Like Thanksgiving
our Christmas holiday menus don't change very much. We have our favorites that have become
traditions and we just go with it. I
keep it rather simple so that we aren't spending too much time in the kitchen
and have time to really enjoy the holiday itself whereas with Thanksgiving it
is all about being in the kitchen and cooking up a storm.
We have four main
events in December. We start out with
our annual Horse Doover Nite where we prepare a bunch of appetizers and spend
the afternoon and evening decorating our home and our tree for Christmas. It has been a tradition of ours for many
years and we eagerly look forward to it.
Christmas Eve is
another traditional meal where we prepare clam chowder, our version of the Red
Lobster garlic cheese drop biscuits and a big salad. After supper we fix a travel mug with a hot
drink, grab some cookies and jump into the truck to head out and look at
Christmas lights and decorations people have put up. We always go in the truck, not sure why, but
that's how we roll. When we get home we
check Santa Tracker to see how close he is, yes we still do that, and then we
get ready for bed, set out some cookies and hit the hay so he doesn't catch us.
Christmas morning we
open gifts and enjoy hot coffee with cinnamon rolls (from a scary pop open tube-it's
tradition), scrambled eggs and little piggy sausages. Later in the day we have a late dinner (or
early supper whichever you prefer) of roast beef or steaks, Yorkshire pudding,
Au Jus and the some type of vegetable side dish with a salad. Dessert always varies as we like to try
something new each year.
New Year's Eve we usually
have homemade pizza and ring in the New Year and then celebrate New Year's Day
with homemade Chinese food. It is a lot
of cooking and time spent in the kitchen together and always well worth it.
It is funny, but in
our house, we may not remember what we got as gifts each Christmas, but we
always remember the food. What are some
of your traditional meals?
Yorkshire pudding. Be still my heart. Do you make it from scratch? Everything looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI bake lots of traditional South African cakes/cookies for Christmas and we absolutely must have homemade trifle for Christmas dessert. I grew up eating lots of British & Middle Eastern food, so I try to incorporate that too.
That sounds delightful! Yes, I make my Yorkshire pudding from scratch and it is amazingly simple. Check out a recipe and you will be amazed. Or, maybe I should post one.... :)
DeleteWe typically do lasagna on Christmas Eve, and a soup/appetizer bar on Christmas Day. We do a big brunch Christmas morning. For NYE, we've tried a lot of things. This year, we'll be on the last day of a trip, so I assume we'll do a combo of eating leftovers (glamorous!) & planning a few fun things that can travel well as needed.
ReplyDeleteWe've done lasagna for Christmas before. Always a good one. Enjoy all the flavors of the season! :o)
DeleteThere are so many things here that you mention that we do too! And don't you just hate those explosive tubes of cinnamon rolls? I thought it was just me :) It's like popping a balloon and they get all over the kitchen. We still look at the Santa Tracker and drive around looking at Christmas lights and decorations too. And I completely agree, we remember the food more than the presents.
ReplyDeleteD.
Those tubes always scare the poop out of me! But, it's tradition! LOL
DeleteI'm so glad to hear you do the Santa Tracker and Christmas lights too. Warms my heart. ;O)
Always the traditional turkey with all the fixings for Thanksgiving. I make a variety of treats throughout the season. A favorite is raspberry cream cheese pull apart bread in the shape of a Christmas tree for weekend breakfasts. We indulge in the more expensive Honeycrisp apples, Dare crackers with specialty cheeses and salami for weekend appetizer tray style lunches. I also fix homemade Chex Mix and homemade peanut butter cups to enjoy throughout the season. I start a fruitcake around Halloween, and feed it with Myers rum regularly. We usually have the first slice in early December after Sunday lunch. Eggnog with rum for the adults and sparkling cider for the kids figures prominently in the season as well. Christmas eve we usually eat sandwiches, and leave a beer and a pastrami on rye for Santa Claus. (He keeps Kosher, by the way.) Breakfast is bagels with smoked salmon, mimosas and coffee. Dinner is a rib roast, with a cheesecake for dessert. Whew! We eat a lot, don't we? So much of our family life centers around the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteMeg this all sounds wonderful. I often leave Santa a beer with cheese, salami & crackers. Ha! Love it!
DeleteChristmas begins and ends in the kitchen for us as well! Yay!!!
That sounds amazing
DeleteIt looks like our family rolls with a LOT more food at Christmas than some others do. I will admit that our menu is for Christmas Eve and then we still have plenty to eat Christmas Day--no cooking for me then. We will have: baked honey ham, boiled shrimp, chicken and dressing, broccoli rice casserole, candied sweet potatoes, bbq little sausages, pink stuff salad, ambrosia, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and rolls. For dessert: pecan pie, banana split cake, mincemeat pie and lots of homemade cookies. Will serve sweet tea, soft drinks and coffee. Penny S.
ReplyDeleteWowza! That all sounds really good Penny. I'm coming over to your house for Christmas Eve! Ha, ha. :o)
DeleteWe do the traditional Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, and homemade manicotti (it's time consuming to make the crepes instead of using pasta tubes but so easy and so worth it) on Christmas Day. We also do the scary tube cinnamon rolls for breakfast, as my kids prefer them to homemade :(
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really nice. You make the crepes? That is talent!
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