Christmas Dinner

[lupestripe]

This year I will be cooking Christmas Dinner for Wolfie and I don't know what to cook him.

I'd like to do a three-course meal and have pretty much settled on soup for the starter.

I've never been a fan of turkey as I find it dry and tasteless. Duck and pheasant are usually much moister meats but I have no experience cooking either. Being a vegetarian doesn't help. I'm pretty cool on vegetables, indeed I am relishing cooking those.

Apart from Walls Vienetta I am flummoxed on the dessert too. Perhaps I should go for a pie or some kind as I find Christmas Pudding far too rich.

I also normally have Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve as I tend to eat so much crap on Christmas Day that the last thing I can stomach is a massive meal. I think this year I'll switch it back to Christmas Day though.

Does anyfur have any suggestions? What do you guys cook or have for Christmas Dinner?

Comments

[southpaw1805.livejournal.com]

One option would be to try for a Vegetarian dinner. After all, apart from the Turkey pretty much everything else is Vegetarian friendly.

iVillage.co.uk suggest a Mushroom Wellington, accompanied with Gratin Dauphinoise or Roast Potatoes, Vegetable Stuffing, Caramelised Carrots and Parsnips, Yorkshire Pud and Braised Fennel, with Fig Ice Cream and Vegetarian Christmas Pud for dessert.

[baloki.livejournal.com]

Ducks nice and isn't that difficult to cook. As for puddings, well there's so much choice.

You could go for a pastry based solution, their your apple pies and etc, a crumble is always nice (not keen on rubarb personally but I had a nice summer fruits one a year or so back) and quite traditional (if that's the style your going for). Then you've got your ice creams as a main pudding dish or side helping. Pafiterolls are quite easy to make, tasty and don't have to have a chocolate sauce. Then of course as Southy said you have your christmas puddings. Cake and cheesecake are always nice too. If your not keen on ice cream btw, there's always the option of making (or buying if ya wanna be lazy :p) Sorbet, which can be quite refreshing with the right items.

With puddings though, the making of them is all about practice, most puddings arn't really that complicated to make or take that long, you just need to make sure you look up your recipe before hand and give it a quick trial run, taste it and then you can make changes to make sure it comes out acely :)

^o^

[actively-lazy.livejournal.com]

Goose is fairly good if you don't want to cook turkey, its pretty similar to turkey, but its got a bit more flavour. IF you get stuck you can always look online anyway.

[cheetahkid.livejournal.com]

I always overfilled the largest plate that I could find... cooking, that another thing.

[shep-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Some sort of curry :)

[tr-wolf.livejournal.com]

Our Christmas Dinner this year (me, bf, and my parents) is:

Pate and French Toast Crackers.

Turkey Crown
Beef Joint
Roast Potatoes cooked in goose fat
Boiled potatoes
Cabbage
Swede and Carrot Mash
Sweetcorn
Cauliflower
Peas
Sprouts
Pigs in Blankets
Stuffing
Turkey Gravy
Beef Gravy

Christmas Pudding with Brandy Custard (bf and dad)
Chocolate Pudding with Deluxe Vanilla Icecream (mum and me)

Christmas Cake
Cheese and Biscuits
After Dinner Mints
Family Biscuits
Mince Pies
Bakewell Tarts

... yup, Im gonna keep the Tums on hand! lol

It's our first time cooking the Christmas dinner in our new house, so we want it to be memorable ;)

[crosseyeddragon.livejournal.com]

Fish, chips and beans! You can't go wrong with that :)

[megadog.livejournal.com]

If you are within sensible distance of a licensed game-dealer, could I suggest getting a brace of pheasant and roasting them ?

Pheasant is a 'healthy' meat in that it's low in fat and wild-reared so comes without all the usual salmonella-and-cardiac-arrest-inducing nonsense of factory-farmed poultry.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

In the end I cooked Indian potato pancakes with cheese and spices for starters, a nut roast with roast potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts for main and christmas pudding (Tesco's Finest no less - which I ate out of a dog bowl) with double cream for dessert.

I was quite pleased with how it went in the end, the cooking was enjoyable and quite stress-free - I'm glad I've got back into it again - I've always enjoyed it.

It was a bit of a shame about the white wine we had, it was quite bitter and wasn't that nice but you can't everything I suppose.

I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. I hope you had a great Christmas too and have a happy (and very furry) New Year *hugs*