What are you prepping on Christmas Eve?

[Alicia870]

Here's my list so far:

-make cauliflower cheese and keep in fridge overnight

• wrap pigs in blankets
• par boil potatoes, put in roasting tray covered in oil and pop in fridge
• coat mushrooms in breadcrumbs for starter

Anything else people do Christmas Eve to save cooking time and space on the day?

Question
Will an oven that been turned up to do part boiled roast potatoes while the meat rests, be too hot for roast parsnips, abs how long do they take to cook.
TIA wise give mind

What does predictive have against hive?

Cooking Turkey and gammon tomorrow.
Making sausage meat stuffing and putting in fridge.
Peeling veg.

Duchess potatoes

Red cabbage

I think that’s all! 👍

Like an idiot, about 12 years ago, when I had more time on my hands, I made these two elaborate, delicious stuffings from an Angela Hartnett recipe (a spinach one and an almond and apricot one). I've vegetarian so they're kind of my main bit.

Now apparently it isn't Christmas without them. So I have to spend 2 hours making them every Xmas Eve.

We'll peel the roots as well.

Making cauliflower cheese this year for first time so will do on Xmas eve

And make cinnamon bun dough for morning baking.

Just realised watching Jamie's Christmas countdown - def going to be prepping my roast potatoes tomorrow as well! Need all the pans and hob space I can get!

Might be a silly question - but dd is 14 months and last year obviously was not eating Christmas dinner so I'm new to how to do this! What would people suggest with feeding her- do you usually just let toddlers wobble around while you're eating dinner or put them in the high chair at the table and feed them while you're eating/ after or what? Trying to plan so this isn't too stressful!

Ooh can I ask a question. Do you bake the Cali cheese in advance or just make the sauce??

High chair, so they feel part of it.

We have sausages as well as pigs in blankets. I'll have a lack of oven/grill/hob space so does anyone know if I can cook the sausages the day before and then just reheat them before the meal? What would be the best way to do this?

@boomboom1234 I pat book the cauliflower for about 3-4 mins.
Then make the cheese sauce- following Jamie's this year basically butter garlic and thyme, add your spout then milk then when thick and rich add cheddar. Pop cauliflower into a dish and pour sauce over and then cover with breadcrumbs and some cheese and pop in fridge to be put in oven for about 20 mins on the day

Sorry for my spelling I meant par boil

@raisinseverywhere I'm pretty sure u can.
I'm doing some cocktail sausages and also trying some honey sesame ones this year can't wait to try them!

Cook the beef, decorate cake, peel veg, make veggie main, make stuffing, make cakes for tea party on Boxing Day. Am knackered just thinking about it but at least I’ll be busy until Midnight Mass!

Alicia870 how are you going to do them? Cook in oven day before and then reheat in oven on day, or microwave to reheat? Will they go dry if cooked twice?

We're having our big meal on xmas eve so today I've made the chestnut stuffing to be cooked tomorrow, stewed the plums for the crumble and have just put the ham in the slow cooker. I have a plan for tomorrow written down so everything is ready at the same time but it will go wrong as it always does and I'll be sweating and downing champagne by midday!

@raisinseverywhere I will probably do them on the day. I'm going to add them to a little round tray beside my honey roast parsnips and pigs in blankets. If you're reheating (I've never done it myself) but I suppose you could probably pop in microwave with a some sprinkles of water over them and cover with kitchen paper (I find that makes things less dry in microwave).

Probably no point reheating in oven otherwise you'd be better just to cook from scratch in oven z

I'll take a Quorn Roast out of the freezer to defrost
Make some peppermint chocolate slab with dd1
Make brownies with ds
Buy more prosecco

Um..nothing! There's only gonna be six of us though. I have a tiny fridge and no freezer so it's all just done on Xmas day. We don't start til 11 ish! I do the starter and dp does everything else. Tbh par boiling and prepping the day before seems like creating more work.

Make cheesecake, gravy and veggie wellington. Will do veg on Christmas morning as we dont eat til 2 30 ish. Dont have room in the fridge for parboiled veg.

Going to my parents but we are bringing desserts and cheese board.

Tomorrow morning fetch cheese from shop and keep in airtight container. Stunk out entire fridge many years ago.

Make trifle and chocolate pavlova.

@raisons I do that every year. Wrap in a foil parcel and place on floor of oven while finishing potatoes off (so high heat after turkey is out). They are absolutely fine. Do the same with pigs in blankets, stuffing and ham, all in separate parcels. Takes up far less oven space.

Making and decorating the chestnut filled chocolate log.
Making plum and ginger stuffing
Making apricot and chestnut stuffing
Defrosting the (hazelnut, parsnip, sage and cheese) roulade I made earlier for the vegetarian guest
Making salads for today’s lunch buffet.
Soaking streaky bacon in whisky to drape the turkey before cooking.
Doing the final cleaning.

Making a mushroom wellington, roasted parsnips and red cabbage today. We are at my mums tomorrow and I am the only vegetarian so I take a lot of my own stuff :) cooking for MIL and FIL Boxing Day but DH will help with prep on the morning.

I've got the turkey in brine, boiled the ham, prepped sprouts and carrots and par boiled the potatoes. Made two types of stuffing and the bread sauce. Made the cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese. Made giblet stock and dressed the Christmas cake yesterday.
Only thing left to do tomorrow will be the Yorkshire batter and actually cook the turkey/ reheat everything else. Re the gender split- I do 100% of the cooking, dh does 100% of the washing and waste disposal created by the masses of cooking. As far as I'm concerned I've got the better end of the deal.