We have a tradition of having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We’ve done this for ten years now. We do this for a few reasons. On Christmas Day itself, the children are often too excited to sit down for a long meal, so don’t eat or enjoy the meal or the occasion. It also usually means I spend a fair few hours in the kitchen, which means I miss them opening and playing with their presents. I also find it quite demanding to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, whilst creating a wonderful dining experience.
Having the meal on Christmas Eve means that we can both spend a bit more time preparing the meal (less stressful in itself) and enjoy eating the meal (as do the children). As a result for them it helps pass the time on one of the more exciting days of the year as they anticipate the arrival of a sleigh full of presents being pulled by eight tiny reindeer! Even though they are older now, we still maintain the tradition.
As to what we eat on Christmas day itself, well we have lots of lovely leftovers, cheeses, pickles, hot bread, etc…. quick and easy to prepare and delicious.
I blog about what we eat for Christmas lunch, mainly to remember things that worked well and for those that didn’t, not to repeat that mistake.
I wrote the other day about some hesitation about a Christmas roast I had ordered from M&S.
Think we may have made a mistake with the turkey roast we ordered from M&S. It looks like we ordered the M&S Collection Slow-cooked British Easy-Carve Three Bird Roast. This is a cooked joint, which you heat up in the oven. I thought it was going to be a fresh three bird roast, which we’ve had before from M&S. It’s not that I have a strong aversion to this kind of product, but I much prefer cooking from scratch (or raw) than heating a dish in the oven that is already been cooked.
When I picked up the roast I did think about replacing it with something else, but there wasn’t anything similar. So I kept it in the basket and headed to pay for it. I then joined the queue for the tills which stretched to the back of the shop. I thought this was going to be a long wait, but in the end the till moved very quickly.
It was quite a large box which I put into the fridge for cooking the next day.
When it came to cooking it, I got it out of the box, it came in a sealed plastic bag covered in netting.
The roast was then placed in the included foil tray and cooked for eighty minutes.
After cooking I let it rest for about fifteen minutes and then proceeded to carve the roast.
It was very easy to carve and didn’t fall apart, unlike some previous multi-bird roasts I have cooked in the past.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so what was it like?
Well it was loved by everyone around the table. The whole thing was well seasoned and it was lovely, moist, tender roast. It was delicious and full of flavour. I would certainly order it again for next year.