Your Christmas meal plans

[Veronica]

Christmas Eve is a Saturday so we'll be doing our regular Saturday routine. Thom works out with the trainer; I go for a run. Saturday lunch is always at Panera. We're usually both fried so we snack our way through dinner.

Christmas breakfast is traditionally cinnamon rolls. I'm trying a new recipe this year that is quick cinnamon rolls rather than the yeasty kind.

Other than that, it will be whatever I feel like cooking.

Veronica

[skhill]

It'll be three, maybe four, for Christmas dinner, so I'm planning on roasting a duck instead of a turkey. The only side set in stone is corn pudding. Gingerbread (the cake kind, not cookies) for dessert.

I've never cooked duck before, so it'll be an adventure. And there's a frozen pizza stashed away in case of a kitchen disaster!

[channlluv]

Our little family tradition is that I make a big pot of slow cooker chili on Christmas Eve, cornbread, salad, etc. Desserts are Trader Joe's seasonal ice creams (soy cherry chocolate chip at the moment) and cookies and maybe a cake that I've baked.

My MIL insists on having the formal Christmas dinner at her house.

In the past, all of DH's sisters, their significant others, their kids (nine cousins, including DD) and their friends and SOs, his mom and dad, and the three of us gathered at our house for a really nice, casual chili dinner spread through the living room, dining room, and spilling out onto the back patio. We had a tree and a fire in the fireplace, and it was nice. By the end of the day, several people were zonked out on the living room floor in front of the fireplace while others watched Christmas movies or played video games.

This year, though, there are only seven of us who will be in town.

I grew up with big family gatherings with my great-grandmother, grandmother, mom, two aunts, three girl cousins, and me in the kitchen cooking, and everyone around the table happily sharing and catching up with family they may not have seen for months. I miss those family gatherings. And for several years I tried to have those kinds of dinners here, but those kinds of dinners are MIL's domain and she felt threatened by my trying to roast a turkey here (she actually sabotaged my Thanksgiving dinner once...long story), especially when her own daughters defected and wanted to have dinner at my house. It got a little ugly, so I decided to just make the least-Christmassy thing I could make and have our gathering on Christmas Eve when everyone was in town, but not so head up about the Big Day itself.

I was actually going to host the first Thanksgiving at our house in ages this year, but I was in the hospital, so DH sent the turkey I'd bought over to his mom's house and she cooked for him, DD, and two of his sisters.

This year, though, no one is coming home for Christmas. She's got two daughters who live with her (and one of their adult sons, who will likely go over to his father's house for Christmas day), one daughter who lives a few minutes north of us, and us, so we'll have seven for the formal dinner at her house.

All the grandkids are off doing other things with with their own/other families. Three newly-wed nieces are spending the holidays with their husbands' families (one in Philly, one in West Virginia, and the other about an hour north of here in Temecula). One Marine nephew is in Afghanistan. One of his sisters is with their father's family in Samoa...so my darling daughter is going to be representing for the whole lot of them.

Of course, it's the same with my family. I'm not home, either. My cousins are spread to the wind, too, and I'm really missing getting to know my young second cousins -- one cousin has a newborn with some health issues. My grandfather passed away just shy of two years ago. My grandmother is in a nursing facility. My mom and her sisters get along okay, but they don't get together often at all. One lives on the other side of their state.

So I'll content myself with making a pot of chili with cornbread.

Honestly, I think I'd enjoy going someplace totally different more, like Hawaii or something.

Roxy

[GLC1968]

Christmas eve we'll probably pick out a new recipe from one of our cookbooks.

For Christmas morning, we'll do our typical weekend breakfast of bacon, and eggs with veggies. I may try a blueberry almond meal muffin recipe if I'm feeling adventurous.

Christmas dinner will be a whole chicken on the chicken roaster with roasted veggies and a salad. This is becoming a tradition for us!

[indysteel]

Christmas eve we'll probably pick out a new recipe from one of our cookbooks.

For Christmas morning, we'll do our typical weekend breakfast of bacon, and eggs with veggies. I may try a blueberry almond meal muffin recipe if I'm feeling adventurous.

Christmas dinner will be a whole chicken on the chicken roaster with roasted veggies and a salad. This is becoming a tradition for us!

Yummy. DH proposed to me the first time I made roast chicken (Cook's Illustrated's recipe fir crispy skin chicken) I'm not sure which/who he loves more: me or the chicken.

[limewave]

Normally I work Christmas Eve and it's a mad frenzy to finish up at the office and then rush home, get the kids, blah, blah, blah get to Christmas Eve service. We have no tradition. In fact, I have absolutely no idea what we've done in the past, would not be surprised if I brought home pizza.

I'm debating what to do, honestly, I'd be happy with a bowl of veggie soup. The kids are SUPER picky eaters right now and nothing will please them but chicken nuggets or pb&j. That's not what I feed them most nights: I usually have to listen to hours of screaming and crying and fit throwing when I present them with a legitimate meal. But I don't want to go through that on Christmas Eve, it's exhausting enough already!

I was thinking about making pork chops with apple chutney . . . but not sure if its really worth the effort (or having to listen to complaining all night).

For breakfast I make an egg and sausage casserole that I can make ahead. Then I have fresh fruit pieces and yogurt. And, of course, the bottomless pot of coffee

[channlluv]

GLC, do you roast your chicken on that ceramic cone-shaped dish with the veggies underneath to soak up the drippings, or is the sombrero-looking thing purely for presentation?

Roxy

[Owlie]

We're doing turkey, as always. I don't know what we're doing for Christmas Eve, since that always changes.

[Anelia]

Our tradition is to have pork for Christmas. So we're going to have steaks

[GLC1968]

GLC, do you roast your chicken on that ceramic cone-shaped dish with the veggies underneath to soak up the drippings, or is the sombrero-looking thing purely for presentation?

Roxy

Roxy - yes, we roast it on that thing. I have a metal version as our ceramic one kept cracking even though we treated it well. It does a fantastic job on both the chicken and the veggies! It works particularly well with free-range birds which tend to be a little less fatty than regular grocery store birds.

In fact, I've never served it that way because the dish gets way too hot and I always overload the veggies (so it can be messy). It's pretty impressive looking for company that might be hanging out in the kitchen as you cook, though!

[solobiker]

I have to work so DH is in charge of cooking. We will be having smoked turkey. It takes about 5 hours to cook on our smoke and I love the way it tastes and there is minimal cleaning involved which is even better