Christmas Eve and Boxing Day food plans

[Amyw Profile]

Haven’t seen any other threads on this . Sometimes I almost live the Boxing Day food more than the main event . We always go traditional with bubble and squeak , cold cuts , pickles , coleslaw etc.

For Xmas Eve this year , we’re having homemade pulled pork rolls with crisps , cheese and crackers and chocolates etc.

[liketocook Profile]

For years Christmas eve has always been Bloody Marys followed by steak, baked spuds and salad. Minimal prep as I do as much of the food prep for the 25th on the 24th.
Boxing day leftovers, salad, pickles and crusty bread. Depending on what's left potato wise I might make some wedges. Only my sister and I are keen on bubble and squeak or more often from the leftovers from January 1st for brunch on the 2nd.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Amy, are you able to spend Christmas with your own family, or are you with your clients?

In the past we used to go to my niece for Boxing Day, but she's moved up to Glasgow now! We had booked at Brasserie Blanc on the river at Fulham Reach, just round the corner from us, but have had to cancel as one of our sons has now got the plague and won't be able to come for Christmas at all.

We're having a ready stuffed goose for the first time ... toasted post-Christmas sarnies have always been very popular round here, stuffed with all the bits and pieces Lots of home-made cranberry And one of the main reasons to have brie

Nothing special on Christmas Eve as we know there'll be a blow-out the following day

[Amyw Profile]

Hi KC2, yes thanks for asking , I finish Christmas Eve afternoon once they’ve been picked up by their families and I’m off until the 27th. Glad of the break as I’m in the middle of doing six 24hour shifts in 7 days !!

I love a Christmas sandwich , great way to utilise all the leftovers. I always think part of the pleasure of Christmas is to overcater , so you have plenty of bits to pick at in the days afterwards

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Christmas Eve has never been a very special food day here. Ex OH used to like having individual pies and mash which was a bit weird but we did that for a good few years.

Boxing Day has always been cold leftovers in my family but MIL always did another roast dinner with the meat reheated in gravy so we had that for years (heaven help us if we didn't stick with that family's traditions ).

It's been my turn to entertain for the past few years (such dysfunctional family that this is Christmas number 3 for some!), it may be becoming a tradition. We all like leftovers so I cook turkey and ham to eat cold as a buffet and we have lots of cold stuffing and bread sauce as pretend leftovers. There's a big dish of jacket potatoes, salads, cheese, bread, nibbles and freshly cooked small sausages or pigs in blankets. It's so popular that it is now the expected food - and easily fits round other activities. There's always trifle or something like that for those who want it.

After that there are enough leftovers not to bother much for a few days - plus soup from turkey bone stock and pies made and frozen containing uneaten leftovers to eat in Jan & Feb!

[smitch Profile]

We always have chilli cheese dogs and onion rings on Christmas Eve. I’ll make a chilli later in the week and save a portion for the hot dogs.

Boxing Day, we usually have a beige buffet at my in laws’ house. I love party food so that suits me

[Seatallan Profile]

We're with Amy- left overs with salad, home made pickles & chutney and baked spuds. I save the bubble & squeak (which I prep and freeze) for Burns Night to accompany our Haggis.

[Gruney2 Profile]

Christmas Eve is always pan fried cod/haddock/ hake with salad potatoes and green beans - plus a bottle of something white and toothsome.

Boxing Day brunch is what I now call "Cowboy Pancake". Essentially a batter, made with bread flour, and poured over a load of apples which have been started off in a load pf butter with sugar, cinnamon etc. and then put into the oven. It's done in a cast iron frying pan - hence "cowboy". I must have been in that sort of mood when I did it for the first time. You don't have to use bread flour, but it makes the whole thing rise more dramatically.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

My dad’s turkey risotto which of course is nothing of the sort. It’s a pilaf with everything leftover chucked into it.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Don't usually get to the rice dish until the 27th PP!

My personal Christmas Eve tradition is to bake the gammon and have it hot with jacket spuds and coleslaw, but this has been overridden by going out some years, and by a trend for fish dinners, Italian style, which is probably what I'll do this year as I'm out for a roast duck dinner on The Day

I'm happy to say I haven't cooked a turkey in the current century, though I have eaten a couple, if I cook a duck or beef then cold meat the next day with something, might try to do an interesting veg such as a gratin of some kind, then the inevitable grande finale for a roast duck is ramen noodle soup

I remember my mother making turkey vol au vents that involved condensed cream of chicken soup.

Enjoy the break Amy

[Suelle Profile Website]

No Christmas Eve traditions; this year it might well be something found in the RTC cabinet, as I'll be doing my last shopping for fresh vegetables.

I'm doing a roast venison dinner on Christmas Day, with Yorkshire puddings, so I've decided that Boxing Day will be when we have all the traditional Christmas trimmings of pigs in blankets and stuffing balls. I'll cook chicken breasts wrapped in bacon as the substantial meat part of the meal, but they're just an excuse to justify the trimmings really.

[Busybee Profile]

Christmas Eve I’ll be cooking the ham earlier in the day. The evening meal will be pork pie from the butcher and ham salad.

Boxing Day will be leftovers with either more salad or bubble and squeak depending on what’s left.

By the 27th we will be on turkey curry or turkey and ham pie. Soup will be made with the carcass.

BB

[Grasshopper Profile]

We'll probably have something light on Xmas Eve.

Boxing Day will be mostly leftovers & buffet-style eatables.

[northleedsbhoy Profile]

I’m going for a meal on Christmas Eve to a very good pub/restaurant as it’s now a tradition when I’m with friends and this year I don’t even have to travel to get to the village . Obviously, it’s a wait and see with Boffle still undecided about what’s happening. If we don’t go out then not a clue what will be on the menu.

Boxing Day is a party with their kids and grandkids but again that may or may not happen. Their daughter is hosting this year so don’t know what will be on the menu.

Cheers
NLB

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Mind if I ask, just curious, Amy.

traditional with bubble and squeak

I had a feeling you didn't like mash?
Is it like me, cannot stand celery, but really like celeriac

As we always go to the cinema on Xmas Eve to see the latest blockbuster tosh, we then pop to the pub afterwards for 2 x drinkies, our eve meal is late. Maybe 9pm.
So it's an all you can eat buffet.
The best things I've made is vietnamese style rice pancakes.

Boxing Day is Tony's favourite too.
Pickles, which I don't really love. Sliced meats. I tend to have meat and eggs, with a curried chutney.
I've bought some spicy peppers from our local Cirencester market, with the warning "they're hot!". Good-O.

No way we can manage minced pies (me) and christmas pudding (T) on the day - so it's usual to have them on boxing day warmed up, and served with cream.
I'll be flambeeing the pudding for the first time ever with my cooking brandy - safety glasses required

[Suffs Profile]

I said all this using my iphone, and then lost it ........ so here we go again, faster this time as I've got the laptop out ...

On Christmas Eve I make cranberry sauce and bake the gammon, so we have the first few slices for supper ... with either baked potatoes in their jackets or potato salad (can't remember whether I ordered salad potatoes ... too late now if I didn't) or I might do baked sweet potatoes. There'll be homemade piccalilli and coleslaw or celeriac remoulade if I get around to making it, or there's always green salad or a tin of sweetcorn to fall back on if I don't.

Boxing Day is for cold cuts and pickles ... so this year it'll be rare roast rib of beef with horseradish, potatoes and salads of some sort as above ... plus a green salad .... and I've been saving the sweet pickled shallots I made for Boxing Day, along with the piccalilli and I should have made some more pickled red cabbage by then too ... I love pickles. There's also loads of lovely cheeses, mostly local ... Binham Blue, Baron Bigod, Copy's Cloud and White Lady amongst them ... and a jar of pickled walnuts .and a jar of wild duck paté ...

That's the sort of thing we'll mostly be eating for quite a few days after Christmas ... along with crackers, homemade bread, sausage rolls and mince pies and lots of fruit and nuts .. when we get fed up with it or have eaten it all there's salmon in the freezer, and some smoked haddock for kedgeree ... and a mallard and a farm reared chicken to roast when we feel like them .... a brace of partridge is waiting in the freezer for New Year's Day ....

[Amyw Profile]

Mind if I ask, just curious, Amy.

traditional with bubble and squeak

I had a feeling you didn't like mash?
Is it like me, cannot stand celery, but really like celeriac

As we always go to the cinema on Xmas Eve to see the latest blockbuster tosh, we then pop to the pub afterwards for 2 x drinkies, our eve meal is late. Maybe 9pm.
So it's an all you can eat buffet.
The best things I've made is vietnamese style rice pancakes.

Boxing Day is Tony's favourite too.
Pickles, which I don't really love. Sliced meats. I tend to have meat and eggs, with a curried chutney.
I've bought some spicy peppers from our local Cirencester market, with the warning "they're hot!". Good-O.

No way we can manage minced pies (me) and christmas pudding (T) on the day - so it's usual to have them on boxing day warmed up, and served with cream.
I'll be flambeeing the pudding for the first time ever with my cooking brandy - safety glasses required

Well remembered Gill, I do hate mash ! However our bubble and squeak is roughly crushed roast potatoes along with leftover parsnips , seeds and whatever green veg cooked until crispy , so I’m fine with that

[mistakened Profile]

We shall be having Braised Pheasant Breast , courtesy of Lidl on Christmas Eve, with Dauphinoise potatoes, other vegetables depend on availability. We are out to lunch on Christmas Day so no left overs, planned or otherwise. I have a gammon joint ready to be cooked on Boxing Day, to be served with Baked Potatoes, seasonal veg and parsley sauce.
Tomorrow Deb is going in search of frozen British style sausages to be made into a large sausage roll, it includes chestnuts and lots of herbs.

[MagicMarmite Profile]

I'm going to try the new Japanese takeaway on Christmas Eve, but other than that I have no food plans other than more cheese than usual.

[WolfGirl Profile]

For Christmas Eve this year we are going to have the gammon joint and hope there will be a few slices left to have with the turkey on Christmas Day. Normally they are cooked together but doing it this way should free up some badly needed oven space. We’ll have it with braised red cabbage, green beans and new potatoes.

On Boxing Day we are having what we would normally have on Christmas Eve, a casserole of beef in red wine with cranberries. This is already made and in the freezer and just needs the addition of the cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes and roasties for the ones who don’t eat mash, and whatever vegetables there are left. The following night we’ll be having a Thai takeaway!