Xmas dinner: what lessons have you learned this year ...

[franch]

... especially about labour saving: what you can cut corners on, how much you can do in advance etc?

I'd say:

• buy all the sauces, stuffing, gravy, sausages and bacon thingies ready made - also M&S pudding (the connoisseur one) was fab.
• parboil potatoes in advance and freeze.
• prepare veg the day before.

I'm making a note of all this now - come Dec 09 I won't be able to remember any of it.

What did I learn ?

Ermmmmmmmm, same as every year. That my BIL & wife are great hosts but terrible cooks !

Bless 'em

I have learnt that it definitely pays to do the big christmas dinner on christmas eve evening a la continentals and americans. We were really relaxed, it was all candle-lit and lovely. I had all day to prepare the food and actually njoy the experience without missing out on the kids opening presents or feeling over-worked on my "day off". It was amazing

I have also learnt that M&S sausages in bacon and prepared stuffings are lovely and easy but that I wouln't pre-prepare my spuds, they are best nice and fresh. I have also learnt that spuds roasted in duck fat are every bit as delicious as those done in goose fat.

Oh and also that ham in coke, cooked in the slow cooker is the most awesome boxing day accompaniment to go with 2 day old turkey and baked potatoes

hockeypuck that sounds lovely - so what did you eat on Xmas day?

Ooh - another thing I learned is that if you have out of date pine nuts and dried cranberries in the cupboard and have an attack of guilt because you didn't make any (on the basis that you'd bought some M&S apricot stuff - which I agree, was lovely), you can make a nice lot of potato stuffing and everyone will eat it and no-one will die.

Firstly to always make sure that cooking the dinner is someone else's job (have never cooked a Christmas dinner in my life).

And secondly (from my M'O'L ie mother out-law, Ds' Dad's Mum) cook the actual turkey, if you're having one, the day before and reheat the sliced cooked meat in a little bit of gravy.

Don't ask dh what he wants. I was thinkng turkey or duck - he decided on lamb. Don't let him do the shopping and cook when he offers. So nouveau cuisine (as he never cooks and couldn't get the portions right) even the ds's were starving 5 mins after dinner. No starters, no christmas pudding or mince pies. All in all the 4 of us had our usual sunday roast (I did the yorkshires, he wasn't going to bother!) except about a 1/3 of normal portions with watery 'gravy' (he poured the fat off the lamb straight onto the plates - eurgh.)

Lesson - next year do it yourself - or maybe that was his cunning plan after all

not to go to PILs again. Ever.

To not have a starter and have blinis with champagne - they went down very very well.

To treat the Christmas dinner like a roast dinner - ours was simple but very tasty.

I want to know more about this eating on Xmas Eve business ...

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