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Be Jealous: My Christmas Menu
In the run-up to Christmas, my wife declared the menu. In the days before, we would have dill pickle soup. On Christmas, we would have ham steaks, polenta, and broccoli.
I had fun with the polenta and used a cookie cutter I have to cut the pieces into the shape of teddy bears.
The broccoli was baked with garlic and butter and salt and pepper* first, and then topped with pignola and shredded cheeses (Swiss, Colby, Monterrey Jack) and baked for another 12 minutes to melt the cheese and brown the pignola.
We were both so stuffed with the ham and broccoli that we didn’t eat all of the polenta bears. And we also are very garlicky.
There is still peppermint stick ice cream waiting, but it will have to wait. No room at the inn.
I told my wife that the ham steak package had four steaks, so we had two left, and we had only used half the broccoli. Guess what we’ll be having for dinner tomorrow. I’m not complaining. Trust me.
So, what was your Christmas feast?
I had my immediate family over diner.
Just 4 of us… We had Turkey, potatoes, green beans (string beans?) Brussels sprouts, Cranberries and stuffing muffins. My mom did most of the heavy lifting in cooking the turkey – I am still not confident in preparing that one. I made cranberries for the first time, and went sugar free, using Truvia sugar substitute. It turned out quite nice.
with apple pie for dessert… Although to call this apple pie, a pie is a vast understatement:
Sunterra Deep Dish Apple Pie
Its also the most expensive apple pie I’ve ever seen. $16.99.
It’s just me. If I want a big meal, I have to be invited somewhere. Luckily, I was.
First, for Thanksgiving. I have these friends who live in South Jersey. They’ve invited me to their Thanksgiving feast for years. I always send them a gift before I go down there. This year we had the dinner on my attractive tablecloth: Turkey (leg for me, of course, and then I take the other one home); stuffing (I love stuffing); a little gravy; I am not big on vegetables. We have a variety of deserts.
For the day before Christmas Eve, I went back to Staten Island (where I come from), to this friend’s Mother’s house. She doesn’t do her big Christmas Eve Dinner anymore, but we had a nice meal.
For Christmas Day, I was invited to a traditional brunch: Eggs, Muffins, Ham, Sausages, Bagels, Bread Pudding, and stuff I didn’t eat.
It is amazing I am not bigger than I am! :-)
Two types of duck: Duck in lime sauce and teriyaki duck, with rice and mixed vegetables in butter. I also made focaccia. Not to be confused with focaccio, which takes ten days to eat.
I’m a leg man, too. Not so much with turkeys, though. I avoid those altogether.
Are you still in Germany? Or did you come home with recent events?
We are here and we cannot come home for mom’s funeral. It’s too expensive and too close to the MEHR Conference at the Augsburg House of Prayer. My youngest sister and brother-in-law agreed with our decision. We will likely next be in the states in the summer.
We always do “ye olde American” for Thanksgiving and each year at Christmas we explore other food. My wife is a superb cook and I’m not too shabby. We went very English pre-Victorian this year using recipes from about 1810-30:
Beef-ala-mode (and no it is not swimming in ice-cream)
Potato and Onion Snow
Creamed Spinach from a 19th-century British Indian cookbook
Cheddar Shortbread
Boiled Apple and Ginger Pudding with spiced rum
Homemade Custard Ice-cream
Pickles and Cheeses
I hope you’ll pardon me, but this sounds quite sad. On the other hand, I am sure you have many wonderful memories of your Mom.
My own Mom is gone over twenty years now. Memories are what sustain us. I was just thinking about this over Christmas: I saw on old Wagon Train episode yesterday. A couple of the women lost their men on the trail, and one of the women told the other that her life is so good because of all the years she had with her man. I know that I wouldn’t be the man I am (whatever that is) without my late Mom.
Standing rib roast, onion-roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, rolls with au jus. For dessert, we had pumpkin and mincemeat pies.
We have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. That way, we don’t have to do any serious cooking on Christmas Day – we can get right down to presents! I did however, make French toast and bacon as breakfast for everyone.
Did you ever check out the Aubrey-Maturin cookbook? I’ve always been scared to try it.
Are you familiar with the Townshends Youtube Channerl?
What’s to fear? Soused pig’s face?
My mother-in-law has let me do most of the cooking the past couple days.
We went over to Terry’s grandma’s last night where I took a big crock pot full of homemade chicken and noodles (my own chicken stock + homemade noodles). We had appetizer trays, and desserts galore to go with.
Yesterday was the big one and we had a ton of people over for supper. We did brunch in the morning with my MIL’s famous cinnamon rolls, Terry’s famous scrambled eggs, and my FIL frying up several pounds of bacon. All the siblings, spouses, and grandkids present. We kind of knickknacked for the rest of the day.
Supper came late, but Terry and I introduced his side of the family to some delicious Southern fare: spiced pecans, deep fried turkey, Mom’s famous dressing, and this cream cheese pudding dessert that’s been a staple of my family get-togethers for as long as I can remember. My MIL made her excellent dinner rolls, we had a couple smoked pork butts that a guy in town had done, and I added a giant pot of Brussels with hog jowl. We had a house full for supper with some of the extended family coming over.
Everyone had a great time!
Yeah, I’m thinking, “Eric and wife like to explore other cuisines at Christmas — and so they looked to the Brits???!”
Dude, did you wanted a Christmas feast or a digestive nightmare? ‘Cause unless you’re making fish and chips, British food is likely to produce a spirit-visiting, Dickensian case of indigestion.
Sounds pretty fearful to me.
We had prime rib. I used the reverse sear method for the first time and it was a success. Also a side dish of hash brown potato casserole the kids have (lovingly) dubbed “greasy potatoes.” It’s buttery! The daughter contributed green bean casserole and I made a raspberry salad – if you can call something with 2 cups of heavy whipping cream a salad.
Of course, we were munching on goodies leading up to the big meal. And we had biscuits with sausage gravy for breakfast.
No, we are not all 300 lb. behemoths – we just eat like ones at this time of year.
NO! I’ve got to get me a copy…good thing my choir members bought their organist an Amazon gift card, mhahaha!
This recipe has been around forever. It’s in all my Mom’s old church cookbooks. Growing up I knew it as Hot Fudge Pudding. Although my husband’s grandmother called it Devil’s Float!
I hear ya…but English food is highly under-rated and Victorian and Regency food is surprisingly easy to digest and light when properly prepared and eaten with caution (ie portions that would have made sense to them), also all the onions and booze helps. We all remarked on the fact that the pudding from my 1821 Housewife’s Cookbook was especially light. In a concession to not being done in by Marley and Co., circa 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 26th, and/or being sent to the privy by too much mustard or gravy, I did eliminate the recommended fish and soup course, and we only had one meat instead of the two or three other options to be served at the second remove, but I was only feeding four adults and two toddlers…otherwise, I might have thrown caution to the wind. Other years we’ve done traditional American farmhouse, German, French, and Slovak. Next year I want to do a proper circa 1910 upper middle-class Czech Christmas dinner.
Thanks so much! I love it, I had not seen this before.
“Snow” or “soup”? Either way, do you have the recipe handy?
I’ve used the reverse sear method four or five times on steaks now. I’ve always been happy with the results. Even more importantly, so has the boss.
Wait, is being a 300 lb. behemoth a bad thing?
Potato Snow or sometimes in some cookbooks denominated as Potatoe and Onions, or Potatoe and Onion Snow or Potatoe and Onion Rice.
This version is from Dr. Kitcheners Cook’s Oracle, as commented and adapted by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson’s The Victorian Cookbook, which is the book I recommend starting with if you wish to cook in the grand Anglo-American Victorian style. There have been lots of other “Victorian” Cookbooks, but her 1989 volume is the best modern attempt in my opinion. Now thanks to google-books you can find the originals without spending a fortune, but her comments and suggestions are so sensible and respectful without trying to “fix” the recipes that I recommend her as the best starting place.
Here are my annotations: I think hand chopped onions work better, and the onions usually take longer than 15 minutes. I recommend using a few extra potatoes as well since there are always a few that have spots that can’t be eaten. The key to this very simple dish is slow gentle cooking with quiet attention. A mix of russet and Yukon gold potatoes are best, I let the potatoes rest after boiling and draining with the lid sealed tight on the pan off the burner for a few minutes so they firm back up before mashing, I think hand mashing works better than whipping or ricing, a tiny amount of half and half makes a slightly creamier version of the above, but don’t overdo it with liquid (milk/cream/half and half), especially if you food process the onions.