roast pork - cooked the night before - gravy
roast beef - cooked on bbq rotisserie - seperate gravy
roast lamb - cooked in the oven or on rotisserie - depending on whether it's rolled or not - seperate gravy (or may combine with the beef
ham
bbq chicken (only cos my dad has had surgery and can't eat the other meats) - bought the night before (or that morning - we have a shop that opens Christmas morning)
might have prawns with garlic sauce - depends on whether bro and DH decide on it a day or two before hand
basic salad - prepared the night before
roast potatos - if we're being slack, we'll buy a bag or two from the supermarket (frozen) and chuck them in the bbq under the meat while it's cooking
vegie bake - a bit of everything (cauli, broc, carrot, onion, swede, turnip, whatever else we have at the time) fried gently in garlic butter, then covered in white sauce. last year this was made three weeks in advance, frozen, taken out christmas eve and cooked christmas day
pea and corn
general snacky food
if someone has a particular request, we try to accommodate, but we all have similar taste and tend to enjoy it like this. very little preparation on the day. we all chip in to help in the time leading up to Christmas...
OMG BG! Can we come to yours for xmas?
Shazz - I LOVE seafood!
I also love salads, I think we will (its just me, DH and DS) get a nice ham again like we had last year and have some yummy salads to go with it. We did that with chicken last year for 13 of us. Cold meat can be prepped early and so can salads. So you dont spend day in kitchen. And on the day we made a selection of fresh deserts (home made ice cream, pav, fresh fruit salad etc. Good to a have a selection of sliced nice breads too, easy to put out and men always seem to want to eat bread...even if there is enough other food
Salsa - our Christmas lunch really isn't that elaborate - it's simple food, cooked simply. most things are barbequed so no biggy there! the only thing that takes some time is the white sauce (for veg) and the gravy (which is apparently my job cos i make it well!)
everything else, everyone chips in. my bro and DH chip in (dad is lazy) plus me, mum and sil - it's not a difficult meal...
if you're going bbq, add some rissoles in there (maybe go 50/50 with the snags) - they always go down a treat. marinated chicken on the bbq is also a decent option - you can get breast fillets and marinade them (buy the bottles - easy!) and do that instead of some of your bbq chicken. means you have both hot and cold chook
roast spud - depends on how you are cooking them - if you're doing baked spuds (like the ones in foil), i'd say 1.5 per adult - some will eat two, some only one. if you're doing them this wake, make sure you have cheese and sourcream or something for them. if you're doing the frozen ones we cheat with, just have a few bags in the freezer - if you have a deep fryer, you can fry them up, drain them - only takes a few minutes - and you can do more if it looks like you're running out. if you cook them in the oven or whatever, you can cook a bit more than you think you need (for our dinner of 11 people, we probably do 1.5 bags if we do it this way) - you can always eat them cold (or reheat) at tea time
prawns - you're looking at quarter of a kilo of prawns each person - do you really need that much?
bbq chooks - get them to cut them into eighths at the shop - saves you work!
bread rolls should be heap - just maybe have a loaf of bread just in case - you can always freeze it for yourselves later.
salad is prolly fairly simple - maybe a salad platter or tossed salad (tom, cucumber, lettuce, cheese, boiled egg),maybe do the platter up with the chicken on it (if you're looking for spesh presentation). those 1kg tubs of premade salad might not be enough if you have a pig like my bro!
Holy Moly... you're putting on a lunch at your place for 20 people while you have a toddler & new baby?? You're a better woman than I!!! (should I just call you wonder woman??)
We always have it my IL's place & everyone chips in, although MIL does the majority... she likes it that way LOL We try to help where we can. Everyone brings a meat & possibly a salad. Our luncheon usually consists of...
King Prawns
Oysters
Lobster (every other year)
bread rolls
potato salad (MIL's yummy potato salad!!)
greek salad
Noodle salad (SIL's delicious noodle salad with yummy roast pumpkin in it)
ham
roast pork with apple sauce
roast beef with gravy
roast chicken
Dessert is usually:
pavlova
ice cream
fruit salad
Then we have our coffees, teas, hot chocs with an assortment of chocolates yum yum
We usually then spend a few hours around the pianola but its being fixed atm not sure if it will be back in time
Oh & we open pressies sometime in between pianola songs haha
I love Christmas, its my favourite time of year!
Christmas with my family is pretty similar, meats & salads, not so much the seafood though
A great day with both families (I'm very lucky to have a great IL family)
Good luck wonder woman... I mean pink palace LOL I know you'll do a wonderful job, just dont put too much pressure on yourself!
Main courses
Marinated prawns with ginger mango mayonnaise
Oysters with lemongrass and sesame dressing
Free-range roast turkey with pork, apple and sage stuffing and apple, prune and pistachio stuffing
Rolled pork roast with apricot and mustard stuffing
Sweet potato roulade
Sides and salads
Chickpea, beetroot and nut salad
Couscous, snow pea, herb and feta salad with pomegranate
Five bean salad with lemon poppy seed dressing
Sage and prosciutto corn cakes
Individual potato and sage bakes
Sweet potato, pine nut and currant salad
Desserts
Stick date pudding
Dairy-free chocolate cake
Mangomisu
Christmas ice-cream pudding
Masses of watermelon
With coffee
Christmas ice
Snowball biscuits
My two SILs are bringing a dessert each, I am doing the rest. Yes I am mad but I LOVE Christmas
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