Over the past several years, I’ve created a tradition among my family, my in-laws, and my friends of a lavish feast on Christmas. I’d spend a couple of days making all the food from scratch, from the appetizers to the dessert. And we’d invite our parents, siblings and close friends, some 12-20 people would attend. (Mind you, this was in our tiny 1400 sq ft house with a kitchen not much bigger than a broom closet.)
The main course is always a beef dish, either prime rib or Beef Wellington. I have never cooked a turkey, mostly because I don’t like turkey enough to deal with all the leftovers. I mean, I enjoy it once in a while, but not enough to warrant cooking a whole bird. I suppose that some year soon I’ll roast a duck or goose, just as a change of pace.
This year is a little sad for me: since we have moved to Reno, none of my family will be able to attend (although my wife’s mother and sister will travel to see us). But that won’t stop me from cooking! In fact, I’m going to have an open house on Dec 24th for my colleagues and neighbors in addition to Christmas dinner.
So, here’s the menu for Christmas day:
Cream of bell pepper soup
Beef Wellington
Sauteed mushrooms
Candied sweet potatoes (a sine qua non with my wife)
Garlic mashed potatoes and gravy
Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce
Broccoli with cheese sauce
Glazed carrots
and for dessert, chocolate mousse
For the open house, I’ll be making a wide variety of goodies, including:
Chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles
Chocolate truffles
Cakes
Grilled shrimp with bacon
Cherry tomatoes stuffed with salmon mousse
Cucumber slices with crabmeat salad
…and that’s in addition to veggie and cheese platters, assorted dips, and possibly fondue.
If you happen to be in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve, drop on by for a cup of cheer and some food
Soooooo, what is everyone else serving this Christmas?
Yes, we do Christmas Tacos. They’re just regular tacos, only mom makes them on Christmas, so we call them Christmas Tacos.
The night before, we go to my aunt’s house and do the big meal- turkey (fried), ham and all the veggies and sides. After that, mom figures we don’t want it again, so she started doing tacos years ago. It also allow us to sort of graze in the evening.
Unless it’s nice enough to go fishing, and I catch a trout, and I take it to my former possible mother-in-law, and she doesn’t have anything planned, and SHE cooks it. Then I’ll have trout.
And a bottle of Absolut vodka. Of which I’ll drink about at third, at most. And either a Thin Man film festival or Rene Zellweger film festival.
I’m alone at Christmas this year. I’ve done a lot of them alone (small family, distant in miles) so I kind of have a routine down (it’s usually blackberry brandy and fishing, though not in that order.)
But if I was in Reno I’d love to stop by and I’d bring your family some krumkake.
I was thinking of stuffing and roasting a Cornish game hen and eating it with Brussels sprouts (hey, I love the things), mashed potatoes and gravy.
My sister remembers a couple of years ago when I drove around looking for a Denny’s or something and finally ended up eating at a Norm’s. So to prevent me from dining alone, she’s invited me down to San Diego. She wanted to deep-fry a turkey at the beach, but I think she’s going to cook something at her place instead. I don’t know what, but I suspect ham or something.
My mom’s husband has to work on Christmas and Christmas Eve, so we’re all meeting at a Mexican restaurant for brunch on the 23rd and I’ll head down to Sis’s on the 25th.
Turkey or ham. Mashed potatoes. Dinner rolls. Peas & corn. Glazed carrots. Sweet potatoes (most of which remains uneaten, so we feed it to the parrots as their Christmas Treat). Little baby pickles. And for dessert, chocolate puddin pie. Christmas is basically Thanksgiving Redux.
croissants with cheese and ham
orange juice (I know I should get in the spirit, but hold the champagne. Even if it’s Christmas, I still don’t like the bloody stuff)
Lunch at my parent’s house :
seafood platter served either at home, or at the beach (did I mention it’s summer down here)
BYO alcohol.
Dinner at our house :
Usually we are too full from lunch and breakfast, but if a little peckish, we will have fruit or toasted sandwiches.
Country ham with a sorghum glaze, sweet potato-grits casserole, home-made crescent rolls, some form of cranberries, possibly a cream soup of some kind, maybe a jam cake… and that’s about all so far.
If I’m lucky I’ll have time to eat Christmas Dinner at my moms. It’d be the usual ham, vegetables, rolls, pie, potatoes, and other various good things. But in all likelihood I’ll miss it because I have to work the day after Christmas and I’ll have to leave my moms early if I want to make it back at a decent hour. How I hate being poor
We just got an invite to bro-in-law’s house - I have no idea what dinner will be, but I expect we’ll be asked to contribute. Whatever it is, it won’t be a big deal - just another dinner…
We always gather for Christmas Eve dinner. We alternate who hosts. Last year everyone came here, so this year everyone goes to my brother’s.
Last year we served:
Beef Tenderloin (pricey but so worth it)
mashed potatoes
peas and those little teensy onions
parkerhouse dinner rolls
Raspberry Spinach salad (pretty with starfruit)
Sherry Trifle
I don’t know what my brother and his wife have planned for this year.
It might be a Roast Beast, or it might be a lasagne.
dwyr pretty pretty please share the recipe for sweet potato-grits casserole. I am all intrigued.
Christmas Dinner at my Folks:
Chicken pie ( not not nasty chicken pot pie! I’m talking chicken in a rich, eggy cream sauce with top and bottom pie crusts…YUM
Greens
Sweet potatoes
Corn
Squash
Green beans and peas
Chicken and dressing
Giblet gravy
Home made biscuits (drool!)
Chocolate cake
Red velvet cake
Homemade peanut butter chocolate balls
Fried apple and peach pies
Irish potato candy
Pecan pie
Sweet potato pie
After which Swampbear will moan and groan for hours on end because he will make the usual pig of himself.
In the morning, we’ll have homemade candy-cane shaped coffeecakes, blueberry & cherry. We’ll also have coffee with a variety of liquours - Bailey’s, Kahlua, Frangelica, etc.
After we open the presents, we’ll probably pop the first bottle of champagne, and maybe a cheese plate.
I’m thinking dinner this year will be beef, maybe wellington. I had Thanksgiving at my house for the first time in 3 years, and we had our fill of turkey. So maybe beef, with some sides. Haven’t thought about it a lot. My parents are coming out, so that will be fun.
Stevearino, why don’t you try cooking a turkey breast? I think the amount of meat on that should be just enough. I will probably get together with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Nothing special but each others’ company.
