Taking Xmas dinner to relative’s house. How can I manage this?

[Jacaranda75]

I feel awful about this, but relative’s house is not very clean and her oven doesn’t work properly. For this reason, I am looking at cooking Xmas dinner at home and taking it there. It’s a 15 min drive but we are due to go over in the morning and eating around 3pm.

How can this work? Any ideas? Is anyone else doing this?

Thanks.

Does anybody know, if I pre-cook the food then put it on individual dinner plates when I get there and put them in the microwave, how long should they be in the microwave for?

I think you'll offend her if you're too particular about not using any of her cutlery or plates. Just give them a wash in hot soapy water.

Also if her oven is broken and she clearly has mental health issues, it would be kinder to help her source something she can keep. What about gifting her the halogen cooker suggested above?

You can use that to reheat the food you've prepared at home.

It’s all about timing, being well prepared and making your own Bain Marie’s out of ordinary plastic washing up bowls.
Roast the meat at home. Take it out to rest but cover it very generously with tinfoil and towels. You now have an hour and a half.
Time everything else ..veg and sides to be ready at the same time …just before you are due to get into the car.
Put the veg and sides into tall sided serving bowls and cover them with tin foil. Place them in clean washing up bowls, jamming them in if you can to prevent spillage. Cover with tea towels.
The gravy can go in a tall jug jammed in between the veg bowls in one of the washing up bowls.
Put hot dinner plates in a separate washing up bowl and cover.
Have the car warmed up before you quickly carry it all out to the car.
Tell your relative to have a full kettle boiling as you arrive.
Then top up the washing up bowls with boiling water being careful not to let it spill into the veg and sides, while you carve and make sure the plates are hot.
I would also take your own microwave to make sure the gravy is piping hot.
I have made this work before quite a few times.

Probably about a minute per plate, something like that, maybe a little more...But I don’t think I’d do it that way. Microwaved food isn’t great.

Does her hob work? If so I’d clean it, then re-heat veg and sides on there. Or is it just so bad that that’s not viable?

Actually might help if you let us know what you’re making. I would probably adjust my menu to work better, so I’d make mash or boiled potatoes with butter, garlic and parsley rather than roasties (sacrilege I know but microwaved roasties are not nice).

@LAMPS1 that is a very good plan.

Buy the biggest cool box you can find.

1/2 fill with boiling water and put the lid un, just before you need to use it pour the water out (be careful, it might be better to do it n the bath or outside)

Cook all the food, replace lids or put in foil wrappers with lids.

Fill the cool box, add a hot water bottle or two, put the lid on.

If you have some spare money you can actually get ones that plug in to keep everything warm.

It's hard to warm up plated food in a microwave because you really need to stir and mix it during heating to make sure it's evenly heated. If i reheat roast dinner type food I always chop the meat and veg up and mix in gravy so it's easier to stir.
I would use her plates but give them a good wash beforehand - that also heats the plates up so you're not putting food on cold plates. Ditto any serving dishes, I usually use boiled water from the kettle to warm serving dishes before putting the veg etc in as there's never any space in the oven at that point.
Steam carrots and sprouts when you get there.
Roast potatoes and parsnips beforehand and they'll survive a blast in the microwave. and i'd slice your cooked meat and put gravy over before microwaving.

I would avoid prepping everything on plates and then microwaving. It seems a shame to microwave it, which will degrade the quality, when you're cooking it that same day. Roasted food is never that good once microwaved.

I would just keep it very simple - eg just do one piece of roast meat, one tray of potatoes, gravy, and a tray of roast veg (you could do a mix of parsnips and carrots, for example).

Roast meat first and then take it out to rest. Cover in foil and wrap in a towel. Then roast your potatoes and veg. Heat up gravy. Once it's all ready take it straight over there in the trays (I'd use foil trays but I know they aren't popular on MN for environmental reasons).

As long as you've covered stuff in foil and eat it as soon as you arrive it should be fine without needing to reheat.

Order takeaway and eat it out of the cartons with disposable cutlery

What about a big cool bag with microwave heat bags in the bottom if you have Pyrex serving dishes with a lid can warm them and put hot food in.
Def pop over in morning to do table and take cold stuff whilst turkey cooking and pop back for veg and hot stuff

I agree, the food will be much, much nicer that way.

Or if you must re-heat (if for some reason it’ll cause huge drama to eat at a different time), better to reheat each dish as a whole and then plate up. If at all possible try to keep your meat warm and serve it without re-heating as it will be much nicer that way than having been microwaved.

Or! Use takeaway cartons to put individual meals in and whizz over like a Just Eat driver.

Sod the planet for the day and take disposable everything

I'd do LAMPS1 plan and also go over the night before on the pretext of dressing the table. If you can get your relative to set the table for Christmas Dinner, it'll be easy to then do a mini clean. Get them to quickly dust and vacuum the dining and living rooms. You then blitz the kitchen and bathroom because you don't want to be clearing surfaces on Sat. As you're arriving with hot food, you have a short time line before food cools. You need to ensure the kitchen area is spotless and clear for operation Christmas Dinner.

Do the meat at home, put the gravy in a thermos, parboil the potatoes. At the other house roast the parboiled potatoes in a halogen oven, steam the veg in an electric steamer

Just visit in the morning, then pop home to collect the food, plated, later on?

You're a saint, it's a lot of effort to go to.

I don't understand sorry.. are you intending to go there Christmas morning and stay there then someone else bring the cooked meal over to you both? Then you heat it up in the microwave? Sorry to be so thick.

@Jacaranda75

Does anybody know, if I pre-cook the food then put it on individual dinner plates when I get there and put them in the microwave, how long should they be in the microwave for?

When I used to work Sunday daytime my dh and kids would go to mils. They would bring me back a Sunday dinner to heat in microwave. I really wouldn't recommend it. Potatoes were soggy etc.

What exactly did you buy from M&S? That will help with suggestions for alternatives way of cooking or heating up.

Microwave isn’t great tbh. Do you have a slow cooker? Otherwise, cook everything at yours and drive as fast as possible with everything well wrapped.

@Ilovecaviar I have a slow cooker! How would that work?

I'm more curious how and why she manages to eat for the rest of the year if her oven doesn't work

*how and what

@WineGetsMeThroughIt don’t get me started 😁. The oven takes three times as long to cook anything so she eats half-cooked food. But if anybody dares suggest it needs replacing, she tells them they’re wrong.

She texted me this morning: “D says you told him my oven doesn’t work. You are wrong!!! It does work. Please don’t say things like that.”

Who is this and why do I get the sense that everyone tiptoes around them?

Don’t turn yourself inside out trying to make everything right.

It would be a lot better and simpler for you if you could eat when you get there, for example. If you can’t bring dinner forward why not postpone your arrival? It would save you cooking twice and eliminate most of the headache of the day...

Take the slow cooked with you if you’re going to have to cook it there. Use the slow cooker as a way to warm up anything you can.

Difficult to say without knowing what you have. I.e braised cabbage, cauliflower cheese could be done in slow cooker, boiled veg I guess.

Obviously meat/veg if you want it roasted will have to be done in an oven.

If you’re open to having chicken instead of turkey it could be cooked in a slow cooker. Or you could make a Xmas casserole for example with turkey pieces and veg.

Is this relative an elderly relation or an in law?