What are you planning for Christmas Dinner this year?

[thelegohooverer]

Anyone fancy some dinner chat?

We have always been hosting or hosted until this year and Christmas dinner has always been turkey and gammon and loads of trimmings. But this year it will just be our own little family.

I’m guessing that turkeys might be in short supply this year if families like ours that would have come together and eaten one big one between them are eating 3 or 4 separately. And while it’s usefully big for feeding a crowd, it’s telling that we rarely eat it (and never cook it) any other time of the year.

So we’re trying to decide what to have instead.

I fancy a nice roast beef but I’m not keen on cold beef and the left over sandwiches are nearly as important as the main meal in our house. I’ve never been particularly keen on gammon either, just cooked that for everyone else. I’d quite like goose, but dh finds it too gamey. We both love lamb but it’s the wrong time of year, I think. It will probably have to be pork. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a cold pork sandwich.

I’m used to thinking in such big quantities for Christmas that i have to make an effort to pare it back. 3 types of potato is probably over doing it?

I’ve always longed for a quieter Christmas with just ourselves but now I’m fretting that it might not feel festive without a crowd of big eaters!

I’d love to hear what everyone else is thinking/ planning

I'm making Christmas dinner pizza , it went down really well as a Buffet that it's been requested as the main meal this year

We're having Indian takeaway!! Can't wait!!

I actually wonder if there is more likely to be a chicken shortage! So many turkeys are massive and if there a small gatherings will people want them?

I have ordered some turkey parcels from sainsburys.

Fillet steak/fillet of beef and chips with bearnaise sauce.

I have cooked 12 turkeys in a row and I'm over it.

Our Christmas will be the same as it always is - me, DH, DC and my parents. No change at all other than no turkey!

Billecarte salmon if we can afford it or Waitrose own champagne if not from breakfast to bedtime, peppered with G&T/Negronis and red wine for lunch.

Very excited about not spending the day using a million pans and dropping fat on the floor and having to wash the kitchen floor on Christmas day whilst exhausted.

Heat pan, flick steaks in, cook marks and spencer chips, throw salad in a bowl eat.

Cold pork and pickle sandwich is nice

Given that almost no households will be able to have more than 6 people for Christmas, I cant imagine there will be many turkeys sold this year.

Me and 3 DC but two will be at their dads for Christmas Day (he doesn't see the oldest because he's nice like that). I probably won't bother with a Christmas dinner but will cook fillet steak for myself and DC1 and then cook a turkey crown for sandwiches on 27th or whenever the other two return.

Recently I did the most delicious piece of pork belly covered in crackling slow roasted so it fell apart. As there will only be 5 of us if my DF is able to come I’m thinking maybe this and some beef.
My DD’s enjoy turkey so I’m torn if I could get a crown I could mix that in somehow go meat mad. It would all get eaten over the week anyway cold meats chips and pickles is a Boxing Day favourite.
All the usual trimmings and slow braised red cabbage and savoy on the side.
Not sure about starter yet maybe scallops with bacon.

Onion soup topped with crusty bread and gruyere. Mmmmm
Then
Turkey crown
Beef
Gammon
Pigs in blankies
Roasties
Mustard mash
4 or 5 veg selection
Home made gravy
Stuffing
DH has all the sauces etc, no one else touches them

Then for pud
French apple tart and custard for us
Nutella cheesecake for DS
Profiterole stack for DD

With Mumm champagne, juice for the children.

DD (18) DH and I are vegetarian. DS (20) isn't but doesn't eat red meat .

My plans:

Quorn roast
Lidl Carrot&Cashew Bake (instead of stuffing)
Chicken breast (with skin) plain roasted for DS , I bought 2 last year , the cats had the other one ( and blooody chuffed they were too )
Gravy
Yorkshire Puddings (or DS would mutiny)
Cauliflower cheese
Peas(for DD)
Roast potatoes -Maris Piper in sunflower oil
New potatoes
Steamed carrot
Pureed turnip
Sprouts and Teddy Bears noses ( chestnuts)

Don't usually have pudding

I like to cook what I know will work , Christmas Day isn;t the day to try something new .

We have Christmas Dinner after dark , with candles ( fake flame ones for safety ) all the nice dishes out and the table fully extended with tablecover and runner .

I make a pizza dough on Boxing Day to slow prove then set out bowls of toppings for everyone to assemble .

It will be only 3 of us. But I have to decide about the centerpiece.
If I can get a fillet of beef from my butchers for a decent price it will be beef Wellington.
If not it will be a turkey crown sous vide.
Lots of pigs in blanket, yorkies, carrots, parsnips, green beans and roasties. A vat of Gravy.
Trifle or chocolate pudding

Mezze on the table to nibble at with nice bread.

Hour or two later, salmon on crutches (croute lol) with dill sauce and potato gratin and some veg. All provided by someone else. I don't do this slaving over the kitchen cooker. No one acknowledges it after all, they just scoff it!

Cheesy beans on Toast, cheese toasty or or maybe a Pot Noodle with lots of added cheese. All washed down with loads of cheap Prosecco. I'll be on my own and I can't be arsed to do anything else

I'm relieved not to be doing the big family thing this year, there will be 3 of us; me and DD and my friend who is in an extended household.

With the big family it is OTT, turkey, duck and gammon with a ridiculous number of sides. I intend to cut that back to one meat, if M and S are taking orders just now I will go and look.

We need a good supply of gravy, pigs in blankets, roasted veg, cranberry sauce and stuffing. If I have that I will be happy.

I'm thinking of some kind of chocolate mousse for dessert, nice and easy to make.

No starters

Chicken or beef with the trimmings
Chocolate cake or similar

I’m going to cook chicken, we go more for the vegetable dishes than the roasted meat

So will cook, cauliflower cheese with broccoli a Jamie Oliver recipe

Purple cabbage and apricots

Creamed leeks

Celeriac and sweet potato mash

Sausages in bacon
Brussels and bacon
Roast potato and parsnips

Then all left over veg made into bubble and squeek. I make 2 cauliflower cheese so we can have Boxing Day with cold meat

@homeappliances

KFC - just like in Japan

I had pizza there for Xmas dinner

They took all the trees down the night of the 25th! I was most upset!

@thelegohooverer

It’s lovely to read all these ideas. I’m getting quite hungry too!

I wholeheartedly agree that stuffing is a must. That may even require it’s own thread

I’m tempted by duck. But I’ve never had it cold. It would probably have to be ducks to stretch to leftovers.

Are the 5 bird roasts nice? I’ve seen them in Aldi over the years but they’ve always seemed a bit medieval to me and Henry VIII puts me right off my dinner.

Cold duck in a salad is wonderful - with rocket, of rocket and pommergrante or clementine tyoe thing. Nigella has a few good ones! Also - duck ragu for a great pasta should not be forgotten!

A few years ago we dropped our complictaed Xmas day with relations and the vaious visits etc. So we have nailed a family Christmas. There are 5 of us so Christmas Eve is a little buffet, mice pies and a bottle of bubbly.

On the day either a goose or a turkey. On the turkey years we have stuffing, roast potatoes, sprouts, glazed carrots and a few other sides. A few deserts including flamed pudding . The next day we have Jamie Oliver turkey pie which is sensational.

On the goose year we have apple stuffing, roast pototes, various slaws and sides. There are very few left overs from a goose so next day is salads, cheeses and breads.
Works quite well. We all know what will be served and look forward to it for a few weeks. .

Even if it ends up being just me and dh, instead of 7, 8 or 9 of us, I’ll still be buying a small turkey, plus a piece of gammon, and having the usual trimmings, because to me it’s not Christmas without lots of leftovers - and virtually mo cooking for a few days afterwards.

A lot of the turkey always goes in meal-sized packets in the freezer anyway, and there’s always a turkey stew made with some of it, plus stock from the carcass.

Coffee and croissant early doors with the children

Brunch of salmon and eggs and champagne

Tour of the family for a late morning sherry and nibbles (restrictions permitting)

No starter but hot nibbles from about 2

Dinner after the queen's speech - it's the first year the children are old enough to hold out:

Poussin (1 each - as Nigella says, it feels really generous)
Dauphinois
Carrots and parsnips
Red cabbage
Sprouts and bacon
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing balls
Bread sauce (even though there is no turkey)
Cranberry sauce (ditto)
Gravy

Lots of wine

Some kind of chocolate pudding

Cheese and port after the kids are in bed

Likely to be just the core of 4 for us unless things change!
We’re going to have a goose this year for a change. I’ll order that from our local butcher in a week or two. I’ll also get a small turkey crown just for sandwiches etc.
All the usual trimmings although I am buying more ready prepped this year to keep things easy!

We've nailed the small family Christmas - given that we've only ourselves over here!

So, for the four of us:

Roast chicken with my Mum's not so secret, but very lovely home-made stuffing, and home-made gravy,
Pigs in blankets, because we're in the UK now - do as the Romans do when in Rome and all that!
Creamy garlic mashed potatoes
Asparagus, peas, and beans buttered medley
Baby carrots
Brussies (natch)
Home-made braised red cabbage (we've acquired quite the taste for it)
Roasted medley of parsnip, pumpkin and kumara.

Followed by - home-made Christmas puddings (gluten free), with custard and cream

With Veuve, Cloudy Bay Savignon Blanc, and a very nice whatever red he's into, on tap. . .

Who was it, having the bbq? Are you in Aussie or Kiwiland? What are you putting on the barbie? I so miss our summer Christmas barbie, even though I love having the traditional Christmas Roast dinner make sense!

We'll be having turkey, even though it's just four of us I'll cook a large one as leftover sandwiches are a tradition for boxing day. I can't stand cold leftover meat so I chop the turkey up small with chopped up roasties and stuffing then mix with a little bit of hot, thick gravy and spread on buttered rolls, add a bit of salt and pepper and cranberry sauce if you're that way inclined. Bloody delicious but it does mean I have to purposefully cook extra meat, stuffing and roast potatoes!