What's on your Christmas menu?

Mr Simpson

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Dessert was a Baked Baileys cheesecake with raspberry coulis

Recipe or GTFO If Mrs Billy is willing to share it that is...

The Hill Billy

I'll have a chat with the Boss.

ABajaninCork

Traditional Bajan fare for me yesterday. (I don't eat English/Irish Crimbo dinner!)

Rice 'n' peas with roasted duck (salt, pepper, fresh thyme, lemon juice to cut a little of the richness of the meat). Sausagemeat stuffing with chopped shallot, a little jerk seasoning, a little honey and Paxo Sage & Onion stuffing to give some bulk.

I take it over to the in-laws and eat it there. Lovely Toblerone dessert to follow. Lots of wine, and assorted booze (For once I wasn't driving).

Glass of sorrel to drink when I got home. (Traditional Bajan Christmas drink)

Non trad Quality Street, Pringles, nuts, and whatever else I can find to scoff!!

Chronic Button

Well in the end, the MIL did us proud with her grub. It was very traditional fare:

Fresh melon and redcurrants
Turkey crown
Honey glazed ham
Stuffing with sausage meat, chestnuts, apple, bacon, breadcrumbs and herbs
Mash & roasties
Homemade gravy
Buttered celery and carrots
Steamed sprouts, sauteed with bacon lardons and almonds
Trifle, pudding, custard, cream, banoffee, Ferrero Rocher
Several vats of wine

Nom nom nom :pac:

WildRosie

WildRosie wrote: »

We'll be having:

Crayfish salad/homemade chicken liver pate (depending on people's preference) with homemade brown bread and melba toast

Turkey with the breast butter basted under the skin
Onion and herb stuffing
Whiskey glazed smoked ham (cooked on Christmas Eve)
Jamie Oliver's chicken wing gravy
Cranberry & orange sauce (already made)
Roast potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Braised red cabbage with sultanas
Brussels sprouts with bacon
Honey buttered carrots
Steamed green beens

Homemade Christmas Pudding (from 1960's Odlums recipe my Nan always used)
Homemade blueberry cheesecake

And lots of Irish coffees! Then the next day Darina Allen's St Stephen's Day pie. Can't wait

It all went off without a hitch thankfully (apart from the panic when we realised the burning plastic smell was from the mantle piece garland that fell down into the fire).

My mom cooked the turkey and despite knowing how she does, I don't know how she does it! It was glistening and golden brown and the breast meat was juicy and tasty and I can't believe I've to wait another year for it :mad:

I didn't make blueberry cheesecake in the end. Instead I did baked chocolate cheesecake with dark and white chocolate ganache, chocolate curls and oreo crumb. I like chocolate :P

hattoncracker

I made Christmas dinner for my mother in her kitchen.. I'm never cooking anything in someone else's kitchen again, it was so stressful!!

So I cooked and ate that in Monaghan, then drove back across the country to Limerick where I live, stopping in Dublin on the way to meet up with my best friend.

My dinner at home wasn't much to speak of as my dearest mother didn't put any of the meat I had delivered to her on Friday in the fridge, so I felt a bit uncomfortable eating it.

When I got back to Limerick my boyfriend and his family had all waited for.me to arrive so I had another Christmas dinner with them.

Chicken and mushroom vol au vents for starters.

My OH cooked the following:

Turkey, ham which was slow cooked roasted in honey and then finished the oven, stuffing balls from boards , roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, carrot and parsnip, Brussel sprouts and then a white chocolate cheesecake for dessert.


He is an amazing cook, it was his ffirst year doing it and he's so happy it turned out well.

The ham is the best I've ever tasted. He's going to be doing it every year from now on.. Hehehe!

Mrs Fox

Mrs Fox wrote: »

This year the usual turkey and ham crowd are spending Christmas elsewhere, so the five of us are in favour of goose and duck.
We'll roast the goose whole, and thanks to Faith and her 'MU', I've decided to panfry duck breasts.
Served with:
roast potatoes in goose fat
colcannon
Honey & thyme buttered carrots
French beans with crispy bacon bits & almond flakes
Sausage and Nut stuffing cake
Redcurrant and port sauce

Starter will just be a seafood platter with cocktail sauce.

Dessert will be fried battered banana with honey drizzle and toasted sesame seeds, with served vanilla ice cream, and cheese board.

All according to plan except for a last minute change of dessert -- Mr Fox decided to buy Raspberry Frangipane from Le Petit Parisienne instead of frying the banana fritters (it was his ONLY job for the day), but I must say it was pretty delish, served with Murphy's Vanilla Ice Cream.
Goose was stripped to the bone. Made gravy from the giblets and wing tips.
A couple of duck breasts left for this evening (on the pan as we speak).
Plenty, and plenty of red wine. Aiyayayyy

kenco

kenco wrote: »

LaChatteGitane - looks great and many thanks for sharing your family celebration with us. The 'environment' is just as appealing as the food served therein!

For the last few years I have hosted for various large and small numbers. Usually only to the ham and peel some spuds on Christmas Eve as far too much else to do;)

By the way seen it earlier in the thread, par boil the sprouts, sautee them with lardons and herbs, bit of white wine and they are a knock out! Did them last year and they were a hit even with the people you would not expect...

This year we are being hosted in a special once off scenario. Been taken to a very, very nice venue for an outsourced Christmas Dinner which has never been done before but promises much (and taxi sorted to and from!!)

So tonight the ham has been boiled in cider and will soon be baked for a little while and then put away for devouring later tomorrow (with some very nice cheese and wine if I can find the space!) and in the days thereafter

Tonight when the kids are asleep and other matters attended to I will griddle some serious T Bones I picked up yesterday and will serve with some sweet peppers and sprouting broccoli (prob stir fry) and copious amounts of Chilean Cab Sav!

My source of proper Grappa is not travelling this year so wont be able to have my much loved Espresso and Grappa but will instead leave out a significant measure of Brandy for Santa which I am sure he will enjoy and curse the following morning!

Christmas Eve was not too bad but dined relatively late due to the other activities needed on that night....the TBones were good but overdid mine a bit so instead of med rare I got med well (suited the other half perfectly) but not thrilled as it was a fine piece of meat but still job done (served with just some griddled broccoli sprouts)

Christmas day went very well. Good set up in the venue. All buffet but very, very well done and food top notch. Stater/Salads were excellent (ham terrine especially memorable). Soup was Pumpkin and very good (not too heavy). Then I had the usual which was good (dont think its ever anything else). Herself (not mad on Turkey) went for the Asian option and got a top notch Thai Chicken curry. Took a bit of a break then and after a while shared a mix of deserts (Tiramasu, Choc pudding, etc) and then had a Coffee while the kids ran off the sugar and boredom (not ideal for kids but one bright French waiter was sharp and choc Ice Cream went down a hit...). Finally (still dont know how I managed it!) was some very, very good cheese, poached pear and walnuts.

Taxi back to the abode, Muppet Movie and various people falling asleep but yours truly hit the Cognac and Espresso and was a very happy and full individual!!

Merkin

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone!:) If I was a duck I'd well be on the way to being prepped for fois gras at this stage! Definitely on a healthy eating buzz in the new year! Christmas Day we had bucks fizz as soon as we got up for brekkie with eggs and toast. Christmas dinner went on over the course of five or six hours. Started at 2pm with wild smoked Irish salmon with homemade seeded bread. About 3.30pm we had fois gras with a little bit of toast. About 5pm we all sat down for turkey, ham, sprouts with smoked bacon lardons, roasted parsnips, peas and buttered carrots with roasted potatoes and mash with DELISH homemade gravy made by the lovely Mr. Merkin. For dessert then we had homemade Christmas pud with custard and icecream or homemade lemon cheescake and then later had a cheeseboard with a huge selection of cheeses from Sheridan's cheesemongers with some port. All of this with different bottles of wines for each course. It was all really delish although I'm going to have to be rolled out of here in the new year!!