help xmas dinner

[jackyp]

I am cooking xmas dinner for 12 people this year most i have cooked for before is 3 need some advice e.g how many Lbs of sprouts potatoes e.t.c do i buy. How do i keep everything hot I am starting to panic now .Any advice please

[thikasabrik]

A couple of years ago I broke my arm just before Xmas. Until that year, I made my Xmas dinners from scratch - peeling sprouts, boiling giblets etc. That particular year I bought frozen sprouts with chestnuts, frozen roast potatoes, frozen roast parsnips, frozen carrots, and frozen stuffing balls from a supermarket. From Marks & Spencer I bought a turkey breast joint, ready made bacon & sausages and a jar of gravy. I had 8 for Xmas dinner and they all assumed I had been slaving away (with 1 hand) since 4am. Since then I have vowed never to peel a sprout again! This might not be your idea of Xmas, but life's too short to mess about with giblets!

[jackyp]

sounds good to me thanks

[woofgang]

not up yet but from dec 1 look here for advice too

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/news_and_events/events_christmas.shtml

[ursula62]

You could try a hostess trolley - you might find a local church has one you could hire or borrow. Roast potatoes keep warm and crisp in these for a couple of hours if necessary. Not quite as nice as eating them fresh from the oven but handy if you don't have enough oven space to do everything at once.

[Christinehol]

If you don't want frozen veg cook all veg in advance, put in serving dishes covered with cling film. Just as you get everyone to the table pierce cling film on each dish a few times and zap in micro for a couple of mins each. They can then go straight to the table. All your veg pans can be washed and put away well in advance.This can be done with boiled or mashed potatoes too. This leaves you with only meat and roast potatoes to sort out.

[silly moo]

Invest in an electric steamer and use for the veg.
I got one last year and it's wonderful.
Tip - if your plates are hot and the gravy is hot the food doesn't have to be really hot.
Enjoy your meal.

[gastwo]

Silly Moo's tip is a good one - make sure the plates are really hot, and that seems to heat the food. You find most resturants warn you about the hot plates. They know a thing or two...

[mimififi]

I had a load of people last year, I have five kids and three other siblings, their partners and children etc. here's what I did. It give minimum effort, maximum impact:

Cook turkey on Christmas Eve, This way, you cook it low and slow and it is just delic. You don't have ot get up at 3am to turn it on. Carve it in the evening when it is cold, it slices real nice and you can get all the tiny bits of meat off too. Place in a micro proof bowl add a few tblsps of water cover with snapwrap and micro when you need it.

Meanwhile, also on Christmas eve, parboil the potatoes, using 2 pans if you have to, plus peel and parboil the parsnips if you are having them. These can then be kept in an airtight bag ready to roast on the day. You can go to town with this, you could peel and parboil the tats and parsnips and open freeze them already tossed in oil. You can then roast them on the day from frozen, just beware it'll take longer. Also make your stuffin balls (can just do a paxo if you're feeling lazy) and freeze thoses too.

more

[mimififi]

now as far as the rest of the veg is concerned:

a few days before,, or tomorrow, whenever, set out as many plates as you need for the dinner. get your sprouts and carrots and peas and broccolli, or whatever veg you are having and peel and cut them. Instead of chucking them in a pan, set them out on the plates in people sized portions. That way you can see if you have enough. Be generous. You want enough for bubble and squeek for breaka on boxing day! i do this with tats aswell, counting them out, 3 for henry, 4 for simon, 10 for me etc etc.

Now invest in a steamer as already suggested, electric or hob. A three tiered steamer is great, it saves on fuel, saves on space and saves on vitimins. use this for your 3 main veg. you mihgt like to do swede or celeriac too. Don't forget with so many accompaniments, you won't need pounds and pounds unless you ahve massive plates. now par boil all your veg, and freeze in freezer bags. Christmas eve take it out and put in saucepans/steamer to defrost and heat up. Heat up Turkey, whack roasts in oven, and also the sausages and bacon if youre having them (that you would ahv prepared the day before), make gracy (you could use granules if you are feeling lazy, or the juice from the turkey and the veg water, itll still be good.) sit back and relax. serve on hot plates, but not for the kids, give them cold plates.

more

[mimififi]

before you sit down to dinner, put the custard in a pan ready to heat ( you can add the custard powder to the milk cold and leave in the pan ready for heating. or use ready made brandy butte,r or make your own brandy butter, it freezes well.)

Also, read the instructions to the christmas pudding and set that on to heat up while you are eating. (I've always just microwaved mine!!!)

Give the drinks to a man to organise.....

Have fun, drink a nip of sherry, merry christmas and have fun!!!!!!!

[maxi29]

I had exactly the same question so I'm glad to see it's been answered so thoroughly - lots of useful tips there. And thanks to Jackyp for asking it.
The problem that I've found is that everyone seems to hate one particular vegetable (my wife hates sprouts, my mum hates parsnips, my nephew hates anything not green etc) so I'm going to have to cook about 10 different vegetables or leave some people going short. I haven't got 10 saucepans so I have no ideas on how to cope with that.