Tips to make Xmas Dinner/food/catering easer please!?

[Nicos]

I thought , having read all the wonderful meals peeps are making , that it might be nice to start a thread with tips on how to make the catering - espesh of Xmas Dinner- easier , so we all have a calmer Xmas?

I've decided I'm not getting a whole turkey/bird but a large piece ( 1kg) of turkey breast from L!dl and hhave some of my daughter's home made sausages.
I know there's fun to be had basting, but this autumn I've had 2 horrendous colds and still got building work going on...so I want to make life a bit easier for us.

We always have a late breakfast of croissants and champers- and eat Xmas dinner late afternoon- so that's one less meal to make for everyone!



I know some peeps part roast and then freeze roast spuds.....

Any tips/ideas for those of us really short of time/energy????

[Guest]

I always cook the meat christmas eve. Partly because I only have a lil' oven, partly to make sure we can have a proper meal christmas day should we have a power cut, cooker conks out etc.

[noviceveggrower]

I use a steamer. Saves me watching pans of veg all the time. The one I have has a clock and timer so it will switch on automatically. Just put it in the corner out of the way and it sorts itself out
But a really simple thing I do is write down what time things are due to go into the oven, get switched on, switched off, turned in the oven etc. Then if the meat or what ever we are having needs another 5+ minutes then I alter the time of the other things to go on or come off.

[bramble]

I also cook the turkey and ham on Christmas eve.
I peel the potatoes and sprouts the night before as well and leave them covered in cold water.
while the potatoes are roasting in the ovan I carve the meat and add the stuffing and wrap in seperate portions in tin foil to heat.
I lay all the food out on the kitchen and each person helps themselves and thren into the dining room.
Leaves more room on the table and saves everyone passing around hot dishes and plates.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm not sure that for a mega meal like the xmas one it is possible to make things mega simple but forward planning certainly helps. We have already started chucking things in the shopping trolley like cranberry sauce and oatmeal as they tend to disappear like snow off a dyke the close xmas comes.

So 1. Source all the necessary ingredients before the day

Timing everything to perfection is the next essential.

I write out a list of timings for everything in reverse order.


As in Turkey out of the oven

Yorkshire puddings into oven
pigs in blankets into oven
Roast spuds into oven
Take spuds off again
Spuds on to par boil for roasties
Peel spuds for roasties




That's just a few of the things of course but I make it extremely detailed for everything with times for preparation, time onto cook and time stopping cooking. It becomes a long long list and although it seems very regimented, it does work.

Importantly though, part of the secret is just not to panic, So what if the spuds for the roasties are late in going on to boil, the meal will just be a wee bit later and the cook may have to swallow an extra glass of wine to pass the time .

We haven't bought a whole bird in many years and now settle for a crown instead. Each to their own

[cariann88]

Have a few glasses of wine and hope for the best!

[vixylix]

AP I have no idea how you write the steps backwards - I could not do that!!

I spreadsheet the steps so I can add in lines I've missed

[Aberdeenplotter]

Forward planning in reverse order S'easy . The last thing of course is serving the meal so that is at the top of the list. The turkey/meat/whatever will probably take longest to cook so timing that backwards from the time for the meal puts that at the borttom of the list and everything works up from there. I always do mine with pen and paper and believe me, I have to insert lines as well. :

[sparrow100]

As much as I can is made beforehand. Red cabbage is made and frozen, spuds & swede will be peeled and sitting in water the night before, all the puddings are made, all the biscuits are done the week before. I'm swapping some squash for some bread sauce with my best friend, as OH loves bread sauce and I think it looks too much like cat sick to be edible.

OH and I will be starting on the mulled wine early, and we/I will have an early morning stagger to the plot to pick the other veggies for lunch. This year it's just the two of us, so no big stress about timings or people waiting for food. I cannot wait.

[veggiechicken]

Don't panic. S'easy!

Make sure you have the necessary ingredients the day before.

On the day
1. Take tin of beans from cupboard and open
2. Empty into pan.
3. Grate cheese.
4. Put bread in toaster
5. Heat beans.
6. Butter toast
7. Cover with beans
8. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Sit, eat and enjoy
Don't know what all the fuss is about

[Scarlet]

You are such a GRINCH VC!

[Aberdeenplotter]

ROFL. I've just eaten a tin of beans cold out of the tin. Had VC's xmas lunch early .

Love that post and Scarlet's. Makes you wish sometimes you could do a double like to a post.

[Potstubsdustbins]

It's just me and SWMBO this year, prep is already done....................... I've booked the restaurant they're even getting some special port in for me and the taxi is arranged.

[skeggijon]

Prep veg and par boil the day before - that way they keep their colour. If you're having roasties, then par boil them and drain so you get lovely fluffy roasties.
If you have a timer oven, put your Goose/Turkey/Suckling Pig in the oven the night before and set it to come on at 7am. Otherwise, cook the night before - as long as you wrap it well in foil, you can stick it back in the oven on the day to reheat.

[Alison]

So long as you keep it simple then it's not stressful at all - the only time I've felt it all getting on top of me was when I started offering people choices. Prep the turkey the night before but definitely don't cook (they're much nicer fresh out the oven) and put the giblets in the cook pot over night for gravy stock. Always have pork pie and cheese for Christmas Day brekkie (no idea why, was always a traditional as a child). Pudding was made months ago so just need to put that in the cook pot when the giblets have finished to warm up during the morning. Shove the turkey in and forget about it for a few hours while I just prep the sprouts, carrots, swede and parsnips. Cranberry sauce already made too and stuffing ready for the oven. Will make the pigs in blankets the day before though. Parboil spuds and cook sprouts in advance read to stir fry the sprouts with bacon and chestnuts at the last minute. Shove the parnsips, stuffing and roasties in after the turkey comes out and make the gravy at that point. Get OH to set table and carve. Pour a nice glass of wine. We'll serve about 3ish to leave guests to have a lazy morning but won't be giving them any options, none of this choice of meat or puds and certainly no starter (enough food already), if they don't like it then they didn't have to come. Tea will just be some nibbles of cold ham, sausage rolls, salad stuffs and mince pies (never managed to need any Christmas cake on the day, too full from the main meal). All nice and casual. Then the treat of eating leftovers for the rest of the week which as far as I'm concerned is the main benefit for cooking the meal in the first place