Christmas Dinner

Quality

Whats the plan for the xmas dinner, How many are you having?

Name your

starter/s

Main

Desserts

The Hill Billy

There'll just me me, Mrs Billy & HB Jr I & HB Jr II for dinner this year.

I won't be doing starters as I'll probably have had smoked salmon in Nanna & Grandad Billy's house earlier in the day. I may well have a few glasses of sherry while doing the prep though. (Will get a slagging off the boys in BG&RH for that no doubt.)

We won't be having a ham this year as we'll be travelling after St Stephen's Day & the smallest turkey I can get is 10lb, which is more than enough for two adults & two young kids.

For the main course it'll be turkey (with my own stuffing) with roasted carrots, parsnips & squash dusted with cumin seeds & ground coriander & sprouts of course! Dinner will most likely be accompanied by a decent Carménère or Montepulciano D'Abruzzo.

Dessert will hopefully be one of Nanna Billy's highly alcoholic trifles (if I'm a good boy between now & then). Followed by Mrs Billy's Christmas cake & a large Irish Coffee.

For tea I'll be having a turkey leg with plenty of salt (well it is only once a year) & a bowl of pickled onions. Most likely to be followed by some vintage port & a hard cheese such as Comte with some quince jelly.

Quality

Hill Billy wrote: »

For the main course it'll be turkey (with my own stuffing) .

Fill us in on what you use for the stuffing please?

watna

We're having our Christmas dinner next Sunday (the 16th) as we're going skiing on the 21st. We're having it in my mum's house and there'll be 12 of us! My mum, dad brother and his gf, me and my bf, aunt, 2 uncles, granny and 2 cousins.

We won't do starters, that's too fancy for us!

We're having turkey and ham (we usually have chicken for xmas dinner so I'm actually looking forward to the turkey!), mashed, roast and creamy gratin potatoes plus potato croquettes (really yummy ones from Marks), carrot and parsnip mash, brussel sprouts, broccoli, stuffing and gravy.

Then we'll have pud and some kind of chocolatey thing for desert. I can't wait! Christmas dinner is truly the best dinner of the year!

p.s. why are brussel sprouts called brussel sprouts? Did they, in fact, originate in Brussels?!

olaola

Headin home to the aul pair this Christmas.
SO! It will be:

Turkey soup (made from the giblets)
Turkey & Hang (with mustard, sugar etc) accompanied by stuffing, gravy
sprouts, mushy peas, roasties, mash, roast parsnips, turnips, celery and carrots.
Then Mum's pudding & Daddy's trifle.

Hahm hahm hahm! I'm droooolin!

_blank_

watna wrote: »

p.s. why are brussel sprouts called brussel sprouts? Did they, in fact, originate in Brussels?!

Yep!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout

The name stems from the original place of cultivation, not because of the vegetable's popularity in Brussels.

diamondp

oh god the long awaited Christmas dinner. i cant wait.we don't do Starters because we have to leave room for dessert. the most important part of the meal.haha for dinner we will be having Turkey, Ham, Roast and mashed potatoes, carrots and Turnip mashed, Broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce and of course the homemade stuffing (oh yeah). to wash that down a nice big glass of red wine. Dessert: we dont do christmas pudding or cake. so we'll be having romantica with a dollop of fresh cream. Oh god it just cant come quick enough for me. Dinner will be quite enough in our house it will just be me my bf and my daughter. so it'll be massive din, dessert and the christmas movie with the rest of my wine. ( and maybe a little sleepie)

Quality

I am having the in laws down for the night, That will make 7 adults 3 kids

I am doing

Prawn cocktail for starters. Dublin Bay prawns with a homemade marie rose sauce, Over chopped onion tomato and apple on rocket leaves.

Roasted Turkey, stuffed with a sausage meat, sage, parsley and thyme onion and a small bit of garlic stuffing

Honey glazed ham, Smuthered in mustard and honey, with pineapple rings and cherrys on top. Baked in the oven for about 5 hours the night before(covered in foil with the pineapple juice in the bottom of it) Gives great flavour.

Honey and thyme roasted parsnips

Brussel Sprouts

Buttered Carrots

Crispy Roasters

Creamy Mash

And some nice Gravy.....

His Ma is bringing the sherry trifle. But I think I will do an ice cream cake for the kids

Turn a block of ice cream out, Decorate it with cadbury fingers all around the sides then fill in with smarties, maltesers, minstrels etc etc.

This is also great as a birthday cake and delicious.


Baileys & Irish coffees all round.

Chateauneuf de Pape will be the wine of choice on the day!!

Faith

I'm having a Christmas dinner on Thursday for my friends before we go home for the holidays. Since I'm a student, I'm being fairly cheap! Will be cooking for 7-8 people.

No starters.

Main: Turkey breast from M&S with a nice coating, stuffing, mashed potatoes, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, brussel sprouts and gravy.

Dessert will probably be mince pies with cream. Some of my friends might bring a cake or something.

Don't know what I'm having for actual Christmas dinner!

The Hill Billy

Quality wrote: »

Fill us in on what you use for the stuffing please?

Fairly simple recipe really...
Onions (that I've already sweated in butter), breadbrumbs, thyme & a squeeze of lemon juice. Take half the mixture & stick it in the bird, then insert a whole head of garlic, then insert the rest of the stuffing so that the bulb of garlic is surrounded by stuffing.

Remember to add the weight of the stuffing to the weight of the bird when calculating your cooking times.

Pigletlover

I'm cooking my first Christmas Dinner this year, mine and the boyfriends families are coming to us so I'll have 9 to feed in total. For my starter I'm thinking along the lines of scallops served on a rocket salad with cherry tomatoes (halved and thrown in the oven for 10 mins), parmesan shavings and a light balsamic dressing. I'm doing a trial run tomorrow night, as it's just something I have in my head and I don't know how well it's all going to work together.

The main is going to be traditional turkey and ham with all the trimmings:

Creamed mashed potatoes

Crispy roast potatoes

Carrots & parsnips

Brussel sprouts

Red cabbage

Stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Gravy

I plan on making everything myself too - stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy (although I'll probably end up reaching for the Bisto!).

I haven't decided on dessert yet. I've made a Chrismas cake & pudding but I wouldn't really consider these desserts, I'm considering Bannoffi, not very traditional but delish!

olaola

LADS! You'll have to stop! I'm fe*kin drooling and all I can think of is a volcano of buttery stuffing with gravy inside!

*stamping like a little child* I want my Christmas dinner now!

Quality

Pigletlover wrote: »

I'm doing a trial run tomorrow night,

You will have to fill us in at how that works out for you...

tSubh Dearg

In our house we have 2 Christmas dinners, one on Christmas Eve for the Danish half and one on Christmas day for the Irish There will be 6 of us; me, my parents, my fiance, my sister and my aunt.

Christmas Eve consists of:

Starter: Rice Porridge, which you eat with butter, cinnamon, sugar (and for enthusiasts - Nisse Ol, which is a sweet lo alcohol beer) There is an almond hidden in the porridge and whoever finds it wins a prize from the Nisse (a Danish elf) though funnily in our family there always seems to be enough almonds for everyone!

Main Course: This year it will be roast pheasant with pancetta and pear (which makes the best gravy afterwards) served with green beans, red cabbage, probably roast potatoes.

We don't tend to have dessert but do eat a lot of the chocolate that is floating around the house.

Christmas Day: We actually have our dinner at about 5 or 6 as we have people over to the house after church and we eat a lot of sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, bacon and cheese rolls etc etc you get the idea!

Starter: Smoked salmon and brown bread, I think we're having smoked salmon from the Aran Smoked Salmon company, they used to do a peat smoked salmon that was amazing unfortunately they didn't have it this year.

Main Course: Turkey and cold ham (it will be cooked the day before with a brown sugar, butter and mustard glaze and studded with cloves - yummy!!) with which we will have roastys, gravy made from scratch by myself and dad (we're the gravy experts ) carrots, brussel sprouts (sautéd lightly, not boiled) and the remainder of the red cabbage.

Dessert: There will be a lemon mousse and we always have a pudding but we actually usually end up eating these the next day as we're all too full after dinner.

antoniosicily

I'll go for the typical Italian xmas dishes

Starters: some cheese, not so much anyway
1st main course: handmade tortellini with ragu' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag%C3%B9)
2nd main course: roasted turkey with potatoes

Dessert: I still have to think about it, it depends on how many people we are

The Hill Billy

I'm seeing a lot of wonderful ideas for Christmas dinners - fair dues. But, just as a matter of interest - are you all used to cooking so many courses for large numbers of people?

I don't want to pee on anyone's parade, but it is an awful lot of pressure to put yourself under if you are not used to cooking on that scale. If not, I'd recommend cutting back on the complex & time-consuming elements of what you're planning for dinner & spend the time having a glass of wine or four in the company of your guests & relax.

If you don't want to cut back - try & get as much done on the day before as possible, e.g. prepare veg, make stuffing, desserts, sauces, etc, etc.

Faith

I don't know about anyone else, but the most complex part of my meal is getting down to M&S to buy the ingredients!

kenco

Me, the wife, the 3 year old and my mum, sister and bro coming over.

Main course is sorted
Stuffed Goose crown
Mashed and roast spuds
Carrot batons
Red cabbage
Brussel sprouts
(might also have some monkfish in parma on standby if any one prefers that - if not it will be eaten on the next day!)

Desert is being brought over by the guests but I think will be fruit and chocolate

Starters is still up for discussion, melon and parma ham is the default but I might look at something else

Wine not decided yet but it will be red and white in colour!

Take note of Hillbillys sage advice above. Cooking for more than 4 needs lots of preparation and planning. Think about it well in advance, get your timings down on paper and factor in the unexpected!

The Hill Billy

Faith wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else, but the most complex part of my meal is getting down to M&S to buy the ingredients!

Ah jaysus Faith that's cheating! And you a mod here & all.

Faith

Hill Billy wrote: »

Ah jaysus Faith that's cheating! And you a mod here & all.

I still have to do all the cooking! I'm just saving myself a lot of hassle by getting a turkey breast, rather than the whole bird. That way, there's no preparing it, removing insides, stuffing it, etc. And no dark meat, so it's win-win! \o/

I will have to put up with stinky brussel sprouts smelling up my flat.

Quality

kenco wrote: »

Take note of Hillbillys sage advice above. Cooking for more than 4 needs lots of preparation and planning. Think about it well in advance, get your timings down on paper and factor in the unexpected!

I completely agree, I am hoping, I can spend as much of xmas in the kitchen preparing the dinner, than having to sit and listen to the bull being spewed from the in laws.....

The prep and copious amounts of wine are going to get me through xmas day.....

olaola

We always boil the hang the night before, peel and prep all the veg and make the stuffing. Many hands make light work!

Then on the day - stuff & cook the bird, glaze the hang and put on the veg.

Pigletlover

I'll be doing as much of the prep work that I can the night before - making the stuffing and bannoffi base, preparing veg, boiling ham etc. I have my order of work written out and everything for the day so I'm hoping things are going to go smoothly. I forgot to mention the wine , Chateauneuf de Pape and I'm thinking Chablis for the white (should earn me brownie points with some of the guests ).

Faith

What's the best way to keep the veg overnight? Just chop it, put it in an airtight container in the fridge? I might do that.

olaola

Faith wrote: »

What's the best way to keep the veg overnight? Just chop it, put it in an airtight container in the fridge? I might do that.

Yeah - that's what we do. Or even sandwich bags, I push out all the air.
You could parboil your spuds and parsnips for roasting too.

The Hill Billy

Faith wrote: »

What's the best way to keep the veg overnight? Just chop it, put it in an airtight container in the fridge? I might do that.

After peeling my veg I keep it in a large pot of water. Place a sheet or two of kitchen paper on top so that the veg at the top remains wet & doesn't discolour.

antoniosicily

Sometimes I cooked for more than twenty people, it requires lot of preparation, I prefer to do as much stuff as possible the day before.

It could even be longer, for handmade pasta, for example, I spend an afternoon of the week before doing pasta and then I freeze it, after that you just need to boil and you can be perfectly on time

I think that one of the most important part of cooking is timing, understand how much time you need to cook a meal will save you a lot of time

The Sweeper

We're at the cousins this year and they do rentacrowd for christmas, so we've 14. The work is split between households too.

This year our job is to bring a stuffed turkey, which will spend hours roasting in the webber barbecue. (This is Australia after all, and yes, you do barbecue your turkey.) We're also bringing a potato gratin or dauphinoise or something sliced in a dish basically, and I'm doing desserts, so there'll be a lemon meringue pie, a chocolate torte and a chocolate cola sponge with rum icing.

Faith

I've heard that barbequed turkey is pretty savage. I'll be curious to hear how it is.

Pigletlover

I made a main of the scallop starter that I was planning to make for Christmas last night. It was delicious and I had decided that I was definitely going to have it for Christmas until the boyfriend's mother said that she doesn't really like scallops. I think I'll still make it but offer an alternative, I just don't know what...

muckety

3 adults 3 children - menu:-
Starter not yet decided, potentially smoked wild salmon (if I can get it) with a salad (needs to be something light).
Main - Roast Goose with mashed potato stuffing and roast potato (in goosefat); braised red cabbage; sprouts; stir fried brocolli.
Dessert - Xmas Icecream with (bought premium vanilla icecream softened, mixed with a crumbled small cooked pudding and returned to freezer).
Coffee + good dark chocs
Wines - lustau manzilla (pre meal) burgundy white and red.

And a big walk planned for St. Stephen's Day!