Christmas dinner disasters

I put the copious left over turkey in our garage to cool down . Next day I opened the garage door and out shot out next door's cat . His owner said it refused food for days afterwards.

I had just served out 8 turkey dinners & everyone had done the Serving dish Shuffle & just about to dig in when my 4 year old son vomitted a copious amount of yuk onto his plate, the tablecloth, the floor....
He's always had a sense of occasion!

Our cooker too gave out on Christmas morning when I was spending Christmas with my parents, they only lived 6 roads away so that was not so bad.

My dog, a spaniel, once got into the dining room where a wonderful spread was set up by my mum on the table.

We were all told NOT to go in there, but my cousin did and didn’t shut the door and my mum found my spaniel sitting in the middle of the table with a chicken drumstick hanging out of her mouth.

On a very regular basis at Christmas my dear mum used to either forget to cook something or leave something in the oven.

My mistake was to make beef Wellington. DH and his sister turn their noses up at the love!y pink meat. I had to cook it till well done. Waste of good beef.

Duck legs come in packs of two, so I cooked the same meal the next evening. That time, I was extra careful and thoroughly enjoyed it. Luckily, I live alone, or it would have been scrambled eggs.

I do not like desserts, so I have only one course.

Oh Charleygirl, that was a disaster. I hope you had other treats to make up for it.
Flappergirl, your post reminded me of the time when my ex was given a fresh turkey at work. We took it to our friends to share it, they provided the trimmings and they kept their turkey in the freezer. Come Easter they brought their turkey to us. After the meal I put the leftover turkey on the kitchen worktop. Unfortunately the friend’s husband went in the kitchen and found my two cats having a feast. They declined my offer to take it home! To be honest, if it had been me who caught them, I don’t think I would have said anything!

How frustrating Charleygirl ....hope you had a nice pudding.

Oh Charleygirl I'm sorry about your Christmas dinner. I can just imagine the frustration and disappointment.
Glad you were able to salvage most of the meal. Perhaps make the same meal for yourself at new year?
All the best for 2025.

Raw potatoes. 🤮 It wasn't this year but once when I was trying to be superwoman and have it all ready at the same time.

The remains of the trifle has just ended up on the utility room floor, along with the smashed bowl, and inside the fridge as the fridge door was open.
No, it wasn't me.

I live independently, and this year, I cooked duck leg with all the trimmings. I was halfway through my meal, sitting in my armchair watching TV.

I wanted a tissue from my pocket, and the next thing I knew, my meal was on the floor, the wrong way up. The dauphinoise potatoes, cauliflower cheese sauce, and duck jus go a long way.

The floor had been washed a few hours before so I scooped up what I could on to my plate and I am still alive to tell the tale.

One year next door's rather manky cat (he was semi feral) jumped through the open kitchen window and munched heartily on my beautiful joint of gammon whilst my back was turned. He had never done such a thing before. I was rather short of money at the time and sorely tempted to cut that end of the gammon off but the cat (poor thing) was really unwholesome and so integrity got the better of me. I put the joint in the woods at the bottom of our garden for the foxes or whatever to enjoy for Christmas.

Lively flavour! - love that!

Luckygirl Your story reminds me of the quiche I made for a village show many years ago. I left on the worktop to cool and came back to find one of the cats eating the middle of it! No time to replace the ingredients and start again so I dug out the bit that had been attacked, beat an egg up with some herbs, poured it into the hole and bunged it under the grill. At the show next day I won first prize, with a note from the judge saying what a lively flavour it had. I wonder if she would have been so keen if she knew what had happened to it! We took it home and ate it and no one died.

🤣🤣🤣

When I put the turkey in the cold utility room overnight on Christmas Eve with a laundry basket over it and woke to find it had been chewed by mice in the night. I zipped my lip, washed it off and bunged it in the oven. No one was any the wiser and we all lived. But I did a double take when a DD asked about the rather posh stuffing I had made and said the bits in it looked like mouse droppings .....!!!

When I left the turkey neck in. Or was it the giblets? Or both.

Turkey just didnt taste quite right. Then realised my mistake.
Think it was just DH and the kids at that time.

I learnt my lesson.

Sadgrandma - my oven once packed up on Christmas morning as I put the turkey in. I had 8 people coming for dinner!

I made a pavlova for dessert this Christmas and it was the best looking pav I've made in years; very pale, nicely shaped and hollowed out, no cracks. Put it on the cake stand ready to finish off with lemon swirled cream, raspberries and mango slices and gently slid it to back of the worktop out of harm's way. Started dishing up Christmas dinner; holding a scalding hot roasting pan full of roast potatoes; the pan got too heavy to hold any longer, dropped it and smashed the pav. Eton Mess for dessert.

A friend of mine forgot to make any roast potatoes this years. She made everything else apparently. It was only when her family sat down, anyone noticed

I have done that. I removed it, used the giblets to make the gravy and no one ever noticed or knew!