This is a point of contention between my friend who hosts Christmas and both of our wives.

We have the same basic dinner every year- a British style Sunday roast with popovers, etc. My wife has been trying to help him the past few years because when his own wife helps they end up fighting. The guy is frantic. He's trying to make everything perfect. I respect that, but he's cooking Christmas dinner for friends and family- about 15-20 people- and he's acting like he's Paul Bocuse.

My wife keeps trying to tell him that we can do more prep but he has this idea that something sucks unless it's a la minute. She tries to tell him that he should be able to sip wine and enjoy his guests instead of trying to run a dinner service as if he were Charlie Trotter.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Is this your same friend that has eaten tons of pubes from fast food restaurants because he doesn’t like pulling ahead and waiting at the drive through or do you have multiple friends that seem to be obsessed with “just in time” food service concepts?

Different guy.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

When I lived over there I preferred their beef sandwich over the pizza.

_________________

Now maybe but back until the old man retired it was the best I have ever had. Plus,why you got to shit on my childhood. It was bad enough, thanks

_________________
When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I took note of what we had this year for this thread, different location but the food was mostly the same as my cousins still did most of the cooking even though the next generation hosted: roast beef with horseradish sauce and au jus, ham, roasted fingerling potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, tossed salad, cranberries, dinner rolls. And a ridiculously large variety of cookies for dessert. Total in attendance was about 20 adults and 10 kids varying in age from 1-14.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Our best Christmas Wine List ever!

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

north of $3600, prolly over $4K for all 12 bottles, minimum, depending on what ya paid for the Abreu and a few others with variable prices that can get crazy high

How fat are you all?

My crew got the chance to work day shift this past weekend. With our regular Manager on vacation, the Assistant Manager got tasked to spend some company money to feed us all, and he hit a local butcher shop/smoke house for the entrees. Our fire brigade guys have a grill available, and they fixed the brats for Friday. We had mountains of other items we pot-lucked in to augment the meats.

Came time to grill up the steaks he bought for Saturday, and we had a fire protection pipe freeze and burst in one of the outlying buildings, which put lunch on hold. We survived on leftover brats and trimmings. When the guys pulled the steaks out yesterday, it was discovered that the manager had placed them in bags to keep them organized, and had chosen Fabreeze-infused trash bags for the NY strips. The time in the bags allowed the meat to absorb the chemical treatment, tainting the smell and flavor, ruining about half the meat! Again we survived on leftovers and shrimp. I chose some breakfast chocolate cake, which left me in a sugar coma most of the day.

I am the ideal weight (for a man 6'9" tall) according to the medical experts

What is the decant time for the first one ? I can’t risk getting it wrong

_________________

I don't think you can get sparking wine in a box or at least I'v never seen it. As far as I know there is no plastic bag/bladder that can withstand the pressure in the bottle. I drank a bottle of Cook's on Christmas. I also currently drink ciders, crook and marker products, and simply spiked lemonade.

Ended up making some crock pot turkey chili as well as my world famous chocolate chip cookies. wife made french toast casserole. Didn't have to leave the house for 2 straight days = success!

_________________

Which ciders do you drink? If you haven’t tried Ace Cider, I would highly recommend you do. https://shop.acecider.com/