Christmas Menu


Suzie
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I am hungry people :P. Please post here what you will be making/preparing/let others prepare :P for Christmas.

I will be making ham, mash potatoes and gravy, beefche's mac and cheese (it is a classic now for Thanksgiving and Christmas), perhaps a green bean casserole, some rolls and a salad. Cheesecake perhaps? I don't know yet.

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The meal I look forward to the most for Christmas is actually Christmas Eve because of mine and Beefche's traditional Christmas Eve International Dinner. This year is Ireland and the menu is:

  • Shepard's Pie (and yes, we're using lamb).
  • Colcannon
  • Apple Barely Pudding

I might possibly make some soda bread depending on if I'm feeling up to it. For those curious, previous years were:

Greece:

  • Spanikopita
  • Greek Village Salad

Italy:

  • Mushroom Parmesan Risotto
  • Crusty bread (but that was purchased)

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We are having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and will be feeding about 10 people.

We will be having:

Turkey, salmon or pork loin

Roast potatoes

Carrots

Sprouts

Peas

Sweetcorn

Broccolli

Cornbread

Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Desert will be:

Chocolate Cheesecake or

Chocolate Yule Log

I love cornbread! But I am not good at making it. Do you have a good recipe for it?

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Dravin, that's very cool. I am curious, are you or Beefche chefs?

We're cooks, but I wouldn't say we're chefs (and I bake). Usually I'm the one doing the cooking (and shopping) for our international dinner as, at least so far, I have more time leading up to, and on, Christmas Eve to get it done. You'll note the menu isn't your standard huge holiday menu, but that's because:

  1. I'm making it myself and I don't want to juggle a half dozen or more menu items.
  2. It's just the two of us so if I made a ton of food there would be way to many leftovers.

How do you all come up with all these great international dishes? Do you prepare some of the dishes in advance and taste to know you are doing it right?

Usually I just do some internet research, look at highly rated recipes, look at places like Wikipedia for ideas of dishes from X country that look intriguing, if I knew someone from the location in question I'd probably ask for their input as well. I'm sure that means one of these days we may end up with a dud on the menu (not all that looks tasty, is) and I certainly can't vouch that, "This is just like an Y grandmother would make it!", but the whole point is to explore, try new things, make something we'd otherwise be too timid to make at home. Sometimes the price you pay is that you find out it is something that you don't find fantastic. It's all part of the experience of trying new things.

In some cases I can adjust as I'm cooking to steer a recipe if while making it I start thinking, "Okay, that is calling for way to much Z." but if it is a baked type dish that is a little limited. For instance the spanikopita (casserole style) didn't have enough feta in it for our tastes, so if we made it again I'd adjust the ratios a little bit but it was still good and it was still a gustatory excursion. I try to steer towards traditional recipes, since the idea is to take a taste bud trip out of the country which is a bit ruined if you reach for a recipe that is too heavily Americanized but in the end I still want it to be good and this mouth houses American taste buds.

As far as being able to prepare it correctly in a technical sense, I try not to stretch my cooking skills overly much for this occasion. I tend to save experimenting with new cooking techniques for other times and there are dishes that I consider trying if the techniques involved aren't either:

  1. More involved then I want to put up with.
  2. More involved then I feel like I can confidently handle without a steep learning curve.
  3. Something we don't have the equipment or desire to do. For instance Beefche doesn't like frying in the house and if something requires a blender I have to pass on it as we don't have one (I could probably use the food processor instead but if we're talking about a batch of soup or something we run into #1).

Edited by Dravin
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beefche's mac and cheese (it is a classic now for Thanksgiving and Christmas)

Oh, wow. Thank you for making me feel special! I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much!

Dravin, that's very cool. I am curious, are you or Beefche chefs? How do you all come up with all these great international dishes? Do you prepare some of the dishes in advance and taste to know you are doing it right?

No, we both just love to cook. We both have good instincts when it comes to cooking, so we don't make the things in advance. I can't think of anything either of us has made that was a complete disaster. Of course, we've made things that we won't repeat usually because we just didn't like the recipe.

We actually just think of a country or culture and think of dishes that sound good and easy enough to do. We'll look up recipes online. We used Giada DeLaurentes recipe for risotto.

We have a lot of countries in mind for future. Our rule is if we choose something we are familiar with, then we can't make something we know how to make. That's why when we did Italy, we didn't go with spaghetti and meatballs.

Someday when I'm not working so much during the holidays, I'd like to expand on this and maybe bring in a tradition or lesson or something from the country. I think it would be fun to do some research on Christmas (or similar winter holiday for non-Christian countries) and do one of them along with our dinner.

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Oh, wow. Thank you for making me feel special! I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much!

Thanks. I love it because it is so gooey and delicious like a great mac and cheese should be!

A couple of countries and areas for your future consideration:

1. Christmas Island

2. Papua New Guinea

3. Maldives

4. San Marino

I have a long list eh and I did not particularly travel to any of these areas but would be cool to find out what you guys can come up with.

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I love the international meal idea for Christmas Eve! We tried making a dinner like Mary and Joseph might have had on Christmas Eve one year, and it went over like a lead brick.

I can't decide what to make for Christmas dinner. We range anywhere from frozen burritos to a full turkey dinner.

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Eowyn, what about having everyone make their own mini pizzas? I can't remember the age range of your kids, but I'm gonna guess that at least the oldest can do this.

I use canned biscuits, but I'm sure the canned pizza dough would be good too. I just stretch out the biscuits with my hands. I then put on some sauce and toppings I like. Then just bake them according to the biscuit directions.

Some toppings:

red sauce

cheeses (you can use others besides mozarella)

pepperoni

ham (I'd get Canadian bacon to use as that's already cooked and easy to cut up beforehand)

pineapple

veggies--peppers, mushrooms, onions, broccoli, etc.

You could also have them do dessert pizzas for themselves. Using the same dough, have cinnamon/sugar mixed, apple pie filling, cherry pie filling, choc chips, etc.

I think that would be fun to do as a family. There would be some prep work, but I think that would be less than cooking a whole meal. And clean up could be quicker if you put all of the ingredients in a tupperware thing in the first place. Once done, just put on the lid and voila! done!

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Eowyn, what about having everyone make their own mini pizzas? I can't remember the age range of your kids, but I'm gonna guess that at least the oldest can do this.

I use canned biscuits, but I'm sure the canned pizza dough would be good too. I just stretch out the biscuits with my hands. I then put on some sauce and toppings I like. Then just bake them according to the biscuit directions.

You can also do it with bagels.

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We're probably doing Costco breaded chicken tenderloins with white gravy, and my Sinfully Delicious Mashed Potatoes (mashed potatoes mixed with obscene amounts of chopped bacon, enough butter to stop a buffalo's heart cold, and enough ranch dressing to drown a yak; topped with melted cheddar).

In the past we've gone a little more highbrow with a beef roast simmered in a sparkling cider reduction; but it takes hours and the kids aren't that patient.

Growing up, family tradition was homemade breaded shrimp with tartar sauce and rice on Christmas Eve and homemade hamburgers Christmas Day night. When our budget allows, we might re-institute the shrimp tradition.

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Dinner

Christmas Gumbo

Oysters w sorrel sauce & bacon (and on the half as I snitch ones and stab 'em open before they go on the BBQ)

Shrimp étouffée

Devilled eggs

Dessert

Mincemeat pie

Plum pudding w hard sauce

Bûche de Nöel

Noshing (all day)

Norweigan Sandwich Cake

Brunch

Waffles & sausage

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Sinfully Delicious Mashed Potatoes (mashed potatoes mixed with obscene amounts of chopped bacon, enough butter to stop a buffalo's heart cold, and enough ranch dressing to drown a yak; topped with melted cheddar)..

My goodness, while you prepare the mashed potatoes your wife is alerting the paramedics?

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Here's from a previous thread:

My mom always made mac and cheese and it's so yummy (at least to our family). As Dravin said, we use macaroni (cook it slightly under done, drain). Add about 1/4 cup milk, about a tablespoon of butter (you can omit this) and then lots of American cheese. We aren't fancy, we use the Kraft Singles (or the equivalent) and open them each, one by one. We tend to use a whole package of cheese with a box of macaroni (maybe a few more slices of cheese). And we put all of that together in the same pot the pasta was cooked in. Just slowly heat that all up to melt the cheese. Add milk or cheese to get the consistency you want.
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