Christmas Eve family meal

[KimmyKimdoo]

Looking for some inspiration this year. We want a sit down meal with the kids and grandparents this year after a day of events. Nothing too fancy or time consuming and definitely no buffet.

What are you having?

We always have roast duck on Christmas Eve.

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken

Christmas burgers. Bacon, Brie, cranberry sauce, red onion, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise on a brioche bun and onion rings on the side.

This sounds delicious

Some years we do individual beef wellingtons, and others we make a meal out of all the yummy M&S appetisers - it's a very beige meal, but delicious and we have a great variety.

Fish pie

Picky bits

Not a chance grandpa will touch Chinese takeaway or a buffet. Those Christmas burgers sound lovely but Granny would have a moan about burgers too. DC are young and fussy too. I’m considering bangers and mash, that may be mad! Too stodgy maybe!

We’re having roast duck in Christmas Day so that’s out!

Fish pie

Jacket potato bar? Cook the spuds, lay out loads of toppings/salad and just let everyone choose their toppings.

DH hates fish pie / cottage pie/ shepherds pie 🙄 DCs don’t like jacket potatoes.

Maybe a lasagne is a good call! Or just a nice piece of fish!

Fish pie for lunch (already made and in the freezer) then at night lots of party food bits dead easy

A really lovely lasagna. I'm making mine tomorrow and freezing before cooking on the day. Bought posh mince and stock for it as well as nutmeg and Parmesan for the bechemel sauce, with bit of pancetta mixed throughout and mozzarella added on top.

Going to bung some M&S garlic wheels in the in the oven too so the only thing I'll have to 'make' on the day is the side salad.

Fish and chips?

Fish and chips is a really good call actually, thank you!!!

We have raclette
It feels special but is very low effort
Not much help if you don’t have a raclette machine though.
Next choice for me would probably be spag bol but with some fancy m & a party food canapés for starters

@KimmyKimdoo we always had fish and chips on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Sounds like it might please everyone if you've got some picky eaters?

Either home made steak & ale pie with spring onion mash or beef stew and shlishkas (potato dumplings.)

Or may just get something ready made from M&S depending on how busy I am 😂

We have Swedish meatballs from this bloody fantastic recipe with mashed potatoes and cabbage. Then rice pudding and knäck (a type of Swedish toffee)

It is our compulsory Xmas Eve dinner and is accompanied by a Swedish flag on the table given by some Swedish EFL students we hosted several moons ago.

I'll be working until 5pm on Christmas Eve so tea will be either a buffet or a takeaway depending on how we feel on the day.

Homemade lasagne here with salad and garlic bread. Lush!

Marmalade roast ham, winter braised red cabbage, Kartoffelklöße and some kind of creamy/mustard/parsley sauce that I'll make up as I go.

Home made minestrone soup with melba toast.

@KurtWildesChristmasNamechange Ye it’s so simple but everyone loves it! I’ll try and think of how I can make it a bit more fancy/ special. I think both oldies and youngsters love scampi so that may be a good route. Thank you for the idea!

Holy shit @Snowmonkeycoat Thankyou ! I went on a German trip in 1991 to south Germany abd strongly remember the dumpling things I had with crispy bread in the middle. No idea what they were until now.

Gonna make some now

Well, not right now....