The Christmas Dinner 2014 Thread

Deenie123

Had a bad night's sleep last night, kept waking up having been dreaming about the turkey going wrong!

Ham (already tried) was delicious and went down well, stuffing was tasty and delightful.

The turkey (my very first on my own) was perfect, even if I say so myself. Nicely browned, perfectly cooked through, suculent and juicy. VERY pleased with it. Even my nan (who's a bit senile and more than willing to tell you EXACTLY what she thinks) said it was a beautifully cooked turkey. WIN.

Very happy with how the dinner went Now gonna get into my jammies and with my feet soaking and eat some of the goodies I was given today while watching a film.

Have to say, though, thank god that's all over!

To Elland Back

Stater;
Smoked Salmon on brown bread

Main;
Turkey
Honey roast ham
Chilli & black pepper sausage meat stuffing
Bread herb & onion stuffing
Goose fat roasted potatoes & parsnips
Fried sprouts in garlic & breadcrumbs
Carrots
Mushroom sauce
Gravy

Dessert;
Pudding & cream

Loire

Glad to report a successful endeavour! Nicest Christmas dinner ever according to Mrs. Loire (and she's always defending her Mammy!!!).

A bit shout to Deenie123 for recommending Delia's turkey - it was perfect!

Another big shout to TBR - the parma wrapped stuffing was amazing!

We enjoyed a lovely Chateauneuf de Pape and then a heavier Rioja Reserva. A pair of Cubans out the back with Dad then to put the tin hat on it!

Thanks again to everyone on this forum - it's such a great place and an education!!!

Here's to cranking out even more delights in 2015!!

Loire.

the beer revolu

Great food day.
Brother in law did a really good prawn cocktail on a plate to start.

Roast, stuffed, rolled turkey leg.
Poached turkey crown.
(free range bronze turkey - really does taste different)
Glazed ham-served cold.
Spiced beef - served cold.
Duck fat crispy roast potatoes.
Couple of baked potatoes.
Roast carrots, parsnips, shallots, sweet potato and garlic.
Christmas spiced red cabbage.
Sprouts, quartered and fried with some ham and garlic, with a little stock.
Mashed carrot and parsnip.
Herb breadcrumb stuffing in Serrano ham.
Roast bone and giblets gravy.
Cranberry sauce.

Christmas pudding.

Massive (mostly Irish) cheese board.

Happy with everything.
Having poached the turkey crown for about 6 years now - I'll never do it another way.

88 year old father still carves all the meat!
For the first year ever, he didn't claim that the turkey was under done, although it was no more cooked than normal. Hope he's not losing his mojo!

I needed a bit more help than usual this year due to pesky, slowly healing injury but Mrs Beer was very patient with my impatience and I've discovered one nephew is getting very interested in food and cooking!

Lingua Franca

Thoroughly enjoyed the catered Christmas dinner, would happily do it again and would recommend to anyone.

Christmas morning we had bucks fizz, toasted bagels, oven warmed kaiser rolls from the bakery, cream cheese, bacon and fried eggs,

Dinner was at 3 pm and all we had to do was freeze the spoom a few hours before and then start plating the various starters. We did fry up some bacon bits and toast some pines and chop some herbs for extra touches.

Starters were: Baby venison/Bambi pate with prunes and fig and red onion compote, smoked duck breast slices with confit baby onions, trio of smoked fish (eel, salmon and halibut) with shallot dressing, trio of smoked salmon (plain, licorice and Red Bull with red beet flavoured), timbal of salmon with dill and mustard sauce, goats cheese with herb crust and tomato jam, and a carpaccio. We all chose a different individual starter.

Soups were lobster soup with langoustines and cognac, tomato soup with basil and paprika and oxtail soup.

Spoom turned out to be a vodka/champagne cocktail/sorbet kind of thing, very welcome and refreshing in the middle of the meal.

For mains we had one veggie tart, one stewed hare with mash and red cabbage, one chicken wrapped in ham and everyone else had hare stuffed guinea fowl wrapped in smoked duck bacon with veggies and potato gratin.

Desserts were cheesecake mousse with red fruit wrapped in white chocolate leaves, chocolate mousse filled with creme brulee, and lava cakes.


It was so easy to heat up and serve, and the kitchen was kept so very clean that the lack of stress and being able to spend more time with my family rather than slaving away was worth it alone. As it turns out the food was of very decent quality and the sauces were superb. I'd recommend it as a Christmas treat to anyone if you can get it for a good price.

Markcheese

Left over day -
Cooked our smallest ever turkey - and half of it is still in fridge -
Did ham and spiced beef (as starter) as well .
Reckon my old fella was full before main course came out - honky baked Brie - spice beef -bit of blue cheese and fresh brown shrimp -
My kid brother did an ice cream bombe covered in chocolate for dessert and it really was the bombe

Mrs Fox

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Thoroughly enjoyed the catered Christmas dinner, would happily do it again and would recommend to anyone.

Did you take a photo of the dinner by any chance? I'm intrigued.

We had a lovely lovely day, and beautiful dinner prepared by my BIL & SIL.
We only brought starters of cold seafood platter.
They did Roast Turkey crown, roast ham, all the usual trimmings and stuffing.
Dessert was Mary Berry Sherry Trifle and Xmas pudding.

Best laugh I've had for a long time with games and trivial after.

Tarzana2

kenco wrote: »

Started the then day with breakfast roulades (some left for tomorrow when hopefully I wont make a mess of the poched egg....) all good apart from that and jnrs had them with scrambled eggs and ate all put the black pudding ( they will learn)

I dunno, I'm 30 and still struggling to see the point of black pudding. And white pudding, for that matter! :pac:

kenco wrote: »

All good especially the Turkey which came out 30mins earlier than planned thanks to the meat thermometer!

Meat thermometers are great. My mother is surgically attached to hers!

Pang

So glad to be done and dusted! Did alot of grazing preparing dinner yesterday and as a result had to take breaks during dinner and still couldn't finish!

To start we had smoked salmon puff tartlets.

For the main we had:
-Stuffed duck. The stuffing was fab. I bought the Aldi Christmas Herb selection and the fresh herbs worked amazingly. It was my first time to add sage in. Not usually a fan.
-Ham slow cooked in coke.
-Roast potatoes in duck fat.
-Carrots and parsnips
-Sprouts with fried pancetta and flaked almonds.
-Mashed potatoes and wholegrain mustard
-Cranberry sauce and gravy

For dessert I made a Chocolate Guinness cake and a Chocolate Meringue Truffle cake. Looking back I made way too much but it means I have very little to do today

In the evening, we had some cheeses and slices of bloomer that I made on Christmas Eve.

Saw the scales in the bathroom this morning and decided to hide it in the wardrobe for a few weeks!

Lingua Franca

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Did you take a photo of the dinner by any chance? I'm intrigued.

As further testament to how good it all was, we wolfed it down with nary a camera waved.

There's fairly accurate pics of the food here. http://xmascatering.nl/Bereiden-en-advies.html

Our presentation was a little more slapdash than theirs of course, but they sent all the bruschetta and mixed leaves and dressings and parmesan shavings etc and a folder full of instructions, photos and tips. We made up some chantilly cream and mini ice cream balls to go with the desserts but the desserts were pretty enough to serve on their own.

StripedBoxers

Loire wrote: »

We enjoyed a lovely Chateauneuf de Pape and then a heavier Rioja Reserva. A pair of Cubans out the back with Dad then to put the tin hat on it!

Here's to cranking out even more delights in 2015!!

Loire.

What Rioja did you have? I'm obsessed with Rioja wines, they are so good.

We had a Rioja 2005 Reserva last night (this one http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-113642-2005-marques-de-murrieta-finca-ygay-reserva-rioja-doca-spain) and it was delicious. It's such a gorgeous wine, decent priced at €19 too.

Frigga_92

We had an amazing dinner yesterday, best yet. It's only the third year that we've cooked a really big Christmas dinner, prior to that it was fairly small as my husband's father was still with us and wasn't a big fan of Christmas.

The turkey was terrific. I used a Nigella recipe, turkey stuffed with Italian sausage and cranberries and slathered in goose fat - http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/turkey-breast-stuffed-with-italian-sausage-and-marsala-steeped-cranberries.
The turkey was lovely and moist but not too wet, it had a lovely crispy skin and the stuffing gave it a really nice flavour. Neither myself nor my husband like wet stuffing so we didn't eat the stuffing but you could still taste all the flavour of the stuffing in the turkey itself. So happy with it and would recommend the recipe to anyone wanting to try something different for New Year's Day or sometime.


The gingerale ham was amazing as usual, the slow cooker is the best place for it in our house. The meat is just so tender and tasty.

We had turkey, ham, stuffing, yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, peppers, green beans and onions. I never usually eat such a big dinner so I did not feel at all well yesterday evening :pac:

Having round 2 today. We were so stuffed yesterday that we couldn't even eat dessert so going to have a bit less dinner today to leave room for homemade blackberry and apple crumble and custard.

Hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your day

MissFlitworth

Just had my christmas leftovers sandwich! This year leftovers are from 2 different types of christmas dinner (and my Mam stiffed me on stuffing in my take home package...grumble grumble...) so it's not my 'normal' sandwich but howandever. The mustard was cut. Started out with a huge slice from a home made loaf, toasted it on one side and then buttered and topped the other with salami (my Mam also stiffed me on ham. Tut tut Mammy, tut tut) and a mix of diced meatballs and turkey with leftover cream gravy. Lots of grated cheddar and gruyere on top and under the grill till melting happened.

Again with the horrendous, inexplicably yellow, food photos but this was a happy, happy sandwich.

airuser

Did anyone have the Spiced Beef?

After many years cooking the Chrishmas Dinner, now, withe Family away. My Wife and I have come away to Spain for the holiday.

Yes, as the man of the house I do all the cooking all year and do enjoy it

Faith

Man, that was hectic at the end, but great fun!

Starter: One friend made a gorgeous salad, which was bacon, black pudding, red onion and green leaves with a creamy dressing.

Main: I brined my turkey for 24 hours before roasting it. I roasted it for about 2.5 hours for a 14lb bird, until my meat thermometer read 165F. I let it rest for an hour or so, but it was still a little dry. I'm perplexed by that, because BBC would have had me roast it for another fecking hour, so even with brining and a shorter cooking time, it wasn't that moist.

Nonetheless, everything else was great.

- Mashed potatoes with butter and mayonnaise, riced to be sure there were no lumps.
- Roasted potatoes tossed in semolina and cooked in lard (I couldn't get any other solid fat in the end).
- Honey roasted carrots.
- Corn bread
- Brussels sprouts (prepared by a friend so I'm not sure what they did)
- Gravy made from chicken stock, thickened with butter and flour, with some cream stirred in and cranberry sauce added for flavour
- Cranberry sauce
- Stuffing balls, made with pork mince as sausages here are rubbish. They were lovely still.

Dessert:

- Pavlova with fresh cream and raspberries
- Chocolate brownies made by another friend, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce

All washed down by copious glasses of wine and more laughing than I've had in a long time. We played Cards Against Humanity. Oh my, that's the funniest game I've ever played

Thanks to everyone for the help and guidance!

Mystery Egg

Well, we just had a fab day. It was our first year to cook and do things our own way i.e. without mothers dictating all proceedings! :pac:

There were 6 adults and 3 children. Me and my friend, who is American, did the cooking, although we had some pretty superb sous chefs helping with chopping and prepping.

I prepared:

Potato dauphinoise
Sprouts, blanched and fried in butter with almonds and bacon
A honey mustard glazed ham fillet
Gravy (leftover from the thanksgiving turkey, pushed a little further with the addition of some butter, flour, stock, white wine and cranberry sauce)
Sausage-meat, breadcrumb, onion, fresh herb and apple stuffing
Sticky toffee pudding
Christmas cake

My friend prepared:

A beautiful bronzed turkey
Candied yams (sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping)
Sprouts roasted with garlic
Cranberry sauce
Green bean casserole with french fried onions

Another friend contributed warm bread, a cheese board and crudites with hummus. It was really wonderful.

More friends joined us in the evening for After Eights, cake, mince pies and lots of bubbly.

We nipped to the beach this morning to watch all the insane locals have a dip in the sea for charity, but tonight it's just me and the hubby at home this evening and we are all blissed out in the glow of the tree in our little flat. Planning turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, roasties (sadly missing from yesterday!), carrots and broccoli for round 2 in an hour or so. The bubbly is on currently on ice.

Merry Christmas everyone! And remember, the 12 days of Christmas didn't end yesterday. They began.

airuser

Faith wrote: »

Man, that was hectic at the end, but great fun!

Starter: One friend made a gorgeous salad, which was bacon, black pudding, red onion and green leaves with a creamy dressing.

Main: I brined my turkey for 24 hours before roasting it. I roasted it for about 2.5 hours for a 14lb bird, until my meat thermometer read 165F. I let it rest for an hour or so, but it was still a little dry. I'm perplexed by that, because BBC would have had me roast it for another fecking hour, so even with brining and a shorter cooking time, it wasn't that moist.

Nonetheless, everything else was great.

- Mashed potatoes with butter and mayonnaise, riced to be sure there were no lumps.
- Roasted potatoes tossed in semolina and cooked in lard (I couldn't get any other solid fat in the end).
- Honey roasted carrots.
- Corn bread
- Brussels sprouts (prepared by a friend so I'm not sure what they did)
- Gravy made from chicken stock, thickened with butter and flour, with some cream stirred in and cranberry sauce added for flavour
- Cranberry sauce
- Stuffing balls, made with pork mince as sausages here are rubbish. They were lovely still.

Dessert:

- Pavlova with fresh cream and raspberries
- Chocolate brownies made by another friend, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce

All washed down by copious glasses of wine and more laughing than I've had in a long time. We played Cards Against Humanity. Oh my, that's the funniest game I've ever played

Thanks to everyone for the help and guidance!

Sounds wonderful. Found brining a turkey a fantastic way to help moisten a turkey.

Regarding timings for cooking can differ greatly with the type of oven. In our house we cook the bird on Christmas Eve, as we all like it cold. However, I use 3 thermometers, one in the oven for the oven temps. Another inserted into the turkey which is read outside and the last one for testing when the turkey is finished.
Onlly once had I had a dry bird.

Here in Ireland have found that on Christmas Day one can never be sure I'd cooking times with Electric.


Anyway, missed it all this year.

Ilyana 2.0

Our Christmas dinner was a little different to the usual, and a little smaller as there were only four of us eating. But it was just scrumptious.

Starter: we didn't bother; not huge eaters so we wanted to save ourselves for the main event

Mains:
Fillet steaks with lots of black pepper and mustard
Dauphinoise potatoes with obscene quantities of garlic and gruyere
Sauteed spuds for my dauphinoise-shunning dad
Roast carrots and parsnips
Brussels sprouts fried with bacon
A lovely little French red

Dessert:
Pudding with orange butter/brandy cream
Homemade tiramisu for me
Coffee and more red

3am snack:
Slices of glazed ham and white bread

Merry Christmas everybody!

jos28

Well we opted for the goose and it was a great success. Got a 4kg goose from http://www.kilkennyfreerange.com/ and it was delicious. The meat was so rich and tender. Much easier to cook than I thought it would be and although there were only 4 for dinner it would have fed 6. I served it with Mary Berry's raw cranberry sauce and stuffing balls. I made stock from the giblets, gravy from the stock with a big slug of port and it was so full of flavour. The roast potatoes were something else !
Definitely recommend goose if you want a change from turkey. I baked a ham on Christmas Eve and we had that today with a fillet of turkey, stir fried sprouts and lots more of those lovely roasties.

Minder

I come to the conclusion that the waterbath is the only way to cook turkey. This year I roasted two brined Norfolk Black free range turkeys on the BGE for two and a half hours. Temperature on the digital probe was over 70c when I pulled them. Rested the birds for an hour while we finished the other veg. Result - very flavoursome turkey, but dry. Even so, the 21 diners demolished the food with many having seconds. So last years brined turkey breast done sous vide were excellent, moist and a pleasure to eat, this year I didn't think so.

Boxing Day dinner was roast fore rib of beef for 9 people. Seared the beef over scorchingly got coals, then roasted the meat until the temperature read just over 50c on the digital thermometer. Rested the meat while cooking yorkshires before trimming off the fat cap and searing again. Result - delicious, tender beef that was a pleasure to eat.

If I do Christmas again next year, beef will be on the menu.

Loire

StripedBoxers wrote: »

What Rioja did you have? I'm obsessed with Rioja wines, they are so good.

We had a Rioja 2005 Reserva last night (this one http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-113642-2005-marques-de-murrieta-finca-ygay-reserva-rioja-doca-spain) and it was delicious. It's such a gorgeous wine, decent priced at €19 too.

Hiya,

It wsa a Cepa Lebrel 2009 - my Dad brought it - it was lovely, but we all preferred the CND Pape!

Dizzyblonde

Faith wrote: »

We played Cards Against Humanity. Oh my, that's the funniest game I've ever played

That was our Christmas night game too - hilarious!

Baggy Trousers

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

That was our Christmas night game too - hilarious!

We love cards, what is this "cards against humanity" game??

Faith

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

We love cards, what is this "cards against humanity" game??

It's not a traditional 'card' game. Each player is given 10 'answer' cards with random phrases or words written on them. One player pulls a 'question' card and each player must pick their best answer. The winner is chosen by the questioner and it's the funniest (and often most offensive answer) that wins.

It isn't for those who are easily offended, but if you are open to twisted humour, it's brilliant.

The Hill Billy

I like the sound of that. I dare say my 7yo would be well up for for it too.

Toto Wolfcastle

We have Cards Against Humanity but we decided to bring Apples to Apples to the in-laws instead. We didn't think my mother-in-law would appreciate Cards Against Humanity, although she did manage to lower the tone of Apples to Apples quite well.

Faith

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I like the sound of that. I dare say my 7yo would be well up for for it too.

It is an adult game, just so you know. There's lots of swear words and references to sex, genitals etc .

Dizzyblonde

It's definitely not suitable for kids. Do you play Pictionary or Taboo, tHB? Kids love those. We're mad boardgamers here and our girls loved those when they were kids.

Dizzyblonde

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

We have Cards Against Humanity but we decided to bring Apples to Apples to the in-laws instead. We didn't think my mother-in-law would appreciate Cards Against Humanity, although she did manage to lower the tone of Apples to Apples quite well.

My 81-year-old mother played Cards Against Humanity

Gloomtastic!

We bought Trivial Pursuits Family Edition this year and played kids v adults. Kids got straight into it as a team. Loved it.