help... need some suggestions for christmas eve lunch

[fez]

have bravely voluteered to do christmas eve lunch at pil as we usually descend on them for christmas and feel bad that she has to cater (usually very very well) for everybody for the full 3-5 days.
cooking for 15 (which includes 4 children). need to be minimal cooking (so something which can either be pre-cooked at home the week before and then heated up or something that can easily be bunged into the oven). all i keep coming back to is bangers and mash. but was thinking that it is probably a little boring. also, not sure what starters you can do with bangers and mash?
help....!

how about a fish pie? can be assembled at home and put in oven at pil's - and makes a nice change to the meat heavy christmas fare

hmm... nice idea. what starters to go with it?

A huge pot of chilli (or two pots -one hot, one mild)?

It can be prepared in advance and then on the day you just need to re-heat it and serve with crusty fresh bread or rice.

yes, that did cross my mind betty. but still the starter problem...? any ideas?

Sit down or stand up ??

how about one of those boxes of camenbert (?) and pop in th eoven till melted. Then dip things into it as a starter.

do you really need a starter? I'd be tempted to keep it quite simple. maybe a ligt pudding like poached pears

If you go for the chilli how about nachos with melted cheese on, salsa and guacamole dips etc

yes defo for starter unfortunately. and sit down.
like the camembert thing. any other suggestions?

what about a nice pate and some melba toast for starter.

what about a christmassy soup with garlic bread
i have a recipe for carrot and cranberry o

ooh yeah soup would be nice and easy and could be made prior and just re-heated, and served with garlic bread or croutons etc etc

have lots of soup recipes- but suppose it depends on the main course. was also going to suggest a bit of smoked salmon but not if you are going with the fish pie.

we often do mexican buffet on Christmas eve as it is about as far as you can get from Christmas dinner- and people can eat as much or as little as they want-

I made this this weekend and put it the freezer for Christmas. It;s very nice and dh sulked when I wouldn;t let him have any

hmmm.... yummee..

ok, this is narrowing down to 3 possibilities :

(1) pate with melba toast, followed by bangers and mash with delia smith's braised red cabbage with apple

(2) some kind of soup (like the stilton one - can you do it with broccoli?), followed by fish pie

(3) nachos with melted cheese and guacamole (and jalapeno chillis on the side), followed by chilli con carne with jacket potatoes

votes?

hmmm.... yummee..

ok, this is narrowing down to 3 possibilities :

(1) pate with melba toast, followed by bangers and mash with delia smith's braised red cabbage with apple

(2) some kind of soup (like the stilton one - can you do it with broccoli?), followed by fish pie

(3) nachos with melted cheese and guacamole (and jalapeno chillis on the side), followed by chilli con carne with jacket potatoes

votes?

oops!

uum i like........ all of them ]

ask pil what they would prefer give them the three options and say they have to pick one menu.

soup and fish pie gets my vote!