Be Excellent To Each Other

What you got cooking (for Christmas)?

I was wondering what folks were cooking this Christmas? For the main meal, and anything else they have going on around the kitchen over the festive period.

We are having the simplest Christmas this year. We’ve hosted the last few years (or have intended to, guest illness cancelled 2022 but I still cooked everything we had planned) so this year I’m going right back to basics.

I cook a Christmas ham for Russell every year. I’ll either do it in ginger beer or Dr Pepper, and glaze in pomegranate molasses and/or ginger syrup.

For Christmas Day I’ll make a veggie roast, roasties, Yorkshire puddings (some people say they aren’t traditional, but I’m not interested in any tradition that doesn’t include Yorkshire puddings), maple carrots and parsnips, sprouts (which I steam on Christmas Eve, then fry off in butter with some bacon bits or chorizo for the boys as I don’t eat them). I’ve also prepped some veggie sausages with some stuffing piped into the centres, wrapped in veggie bacon for stuffed pigs in blankets. I’ve made stuffing balls which I’ll also cook from frozen. I always prep everything before hand and then the Christmas dinner takes me less than an hour on the day.

I’ve made veggie sausage rolls, also with stuffing and bacon, and I’ll make another round of plain veggie sausage rolls. I’ve made some frangipane mince pies and am going to make some gingerbread today.

I’m not making anything more complex than that.

How about other folks?

I'll be there at two.

My mum in law does all the cooking but I'll be doing all the desserts.

I've got some salted caramel brownies done and in the freezer.

I think I'll probably make my favourite cookies. Not sure yet as it might be over kill bearing in mind that I'm also making a Key Lime Pie (albeit with normal UK limes), a Cinnamon Bundt Cake and that Black Cherry Trifle that you got the recipe for from Tesco.

This was a couple of years back. Key Lime Pie, Chocolate Pavlova (weak in structure, strong in flavour!) and the brownies.

I normally figure out my main meat well in advance and order it to be delivered, but to keep costs down I'm winging it this year and hoping Tesco have something nice on offer when I do my big shop. Other than that, it'll be a Christmas ham in Dr Pepper which I've done the past few years (pretty sure I stole the idea off you Mimi XD ) and then similar trimmings to yourself, especially yorkshire puddings. Also the family tradition of glacé cherries wrapped in bacon (like a sweet pigs in blankets).

Oh, and lots and lots of wine.

Which is your favourite cookie recipe? The key lime pie looks ace.

Darwin loves glaze cherries and bacon. I bet he’d love those.

I’ve got a shopping order coming today, then one on Sunday as well. Today’s is complete, but Sunday’s will just have to be seen when it arrives. There’s nothing ‘critical’ that can be missing apart from sprouts. We’ve got carrots and parsnips in the garden, and stuff like that, and most stuff is already in the freezer.

Good luck for the Christmas shop, Jem. I’m hoping to make Thursday night the last time we have to go near a supermarket, and then I just want to get a nice loaf of bread and leave again.

I've gone through a few favourites (inc. a Nigella one) but have settled on this one.

https://chefjeanpierre.com/recipes/dess ... ip-cookie/

It comes with a nice YouTube video.

They sound good but I just can’t cook in cup measures. My brain won’t let me because of the variability of the dry ingredients.

I always convert everything to grams. I just ask Alexa. It always works out.

This is great advice. I asked this morning and it seems fairly good at distinguishing different weights for white granulated sugar, demarara (sp?) and muscovado, so I will definitely do that in the future. I think I tried something similar a few years back and it was giving the same gram measurement for a cup of sugar as it did a cup of flour, which I knew wasn't right so haven't tried it since.