What are you having for Christmas Lunch?

[stui magpie]

I've just done my menu. I'm hosting Christmas at my place this year, about 10 people all up, first time here as it's always been at mums place.

I've made a couple of departures from the usual menu, I'm planning on eating out on the new table in the new outdoor area, so hot veges are pretty much off the menu, going for salads instead with the exception of the tomato and onion pie and roast spuds.

Pork and spuds will be cooked on the BBQ on the day, everything else prepared on Xmas eve and in the fridge.

Here's my menu. I typed it up so it would serve as a shopping list, but I may also do a little MKR and print a few out and put on the table on the day.

Roast Turkey
Ham
Spit roast pork.
Roast potatoes and pumpkin
Tomato and Onion Pie.
Broccoli Salad with Cauliflower Rice, butter fried garlic, shallot, orange rind and Thai birds eye chilies with an orange juice/olive oil dressing
Garden Salad with mixed leaf, cucumber, tomato, onion, beetroot wedges, tasty cheese cubes and a balsamic dressing
Pasta salad, spiral pasta with halved cherry tomatoes, sliced avocado, rocket, red onion with a honey mustard dressing.
Christmas pudding with vanilla ice cream, custard and cream.

[Pa Marmo]

What time should we get there Stui, looks like it will be delicious.

[Morrigu]

Mum and the freeloaders aka siblings and associated partners and offspring descend and destroy the tranquility of our home - 14 or so of them!

Have to start cooking early cause mum likes the whole traditional thing and have to cook things that we have never eaten like roast pork and things we no longer eat but oh well it's just one day and she loves it!

Wonder if I could find a backpacker to pay to peel the mountain of spuds, carrots, onions and beans and chop the pumpkin and sweet potatoes etc - cash in hand of course!!

Thankfully hubby is a gem who will cook most of the meat in the BBQ but I will have to do the pork - apparently I make very good crackle (yuk vomit never eaten it yuk - thanks google!!)

And mum makes the pudding thingy as she always has done - which is good by all accounts - I don't eat it yukkity yuk!

And lots of red!!!

[stui magpie]

Pork crackle is yum. Doing it on the spit will be brilliant.

We normally do all the veges, I want to change it up but keep the essence hence the cauliflower/broccoli salad to replace the usual steamed cauli and broc.

[Morrigu]

^ Nope nothing could ever ever ever convince me that pork crackle is edible let alone yum ( I won't tell you why it's a nurse thing which may offend some )

Can I send my mob to your place - your posts after the " mums" spent time together would be "hang on let me get the popcorn"

[stui magpie]

^

I dare say they would be more like "my kids have taken my keys, they won't let me get the shotgun"

[Pies4shaw]

Unless there were a general famine and a pumpkin-glut at the same time, why would people eat pumpkin by choice and deliberately plan to put it on their menu? Isn't the real purpose of growing pumpkin so that you can have heavy objects to hand to throw at passers-by?

Vegetable choices on festive occasions sometimes startle me. So, eg, I had the roast Christmas lunch at my club yesterday and the biggest quantity of vegetable was Brussels sprouts - I think of them as things with which to terrorise small children, not a foodstuff. It's a little like the current craze for ignoring a perfectly fine patch of freshly-growing basil in order to torment diners with kale pesto.

My vegetables will be roast potatoes, peas (which might not be eaten but they put the correct colour on the plate) and roast eggplant. There probably won't be meat - although I like to eat nothing much more than a good leg of roast lamb, I have come to the depressing conclusion that I do like the legs left attached to happy, live lambs even more.

[luvdids]

Mum goes a little overboard with everything on Christmas day. There were, one year, 13 different vegetables on the plate. This year we've convinced her to tone it down a touch. There'll be:
Pork - yuck (except for the crackling - except for now wondering what Morrigu was talking about - I want to know but don't want to know )
Leg of Ham - edge bits not bad
Chicken - edible
Stuffed mushrooms - yuck
Stuffed tomatoes - yuck
Brussel sprouts - yuck
Parsnip puff - OMG delicious (basically blended parsnip with copious amounts of butter cheese & cream)
Roast potatoes - ok
Roast pumpkin - yum
Asparagus - yuck
Honeyed carrots & onion - yum
Broccoli - edible if it's not overcooked mush
Cauliflower & cheese sauce - yuck
Peas & beans - see Broccoli

As you can see from all the 'yuck's, my plate is fairly empty come lunch time so thankfully there's a table full of other treats to fill up on during the day

[Skids]

This will be my first xmas at home in 8 years. Camp food is usually real good at xmas.

Like you Stui, about a dozen coming to my place. My menu is a bit different to yours.

Prawns - picked up a 3kg box of cooked Shark Bay tigers (jumbo)
Garlic chicken skewers
Lamb skewers
Marinated Steak
Tomatoe/onion/cucumber salad.
Kellys beetroot salad.
Mum will probably bring a tuna noodle salad as well.
That's it.... done.

[David]

This is something I'll genuinely have to think about this year.

Shit.

[stui magpie]

[watt price tully]

[swoop42]

Thankfully my mum and sisters are all good cooks.

Unfortunately I'm the worlds fussiest eater so it'll be meat and potatoes for me followed by pavlova and probably some chocolate mousse.

My oldest sister in particular likes to cook and so does her partner which is helpful given Christmas tea will be held there and she has to work Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and Boxing day (nurse).

Most likely there will be prawns for starters, dips and crackers, chips etc.

Main will most likely be roast meats, vegetables and salads.

They have a outdoor pizza oven so that is always an option as well as a BBQ.

Dessert plum pudding, pavlova and chocolate mousse.

No doubt we'll end up with twice as much food as we need.

[swoop42]

[David]

While I hate that you made that joke, I love that at least one other person on this board knows what Salo is.