food for Christmas eve

[robbinxmaspud]

I have family with me for xmas eve. Cheese on toast would do for me as I will have done all sorts of cooking, but feel I should serve something nice. I want it to be light as we will probably eat quite wel the next day .. and the rest! My dad can't eat fish. Any ideas- 6 adults and 3 kids- kids not too picky

I'm cooking for similar amount Christmas Eve but want to join them on an outing so something quick. Therefore we're having nice sausage and mash with either onion gravy or red cabbage thingy. Quick, easy, hearty, and can be dressed up a bit if you serve it fancily on the plate!

we're having homamade soup and crusty bread then i'll do some sort of desert.

We have a tradition of takeaway on Christmas Eve. I know it's not quite what you asked for, but it's nice to have a hassle free evening before launching into Christmas itself!

For some reason we always have lasagna and DH cooked the meat sauce yesterday so it's in the freezer already! then just have to put it together on Xmas Eve.

Moussaka is nice

oork is soooo delicious

hard to find though

This is a fish recipe,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BUT the sauce goes just as well with chicken so you could bakes your Dad's in a separate dish. You can also make the tomato sauce well in advance and freeze it, then all you have to do is turn on the oven, boil up some rice and throw together a green salad.

Leave the capers out they don't add anything to it Sorry Delia.

We always have tapas/buffet style. nice cheeses cold meat, olives, nibbly bits, nice bread, dips etc. can buy in one hit on th day, take the lids off chuck on a plate and serve.

oork? don't you mean auk

BTW we're having roast pork on CE

Good ideas but love the capers- that one is a favourite. I think the sausage and mash one is simple- as is the pork joint. would love to have a christmas eve tradition thing- my nieghbours are Hungarian and do everything on Christ mas eve.
I know lots of people who do the takeaway thing but our indian is very delicious but has the effect of inducing serious odours and couldn't cope with my dad and dh trumping their way through Christmas Day.

we normally have takeaway

We do take-away too.

We have a tradition (from DPs German family) of potato salad and Frankfurter sausages (or veggie sausages for me) on Xmas Eve -sounds odd now I've typed it.
Potato salad has finely chopped egg, tomato, gherkins, onion and mayo in.

We usually have fish - salmon with a pesto crust, or monkfish with a sweet tomato sauce, something reasonably simple...and make sure plenty of veg/salad and fruit are consumed during the day. Lots of nice alternative ideas here though - pork was always my family's Boxing Day treat!

I had never thought of it as something to do as a tradition but i like it. i think i'll deffo put some thought and energy into it this year. It has to be fairly quick and easy cos as a vicarage family, dh is pretty busy (lol only day he works isn;t it? lol).

takeaway has appeal but also so does the dippy kind of thing. dd loves alll that, and it would be so easy, no pots and pans, just bung it on plates, plates into dishwasher, leftovers in fridge, rubbish in bin. hmm.

we have a crab each with mayo and some nice white wine
no cooking at all
and yum!!!

The dippy, buffet thing sounds good too. We've never had a christmas or boxing day at home until this year, we go to my Mums then MILs. MIl is going abroad to SILs so we actually get a family Boxing Day at home. I am childishly excited! We're going to have the buffet thing as our dinner - kids love what they call a 'picnic dinner' Lots of cheese, bread cold meats and finger bits. I'm going to buy lots of 'party food' as it's all on offer atm. Duck spring rolls, satay sticks, mini sausages wrapped in bacon yum!