Bad Christmas dinners

Some y.ears ago on Xmas eve my boss who was a real Scrooge decided to buy the staff a Xmas drink. We finished an hour earlier and
had just a few more than we intended. My instructions from my wife was to pick up a turkey from M&S that she had ordered. On the way home I was in a fuzzy state and couldn't recall what it was I had to get, I ended up taking home a 2lb bag of self raising flour. Needless to say I was in the doghouse for ages.

Kwest. Last year we ordered online from iceland and everything was fine so DH suggested we did the same this year, how I wish I hadn't. The bernard matthews turkey crown failed to arrive. It was apparently 'out of stock' no alternative was offered and definitely no contact from the company. I emailed customer services and got a snotty reply which was hurtful and unacceptable. So iceland have lost me as a customer. DH went to Aldi & got one there. I'm full of flu so have relied on online shopping this year. Merry Beechams

The worst one I must have had was when I was about 14.
Mum, Dad, younger sister, both brothers went out visiting various aunts and uncles Christmas morning, leaving turkey etc in the oven. I was left at home to keep an eye on it.
The "we'll only be gone for an hour or so" of course stretched to more than that and unfortunately I got so engrossed in watching White Christmas on tv that I just didn't notice that some of the food was getting rather well done!
Mum walked in door, sniffed , and said"what's burning?" ( I hadn't smelt anything up until that point) , when she opened the oven door, black smoke billowed out - the sausages (this was before pigs in blankets, we usually had the butcher's best chipolatas!) were completely cremated ! (the rest was okay - just)
The telling off that I got, still makes my ears burn to this day and I had to suffer glowering looks across the dinner table and room for the rest of the day, despite my dad trying to smooth things over by saying that it was their fault for taking so long - I was stupid to have not checked the food (I had, several times) according to my mother!

It was a really hot day, so it was decided to cook the leg of pork on the BBQ, less heat inside house. Hubby thought it was very pleasant outside, so sat and read a book and supposedly keeping and eye on the BBQ. I went outside a couple hours later to find the lid down on the BBQ, hubby’s head engrossed in his book, flames coming out of said BBQ. Hubby jumped up and threw water on the BBQ, which only made the glass crack in the lid and flames hitting the eaves of the house. Meantime I had raced inside to grab a towel to smother flames. All I could think of at the time, food and 30 family members arriving within the next 2 hours. Red Rooster were opened so sent hubby off to get enough chickens to feed us. I took the pork inside and cleaned off all the glass and crackling, thought I would continue cooking in the oven. It had to be the best leg of pork that I have ever cooked. The family were told about the problems hubby created and agreed it was cooked perfectly all but the crackling. I might add hubby has since done the same thing again, and now the BBQ was relegated to tip and he is forbidden to go anywhere near a BBQ again

Then we all made a point of leaving appropriate online reviews of the place!

We had all (extended family) booked into a pub/restaurant in Wanstead. It was packed full of people. We waited an hour for our starter, which was OK, then we waited another two hours.

There was no sign of dinner, the kids were getting restless. They said a chef had not turned up and they were doing their best. We lost patience, got our money back, left, and went for a pizza!

The day the electricity was cut off just as we began to cook the turkey! The helpful person on the phone told me that they always cooked theirs overnight. I can’t remember what we ate for lunch, but Christmas dinner was eventually served at around 8pm.

It could be about to happen. We are having an early family Christmas tomorrow. I am not used to ordering food online but Sainsburys delivered my order this morning.
Service was excellent, on time and efficient. However the turkey crown which apparently serves 7-10 looks as if it would struggle to serve 5. We will be 6 adults and four children aged, 10, 12. 12 and 15. I have lots of vegetables and pigs in blankets but this could go down as the 'Christmas Granny ran out of Turkey'. I have never under-catered in my life. I think I will have to go out and buy a joint of pork as well. Be warned, online shopping can let you down. We normally only do online shopping when we all go on a family long weekend and Sainsbury's are usually very good.
Tesco have been a disaster.

When we lived in the Dales we booked a table at a very nice pub on Boxing Day. When we got there the landlord told us his wife had decided not to cook that day- someone had had a hissy fit methinks.

O our first married christmas we had all my family round for lunch. I didnt realise that 'giblet gravy' should be thickened and not just the stock made by boiling the giblets with some veg!

I'm quite a good cook now!

Namsnanny, Yes, we were in the UK, leafy Berkshire to be precise. It was a frozen turkey that I had bought well in advance and kept in the freezer. As I said I wasn't the only one to have this problem, just the last to realise.

The problem was clearly at the supplier/abbatoir end of the process. The shop, which had a very good reputation, were really upset by what had happened.

A few years ago, DH woke up on Christmas Day with sickness and diarrhoea, then DS and family phoned to say all ill as well. Put the (fortunately) fresh turkey in the freezer.
I spent the day alone, just taking DH Lucozade to the bedroom, trying to avoid germs.
Cooked a couple of the bacon rashers and an egg for my solitary lunch, and watched South Pacific, Wallace and Gromit, the Queen’s Speech, and anything else that took my fancy.
Sorry the others were all poorly, (they were much better next day, one if those 24 hour bugs that was rife), but in some ways a very quiet, restful, simple Christmas.

The whole family ( about 12 of us) used to descend on mum for several days over Christmas. One year, her oven door fell of just as we were about to cook Christmas dinner! Luckily the neighbours over the road had finished theirs so we cooked our massive amount of food in their kitchen and ferried everything back home in relays! The neighbours then joined us for a noisy evening playing board games and had so much fun they spent the next few Christmases with us!

I was a teen.
I politely put the maggot on the side of my plate, but I kept poking at it until I was asked what was wrong.

Maybe it wasn't even a maggot, because I've never found anything in fresh sprouts.

M0nica … were you living in this country then?

We had a butcher who delivered to us as we lived on his way home.
We weren't home when he knocked so he left our Sunday joint, a leg of lamb in our hanging basket!
We didn't see it and he called in on the following Wednesday took it, cooked it and said it was fine!

A maggot in a sprout? I didn't realise they had problems with insects.
I've never grown them or cabbages.

Poor you! Sprouts aren't a kiddies favourite anyway are they?
I expect your Mum was worn out with Christmas preparations, and took it out on you.

It's a stressful time for families, especially financially.

Pity she didn't think to say you were the lucky one to have all that extra protein!!

The year my mum had to buy frozen sprouts because the shops had run out of fresh.

I found a maggot right in the middle of one and made a bit of a fuss. Mum was really angry with me.

Year before last we went to a restaurant, the main option my and my sister’s children and their partners all ate all made them incredibly sick. My nephews partner however ate the vegetarian option and she and the ‘grown ups’ were the only ones left standing to tell the tale.

The time we found blow fly on the turkey at 3.00pm on Christmas Eve. We raced down to the shop we had brought it fro, they were about to shut and had one uncollected turkey left, which they gave to us. We then rushed home and started to defrost the turkey. First upside down in a bucket while we prized one end open and pour boiling water into it and round it regular intervals, then there was making more stuffing and other bits and pieces, because we threw so much away when we discovered the blow flies in case they had got contaminated. It took until the small hours. I then had to do all the usual things, put up stockings, sort presents, any other final details. I got about three hours sleep.

I have no idea how the meal turned out. I was too tired to know or care.

To do the shop justice, it was actually very good, but they had bought a batch of turkeys from another supplier when their usual one couldn't deliver and ours was not the first from that batch to be returned with blow fly problems.

Daddima It sounds absolutely lovely, obvious she went to a lot of trouble to make it festive and special.

The first Christmas dinner I cooked for my husband's family (Mum, Dad, 2 sisters) was...well...sort of all right but I had no idea one duck would not serve 6 people

So there was a nice spread but each person got approximately one mouthful of the roasted Christmas quacker and had to fill up on vegetables and dessert.

I did better in subsequent years

Dream Topping!