoy . It's Christmas

I’ve already done the stuffing and the red cabbage and it’s in the freezer. Oh, and I’ve done the pigs in blankets and they’re in the freezer too.

Jamie’s make ahead gravy is next weekend’s job!

Tell your dh to take the kids with him when he goes visiting?

“Tell your dh to take the kids with him when he goes visiting?“

What- on Christmas morning tKw twin babies and a toddler visit a frail elderly person while there are 3 other functioning adults in the house? Why on earth?

I'd send dh off with the other adults and cook in peace, by choice. Do get them to help though, and buy pre brought. Even supermarket stuff would be fine. I tend to get Tesco finest stuff and all good.

You can prepare the veg the day before and sit in water
Potatoes and yorkshires can be done the day before and just heated
Ready made gravy

I dont think you can invite people and give them a ready meal.

M&S Christmas Food is great.

I'm not doing a roast dinner . I'm doing a buffet of picky things!

Before we persuaded my elderly mum to stop hosting, she did a few years of M&S Christmas.
Id say it’s all good except the roast spuds. They’re acceptable, but not great.