Having all my family over to us on Boxing day. Buffet style food. What do I have?

[leoleomakingalist]

I cannot cook really so I am looking for a simple list of food that you have at a buffet and possible ideas on how to make they day go lovely as my sister and BIL wanted to go out to eat but have decided that they will come to me so I don't want them thinking they made a mistake.

the day NOT they day

oooo i love boxing day buffet style better than xmas itself

I just do the usually turkey rolls, drumsticks etc and would love some different ideas too

Me too, I have to do boxing day. Usually get a joint of meat, jacket pots, salad also sausage rolls etc. Then a couple of desserts. I've got about 12 people coming and would like to do something different.

Cold meat and chips is what my mum alwats does with a bit of salad and a few pudding's

Depends on how heavy you want the meal to be? If you want to actually prepare things, I think a couple of different curries with side dishes is nice.

If you just want the traditional post christmas spread for grazing, AND you don't want to cook, you need to make friends with the pre-prepared counter at Marks or Waitrose. You can buy things like ribs, already marinated, that just need to be shoved in the oven. Ditto with hams or chickens that just get pushed into the oven.

Stuffed jacket potatoes or butternut squashes are lovely, and look good. Also work for any non meat eaters.

Buy par-baked bread that you can then back on the spot to make it lovely and fresh. Have lots of nibblies like olivies and nuts. Definitely splash out on some lovely cheese and leave to the side with crackers and the nice bread. I find people tend to dip in and out of that.

If you want a few hot things that look like you've actually done something - buy a ring of chorizo and fry slices until just crispy, make meatballs and put a pile on the table with some tzaziki.

Obviously, salads etc always good and supplements everything else.

You don't have to do a standard cold buffet. There are plenty of hot dishes you could serve up buffet-style. How about some of these?

Thai curry and rice
Chilli and rice
Beef stroganoff
Boeuf Bourgignon
Chicken chasseur
Coq au vin
Tarragon chicken
Lamb and apricot casserole
Lamb shanks
Venison and redcurrant casserole
Risotto

I love mumsnet!
I am being silly - what is a stuffed jacket potato?

We do this every year!

Usually one hot dish, but tbh everyone's still recovering from rich overeating the day before so we have lots of salady things, posh crisps, poncey bread, baked potatoes. Not exactly Nigella's 'welcome table' but it works.

Take a jacket potatoe and bake it as normal. Take out of oven and scoop flesh out and mix up with other things of choice... my favourite is tuna, cream cheese, copious amounts of pepper... then stash back into the skin, put some grated cheese on top and reheat through when you want to eat. Delicious.

You can stuff them with tuna and sweetcorn.

Or mix up other vegies eg some squash or whatever. or a mix of fried onion, bacon and garlic and a bit of butter etc etc. Whatever combo takes your fancy really.

Well I would like to think my family are not expecting Nigella.
Blinglovin - thank you for the stuffed jacket instructions. They will be featuring as one of my Boxing Day offerings.
Keep them coming.

I was going to do another big roast for Boxing Day but have changed my mind and am having a buffet instead, we have the inlaws coming so 6 adults and 2 children.

The annoying thing is apart from me they are so damn fussy and I'm veggie so already a little fussy. MIL is the worst ever she hates anything with a sauce, anything "foreign", isn't keen on beef or lamb, won't do fish or shellfish, won't eat anything that looks like it has been "interfered" with, anything with garlic, a cheese platter is out as I'm the only one that will eat it, SIL not too bad but nieces are really fussy too.

So far I'm thinking:
posh crisps
fresh baked bread rolls
carved ham (although they are wafer thin type of people)
dips and olives for me

I am just imagining MIL being like she was at DD1's birthday party picking up things sniffing them then putting them back down again with a look of disgust on her face then making herself a sad looking ham roll.

Sweetkitty - what about 'childrens party food'? Little ham, cheese, egg sandwiches, cheese & pineapple on sticks, cocktail sausages, trifles etc?

leo - and that my Boxing Day would be like a children party but I can see what you mean though.

I might serve them ham sandwiches then have some nice foodie stuff for me

Sweetkitty - what does your MIL eat? No meat, no fish? Is she Veggie?

bling - she eats about the same 5 foods constantly

plain chicken
mince and potatoes (apparently mince is OK roast beef is not )
fish and chips from chip shop only
ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches
tomato soup

anything like pizza, pasta, curry, chinese, mexican is classed as foreign muck

sorry to offend I really didn't mean it like that I was trying to think what I would be including that was 'safe'.
Children party - totally wrong choice of words. Sorry.

Was thinking of my mum and what she likes. I am sorry - I will be having those things but I was looking for other ideas.

no no no you didn't offend at all sorry

It's just that that is actually what she would like but that theres so much other lovely food out there and she eats the same things all the time, I know whats going to happen she will go over to the table look at everything up and down then pick up a bread roll and put a slice of ham in it, ask if theres any "plain" crisps and sit there with her little plate.

Families eh?

Fresh food including lots of vegetables and fruit, after the huge indigestible stodge that is Christmas dinner.

How about sliced chargrilled vegetables (courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes etc) drizzled with olive oil? A red pepper tart? An onion tart? Some carrot/coriander soup?

Followed by a huge fruit salad and some kind of red fruit mousse?

mmm Anna that sounds really fab

Thanks

Sweetkitty- are you my SIL? . Your MIL sounds like my mother. It's hilarious.

I was going to suggest mince as my mum will eat that - although it has to be very vrey plain.

The nice thing about a buffet is that you can do something boring for her and then a zillion yummy things for everyone else?

blinglovin - but does your Mum walk round a buffet table picking up food, sniffing it, tutting that it might have (heaven forbid) garlic in it, then dropiing it back on the plate as if it's radioactive?

Also have 2 Dnieces to cater for whom I don't think have ever eaten a vegetable between them!

Sod it I'm coming to one of your houses for Boxing Day

Well - she wouldn't pick it up. She can tell just by looking at it that I have "loaded it up with herbs and spices and pepper" and therefore it's entirely impossible for her to eat.

I think I probably have been able to make my menu up now. Thank you.
I am actually looking forward to it now.