What cooking corners do you cut at Christmas?

My usual is a huge trifle.
Me too!

That takes cooking skills, watermeadow

I cut all corners by cooking nothing at all. I go to one daughter for Christmas lunch and on Boxing Day we all get together and all bring contributions. My usual is a huge trifle.
Thank heavens the days are long gone when I made everything for a family of six.

Primrose53, one year when we were living in Oman, we invited my in laws to come for Christmas - perfect weather at that time of year, lots of parents used to come.

Every year for around 40 years my poor old MiL had been cooking Christmas dinner for about 12 in her tiny kitchen. So naturally enough she jumped at the chance to get away. FiL, OTOH, grumped and grumbled and said they couldn’t possibly leave the house in December - what if the pipes froze, etc. They lived in Wimbledon - not the frozen north!

Good old Mil said, ‘Well, you can do what you like - I’m going!’
Of course they both came in the end, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Primrose53 yes, coconut milk is non dairy so I'll check that one out, thank you!

Jackaranda

This is so useful. Any suggestions for a yummy dairy free Christmas meal dessert please? My DIL always brings her fabulous pavlova but this year she is dairy free because of DGS's allergies. I can't think of anything special enough - and I'm more a savoury cook than a pudding one!

Would coconut milk count as dairy free? I saw a nice easy recipe for panacotta made with that and passion fruit drizzled over.

This is so useful. Any suggestions for a yummy dairy free Christmas meal dessert please? My DIL always brings her fabulous pavlova but this year she is dairy free because of DGS's allergies. I can't think of anything special enough - and I'm more a savoury cook than a pudding one!

Before my husband became ill and then sadly died I would cook and bake to my hearts content and even after about three years, I would still do a little baking but found I was freezing more and giving it to our family than eating it myself, it wasn't the same without my husband. Now, after all these years on my own, I have totally lost the art of cooking, I am a microwave, slow cooker, air fryer and toaster person, anything quick suits me.

I have stopped making my own mincemeat, it used to be fun to do with the children before they went back to school in September, likewise the Christmas cake and puddings, but now there's just the two of us I buy the best I can but don't bother with the cake. I always make my own mince pies, because I like the almond pastry. I make cake all year and my usual recipes are nice enough. I haven't bought a whole bird for a few years but thinking I might this year, we are well into risottos and curries so there won't be any waste.

I used to make everything myself. People enjoy M and S stuff just as much and it is less stressful
I used to think there were some things that everyone would miss if I didn't do them, one year I broke my arm just before Christmas and couldn't do them. They didn't notice! What I do do is ask what would you miss if it wasn't there at Christmas, and make sure that I had plenty of that
( Cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets and nice butter for turkey sandwiches was the answer!)

We’re going out for lunch this year.

I’ve shopped for and cooked that meal far too many times. It’s exhausting and I sit down to the meal feeling hot and bothered. It’s eaten in about 30minutes.
No more!

My DS enjoys cooking and the last time I hosted Christmas he did the cooking, but I no longer host Christmas a he is married to a vicar so she can't be away for Christmas. Last year I visited my DD in Dubai so no cooking - we had a roast dinner in the nearby pub. This year I'l be with DS and family and DD will fly in on Christmas morning as she has to work on Christmas eve. I don't have the stamina for major cooking events these days so I'm glad I won't have to worry about it.

I'm sorry to say that I don't cut corners because I love cooking, hope that this doesn't offend anybody?!

I don't regard myself as a good cook though I can manage most of the Christmas food. However, my mince pies are prize-winners. At my posh secondary school for girls we had one term of Domestic Science. I learned to iron a shirt, make bread and pastry and embroider - and have remembered every bit of it!!

We’ve received and accepted invitations for both Christmas and Boxing Days so no cooking for me. If we were at home everything would come from M & S.

Guess what? After reading all of the above, I'm going to have a big slice of my Christmas pudding with custard tonight.

Guess what? After reading all these comments, I'm going to unwrap my Aldi Christmas pudding and have a big slice with custard for my afters tonight.

I cheat on everything to the point where I don't even cook a traditional Christmas dinner. Neither of us particularly like it so we're having a full English made with better (more expensive) quality bacon, eggs, etc. than we can usually afford.

I'll buy the Christmas cake, mince pies, desserts and treats from Mr Marks, Mr Spencer and Mr Sainsbury.

Fleurpepper

Allira

Fleurpepper

I'd much rather be served a very simple meal, with a big smile and good humour- than something really fancy cooked by some pretend celebrity Chef, behaving like a martyr and f*ing and B*linding all the way.

Ooh, has Gordon Ramsay cooked for you?

No, he is a celebrity Chef, not a pretend one!

😀

Actually, he's very pleasant in real life, according to DD who met him through work!

Allira

Fleurpepper

I'd much rather be served a very simple meal, with a big smile and good humour- than something really fancy cooked by some pretend celebrity Chef, behaving like a martyr and f*ing and B*linding all the way.

Ooh, has Gordon Ramsay cooked for you?

No, he is a celebrity Chef, not a pretend one!

2420Mags, what a PITA!
I find goose very fatty anyway, though I dare say the legs are less so.
Personally I no longer feel like going anywhere if there’s going to be a non-trad Christmas dinner, e.g. at Dbro and Sil, where they don’t like turkey, so usually have beef. I do really like roast beef, but I don’t want it for Christmas Dinner. The smell of it cooking is all wrong for 🎄Day!

We spent several Christmases with Brit (him) and Swedish (her) friends, when we’d always compromise with her Swedish 🎄dinner on Christmas Eve, which is their tradition anyway, and our turkey dinner on 🎄Day.

My days of doing Christmas lunches are over. Now we go to other family members. I always offer to wash up though - knowing full well they have dishwashers.

We don't have Xmas Dinner here on Xmas day but usually in the week before. Xmas day we relax and eat a cold buffet that's laid out on the table so it's help yourself.
OH does the cooking and shopping and I do most of the housework so no different at Xmas
OH hates the idea of a big meal on Sunday or Xmas Day so I've gone along with that all our married life. He says Xmas Day is for relaxing and so is Sunday. Made it clear the first time I cooked a Sunday lunch lol. Now he cooks and I'm happy with that.
We do put Xmas decorations up and have a big Xmas tree in the garden and a smaller one in the conservatory. OH usually puts up a decorated Xma branch too.

I make the whole lot myself from scratch. I'm gluten free and most commercial gf stuff tastes like cardboard. So I prefer homemade throughout. Even things like mincemeat, blinis, and cranberry sauce are made by me. Takes a lot of planning, pre-cooking, and freezing, but the general consensus is that it's worth it. I shall be working on Christmas cake, pudding, various pickles and blinis this week.

I must be really lucky my family don’t like bread sauce, cranberry sauce or gammon. So it’s turkey crown, roast potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower gratin as they don’t like sprouts either. They don’t eat Christmas pudding, but will happily demolish a homemade clottie dumpling. Our desserts are usually something fancy from M&S and a must is pana cotta. There will only be 4 of us and even the DD will be night shift in the hospital, so she’ll eat and run taking any leftovers to share with the other staff on duty.

Hurrying to get on with the rest of my cooking ….. without thinking I poured it down the sink!
One year I thought I'd save the liquid from cooking the ham, infused with onion, peppercorns, bay leaves from the garden etc, to save for soup - then strained it down the sink.

🙄