Make-ahead Christmas menu

With drinks: Deviled eggs; Beet, fresh goat cheese and walnut verrines; Beet hummus with crunchy veggies. To start: Homemade salmon gravlax, lemon cream. For the main: Beef and porcini stew with homemade mash. For the cheese course: Cheese board. For dessert: Gingerbread panna cotta.

For 6 guests, the big picture: fresh salmon fillet (420 g), stewing beef (1.2 kg), Brie de Meaux (140 g) and cream (60 cl). The full grocery list, aisle by aisle, is right above.

In two trips. Three days before, the stuff that keeps (13 items: produce, dairy and pantry). Then the day before, the fresh stuff (16 items, like stewing beef, fresh salmon fillet and Brie de Meaux). You'll dodge the last-minute crowds.

To sit down at 8:15 PM, the first step of the big day starts at 5:45 PM: hard-boil the eggs and make the deviled eggs. Every step of the game plan is timed backward from when you sit down to eat.

This menu is pork-free and oven-free. 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.