Christmas Dinner for 23 people- for less than £90!

So yesterday myself, a friend and Mr M went shopping for our church group (Glo- it’s affectionately named) Christmas meal.

IT WAS GLORIOUS

This is what our conveyor looked like:

We were feeling pretty stoked- and scared, that with 23 mouths to feed, a full Christmas dinner for £5 a head was not going to happen. We were very pleasantly surprised! The total came to just under £88! The remainder we plan on spending on drinks and Christmas crackers- which we didn’t initially add to the trolley for fear of going over budget.

So what are we serving on Saturday?

Aside from our morning mission activity( free Christmas gift wrapping to the public: wishing them well and reminding them that there is a church here that would be happy to receive them and their families over Christmas) we are having a hearty meal and a contemporary carol service in the evening. I am performing a poem- we’ll see how that goes!

Our menu for 23 hungry mouths:

MAIN

Sausagemeat Stuffed Roast Chicken

Christmas Gammon Ham

Brussel Sprouts

Parsnips

Carrots

Roast Potatoes

Pigs in blankets

Sage and onion stuffing

Gravy

PUDDING

Christmas pudding, served with either:

Brandy cream

Custard

Ice cream

OR- Warm Mince Pies

The cook in me is buzzing with excitement at stuffing the birds and cooking the Ham. I do love a bit of Nigella Lawson, and since she suggested stuffing sausage meat under the skin of the bird (albeit a turkey in her example) I’ve been a devout fan. My family loved it when I did it with our Christmas turkey last year, and you get the most beautiful, moist, self basting turkey- with an incredible carve. I think Glo will love it!

The ham I will cook the way my Nan taught me. Boiled gently in water with sage and onion for approximately 4 hours, then the skin peeled off revealing the fat- scored, glazed with honey and roasted until crispy and glistening. Bish-bash-bosh.

I plan to serve a chicken per 4 people, surrounded by the side dishes. I have two vegetarians and am providing a not roast separately for each of them- so they don’t feel left out- it does mean the roasties will miss their goose fat bath, but i’ll save that for the Fox family dinner at least.

Upon taking this to the church, a problem was realised. There was no room in the inn fridge for the chickens and ham.

SORTED.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Church staff fridge:

Anyone else trying to feed the 5000 this year? I’d love to hear your shopping/ planning success stories!