Christmas Lunch

[oneputt]

Anybody get stressed about Christmas Dinner? Read this from a Sheffield butchers.

Patterson’s Butchers Sheffield

Just in case anyone is stressing about Christmas Day..............!
Here's my top tip Christmas Dinner....
I have concluded that the inevitable stress of Christmas dinner is created by adverts, supermarkets and TV chefs...

It's a Sunday dinner for goodness sake!!! We do it quite happily 51 weeks of the year but can we the consumers be trusted to manage by ourselves on one day of the year...apparently not!
Here goes...
1. Turkey... It's a big chicken that's all, 20 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes at 180 degrees - jobs a good un!  Get yourselves a meat thermometer £3 off the Internet poke it in the offending bird if it says 75 degrees or over its cooked!
2. Stuffing - regardless of what Jamie Oliver says you do NOT need 2lbs of shoulder of pork, onions, bread crumbs, pine nuts and a load of fresh herbs to make stuffing (no wonder he's bankrupt if that’s what he spends to make stuffing!)
What you need is Paxo and a kettle!! If you wanna liven it up squeeze 3 sausages out of their skins and mix that in with your Paxo before cooking.
3. Gravy - Jamie Oliver is copping for this one as well....
Bisto Jamie.... All you need is Bisto!
I ( nor any other person I know) has got time on Christmas Eve to mess about roasting chicken wings and vegetables, adding stock and flour, then cooking it for another half hour, mashing it all up with a potato masher and then straining the whole sorry mess to make gravy
4. Vegetables... Never mind faffing round shredding sprouts and frying them with bacon and chestnuts to make them more palatable... If you don't like them don't buy and cook the things!! If your family only eats frozen peas then that's good enough!
5. Roast potatoes... Yes I par boil mine then roast them in goose fat but Aunt Bessie also does the same .
6. Trimmings /Christmas pudding and the like.... Aldi or Lidl!
(oh and while we're on the subject of pudding- if birds custard is what your family likes on the wretched thing then that's fine - you do not need brandy butter /rum sauce etc., or anything else that costs a fortune and takes 2 hours to make!)
7. Family....
Children.. Feed the little blighters first separately, if they only want turkey with tomato sauce - fine leave them to it, it doesn't matter. Once they are fed bugger them off to play with their Christmas presents so that YOU can enjoy your dinner in Peace!
Adults... Anyone that can manage to get their sorry a*** to your dinner table is also capable of helping to serve up/sort the kids out/clear the table /wash up /dry up etc.
And Finally.....
NO ONE.... And I mean no one APART FROM THE COOK IS ALLOWED TO GET PLASTERED AND FALL ASLEEP BEFORE THE WASHING UP IS DONE!!!

Merry Christmas

[Jaydug]

How true!

[David from Suffolk]

I am on your side with everything bar the Brandy Butter, from my youth this is a a male preserve. The skill is getting the Brandy in the correct quantiles. I am still learning this skill , and to this day need several samples to get it correct, and that is just to select the right bottle.

[DianneT]

I have not been allowed to cook Christmas Dinner for some years now. My Daughter and Son in Law
have done it except for last year when Granddaughter and Grandson in Law did it. This year no different except our meal will be delivered to us by the family and during the day we will be opening our presents with family on TV with Zoom. Best that can be done this year.

[Tigerfish]

Oneputt, - That very good! Have just copied it off for the DCOS. We are resolved to have Christmas on our own this year even though we have two daughters and their families within walking distance. But what is the point of going through all of this lockdown and then throwing it all away just to have a "Merry Christmas"? We will have our party in the Spring instead!

TF

[oneputt]

Same here TF, we will deliver presents to grandtwins but will stay outside. Might take the van out early in January and stay somewhere near where our son lives so we can deliver presents and at least see them.

Little experiment going on in the kitchen. The Christmas puds are gently steaming away, one in the traditional stood in water in a saucepan, lots of steam in the kitchen. The other one is in the slow cooker, no steam escaping from that. It will be interesting if there is any difference in taste etc

[nelliethehooker]

Not even thought about what we'll be having yet, but hopefully it will all be done in the oven in the caravan.....might just be a nice piece of salmon each. For our pudding a good quality bought Xmas pudding done in the microwave, although we may have brandy sauce with it, and then again it might just be a sticky toffee pud instead.

[huskydog]

I always cook Christmas dinner and just treat it like every other Sunday , except the turkey

[oneputt]

[DianneT]

Love it One sign of the times.