Christmas menu ideas 2012

I've decided to go all out this year (it's all about the food) and, going by my list, I'll be up by 4am cooking!!

Menu

Starter

• Crudities with mayonaisse
• Fresh prawns

Main

• Roast Goose
• Glazed ham
• Turnip casserole
• Braised brussell sprouts
• Roast potatoes
• Roast carrots

Cheese platter

Dessert

• croquembouche
• Boiled fruit cake with custard

I've ordered the ham and the goose. This weekend I'll start soaking the fruit and get DH to place an order for the seafood with our local shop. The wonderful thing is that the veges will all come from our garden.

The mayonaisse and seafood sauce I can make the night before (and also the custard). The choux pastry can be made a couple of days before hand and stored in an airtight container once cooked. DH is going to do the Ham in the weber and I'm really looking forward to cooking my goose! I've never had goose before, let alone cooked one!

I've been madly shopping online buying the bits and pieces I need for the the kitchen to make the cooking easier - just waiting on my platters to arrive.

Thanks to Julia Childs and her wonderful book, I have recently fallen in love with cooking and am having a torrid love affair with butter - we adore each other (I love it's taste and it loves my hips).

The next step is to check out all things Martha Stewart and get creative!

Oh lordy, got room for me? :D

I dont even know what I'm cooking for dinner tonight.

we're going out for family christmas at the local pub a week or two before christmas, so on the actual day, it will only be us - mum and her sister might rock up, they might not. i've gone all out to make Christmas super awesome for my extended family. Every year. For as long as I can remember. no matter where it was, I was always doing everything to add that touch of special, cos my brother and SIL just don't give a fig. so this year, DD is old enough to get Christmas, and i'm not catering to anyone but her, DH and I - and if mum and my aunt show up, they can fit in with us. If they don't like our menu, they can go home again!

Having said that, i dont' know WHAT that menu will be - at this stage, probably a roast. but DH loves his bbq so who knows?

Cass you are a girl after my own heart! Love it!

This year it will just be mum and dad, DH and I. I will be 37 weeks pregnant so won't be doing too much. We are going to mum and dads and we are having a whole fish grilled on the BBQ, prawns, crabs and salad. We don't want left overs because mum and dad fly out to go to Thailand on boxing day and DH goes back to work on 27th. I'm buying a paddle pool and parking my butt in it :)

Normally we have to have the IL's menu from every christmas since DH was born lol! They have their traditions and have the same thing every year. We have had xmas at our place twice now for the extended family and everyone brings one or two items from the list.

Prawns
Turkey, pork, ham
Coleslaw, cheese & carrot, asian style salad
Pudding, ice-cream cake
Lots of wine

It really annoyed me that DH refused to do anything different. I had looked at some recipes for ideas but since he wouldn't budge I gave up. Since I didn't have to cook much it turned out ok so I can't really complain too much.

This year, IL's are going away and my parents may or may not be speaking to me so I don't know what we'll be having. I think we might just do a roast chook & veges for lunch and keep it simple so we can just spend time playing with the kids.

Stop making me drool Cass!!

Im doing Xmas at mine for the first time, properly. So it'll be all the meats-roast pork & turkey, and a glazed ham, with all the sides and salads. Im also doing a sweets buffet :) Im just getting festive inspiration (see new uploded album in my link.)



Not long to go.....

There will be ten of us. DH and I, DS1, DSS, DSD, DS2, my parents, DH's father and his wife^. I'm really looking forward to it. I shall have to ply my mother with wine to keep her out of the kitchen! And, if it's stinking hot .... well, all i can say is thank goodness we have aircon!

^Do I call FIL's wife SMIL or MIL or DH's stepmother? They got married in July 2010 - after a whirlwind courtship. She is a lovely lady but it seems weird that I say to DH "your dad and stepmum". I mean, he's never lived with her. Hmm....FWIW she is grandma to DS2 but not to DSS and DSD. Goodness, it's all too confusing, I shall call her MIL and just get over it! I mean, I would hate to be referred to as and his wife. All sorted!

LOL. I would just say MIL for ease. All these steps get way too confusing and since they are family now it doesn't really matter.

Sounds like you'll have your hands full. Don't forget to delegate ;)

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LOL. I would just say MIL for ease. All these steps get way too confusing and since they are family now it doesn't really matter.

Sounds like you'll have your hands full. Don't forget to delegate ;)

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I can't delegate.... I'm anal! :rofl:

Lucky you are so organised then :)

In my house it's more like - Christmas? Isn't that like 6 months away :dunno:. :rofl:

That sounds awesome Cass!

This year we are heading to my brother's place for christmas lunch so I have no idea what's on the menu, it should be interesting :)

Some home made dips (mexican layered dip, spinach cobb loaf dip and tuna dip) with some corn chips, bread and vege sticks to dip.

Fruit platter with all of the yummy summer fruits on it (cherries, mangoes, melons...)

cheese platter

lamb and chicken on the barbie (butterflied and marinated, I haven't decided on the marinades), and probably some snags for the kids!

salads- coleslaw, potato salad, spinach and feta, crunchy noodle salad

pavlova and fruit cake with custard

We'll be putting the crab traps out every day for the week leading up to Christmas by Christmas day they will have vomited all their sand and we'll boil them to death and eat them. Glad I'm not a turkey or seafood.
Beyond killing crabs we have a no cooking rule for Christmas so it will be other cold seafood, some sashimi if it looks good at the fish co-op or we have caught a good sashimi fish, salads and we might let my sister bake some bread to eat it with. Or we might not.
Pavlova.

And an afternoon playing croquet.

I'm inventing a layered frozen icecream dessert, involving rum-soaked raisins, almonds, coffee, hmmmm what else...:think: Still inventing...

And that's it. Someone else can cook this year. I will be busy "having a colour scheme".

I don't know yet where we'll be for Xmas, or who we'll be with. There's three possibilities:
1. Parents' holiday place with me, Mum, two brothers, DH & DD.
2. Our house with all the above people.
3. Our house with just me, DH & DD.

I'd prefer option #2, because its the best of both worlds, but I don't think my Mum's keen on breaking their 6-year-long tradition. Dad's *ahem* "gone away" for a couple of years so he won't be around for once. I think everyone's better off coming to my house and taking the pressure off her to do everything. Plus, if we're at the holiday house Amelia won't get to wake up to her big Santa presents on Xmas day!

All that has nothing to do with what we're having to eat :rofl: Sorry, it's just been on my mind a lot the past few weeks.

Marydean - you'll have to share the recipe once you've made it!

3littlemonkeys - I'm thinking that's an awesome menu for New Years Day (DH is getting a BBQ off Santa)

Onyx - bahahaha!!! I'm also quite glad I'm neither turkey nor seafood. Oh and BTW we'll be playing Bocce - where did you get your croquet set from?

We use my Granny's old croquet set although we've replaced a few clubs and balls over the year. There are a few shops that sell croquet equipment online or if you dropped into the croquet club just next to the Hyatt they might be able to sell you something.