Show me your Christmas fridges!

[MakeTeaNotWar]

I haven't seen this thread yet and it's one I enjoy - the annual game of fridge jenga!

Here is ours - no meat in there yet so not sure where that is going to fit 😬

There is lots of booze & juice as well as prawn cocktail, squirty cream & double cream, red cabbage, Savoy cabbage, sprouts, a gazillion cheeses

@elQuintoConyo - love it!

@damnthemanatee

These fridges are making me feel anxious. You all need The Home Edit in your lives!

That all looks very trendy but all them tubs to clean?! Especially when the single use plastic packaging most of the food came in could at least have had some use for storing the food it contained, before being disposed of. Even if some of it can be recycled.

Is that.....milk in a jar?!?!

@hazandduck

The raw meat mixed with everything else in some of these fridges is making me so uncomfortable 🙈😄 it’s how my in-laws pack their fridge! Makes me queasy!

We went and did our Christmas food shop in lidl today. I was quite nervous. First time I’ve actually been in a supermarket since March! Thought we’d try the Lidl’s beef Wellington this year instead of faffing around making something ourselves as it’s our first year with two small kids (we usually get something from the butchers).

I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quiet, calm and everything very well stocked apart from the loo roll which was totally gone. Why are people still panic buying bog roll 🙈

I went with the baby, toddler and DH, took a child each; I had the pushchair he put the toddler in the trolley and we basically whizzed round separately and met up at the end to pay to get out as quick as we could. Saw lots of couples shopping together. Everyone distancing and polite. Do people really get annoyed about families shopping together??

I’m in bed and can’t be bothered to go down and take a picture of the fridge but mine is always mainly full of bloody milk bottles! (It’s a small half fridge half freezer standing one.) Potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips etc all live in the veg trolley, best £30 ever spent.

Anyone else trying the Lidl’s beef welly this year?

You mean raw meat inside sealed plastic packaging?!

This is our Xmas fridge.

I always use the bottom draw for raw meat as I don't like the idea of any leak all that raw meat juice dripping to other shelves.

We still need to buy all our alcohol and mixers.

Love Aldi's food and always shop there

Can't wait to taste the mini cheeseburgers. In jan we are going plant based so this is our last hurrah

@hazandduck
Potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips etc all live in the veg trolley, best £30 ever spent.

Wait a minute. I need you to tell me more about this newfangled veg trolley please. Pics, who makes it, etc.?

@hazandduck

The raw meat mixed with everything else in some of these fridges is making me so uncomfortable 🙈😄 it’s how my in-laws pack their fridge! Makes me queasy!

We went and did our Christmas food shop in lidl today. I was quite nervous. First time I’ve actually been in a supermarket since March! Thought we’d try the Lidl’s beef Wellington this year instead of faffing around making something ourselves as it’s our first year with two small kids (we usually get something from the butchers).

I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quiet, calm and everything very well stocked apart from the loo roll which was totally gone. Why are people still panic buying bog roll 🙈

I went with the baby, toddler and DH, took a child each; I had the pushchair he put the toddler in the trolley and we basically whizzed round separately and met up at the end to pay to get out as quick as we could. Saw lots of couples shopping together. Everyone distancing and polite. Do people really get annoyed about families shopping together??

I’m in bed and can’t be bothered to go down and take a picture of the fridge but mine is always mainly full of bloody milk bottles! (It’s a small half fridge half freezer standing one.) Potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips etc all live in the veg trolley, best £30 ever spent.

Anyone else trying the Lidl’s beef welly this year?

Yeah, I'm disturbed by the meat storage going on too! 😄

Honestly, I have got annoyed with families shopping together. Obviously sometimes there isn't a choice but clearly if there's two parents in the shop then one of them could have stayed home or in the car with the children.

It makes it harder to distance when people are in a group together (I posted elsewhere about a large family blocking entire aisles on Saturday).
If there are four of you in the shop then potentially there are 3 people waiting outside longer in the cold and rain to get in.

The only time I've shopped with my partner is if we're doing a shop for someone else too.

@dudsville

It's a festival in which food is central, as are loved ones and giving. A lot of people only have the food aspect this year, and some don't have that. We aren't all the same. It's ok however for people to feel happiness and contentment where they find it.

I got my shop in the morning that the new restrictions were announced, so the food I'd bought to share is now to be had for just us two. The result has, I think, started a new tradition in that we are having "holiday" meals every day rather than saving it for the special occassions of the holiday period and I'm loving that.

I come from poverty. As a result I have always understood that we are not all the same. The issue isn't the difference between me and my neighbour. The problem is the 10%. Infighting keeps us focused on the wrong thing. the 10% could wipe out so much struggle. When I was young my neighbour wasn't the source of my suffering. We need to keep focused.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Having meat on anything but the bottom shelf also stresses me out but the only shelf my turkey will fit on is second from the top (the fridge is next to a wall so to get the shelves out we would have to pull the fridge fully out) so I've wrapped it in a Tesco bag and hoping no meaty juices will escape!

Lars if you're worried about seepage would the roasting tray fit in the fridge? Ours is a frozen turkey and I'm defrosting it in the roasting tin, which I've set on a tea towel in case of condensation.

Yes agree with others it’s the meat juices that worry me, I thought that was food hygiene 101 that raw meat is kept separately.

The veg trolley is not the prettiest thing but I used to keep it in the larder and it just took up too much space and I couldn’t get to it. So now it lives next to the cooker. We got it in Robert Dyas a couple of years ago! @JingsMahBucket it’s been a game changer for a small fridge owner like me 😄

Oops forgot the pic sorry @JingsMahBucket

Oh I see what you mean, we usually get deliveries so I’ve not done the queuing purely because I’ve never really been out of the house without the kids this year (god seeing that written down how have I not gone crazy 😝 ) and we did agree if there was a queue we wouldn’t bother as we had enough food in the freezer to make do, we just wanted to try the Wellington. We must’ve picked a good time to go :) I will bear what you say in mind though for future and avoid going out together.

@CrunchyNutNC

Lars if you're worried about seepage would the roasting tray fit in the fridge? Ours is a frozen turkey and I'm defrosting it in the roasting tin, which I've set on a tea towel in case of condensation.

Now why didn't I think of that!! In the roasting tin it goes...

Thank you @hazandduck! I’ve had IKEA shelving like that before but we used it for spices and food storage bags, etc. We gave it away because the drawers didn’t slide in and out smoothly. Great idea to use it something like this for those veg that can live there. And your carrots do fine outside of the fridge? I’m honestly surprised.

They do! But we do get through them pretty quickly as they are something the kids will always eat. I always open the bags up straight away as they did seem to go bad quite quickly when sweating in those plastic bags. The one thing I wish I had room in the fridge for was the parsnips as they do seem to go mouldy fast. I don’t get them that often though. It really has made life easier when playing fridge jenga ha!

Glad it's not only my cat that gets in the fridge!! I once lost my white one, and that's where she was the whole time!

Well I like looking in peoples fridges, there’s not much in mine, not because we are skint/poor but because there’s only me and 2 DD’s, dd1 has lots of food issues so will eat the same as what she always eats, we have a Turkey and lots of veg but other than that there’s not much excitement in my fridge but I love looking in other peoples.

And we all know there are people struggling, people who won’t have a full fridge, people that won’t have as many presents under the tree but I hate the way we are made to feel guilty all the time incase someone worse off is offended. I don’t have loads of money, I don’t have a fridge full of goodies but I’m not offended by other peoples full fridges or their piles of presents.

Well, my Slovenian butcher came up trumps!

A 2 kilo veal roast and.... (drumroll)
A whole young female stuffed turkey!

About 3kg, so not much bigger than a chicken. That’ll do us on Boxing Day and beyond.

As you may have guessed, I’m not in the UK.

A whole young female stuffed turkey!

Female? 😳 urgh that's made me feel a bit sad, poor thing.

Sgtmajormummy

What’s the significance of a female turkey?

@CovidCarol
Sorry, but unless you’re vegetarian/vegan, that’s a bit disingenuous. People eat meat at Christmas.

@LookingAfterLittleArfur
Females are more tender, as are castrated male chickens (capons).

Have I trampled on enough people’s sensitivities yet?

@Sgtmajormummy, how will you do the veal? I’ve never cooked it myself. Is veal traditional where you are based?

@LH1987
I’ll rub it in a mix of rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon and oil, roast it in a low oven on a bed of potatoes, basting with white wine. Then I’ll rest it while the spuds crisp off in a high oven. I’m expecting a glorious-smelling kitchen!

Something like this, which is pretty traditional here in NE Italy.