Do you make everything from scratch for your Christmas dinner? I always buy my stuffing, we all love M&S chestnut stuffing in this house. And I always buy cranberry sauce although I know it is easy to make. I buy Christmas pudding too, we are always so full that we only have a small portion so it's not worth all the faff of making it myself.

I'm making it all from scratch but I have to get up at a ridiculous time in the morning to do it! The stuffing is my own spicy bacon and potato recipe so I can't buy that and no one coming likes cranberry sauce. Pudding is Bannana cream pie and chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis amd my home made is better than most of the stuff I can buy in the shops.

If you have a microwave save a hob by getting steam microwave veg bags.

Christmas dinner cheats

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microwave dinner for one

I make the starters and cook all the dinner from scratch. I also buy M & S luxury stuffing and I don't make my own cake or pudding because only two of the family eat it. Cranberry sauce from a jar - haven't the time to make that and I bet hardly anyone does.

Hmm "cook all the dinner from scratch. I also buy M & S luxury stuffing"

I buy the stuffing and cranberry sauce too.

good idea

I make the stuffing by squeezing out a few raw sausages and mixing it with paxo sage and onion stuffing which has only had a LITTLE bit of hot water added to it beforehand as the fat in the sausagemeat helps moisten it as it cooks

also gravy comes in granules.

Yes - called Waitrose and M&S. if you are going to cheat, do it with quality food and ingredients.

But there's no comparision to real gravy. It's one thing I love making. I add lots of wine and a splash of port and have lots of tastings while it reduces.

gravy granules is what I had when I was ickle sprog at xmas cos mum had so many people to feed. She couldn't make gravy for the thousands out of one turkey dribble, she wasn't the chosen one

Real gravy is for when I'm feeling fancy.

Oxo cubes with the cabbage water when I was a kid!

But honestly, if you've cooked a large turkey it's one of the few days of the year that it's worth the effort. In fact, this year I'm going to make mine a couple of days early with chicken wings and add the turkey juices (and maybe a bit more wine) on the day.

Port makes lush gravy

Nowt wrong with gravy granules, but I do prefer making my own gravy (although I cheat by using browning to get the 'right' colour, esp with chicken gravy)

Certainly nothing wrong with granules and I use them often if we're just having chops or something but it's so rare that I get to cook a big piece of meat or poultry that I like to take the opportunity to make my own.

Yuk! it has to be fresh veg for me sorry.

gravy can make or break a nice meal.

That why it's gravy granules for crimbo every time! Tis tradition and you cannot cock it up

I always use Aunt Bessies roast potatoes. As for the stuffing - since I was a child we had paxo mixed with sausage then oven baked. Its the best ever! I have made my own stuffing in the past and everyone says its nicer than paxo but not in my opinion mmm

My brother cooks the ham in Cherry Coke.

That's not cheating, that's just making your ham taste nice.

They are fresh.

I find boiled frozen veg to be watery and tasteless. The Steam bag retain a lot more of the flavour and they taste really good.
They have made me eat a lot more veg now and so easy to do.

You've got the wrong idea. It is fresh veg, just steamed in the microwave rather than on the hob.

They are frozen.