Christmas starter ? What are you serving ?

[Dymaxion]

Bit fed up of smoked salmon and prawn cocktail, wondered about home made smoked mackerel pate ? but would love some other idea's ?

Starter??????

We are boring and have lentil soup or pate and Melba toast. With cranberry sauce or Xmas chutney. I don’t like seafood.

Yep, I would forgo it to make more room for pudding and cheese but those I am catering for expect it !

Coquilles Saint-Jacques. I buy them ready prepped on the shell. But I shop for food in France. 😅 However, I've also seen them in Waitrose. Just serve them up on a bed of rocket. It's a nice portion size for a starter I find, and looks quite special.

😄

Starters consist of a choice between Cadbury selection box and tub of quality street here...

Never understood starters before a huge roast dinner. Just why? Especially soup. God that’s a meal in itself. I wouldn’t ruin the joy a lovely roast dinner for a mouthful of pate or prawn cocktail.

Our house we usually go classic ham hough lentil soup or prawn cocktail.

Personally I enjoy stuffed mushrooms. My sister started making halloumi pastry parcels as her bf is veggie and they went down well with everyone, veggie or not.

I do loads of smoked salmon blinis an hour or so before lunch and put them out for people to snack on, along with the chocolate bowls.

Doritos.

Exactly this. The kids assemble it too, which makes it extra easy. I buy the blinis, and do Philadelphia cheese with smoked salmon or cured ham on the top (we have a non fish eating person). And same as you, we don’t sit down for it, they just get wafted around by the kids and they soak up the alcohol a bit while the last busy hour of Xmas dinner prep is happening.

Homemade scotch broth DW favourite
We don't do the turkey etc as it's not DW cup of tea.

We have a starter at 12, dinner at 2.30 and pudding about 4.

Makes lots of lovely room.

Nothing.... My dinners are huge! I do a h buffer style so you can help yourself to what you want as I love all veg but others don't want this or don't want that. There's loads of veg, honey roasted veg, 2 meats, pigs in blankets, stuffing...... Literally everything. No room for starters 🤣

@TheNameWasOnceChosen spaced out is the way to go rather than packing in course after course in a short time.👍

Exactly. Lentil soup? Wow!

I do a selection of homemade bits and store bought. They get put out early and passed around.
The cheese never gets eaten after the meal here so i do a cheese, deli meat, nuts, and crudités boards and plenty of Olives, homemade filo brie and cranberry parcels, pigs in blankets (we have lamb and it doesn't work with lamb IMHO but you can't have Christmas without them) and smoked salmon of some kind or gravlax.

This is served as a long late lunch essentially as we do a late dinner at around 8pm and dessert at 9.30/10pm.

And a bottle of beer and massive leftovers sandwich at 9.15pm :-)

I'm right with you! Chocolate is for breakfast in our house, get pastries in, but usually too much excitment from dcs for anybody to want one! Then huge Christmas Dinner, then break, then dessert, and Christmas nibbles later if wanted.

Stilton and apple soup with melba toast

Lol well I don't drink anymore, but definitely leftover sandwiches at about 9.15pm.

We have bacon / sausage butties mid morning. Pate or smoked salmon blinis at lunch, eat dinner at around 3pm- pudding around 5. Picky tea.

We usually do soup or bruschetta but we give it at least an hour between that and the main course. Christmas dinner is like a 4 hour session at ours 😂

Ah ok, you can have lashings of ginger ale or pink lemonade :-) race you to the gherkins!

I’m doing prawn cocktail this year but we often have Arbroath smokie pate either as a starter or just as a nibble later on with oatcakes.

You can get proper smokies delivered in vac packs now (I’m lucky enough to live here so I can just go get them from any fishmonger or smoke house).

There are loads of recipes online but the one I’ve used for years is pretty much the same as the one on this link.

https://msmarmitelover.com/2021/10/arbroath-smokies-recipes.html

A glass of cava.

And I would not pander to those who dare to expect a starter when others are doing all the work.