Seafood Christmas menu, fish and shellfish

With drinks: Smoked salmon toasts with dill cream; Shrimp with cocktail sauce; Deviled eggs. To start: Seared scallops, parsnip purée. For the main: Salmon en croûte with beurre blanc. For the cheese course: Lamb's lettuce salad, warm goat cheese and honey. For dessert: Chocolate praline yule log.

For 6 guests, the big picture: sea scallops (18), salmon fillet (900 g), lamb's lettuce (180 g) and dark chocolate (180 g). The full grocery list, aisle by aisle, is right above.

In two trips. Three days before, the stuff that keeps (14 items: produce, dairy, bakery and pantry). Then the day before, the fresh stuff (13 items, like cooked shrimp, salmon fillet and sea scallops). 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. The main (salmon en croûte with beurre blanc) goes in the oven at 7:25 PM. Every step of the game plan is timed backward from when you sit down to eat.

This menu is pork-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.