I’m a mum – here’s 5 things I’ve already prepped ahead of Christmas dinner… I can put my feet up on the day
A SAVVY mum has revealed the things she’s already prepared ahead of the Christmas dinner, allowing her to take it easy on the day.
The popular TikTok user known as Charlottescrunchymama showed her 88,000 followers in a series of posts how she was ahead of the game with the festive feast.
In one clip, the mum showed she had already done the prep for her vegetables and side dishes.
Taking to the social media site, she showed how she had already “prepped up” carrots, cauliflower cheese and honey-roasted parsnips.
She said she got well-prepared ahead of time because the big day was “all about spending it with my family” and “less time in the kitchen”.
Charlotte said: “The first thing I’m going to make up is the cheese sauce. What you need is butter, milk and flour… and cheese, obviously.
“You’re going to need 50g of butter, four tablespoons of self-raising or plain flour and 500ml of milk and 100g of cheese.”
The mum then makes a béchamel sauce with a little help from a child and has the cauliflower cut up and boiling away in a pan.
While that’s cooking, the mum then turns her attention to the carrots and parsnips.
Having peeled and chopped the veg, she tells her followers that she is going to “par-boil these” and the camera cuts to the veg sitting in a pan filled with water.
She then focuses back on the cauliflower which she’s now put in a silver tray.
The footage then cuts to the prepared dish, with the cauliflower covered in the cheese sauce and topped with even more grated cheese.
She pops the lid on and the dish is ready to be stored.
Once the carrots are cooked she drains them but leaves them in the pan and covers them with olive oil.
After that she then adds a bit of balsamic vinegar and shakes everything about in the pan.
She then pops them into another silver tray and adds a touch of salt and pepper before putting a lid on the container.
For the parsnips, once they are drained of the water, she puts them back into the saucepan and adds some honey and olive oil, saying cooks could also put in some goose fat if they wanted.
As with the other veg, the parsnips also go into a silver tray ready to go in the freezer and taken out on Christmas Day.
STUFFING
In another clip, the TikTok star shows how she makes sourdough and sausage stuffing.
Once again, she makes use of some silver trays so she can take it out of the freezer on the day and cook it in the oven, promising her followers “it’s going to taste amazing”.
First up she takes the sourdough, recommending it’s cut into chunks and olive oil drizzled over them.
She then gets a frying pan and melts 25g of butter and some olive oil.
When that’s melted she adds half a large onion which has been chopped up.
Once that’s browned she then adds one grated apple and fries it for about five minutes.
That mixture is then added to the sourdough as well as two beaten eggs along with 400g of sausage meat and a bit of seasoning.
All the ingredients are then mixed together before being put into the silver trays.
She also said the stuffing could also be used to “stuff up your turkey,” saying it would keep the bird “super moist”.
ROAST POTATOES
In a third clip, she turns her attention to roast potatoes.
She recommended people use King Edward spuds because “they’re just the best” and they would need some flour and goose fat although added vegetarians could use olive oil.
The first stage was to peel them and then cut them up into the size you like.
Once that’s done, put them in a large saucepan covered with water and bring them to the boil.
She said the trick was not to over-cook them, saying she only cooked them for a couple of minutes before straining them in a colander.
Charlotte then put the potatoes back in the saucepan and then coated them in the flour and gave the saucepan “a good shake”.
Next up she added goose fat to the par-boiled spuds and once again gave it all a good shake.
She recommended putting the potatoes on a baking tray lined with parchment or grease-proof paper, making sure they weren’t touching as they were going to go in the freezer when they were cool.
Once frozen, they should then be transferred to a bag and stored back in the freezer.
YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS
In yet another post made even before December had even started, she showed how she even prepared her Yorkshire Puddings ahead of time.
She said: “The trick to getting banging Yorkshire Puddings is to having the same volume of eggs to milk and flour.
“Notice, I’m not weighing anything. I don’t weigh a single part of it.”
Taking a mug as a measure, she put together one cup each of the ingredients into a large bowl.
She then set up her mixer and attached the balloon whisk, added the mixture.
While that was whirring away, she set the oven to 200C.
Next up, she prepared her mould tray and added some olive oil and put in the oven to heat up.
Once ready, she then filled up each mould between half way and three-quarters full with the batter.
She recommended baking them for about 30 minutes.
Having cooled down, she said to put them into a bag and into the freezer.
Many commentators were impressed by her early preparation and cooking skills.
One person wrote: “So glad I saw this! Foil trays added to my shop, don’t know why I never thought of this before.”
Another said: “How have not thought of this! Genius!”
A third expressed a similar sentiment by saying: “Can’t believe I’ve never thought of anything like this. Such a good idea.”