I’m hosting Christmas, which is not unusual (I have a centrally-located house, whereas everyone else is kind of scattered and in apartments or condos.) Normally, I make a big dinner - baked ham and all the fixings and lasagne - and my three siblings and my Mom bring appetizers or desserts or wine. This year, there’s a lot of scheduling conflicts for one reason or another, and so we’re gathering here at 1:00 in the afternoon, rather than the usual 5:00PM. As it stands right now, pretty much everyone is having a big dinner on Christmas Eve, as well as a big dinner on the day after Christmas. So Mom called today and said, “Don’t go crazy overboard cooking. Do sandwiches or something easy.”
I need ideas for a decent holiday meal that’s festive without being ‘overboard.’ I’m not keen on cold cuts for Chirstmas dinner, but I’m kind of grooving on the idea of NOT cooking for hours and hours. I have 9 adults and 5 kids, no vegetarians or other special dietary needs. Only one request: no fish.
Take a white flour tortilla.
Spread a nice layer of cream cheese evenly on one side.
Take some good lunchmeat – ham, turkey, something like that – and lay it out on the cream cheese.
Roll the whole thing up.
Cut into 1 inch sections, and arrange on platter.
A huge selections of hors d’ ouverezdles!
Lots of dips and chips of all sorts.
A nice veggie platter.
Cheese, beef stick, and Triscuits.
Little yummy quiche things from Trader Joes.
A brick of cream cheese covered in shrimp and cocktail sauce.
Cheese ball!
And make Margaritas! Homemade margaritas are the best for xmas day.
This is actually what my family does for lunch on the day, followed by a late big supper. Quite nice, you can nosh all day long, have a little of this, some of that, a lot of the other. Doesn’t take a lot of work.
What my family does for New Year’s, after we’re all thoroughly sick of making and eating huge, elaborate meals, is have soups and sandwiches. We fire up a few crockpots, make a pan of cornbread for crumbling and a big batch of chicken salad. Other people bring various sandwich-y stuff, sides, and munchies.
Our gathering is very casual, and we go for standard home-cooking type soups and cold cuts, but you can dress the menu up without adding much to the work. Fancy-sounding soup is about as easy as plain soup. You can dress the sandwiches up, too–fancy breads, homemade fillings like chicken salad, that kind of thing. You can do a lot to elevate the tone with presentation, too. PB&J presented beautifully seems fancier than caviar in a plastic tub with a sleeve of saltines next to it.
A couple that we know usually hosts Christmas Eve, and they do Mexican – a “make your own” assembly line for tacos and burritos, and then chips and salsa and nachos and rice. It’s fairly easy, and it’s a little different from the ham and turkey dinners one might have at the various Christmas parties during the season.
My mother, on the other hand, has given up cooking entirely. She lives in Buffalo, NY, and for her Christmas Eve, she has a “Buffalo Buffet” menu, which is entirely take out from various favorite local restaurants. Chicken wings from our favorite wings place, beef-on-weck sandwiches from our favorite beef-on-weck place … so an emphasis on local foods. Now, on the surface, this seems like more work, but she planned it very strategically and gets things delivered when possible and coorordinates the pick-up of other things so it’s not too big of a trip (also she sends other people for the pick-ups). A few things she gets in advance and freezes. All of these places are family type restaurants, so the cost isn’t too crazy. She also pulls this out during the year if she’s entertaining people from out of town.
I loved the lasagna on the menu. My Mom was from Italy and we often had lasagna and turkey for big Holiday meals. Except for the year, after my Mom stopped doing the big dinners, and my sister and I decided to skip the traditional and make pizzas for 20 at her house! My mom was a little surprised, but she went with the flow. It was the grandkids that were the most traumatized! They still talk about "The year we had PIZZA for Easter :eek: "
Anyway, how about a big pot of tortellini soup with some breads, cheese and fruit on the side? When I make the tortellini soup. I throw in all sorts of things to the point where it’s really thick with good veggies and chicken, along with the tortellini. (I usually put in both cheese and meat tortellini.) You could have a pot of something else hot along with it, like Swedish or Italian meatballs.
I second the idea for Mexican food if you want something easy…
You can do easy quesadillas, burritos, dips, tacos, enchiladas, so on and so forth. Mexican food can also be easy to do because you can make it an assembly line type buffet so that everyone gets what they want on their plates and nothing else.
If you wanted to do one dish that was just warm and cozy, chili is always a suggestion. While rather “plain” for holiday fare, it will serve your needs quite well: minimal fuss in the kitchen, something that everyone loves, easy clean up, filling and warm!
One year we did a Mexican themed Christmas meal. It was a huge hit. The HallKids still ask when we’re going to do a Mexican dinner for Christmas again.
I often make shredded roast beef sandwiches for big gatherings. It’s easy, you can make it ahead of time, and you can just let it sit in the crockpot on low all afternoon so people can grab one when they want one. I usually cook the roast in the oven (I pour a can of beer over the top to tenderize it), and tear it apart by hand. Then I toss it in the crock pot and add some boullion, rosemary, and a bit of garlic. It’s really yummy stuff.
When I was twelve, my aunt divorced and suddenly the entire extended family couldn’t necessarily make it to Christmas dinner at Grandma’s. Oh, the horror!
So, we came up with Christmas Eve as the mandatory family gathering, with the traditional dinner at Gram’s on the day being optional. Christmas Eve is all about finger foods and party foods and junk foods of all kinds, a wonderful pot-luck and we’ve never had the same meal twice.
I’m hosting this year, so I figure it’s my job to make sure we have enough basics to get us thru if everyone else brings all the same types of stuff. However, thru incredibly bad planning I’m also having outpatient surgery on my shoulder Thursday, so my stuff needs to either be made ahead or simple enough that my twelve year old can assemble. I’m making a cheesy-sausage dip that’ll stay warm in a crockpot, have all ingredients bought, prepared and frozen for an easy to layer lasagne that my son can assemble and slide in the oven, lots of dips and chips/breads/tortilla chips to eat them with and a shrimp cocktail tray. I’ll be picking up a coupla deli trays of meats and cheeses and my sisters will bring salads and veggies and desserts, it’ll be fine.
Remember to have fun, the mexican food assembly line sounds great and unusual enough to be festive, or do a ton of different dips and breads and chips and vegtables, it’s tough to change things up but will be pretty damn cool getting to hang out with everyone instead of slaving in the kitchen for hours, eh?
You folks are the best. Lots of good ideas in here, and I think I’m gonna go with Mexican. My brother is the staunchest traditionalist of the bunch, and when I tentatively suggested Mexican, he was very receptive.
Here’s a recipe suggestion for your Mexican feast. I’m not a big fan of iceberg lettuce, which people usually put out for tacos and burritos so here’s what I use instead. (Also tasty served with tortilla chips…just scoop it up like salsa. Yummy!)
Mexican Salad
1 head cabbage (shredded)
1 small red onion (diced)
2 medium tomatoes (diced)
1 or 2 jalepeno peppers (diced)
1 cup fresh cilantro (finely chopped)
1 lime
Put cabbage, onions, tomatos, jalepenos, and cilantro in a bowl and squeeze lime juice over the whole thing. Toss and serve.
Talked to Mom tonight. Her significant other doesn’t like Mexican food, nor does my sister’s fiance. Dammitalltohell.
So - I’m back for more ideas.
(I JUST realized that I meant for this thread to go in Cafe Society - if anyone spots a Mod walking by, can you alert 'em for me?)
Dip-o-rama? A selection of hot and cold dips, do layery type mex dips for everyone now excited about the mexican idea, tortilla chips, breads and veggies? For a buffet it works well, one can fill one’s plate with the fattening choices or the more virtuous ones.
We’ve been having breakfast for lunch for our afternoon holidays. The night before, cook up your bacon, sausage, and hash browns. Then when it’s time to eat, make omelets to order or scrambled eggs while you warm up the other stuff. It’s always gone over big with our crowd- you get plenty of turkey and ham for other holiday meals and this makes a nice change of pace.
You could do a chef salad buffet thing, along with breads and sliced luncheon meats for the more hearty appetites. Maybe a pot of chili or homemade soup, too.
OOOH! This is a good idea! We’re getting together early enough that brunch could be an option. And I can do baked French toast and a cheese strata the night before.