For most of us, Christmas is the first or second biggest family event of the year, especially in the cooking and baking department.
Some people prefer turkey, some prefer ham, and others (like me) prefer beef.
Since I have a small group on Christmas Eve, I usually splurge and get a rib roast (with or without bones), and prepare a few side dishes to complement this yummy main course. There’s a special rich potato and Gruyère cheese casserole, usually a salad and a simple green vegetable, although I have added other things. One year I made a really good mushroom tart with puff pastry (should do that one again, now that the kids eat mushrooms). I make either a mixed berry trifle or a pumpkin steamed pudding with maple sauce for dessert.
On Christmas Day I don’t cook anything, other than breakfast. My daughter’s family goes to my son-in-law’s family for dinner. I’m invited too, but I usually stay at home and relax.
I know that some ethnic groups have special dishes and meals that are prepared for Christmas. For instance, Italians traditionally have a fish and seafood meal on Christmas Eve. Polish families often have dishes like fresh kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, and pierogi.
What do you (or your family) usually prepare for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day dinner?
Stella's Place 
Christmas eve we usually eat either take-out pizza or make a homemade pizza and it’s when I bake sugar cookies for Santa. That of course started when my kids were little and then even after they quit believing in Santa it was a tradition that continued and something still my daughter and I do together.
Christmas it is ham, baked chicken, dressing, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, baked beans, veggies, fruit salad and coconut, chocolate and banana cream pie and my husband always has to have his apple pie.
We are traditional and boring. lol
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Sounds delicious!
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Christmas Eve – Steak, different roasted veggie dishes and some new holiday drinks (spirits) that I haven’t found yet. Any suggestions? Also, make some treats as a group.
Christmas Day – Breakfast undecided but afternoon starts with lots of cheeses and cheese balls with crackers. A couple of “dry” specialty drinks (again no idea what yet) and Honey Baked Ham and Prime Rib for supper with who knows what – maybe cranberry cottage cheese muffins. Pies and Cheesecakes. Lots of pies and cheesecakes.
Any drink ideas?????
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We usually drink wine with dinner – sparkling rose and a pinot noir, maybe. The kids get sparkling cider.
My big kids like beer and port (yuck from me on the port).
I bought a bottle of Framboise (raspberry fortified wine) and I have Kahlua. Thought the two of them would combine to make some kind of special drink. I’ll have to check!
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We make a sangria that works cold or hot as mulled wine. We used to have feuerzangenbowle or cafe brulot but I can’t take the sugar in the bowle and Czarina is caffeine sensitive so it’s a tasty compromise.
As for those of you who already know what you’ll be eating on Christmas, my hat’s off to you. Generally I don’t know what I’m making for dinner on any given day until I’m pressed a few hours prior…or I shoot it in the back yard. The former is more the case than the latter.
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Don’t like the taste of foot; so,
will not be doing the latter. 😉
Am thinking of cooking some beef
someone already killed in Australia. 😉
Hope everyone has a tasty, fantastic
meal or two or three. Plenty of time to
shrink the waistline in prep for next year. 😉
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Might wanna raise those sights a bit…
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Definitely not good
to go through life
with your sights
set low. Always
aim high in life. 😉
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Last year I made wassail for the first time. It was a big hit with everyone and made the house smell wonderful. I did it in the crockpot. Lots of recipes out there, I chose two that sounded good and more or less combined them, dropping an ingredient or two.
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Did you make it non-alcoholic, or alcoholic?
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Non alcoholic, but this year we will probably mix some individual drinks with added liquor. We are also thinking we might make grog.
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It went over so well that I had to make a secon pot of it. I was sure most of them wouldn’t like it, but everyone really loved it.
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If you put the brandy in, when you boil the wassail mixture, much if not most of the alcohol (boils at 173F) will boil off. If you wait until the mixture has boiled and then mix the brandy in more of the alcohol will remain. You also have to factor in the brandy’s proof and the amount of it you are adding to how much mix…either way if you’re drinking it while eating I don’t see the alcohol doing much more than lifting one’s mood a bit…if at all.
Mangi! Mangia! Bevande! Bevande!
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unless you accidentally kick off some recovering alcoholics sobriety in the process of mixing and matching mood alteration techniques and substances….
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I thought a relative erasing of the standards for sobriety was a big part of the wassail thing?
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were there any wails after wassail? or was that whales…..I forget…
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Mix 1 cup unfiltered apple juice, 1/4 cup spiced rum & 2 tbs cinnamon schnapps. Warm or cold it’s good.
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I always cook a ham and a turkey, but this year we are eating at my son’s house, and I am just making a ham, and some vegetables. Another son is bringing braised beef and tortellini.
I don’t know how I feel about such an un-Christmasy addition to the meal, but I’m sure it will be delicious.
I have rigidity issues, and great difficulty with change. It seems long past time for me to get over that, especially since I’m kind of tired of so much holiday cooking.
I say that every year, and every year I exhaust myself cooking.
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😀
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One Christmas Eve I made shrimp scampi fettucine (which I really like) and fresh kielbasa. It was a very casual buffet, and everybody liked it. My SIL loves the beef, and so do I, so we’ll have a roast this year. I already asked him, and he confirmed his preference.
ADD: Last year I added cold shrimp with cocktail sauce. We ate a pound of it!
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Will be making lobster fettuccine alfredo.
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Hmmmmm….rigidity issues. Come and lie on my therapeutic couch while I tell you about how, one Christmas, we built the entire meal (except for dessert) around freshly opened oysters. Only reason Pilgrims ate turkey that Thanksgiving and Christmas was that was all they could shoot in their backyard.
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If I have to eat oysters on Christmas, or any other day, I will need that therapeutic couch. I have tried them, fried and raw. I happily give you my share.
You have setback my ability to be less rigid considerably. And I was on the verge of a breakthrough too.
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Breakthrough huh? Wanna borrow my oyster knife?
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Only to stab you with for continuing to talk about yucky slimy things.
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Just trying to help you come out of your shell.
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if oysters are all there is, I will eat this instead…yuk
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Start the meal with a little soup and crackers.
Oyster stew and oyster crackers. Yummm. 😉
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That was my mother’s favorite for Christmas Eve. Yuck.
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Yum, Yum. 😉
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We had this discussion here the day after Thanksgiving. I’ll eat oysters if there is nothing else. I like clams, and really like mussels. Shrimp and lobster and crab are in the positive column.
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And scallops.
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Yup. I like scallops (forgot).
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stick with red and green with a bit of gold for Christmas….the rest is all sugar and spices and some dead animal body spiffed up and served on nice china
I believe in regidity as a reward of many years spent in gaining what we claim as wisdom, but often is merely sore places from hitting the wrong nail with our emotional hammers.
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On Christmas Eve, we do Tex-Mex. That involves a pot of pinto beans, Spanish rice, red enchiladas and tamales. Both corn and flour tortillas, chips, salsa, blah, blah. OR on Christmas day, depending on when my child can come! When I was a kid my Momma would fix a baked chicken if my dad was TDY, a pork loin or prime rib when he was home (he DESPISED poultry of any sort) depending on the money available.
We also have a standard “Christmas” salad that’s served with pumpkin pie, though it doesn’t go too well with Mexican food. Just a truckload of whipped cream, diced apples, chopped pecans, giant blackish-purple grapes halved and seeded, bananas halved, quartered and sliced. No citrus as it breaks down the whipped cream. 😀
This year, since we have Christmas day to ourselves, prolly just leftovers….. or a steak and baked potato! I love beef, myself.
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Sounds really good! My mother made a salad like the one you described. She called it Waldorf Salad. I don’t think it had bananas in it though.
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All that matters is friends and family eating together.
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We did the European Christmas Eve pig-out with Christmas day being either leftovers or some other light meal. Now we just put all of our over-consumption efforts into one huge Christmas gorgeathon. Age takes its toll.
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Mom always made a deep dish, chiffon
pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust
and covered in whipped cream. Yum. 😉
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I recommend a spray of airwick or fabrize to accompany your Eve sup…..we garnish our Tex Mex with a side plate of Rolaids and Tums for the weak of digestion. Love to recall that most range cooking, and Mexican recipes, were created to cover up the taste of spoiled meat and old grease, and to get hot enough to kill bacteria while having enough pepper in it so you don’t remember that actual taste very long.
Sangria, and Dos XX were constructs of the gringo pallet trying to make peasant and cowpoke fare into some form of elitist citified Dallas or Houston restaurant food.
Corn chips were destroyed in Mexico when the EPA forced the farmers to divert corn into fuel stock, making them rich, and the peasants have no grain food for tortillas….
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I used to have a bos who was from Louisiana. He always cooked seafood for Christmas.
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Lotta that down heah. 😀 Notsomuch Tex-Mex….
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LOL – I was gonna add I don’t have to beat anyone to death over the last package of dry pinto beans or last package of tortillas. 😀
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Wanna trade dinner guests?
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czar…..there are some many opportunities in the discussions posted below about various foods and their names and constitutional constructs that I have had to absolutely work very hard to just leave it alone, altho my mind is rolling in the mud over the possible verbal perversions…….maybe you should take over and I will stay off the ban list for a little longer hopefully….so tempting….
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No bites…I’ll reel in the line.
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See…..
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For quite a while, it’s just been my DH and I every Christmas eve. We go to Mass and then do a seafood risotto and celebrate the Feast of Seven Fishes. Since we moved, I’ve invited some neighbors (like us) who will also be without family Christmas eve. Truthfully, I’m tired of feelin’ sorry for myself and for some reason……. feel called to feed them 😉
Christmas day, we will be able to be with family and most likely it’ll be ham and scalloped potatoes (like Mom always did). I get the rigidity thing. Old habits die hard.
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I love scalloped potatoes, and they are great for a crowd. The version I make for Christmas Eve is really dressed up, made with Gruyere cheese and full-fat cream. The dish is first rubbed with garlic, then butter. The very thin potatoes are first soaked a while in water, then dried, and layered carefully, but only three layers, and each is followed by salt, pepper, and grated cheese. Cream is poured over it all, and it is baked until browned and bubbly.
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OMG mouth watering right now.
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The one we always used to make used condensed milk, no garlic or cheese, but butter and onions added in the layers. Delicious too!
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lips that touch crawdads will never touch mine…….
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Ya know, the people next door are sooooo serious, they don’t know what a good time they’re missing over here.
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they are too busy worrying about Jeff Sessions to enjoy the holidays.
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Sessions will do what Sessions will do and the holidays will come regardless.
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Sessions, Trump, and T-Rex are going to all have damn good Christmas cheer…no matter what the concern trolls and the tweeters say or do……MAGA on our leaders.
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I have no idea. Mrs. Nyet usually invents dinners from scratch I never thought possible in a microwave while traveling.
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Nyet, please don’t ask me how I know, but this stuff is good even when it isn’t Christmas.
I’m pretty sure it tastes really good with peanuts added to the popcorn, but like I said, no ask, no tell….
https://thecookful.com/caramel-corn-pan-microwave/
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Was at the local barber shop discussing sausage the other day and the guy who was getting his hair cut mentioned something about a rack of lamb someone had requested. Turns out he owns the local sheep farm I’ve been meaning to call….
So I will get to watch the sheep shearing process on Dec. 15, bring home a fleece for spinning, AND have ordered a leg of lamb for Christmas day. Christmas Eve is generally lasagne, salad, bread and cookies for dessert – all things that people can grab as they come through the door.
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This is a recipe I got from a caterer friend. I only made it once, and it is for a boned leg of lamb, but it was really delicious:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Use whole New Zealand boned leg of lamb (Costco). Remove wrapping except for small ‘girdle’ around the center to hold it together.
Make slits in meat. Insert 1/2 cloves of garlic and fresh rosemary. Rub with olive oil, salt with kosher salt and heavily pepper with fresh cracked pepper. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the leg. (The idea is to create a heavy crust on the roast) Place on rack over roasting pan.
Roast at 425 degrees for the first 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees. Baste every 30 minute with more fresh lemon juice (squeeze over). Cook to internal temperature of 140 degrees; roast will increase temp to 145 degrees while resting. Remove roast on rack to a platter (cover with foil).
Remove fat from roasting pan. Deglaze pan with white wine, then put drippings into a sauce pan. Make gravy, adding chicken stock and more lemon juice to taste; thicken with slurry of cornstarch and water or stock.
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That is EXACTLY how I was taught in England by my DH’s family to cook roast lamb! The only difference was we used a rolled boneless shoulder joint, and it was Scottish lamb. It is fantastic! With mint sauce, mashed potatoes, Brussell Sprouts, and Yorkshire Puddings! Always a Christmas Pudding for dessert, yuck.
I make little mince pies for him at Christmas just for his memories. I had never eaten lamb once in my entire life when we met, it’s one of my favs. He also gets an Indian curry out of the leftovers.
I love all of the crazy British customs at Christmas. They do some pretty funny stuff.
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Think I might make herbed Yorkshire puddings for Christmas Eve. I haven’t done that in a long time.
When I was a child, we would go to Canada at some point during the Holidays. My grandmother always made a steamed carrot pudding with a custard sauce, and it was delish. I have a recipe I make for pumpkin steamed pudding with walnuts and maple custard sauce. Not all steamed puddings are yucky. Have you ever had spotted dick? It looks okay (on tv). Grandma also made a variety of yummy tarts – raisin, raspberry etc. She also had biscuits and bran muffins on the table at every meal.
I was watching the series Victorian Farm on YouTube, and they made what we would call head cheese for Christmas, but they called it something else – brawn, I think. That is something that my father liked. His grandfather and uncle were sausage makers, so I guess it figures.
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I worked with a guy from England until I retired a couple of years ago. His wife would send us a plate of little mince tarts every year at Christmas time. Mince was my mother’s favorite. Can’t say that it’s mine, but I like a small tart now and then.
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The little pies are pretty good. Spotted Dick is good with lashings of custard poured over. My fav is Sticky Toffee Pudding. Very good!. What sort of herbs do you put in your Yorkies? My DH always makes them and they are delicious, but maybe I can talk him into a little embellishment!
I always tease him and call them “Yorkshire Terrorists”! His are actually delicious, and we’ve always fought over them. Mmmmmm…can’t wait.
Head cheese, um, no ty. My step dad tried to feed a piece to our cat when we were young. Cat did his best to cover it up! I didn’t blame him at all.
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Chives and Italian parsley in the Yorkies. Some people add rosemary and/or thyme.
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I will try that! Thanks!
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I think that is what the congressmen and hollywood types like too…occassional small tarts.
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yeppers….all that blood pudding and mash and stuff soaked in cream….right up there with a really good haggis….
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Boooy that sound GOOD! Thanks, Stella!
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I’ve deboned a lamb leg myself, then made a few lengthwise slashes from the inside to make it lay flat with the inside facing up. Season that side with garlic, rosemary and thyme, and salt, then roll it up and tie it so it’s the same thickness all over, as best you can, then season the outside with olive oil, black pepper, a hint of mace, mustard powder, ginger powder, and ground dried ripe home grown serrano chiles, and a few drops each of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
Roast as you described, but without basting.
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you people wouldn’t actually kill and eat me on Christmas would you….my ancestors were all in the manger when the Messiah was born…and they didn’t cook me for his birthday.
oh…..the Silence of the Lambs….
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I could never eat lamb in the spring when they were so young and cute, leaping around in our back yard(farm). However, by September, they looked just like their moms, so eat away!
They have to grow up to be big enough to eat, lol!
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A Christmas Cracker! You and someone who sits at the dinner table next to you pull opposite ends. It explodes with a crack! Inside there is a toy (Cracker Jack type of wee doodad), a paper crown that you have to wear for dinner, and a joke written on a paper that you have to tell at the table. It’s and old tradition, but seemed weird to me when I spent my first Christmas there in 1988.
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Do not propose this at Christmas in Georgia…..they are sensitive to the word cracker.
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Just found this recipe for Herb & Apple Bread Pudding. Sounds intriguing, and it’s by Ina Garten. Her recipes always turn out good.
https://www.eater.com/2016/11/5/13393492/ina-garten-herb-apple-stuffing-recipe
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Whatever food you
might have to eat;
don’t forget to… 😉
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great thought, good looking pies….really dirty rolling pin…..
…joke on me…as a young man trying to help my grandmother, I washed her rolling pin in the sink…….I think she might have beat me with a spatula or a big wooden spoon over it….I guess that was when I learned NEVER EVER wash a wooden rolling pin…
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Oh, that beef picture looks so good!
We’re not traditionalists, cooking whatever strikes our fancy and is available at Christmas. Last year it looked pretty much like Stella’s picture; the previous year was turkey, I think.
Son wants to have a dinner at our house for his college friends this coming week-end. Dinner for 12, I think it will be. I suggested perhaps I might make spare ribs for the event, and the look on his face and the soft moan of ecstasy that escaped his lips told me he thinks it’s the most awesomest idea ever. 🙂
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Mama moved the big dinner to Christmas Eve when my sister got married so she & her husband didn’t have to eat two big meals in one day. Big dinner always included turkey, giblet gravy, herb stuffing, whipped potatoes, canned petit point peas & carrots (replace by frozen when they invented that, then peas with tiny pearl onions when they arrived in the freezer case), Waldorf salad (I posted it in the Thanksgiving food thread), pumpkin & mince pies and egg nog with rum. Kids got a little rum when they reached 15 years old. One year Daddy was out of rum (horrors!) and put vodka in the egg nog, and everyone got too tipsy!!! Ate off Mama’s good dishes (Rosenthal Victoria – the ivory plate with roses & gold on the edge). Christmas Day was eating leftovers &a reading.
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Somehow, your past makes me better understand the value of traditions, that they are a warm, welcoming home when one is wearied with adventure.
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And why we so grieve when our parents/grandparents die. As the daughter of friends who died recently said, “I haven’t just lost my mom & dad, I have lost my home in New Orleans.”
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GGS has totally embraced the traditions. Czar said he craves the stability & escape. First thing he asks is when we will open the dining room table to put in the leaves, then he chooses the tablecloth. He has learned the rules about carrying Mama’s dishes carefully. And, amazingly, the kid who balks at tasting a new food eats everything when at the holiday table!
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My grandsons are very into tradition, and everything that we do at my house is now a tradition that I cannot change without protest!
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Please have a look at my recent blog post about Christmas tradition in Poland, Brazil and England if you have a moment https://mindset4progress.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/christmas-in-europe-and-at-the-end-of-the-world/
Merry Christmas 🙂
Aggie
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