Anyone want to cook along with me as we prepare Christmas food and freeze it?

[marmaladeteal]

Hi all
I've started today to do a slow prep of food for Christmas Eve/Day.
Only things that I can freeze or store.
Today’s is Bread Sauce (bit like/hate I know). I’m making it in the slow cooker so it can bubble away. And then I’ll freeze later today.
Later this week will be Roast Potatoes.
Anyone interested in cooking along and adding dishes/recipes?
🎄🌲

I already have started, I would have thought bit of a waste cooking bread sauce in a slow cooker, it's really quick to make!

Anyways already have the bread sauce, stuffing both sausage and bread, cranberry sauce, turkey stock, swiss rolls for trifle, mince pies, apple tarts for over the week, truffles ready for dipping all in freezer. Waiting for Lidl special this week on potatoes and will put in several trays of garlic potato plus ones ready to roast.

I like to make it with stale bread and cloves, bay etc and a long slow cook makes it taste much better

I’ve made my Xmas gravy. Will do the red cabbage this week. Missed it out last year because the children don’t particularly like it and really missed it. Currently trying to eat the freezer down a bit though as no room to put it all!

Christmas gravy…how have you made it?

I’ve just prepped and frozen 30 pigs in blankets and put in a Tupperware box overnight. Will take them out tomorrow and put in freezer bags.

Tomorrow I will prep and freeze the chicken.

Next week it will be the same for the roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots 😋

Wow I am in awe of this and following with interest, I'm not a prepper but probably should be!

I didn't know this was a thing !?

I do Jamie Oliver’s Make Ahead gravy - the one with chicken wings that people go on about and think it’s so complicated - it’s actually very easy and I personally think it’s worth it. I always make my own gravy when I do a roast but I worry at Xmas lunch whether there will be enough and whether it will be tasty enough. I’m also normally two sheets to the wind by that point so this means we have really nice gravy without the worry. On the day I add the turkey juices into it. I recommend it if you are a prepper!

@HansHolbeinhow do you prep your parsnips? Par boil now and then freeze or cook and then freeze?

I never thought to do any of this does it all turn out okay and yummy not mushy or weird tasting please let me know w

So far, par boiled potatoes and parsnips, cranberry sauce and bread sauce. Will sort the gravy this weekend. Then I think I’m done. Will do the rest on the day.

Are you cooking the pigs in blankets to reheat or just prepping them?

How does red cabbage reheat? I’ve never frozen it before, I’d assumed it’d go mushy but is there a trick to it staying nice?

Oh dear :( this thread is making me feel woefully inadequate ;(

Please may I ask - you parboil the potatoes. Do you wait for them to cool before freezing? And then do you defrost before roasting or roast from frozen ok yeh day?

@redwinekeepsyousane boil now, for about 5 mins. Add honey and whole grain mustard. Cool, then into a bag in the freezer.

@Changingplace Only prepped. Sausage wrapped in bacon, then layered by baking sheets in a large Tupperware, then in the freezer. In the morning I’ll transfer to large bags and put straight back in the freezer.

On the day, the chicken, potatoes, parsnips and carrots all go in the oven for about 45 mins. No defrosting, apart from the chicken which I’ll take out the night before.

Christmas lunch/dinner is a piece of piss this way!

I’ve made the Jamie Oliver make ahead gravy and put it in the freezer already, you make it with chicken wings, easy to make and totally worth making.
Im going to make and freeze some Yorkshire puddings tomorrow.

I tried doing all this type of stuff a couple of years ago but it was miles more hassle than just doing it on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I kind of had cooking fatigue by Christmas.
Only exception is that I make and freeze raw mince pies.

I cook my red cabbage for hours in the slow cooker. I wouldn't call it mushy but I would call it tender.
It re-heats beautifully.

I made the Jamie Oliver make ahead gravy once and it was horrible - I still to this day don't know what I did wrong. Nervous to make it again in case the same happens!

Really?!? I enjoy it more than the dinner it’s so good!

I was actually thinking today that this year I really want to do more prep ahead. Christmas eve always ends up being such a long busy day. So far I'd only thought or pigs in blankets and stuffing balls. But people are freezing parsnips and potatoes?? This is a revelation!

I know, everyone else seems to love it! I think I must have done something very very wrong.

I’ve never prepped before but decided to try this year so this thread will come in handy!
I’ve made the braised red cabbage - slow cooker then frozen, a carrot and star anise purée, bread sauce and cranberry sauce. On the To Do list is a nut roast and vegan gravy for me, which I can reheat when the turkey vacates the oven, and a tray full of potatoes which I’ll part roast so they just need a blast in the oven on the day to really crisp up.

I don’t pre cook the parsnips for Christmas (we have Delia’s Parmesan baked parsnips which don’t freeze well) but I invariably buy too many so these get the honey and mustard treatment and are stashed for use throughout the year.

I managed to grab the last frozen goose in Lidl, does that count as prep ? 😁