Light Christmas menu

With drinks: Beet hummus with crunchy veggies; Mini cherry tomato, mozzarella and basil skewers; Shrimp with cocktail sauce. To start: Beet carpaccio with goat cheese and clementine. For the main: Turkey breast stuffed with chestnuts, porcini sauce. For the cheese course: Lamb's lettuce salad, warm goat cheese and honey. For dessert: Thin apple cinnamon tart.

For 6 guests, the big picture: cooked beets (480 g), turkey breast (1.1 kg), lamb's lettuce (180 g) 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 (14 items, like sausage meat, cooked shrimp and turkey breast). You'll dodge the last-minute crowds.

To sit down at 8:15 PM, the first step of the big day starts at 5:15 PM: make and bake the thin tart (25 min at 200 °C). The main (turkey breast stuffed with chestnuts, porcini sauce) goes in the oven at 6:15 PM. Every step of the game plan is timed backward from when you sit down to eat.

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.