What ingredient or other item have you not managed to get that's going to "ruin" Christmas?

[SwedishEdith]

Light-hearted - obviously. But getting to that tetchy stage where you realise you're missing something you really like.

No fresh sage - partner forget to get during the Big Shop yesterday.

Seems we were the first house on the list for the Waitrose delivery as they arrived at 5.01am and I suspect the driver was waiting outside the house until then for a while.

Things that are missing:

Gluten free panettone
Gluten free Christmas cake
Gluten free Christmas cake slices
Lemon curd (was there a TV recipe with it?)
Red cabbage
Turkey mince

Not too bad, all considered.

I forgot Rudolph's carrot!
We've agreed he would like an apple this year.

(Not cooking Christmas Dinner so I didn't get any in for that)

Waitrose was definitely out of blinis. “We might get some this evening or tomorrow” they said on Thursday, which is too late for our purposes.
Ladies, one quick recipe search later I’ve made a Mumnetty amount from a one egg batter. Not enough to feed the street, but now I have a ‘more blinis than smoked salmon’ situation. I doubt that will last long though!

Agree. I've never bought ready made bucks fizz.

We have the first glass half and half and the second glass just has a tiny dribble of orange juice in.

Then we walk the dogs and have a festive walk after all the champagne!

Glad I put my blinis in the freezer weeks ago!

M&S Christmas Sourdough for turkey sandwiches. I have officially ruined christmas :-)

Suddenly just remembered that I need orange juice for Christmas morning breakfast!!

Is it special Christmas sourdough? As in nuts and cranberries in it? Because if so, I need this too 😂

I also need a Rudolph carrot!! And tea bags. This thread is really helpful 👏

I am short of nutmeg, back up batteries for fairy lights, celery and spring onion for a curried carrot salad. Guess it's a final trip to Morrison's this morning! Could have been worse! Cranberry loaf is a fab idea, I'm inspired for 2024!

Chocolate Santa, couldn't find one for love nor money yesterday. Only managed to find chocolate coins in Tesco and I was a bit miffed with those, 7 measly coins and all the same size. Definitely not what they used to be! The disappointment was real folks 😔. DS15 is going to be very upset I'm sure he'll be far too busy scoffing everything else to care more like.

My Ocado delivery, was good but missing M&S brandy sauce! So I got up early yesterday morning to visit M&S got 2 cartons of sauce! Walked to my car and as I opened my car door dropped a carton, brandy sauce all over the road!
Went back in M&S to get another and none left!

That's a pretty impressive level of lazy Christmas!

I'm not doing a starter! I don't know if my grandad will kick off about it tomorrow or not but no one else likes prawn cocktail or any other starters really (I'm cooking dinner for him, me, my partner and daughter) but he isn't a big eater and I'm making a huge roast with 2 meats and have a choice of desserts. Fingers crossed he won't miss his prawn cocktail! 🙈

Fresh/frozen cranberries. I’ve been hunting for them for several days after seeing the warnings in the online substitutions thread, but to no avail. I left them on my order (which is coming today, only slot I could get when someone was at home) but just had the email and it’s raspberries all the way. I bought a jar of sauce yesterday just in case but I still need the berries for a baking recipe - I do have some dried ones which I’m going to try soaking to see if I can get them to be a bit more like fresh but they are so revoltingly sweet.

@SwedishEdith sage seems to be in short supply, I got the last pack in Sainsbury’s yesterday but that was the 4th place I went in

Bloody dd used up all the cream in her Yule log yesterday (or I accidentally misread how much she needed but I prefer my version).

So cream. And chives

I couldn’t get a readymade beef wellington and couldn’t be arsed with the faff of making my own. It’s only me, DH and youngest DC who will be eating a proper Christmas dinner so it didn’t seem worth it (eldest has ARFID). Bought a pre rolled and stuffed pork joint instead so all is not lost! (We collectively decided against turkey)

I was going to say the same (also Gloucestershire!)

Aha, probably reassuring re the sage that it's not worth trying to find. We've no greengrocers any more on our high street and I really miss them at Christmas. They'd have all this stuff in abundance. I want someone (else, not me 😄) to set up a pop up greengrocers/farmer's shop the week before Christmas just for these products.

But cranberries I do have one I got a few weeks ago in the freezer and one last weekend. Cranberry sauce made yesterday so all good there, at least.

I've never had a Yule log. Just never been a thing growing and with my family now. Sometimes I think I should do one but reading this means it might just create more ingredients anxiety.

The mention of microherbs has reminded me that originally I was going to be doing a scallops starter with sea herbs and nduja but I couldn't get either so I've gone back to my trusty chorizo and I've got dried seaweed which I can add to my own garlic butter. Not quite the same but it'll do.

For those needing Hollandaise I do a really easy microwave one. I can't find my original recipe online but I've made it so many times I can wing it now.

Basically just whisk two egg yolks in a microwave safe jug or large mug, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice (even bottled/Jif lemon works I've found). You can change the amounts to your own taste. Melt a good chunk of butter in the microwave (I tend to use around 1/3 of my measuring cup in size) then drizzle it slowly into the eggs, whisking constantly.

Once you've added all the butter, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Take it out and whisk. Put it in the microwave for another 10 seconds and whisk again. It's usually ready after 2 or 3 goes of this (so 20-30 seconds total). If it starts to go a little solid, add a splash of cold water and whisk hard and it'll be perfect again.

That should make enough for a large one person serving or two smaller servings.

It's how I'm doing my Hollandaise tomorrow. 😁

Got it this morning! Plus cold meat and salad for Boxing Day after a few anxious moments when they had nothing at 10.02…

I got the asparagus in M&S this morning. Still no 7up cans (only huge multipacks - I just wanted a small pack of four or six cans). But she can pick up one or two loose ones herself if she wants them that badly.

After many hours on hold and calling countless places getting pushed from pillar to post, we may have an oxygen concentrator being delivered later today that we can keep until the new year (to avoid this happening again on the new year bank holiday).

Fingers crossed it doesn't fall through!

Having to rush around today trying to get the house cleaned up as it still means he can't leave the house as it only works attached to the mains. He normally has portable oxygen bottles so we're having to move everything here from my mothers house where we were planning to spend the day. My step-dad is allergic to my cats so I've got to try and get rid of as much cat hair as I can as well as clean the oven and make space in the fridge so still no relaxing for me like I originally planned.

I have everything crossed for you @DoAWheelie

Fresh dill. Not an actual disaster because it’s only for DD1’s smoked salmon. She’ll live though🤣

Hope you get something sorted DoAWheelie