Munchers of Bernard Matheww turkey crown and imbibers of Country Manor and Lambrini; this thread is not for the likes of you so clear orf. I want to know what the hard core foodies are having for all/any of the following; Christmas Eve,Christmas Day ...

[moondog]

As for self, think one of my slowly diminishing but precious staff of tins of caviar from Mr Moondog's recent extended period in former USSR, followed by gresh Lleyn crab on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day, will risk a goose reared by friend. Trifle to follw.

New Year's Eve will be with friends.My contribution will be Margeritas. Delicious but lethal. Hazy on other detail and booze as yet.

Joolyjoolyjoo Seriously what a fab menu. I wish I was as organised (will be next year I promise myself) I am going to make my Mum's pumpkin soup which is more like a veg stew for those in between days. I've been making ginger biscuits all month will make some more for Christmas Eve You've got me thinking and a lovely fish pie for when friends join us for Christmas Eve Children's Christmas service.

Moondog am sniggering about you comment re 'how dare an anglaise turn her hand to top French nosh. They are obsessed with food. Got to admire them for it though.

We had dinner at MIL's last night and were discussing who is doing what for Christmas food and I found myself volunteering to make 'Le Buche'. Shit! I don't know what I was thinking. Now I have the mega pressure of having to make a dessert that will basically have to be up to the standard of a patisserie/MIL cooking which are practically the same thing.

Am going to research recipes this evening and think I better have a practice run or ten.

DH's family are lovely but they are all staggeringly good cooks and being French they will secretly be a tiny bit pleased if 'L'ecossaise' doesn't quite manage to pull off doing a very French dish.

Normally we are in charge of the oysters and the cheese so there is nothing that can go wrong.

I must rise to the challenge of 'Le Buche' as a matter of national pride.

gravy granules will feature heavily, and frozen yorkshire puddings.

Supernoodles for tea.

Lambrini's a bit posh for us, we're having Red Square.

Moondog everybody else including the kids love the food the inlaws do for boxing day but I would really love it to be different food that I would not generally eat on a regular basis. Would never offend or upset them and would be so embarassed if they knew I felt like this..feel arkward even writing it down here..but here we go:

Pasta and tuna salad with onion and salad cream
Rice, sweetcorn and prawn salad
Corned beef hash sandwiches
Ham sandwiches
Cocktail sausages
Mini Spring rolls
Mini samosas
Ham slices (packet)
Salami slices (packet)
Pringles
Crisps
Nuts
Garlic bread.
Pickled onions, beetroot, mixed pickles.

As I say it is all food everybody eats but I would love food that is like what all you foodies are having on boxing day....I am Mrs Fussy of Fussy street so no suprises I would like different stuff. I even make weekend eating something special and plan it all during the week..so come Christmas I LOVE all the food preparation.

My inlaws are lovely and put an awful lot of effort into preparing a meal for us and I am greatful I do get a day off cooking ...feeling terrible cos I am talking about them ..so dont slate me for this!!!!

"grateful"

Message withdrawn

cos, no I know you aren't being mean. Some (hell, quite a lot actually) of people I love are appalling cooks.

One auntie is someone we all love but after anyone has had a meal with her, there are various phonecalls describing the new depths she has plumbed.

Bless her,she's useless.

We are having
Wild smoked salmon
Turkey from good butchers
Ham done by my Dad
Chantenay carrots roasted in nutmeg syrup
Sprouts with chestnuts
Pease done with pancetta and little gem
Red cabbage braised in apple juice, red wine and vinegar
Roasties in goose fat

Ah, the old nutmeg syrup. I remember her well.
Pud CD.
My work mate has just delivered my 13 lb goose from her auntie's farm in Rhuthin that she plucked herself.Tis a wondrous sight.

Pease?
Have you gone all mediaeval on us?

Not sure what we are having yet. We are off to Smithfields meat market in London, at about 3am tomorrow morning, to get a feel for the festive season and buy up whatever looks good!

Mo, that sounds great.I used to meander through there late at night (usually when pissed) when a student and speak Welsh with all the meat delivery blokes from back home. I loved it round there.

Its my first time! DH usually goes with his mates, but there's enough room in the car for me this year. DD is going to be rotten tomorrow though. She'll have to come with us, and she's gone to a party tonight and won't be in til 11'ish!

Love this thread.
We're spending christmas at Takeaway Queen SIL's so food slightly compromised by staying with non-foodies.
Christmas Eve:
DH and I are making proper minced pie (with mince beef) and homemade pastry
Christmas Day:
MIL is bring dressed crabs (which will have been frozen hope it will be ok) and lobsters as starter
SIL has made confit of duck, with veg
We're making a chocolate buche (like Beachcomber) using a Raymond Blanc recipe. With a sauterne.
Boxing day:
Buffet at my sister's. We're contributing a tarte tatin to this.
NYE:
Oysters (if I'm not pregnant). Love oysters but would prefer a BFP.
Roast rack of lamb with cinammon
Yorkshire puds ('cos I'm craving them)
Not sure about dessert
Yummmmmmmm

Xmas Eve- Bombay Badboy Pot Noodles
Xmas Day- Brains Faggots ready meal, with extra Bisto on top.
Boxing Day- A Rustlers Microwave Burger and a can of Special Brew.

I like my festive season to be relatively washing-up free

Well, I can now confirm that we are having a turkey crown (which is big enough to feed a small army until at least Easter!) The most amazing peice of beef and some ham.

They all sound a bit boring at the moment, but once DH has worked his magic on them, it'll be fit for a King!

Smithfields was fab. Got there at 3am, having stopped off in Brick Lane for a salt beef bagel, then headed in. It's like a different world in there. Totally silent in the rest of London and then you arrive in the hustle and bustle of a market! It was really busy, but it was a great experience and the prices were v. good. We bought beef enough for about 4 joints and it was £15!

Christmas can now commence Chez Mo!

Happy Christmas everyone!

omg, am sat reading this thread waiting till dd wakes up so I can hand children over to dh to go to supermarket.

Am horror struck that someone has ALREADY BOUGHT THEIR CHRISTMAS MEAT TODAY.

Although that is at least covered here, christmas day is venison from farm shop, and I am starting to become convinced that celeriac needs to feature somewhere - ? mashed, to go with usual roast pots and parsnips. MIL doing starters, mother doing pudding, she has muttered the words homemade lemon icecream, and meringue nest. Is that as naff as trifle?

Christmas eve, ham and chips.

Boxing day, kuku paka, chicken and coconut curry.

Well, I wouldn't usually go out in the middle of the night, but Smithfields is a) only open until about 9am and b) within the congestion charging part of London, so you have to get in and out before 6am!

£15! Blimey.
Rempy, those puds only naff if straight out of a supermarket deep freeze.
Home made, they could never be.
(Can I just mention that I would probably murder to gain access to a lemon mereingue pie?)

Bugger have just realised that Le Buche is in fact La Buche.

Have lost all credibility and chance of defending national pride before we start. Merde.

Actually I may be getting let off as FIL's mother may already have ordered one from a fantastique patisserie. If this turns out to be true I will be demoted to making pud for the 25th so not the same pressure as Le Revillion on the 24th.

Perhaps I will go for the Tunnocks tea Cakes Pyramid after all as Pruners suggested. (Beach imagines disowning of L'ecossaise by extended French family as this on top of the bread and butter pudding episode might be too much for them).

I also have to make a terrine/coarse pate type thing for Boxing Day. Does anyone here have a good recipe that they have actually tried? I have one from a French cook book that looks good on paper but it is always better to do summat tried and tested IMO. I make a mean duck liver pate but that isn't the sort of thing I'm after (too smooth).

Cheers.

Love the sound of what everybody else is having, especially the vegetables. French style Christmas dinner is always very long on protein and short on vegetables.

Mmmmm, I'm salivating reading this

I'm having 4 "Christmases" this year - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here in Spain with ILs, and then a late Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in England on 27th and 28th.

The Spaniards are like the French in that the BIG meal is on Christmas Eve, at about 10pm. We'll sit down to MIL's delicious seafood soup. She's already made and reduced the stock, and SIL who works in the fish industry has hand picked some seafood gems to go in it. Then it's MIL's famous "bacalao con pasas" - cod with raisins. I've never had it before, but apparently it's to die for. My contribution is the pudding - pineapple granita.

Then, on 25th we have langoustines and "pavo trufado" - a kind of terrine of turkey with truffles.

All washed down with a bit of Asturian cider and Catalonian cava. Plus some Rioja I'm sure.

The English meals will include Beef Wellington and a proper Turkey and all the trimmings, plus smoked salmon on brown bread and sausages roasted over a bonfire on the beach. Plus MUCH more champagne, wine and cocktails!

i am salivating reading this

Having my first ever foodie Christmas as it's the first time it will have been cooked by me and DH rather than one or other of our mums (both good cooks, but not really into their food)

Christmas Eve: baked ham (not decided on glaze yet) with mashed swede and carrot, cauliflower cheese and green beans

Christmas Day: jamon iberico, scrambled eggs and Poilane bread with champers

starter of porcini and chestnut soup, then roast turkey etc - but with homemade cranberry sauce and proper from scratch gravy

Boxing Day - leftovers, but with proper homemade trifle (retro, but ever so yummy, and reviving a family tradition from when my nana was alive) Homemade Christmas cake, and also doing one of those fancy tree cakes in Nigella's book.

New Year shoudl be fun - getting together with some friends and cooking British regional dishes. The menu currently features Shropshire blue pate, Lancashire cheese and celeriac bread, Shoulder of Pork with Nottingham Pudding, Chester Pudding for dessert and then petit fours of things like Goosnargh cakes and Cinder Toffee... (Nope we hadn't heard of most of those until we started looking for ideas!)

Christmas Eve: Jerk Chicken, rice and peas.

Christmas Day: Breakfast:Champagne and croissants with homemade damson jam (usually before 7, my children don't sleep!

Brunch: american pancakes with bacon, maple syrup and fresh berries.

Late christmas lunch/dinner (4ish): Melon and parma ham, or smoked salon blini's to start, roast duck with a confit of sour cherries, and roast chicken with rosemary and garlic, sausages wrapped in bacon, . parsnips w maple syrup, petit pois a la francaise, sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta, red cabbage, roast pots.

Lemon meringue cake or christmas pud or homemade icecream for pud.

Cheese biscuits and port.

Boxing day: Ham and leftovers, winter salads. Cherry choc trifle

lots of lots of Lanson Champagne I hope!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Lunch: Spicy sweet potato, parsnip & squash soup w/ Irish soda bread (both homemade)

Dinner: Baked Thai-style fish w/ stir-fried Asian greens & jasmine rice; Baked apples w/ cinnamon creme fraiche

(Also have lots of proper, homemade mulled wine!)

CHRISTMAS DAY:

Breakfast - Christmas Ham & poached eggs + champagne

Lunch:

Traditional roast turkey & Christmas ham

• 3 types of stuffing (chestnut; spiced 'Christmas stuffing' w/ pork, apple & dates; a veggie cranberry & cornbread stuffing for my sister)
• roast potatoes (like Nigella does 'em, with the semolina)
• homemade cranberry sauce
• LOADS of veg (brussels stir-fried in butter and a tiny bit of roasted garlic; honey & clementine glazed carrots; maple roast parsnips; buttered leeks; celeriac & apple mash; red cabbage with prunes & chestnut)
• roasted cranberry & pork sausages from fantastic butcher's
• homemade cranberry & bread sauce

Evening: Cheese board w/ biscuits, grapes & quince jelly + lots of dinky little 'petit fours' type thingies - handmade rose & violet chocolates, mini mince pies, florentines, homemade rocky road & rum truffles...and lots of wine...

Boxing Day:

West Indian-style Christmas leftovers - turkey and ham with spicy 'stew peas' (a kind of yummy gravy with kidney beans), rice & peas, fried plantain, boiled cassava & green banana + hard dough bread.

Creole Christmas cake + DH's ridiculously strong alternative to mulled wine / hot toddies - 'hot punch' made with Jamaican rum, fresh ginger, pressed apple juice and lots of spice.

27th until next Christmas - detox on green veg and mineral water!