Menu for December 26, St. Stephen's Day

With drinks: Olives, tapenade and breadsticks; Beet, fresh goat cheese and walnut verrines. To start: Beet carpaccio with goat cheese and clementine. For the main: Beef and porcini stew with homemade mash. For the cheese course: Oven-baked Mont d'Or with potatoes. For dessert: Thin apple cinnamon tart.

For 6 guests, the big picture: cooked beets (480 g), stewing beef (1.2 kg), Mont d'Or (2) and puff pastry (1). The full grocery list, aisle by aisle, is right above.

In two trips. Three days before, the stuff that keeps (12 items: produce, dairy and pantry). Then the day before, the fresh stuff (4 items, like stewing beef, fresh goat cheese and Mont d'Or). You'll dodge the last-minute crowds.

To sit down at 12:30 PM, the first step of the big day starts at 9:30 AM: make and bake the thin tart (25 min at 200 °C). Every step of the game plan is timed backward from when you sit down to eat.

This menu is pork-free and free of fish and seafood. It's not vegetarian: for a meat-free table, there's a full vegetarian menu. A kid counts as half a serving in the quantities.

Yep, from 2 to 12 guests: change the number at the top of the page, and the quantities, the grocery list, the budget and these answers all follow.