We’re just going to go to Tawandang again on Christmas night.
Roast beef tenderloin, and we’ve just been browsing Cooks Illustrated (very popular here I see) for sides. I think it’ll be the holiday potato casserole with gouda, garlic and thyme plus spinach with shallots and goat cheese. Gingerbread with fresh whipped cream for dessert. I admit I primarily like to host so that we have control over the menu, but I do also enjoy researching the recipes and working out the timing for a special occasion. Mostly new recipes this year, as Thanksgiving leans towards the old favorites.
Now I just have to think of what to ask people to bring, preferably not requiring an oven… Since we had my friend’s green bean casserole (unasked) at Thanksgiving, hopefully that’s out. And we have a metric lard-ton of cheese for apps. So… another appetizer and some wine and that’s about it!
Looking forward to it!
I have, as usual, no idea what Christmas dinner will be. I live in a different state from the rest of my family, so I will probably find out (and assist with preparations) when I get there in a few days.
Last year we had a random notion to go for a British menu and had a standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, mushy peas, a rarebit, and Christmas pudding. For all the randomness and the flailing of (perhaps) too many cooks in the kitchen, it turned out pretty well.
Prime rib, with scalloped potatoes (my MIL’s favorite, at 91 she gets what she wants!) I think asparagus with Hollindaise this year and mashed sweet potato to go with. Dessert is always my Ginormous cheesecake. I’m doing cheese fondue and butternut squash soup with various coldcuts for apps. Everyone will be drinking champagne and noshing on the appetizers while The Opening of the Presents occurs. This is my favorite part of Christmas, watching the grandkids open their prezzies and pulling surprises out of the stockings.
We’re having a lamb roast at a friend’s. I’m taking over the starters and christmas pudding. Also some salted caramel sauce for joy. And umpty gallons of booze.
Any one have ideas for starters I pre-bake and reheat in a microwave at their place? I’m stuck in a rut of stuffed jalapenos, pancetta-wrapped sausage bites and that sort of stuff. Time to try something new!
My mother ‘spikes’ her Christmas crackers. She buys cheap ones (as a paper hat and a rubbish joke are the same however much you pay). She then buys little trinkets to stuff into the crackers so we all get something decent or useful.
Do you lot over the pond put a coin in your Christmas pudding? Back in the day it was supposed to be a sixpence (now defunct). We now put in a pound coin for some lucky person to find. And what do you serve it with? Custard? Cream? I’m a big fan of brandy butter, yuuuum.
Christmas pudding isn’t prevalent over here, at least not IME. The closest thing I can think of is King cake served at Mardi Gras, which is very regional.
I’m having the traditional Jewish Christmas dinner: General Tso’s chicken, with either egg rolls or pork-fried rice on the side. And a movie.
I’ve only made it twice now, and I didn’t put a coin in it either time. I did serve it with brandy butter on both occasions, though. It’s tasty stuff. In fact, the brandy butter was substantially more popular than the Christmas pudding, and I have a standing request to serve it over bread pudding one of these days.
My favorite traditional Christmas dinner: roast beef with fresh horseradish on the side, a crispy green salad, mushy lima beans with lots of butter on top, Silver Palate mashed potatoes, fresh rolls, and plenty of ice water and a dry merlot to wash it all down.
As I said in another thread about Christmas dinner, I’ve been experimental the past three years and this year I’m doing my family’s traditional roast turkey with cornbread stuffing and gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, and cherry pie. Thanksgiving is always my husband’s family’s holiday and I haven’t had my mom’s cornbread stuffing in years. I’m really looking forward to it.
We have a holiday dinner for friends that was roast beef, mashed potatoes, roasted root veg, creamed spinach, and chocolate torte. That was nice.
Green bean casserole is off the menu.
We’ll have plenty of food, and SO had enough when she made it for Thanksgiving.
We do a rice pudding on Christmas Eve, and hide an almond or raisin in it. The person who finds it is said to get “good luck” for the year. I believe that is a Danish tradition, but as American mutts, we bring a lot of different traditions to the table, with some Native American corn pudding, some German sausages, some Apple Pie, and Jewish latkes all making an appearence. Oh, and an English roast beef, too!
Hey, we’re doing “Mexican Christmas” this year too, because why not? Easier than all that turkey rigamarole, and so much less dull.
For years, this was the Christmas Eve dinner at my brother’s place until our mother forced a “free” spiral cut ham on him because she hated tacos. He took the hint. Too bad. I liked the taco schtick.
Not difficult at all.
My way, I use home made brown stock - you can use any good brand of beef chicken, veggie or half beef/half chicken stock.
1 huge white onion per person plus 1 ‘for the pot’, sliced paper thin on a mandoline
2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, or just olive oil for vegan freaks
briefly saute the onions in a heavy stock pot that is oven safe, mainly to wilt them.
Pop the pot into the oven at 250 fahrenheit covered and ignore for about half an hour. Go have a beer and watch TV. Stir, put back in, ignore for another half an hour. Lather, rinse, repeat until the onions are gently carmelized. Don’t do this on top of the stove. Now you can put it on top of the stove because you are going to add the stock and simmer for about half an hour:
Add a couple grinds of black pepper, a couple sprigs of thyme, a couple bay leaves and a sprig of tarragon wrapped in cheesecloth. Remove after the half hour simmering. Correct for salt and pepper to taste. This step can be omitted if you like the taste of the broth used. Up to you.
While the stuff is simmering on stove top, take a loaf of french bread, slice slightly on the bias to make slices that are roughly the size of your soup bowls. Smear a clove of roasted garlic over each slice, then top with a slice of gruyere cheese and a pinch of chopped parsley. Put on a cookie sheet and pop under the broiler until melted and bubbly.
Serve by ladling the soup into bowls and topping with the toasty cheesy bread.
It really isn’t all that difficult, there are many people who just dump everything into a pot on top of the stove and make it that way, I like the slow carmelization of the oven method. [of course when I learned to do it, it was with 50 pounds of onions in a full sheet cater pan. This is much easier. Ever run 50 pounds of onions through a mandoline? sob]
We normally have Standing Rib Roast with Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes and a veggie.
But this year we have too many people to afford the large chunk of beef so I suggest:
Cannelloni stuffed with braised beef; pan roasted root veggies; fresh bread
… no the kids (niece and nephew) won’t like it and it’s to much work (say my wife and her mother)
Pork loin stuffed with dried cranberries and apples
…no the kids and my brother in law don’t eat pork (they’re atheists so it’s not religion and they loved my pulled pork last summer)
Goose… I didn’t even get to discuss sides before this was shot down.
So we’re left with another turkey (the third this year counting my extended family Christmas last weekend) at least this on I’ll smoke for some kind of variation. The sides will be just a repeat of Thanksgiving.
Christmas Eve I am baking a turkey, will have wild rice & broccoli cassarole with it, maybe a dessert, not sure. Christmas day I am BBQing the leftover turkey and fixing corn pudding and deviled eggs, with bread pudding for dessert. That’s about it; it’ll just be me, the dogs & cats so it really doesn’t matter.
Our Christmas Eve dinner, since I was a baby, has been ham and spaghetti and meatballs. Over the years side dishes have come and gone and sometimes reappear - like the famous green bean casserole. Cheezy potatoes to go with the ham have been a favorite for years.
Dessert is usually Christmas cookies, bars and a Jesus birthday cake that the kids have decorated.
Seafood lasagna for us, with fresh bread, salad and champagne.
Pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.