Xmas dinner, what are you having, what do you really want?
Morgenstern’s perfect Xmas dinner menu.
Homemade tamales with fresh homemade salsa and grated mild cheddar cheese.
El Pato Mexican hot tomato Sauce mixed in the rice and green peppers for color.
Fresh refried beans, slightly watery but not sloppy.
Rolled taquitos with sour cream.
Carne asada, grilled with cilantro and onions.
Warm fresh tortillas.
Apple pie and French vanilla ice cream.
I want friends for dinner.
What I want: Chinese food. But that’s true of most days
What we’ll have: roast beef
Seafood paella with shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels. Also a bit of Spanish chorizo and pequillo peppers for some smoky goodness. Accompanied by a really good Rioja. Desert is chocoflan, as always.
I’d like the lobster dinner we had when we were in Portland, ME a few months ago.
But my MIL is going with the same old turkey, ham, and ribs. At least she let me make the ribs - for whatever reason, she boils hers before putting them in the oven with BBQ sauce.
No clue what sides she’s planning, but I know I’ll be helping in the kitchen - she’s 86 and she doesn’t need to be cooking for a dozen people all by herself.
Norwegian Christmas ribs. A large chunk of skin on, bone in, pork belly. The skin scored into tiny squares. Roasted so the crackling is perfect. Potatoes and Norwegian surkål.
I’d like the stuffed lobster we had at Ostra Cosa in Puerto Rico last year.
But I’m doing the ‘Prime’ rib as usual. (This year it’s really USDA Choice.)
I want:
*A ham steak the size of a manhole cover,
*Garlic mashed taters w/butter,
*Steamed broccoli, lightly buttered,
*Those rolls that look like baby’s feet, buttered,
*Carrots cooked in cinnamon butter,
*Some Longhorn Restaurant (killer) mac & cheese,
*Pumpkin pie, as much as you got,
*My Pecan Butter Balls (which I’m eating as we speak).
Green bean casserole gets tossed outside for the wolves.
Ham and cheesy potatoes. Which is nice, because that is what I am going to get.
Although Morgenstern’s dinner sounds good.
Like fried, or do you trick them into boiling themselves? 
I want Bud Lite and chips and salsa, but my kids will be over so I’ll probably be stuck having turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, and gravy…mmmmmmmmmmmm…gravy.
What I want is my Daddys smoked wild duck, but, alas, we will have a fried Turkey and all the holiday-ish sides. I am doing a fresh ham this year,(a request), hope it turns out ok. And ,YAY, pies!!
I was planning on making lasagna for Xmas Day, then my sister must have seen a few spirits and decided to invite us and our mom over. Everything on her menu is stuff neither I nor our mom should have (ham, venison loin, company potatoes, green bean casserole).
So I moved lasagna to Xmas Eve, and will have a nice slab for lunch before we go over to sis’s house.
Lasagna
Chewy garlic bread
Salad
Our traditional meal:
Spaghetti & meatballs
Ham
Cheesy potatoes
Hawaiian buns & Italian garlic bread
Green salad
Dessert will be an entire table covered with assorted Christmas cookies and bars and also ice cream!
And that’s what I really want.
For years when I was married and hosted holiday events, I rotated holiday meals: Prime rib for New Year’s, ham for Easter, turkey for Thanksgiving and goose for Christmas.
Each dinner had its own traditional side dishes. For Christmas, the sides were potatoes roasted in goose fat, stuffing, gravy, Brussels sprouts sauteed with butter and dill, simmered sweet and sour red cabbage with molasses and juniper berries, fresh winter salad, homemade rolls, a massive relish tray, corn fritters, pumpkin pie and a traditional Christmas pudding made with persimmons and hard sauce.
I really want that dinner. With someone else cooking it.
What I’ll actually have: Who knows? I’m kind of in the mood for meat loaf.
I want filipino Lechon, even though I’ve never had it. I just really, really want it.
What I want and am having.
Thick juicy steak
Baked potato with everything
1lb thick cut bacon
Jumbo shrimp
BBQ baked beans
Garlic bread
Optional: crown and Coke
After dinner, me and Mrs. Bitchin’ will sit in the circle and digest.
Each?
BTW, if Santa is reading the Dope (per chance), I want a smoker for Christmas. So next year I can have that wild duck! I promise to be REAL good!
What have you got against wolves? (I kid, I kid.)
Roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, Hawaiian rolls (which I’ve never had before), and a giant chocolate chip cookie, decorated for Christmas, from the bakery. Which is what we’re having.
For food I want a fat young goose. Beats me why exactly, I probably just picked up the idea from A Christmas Carol. But I love goose, there aren’t many good times to make one, so why not Christmas?
