Your Christmas meal plans

[ultraviolet]

Surveying the contents of my refrigerator, I'll probably be making a short rib stew on Christmas Eve. Christmas day will include a movie and lunch at a Chinese restaurant with a couple of friends. Dinner will probably be a roasted chicken, but that's just because I like to roast chickens on Sunday so I can make stock for soup later in the week.

(I guess I don't really celebrate Christmas these days. I sent a few items out to friends in need, but for the most part, it's like any other day for me.)

[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

[salsabike]

Our usual--fresh Dungeness crabs, steamed clams, mashed potatoes, salad, dessert. Paper plates. That's it!

[spazzdog]

It's the 1st family Christmas I've had in too many years to remember, but the tradition here is Mulligan Stew (a family recipe passed down father to son through several generations). Its basically a beef stew with a bunch of veggies in it.

All the step-sisters, spouses, nephew, nieces & spouses & children will come over here (my dad & s-moms) at noon - we eat then open presents and everyone watches football.

There will be 22... well, maybe only 21 as my dad has been in the hospital since Tuesday nite and they aren't sounding like they will discharge him for Christmas yet.

spazz

[azfiddle]

Update: my sister-in-law & her boyfriend ordered a pre-made turkey dinner. We're going to reheat and eat at the adult care home where my mother-in-law is... hope my mother-in-law remembers who I am.

[shootingstar]

Azfiddle: Sounds like a good family turkey dinner to share there at the adult care home with your MIL.

Some changes since original posting at beginning of thread:
butternut squash moved to Christmas Day. He also wants to prepare a brunch of dessert crepes which will have blueberries and saskatoon berries.

Then on Christmas Day dinner we will have savoury crepes.

I'm sure we'll eat a slice of either bakery bought linzertorte which is a German/Austrian tarte with thin hazelnut crust and raspberry jam-almond filling.

We've even figured out vaguely for New Year's Eve....a cheese fondue.

[limewave]

Shootingstar, can I come to your house for dinner?

[Grits]

Everyone (11 total, so not that big a group) is coming to my house after we attend our church service on Sunday. Since I won't be home all morning to cook, I'm putting on a couple of crock pots of potato soup and a pot of chicken and rice soup that morning. It will be soup, sandwiches with a lot of good bread options, and people are bringing salad, homemade rolls, and several kinds of pie. They are used to the traditional big Christmas day meal with a roast or turkey and all the fixings, but hey, they could have had it at their house!

[Veronica]

I think I'm going to make a pot roast with root vegetables.

Veronica

[Chile Pepper]

Shootingstar--coincidentally, the first fennel of summer was in the farmers' market today. Fennel slaw with pork chops tonight!

[shootingstar]

Tell us how your fennel dish turns out --whatever you choose to do with it.

One of the local grocery chain stores, inexplicably has lovely fennel bulb with its feathery fronds at a great price year round. I've never seen it so cheap elsewhere.

We bought some anise seeds also to crush and enhance the slaw flavour.

Of course, limewave others are welcome...maybe for now, imagining by photo later.

[Crankin]

Awaiting my guests for our Chanukah party. It's a pot luck and I volunteered to host this year. Usually we do a simple dairy dinner, no main dish, except maybe tuna fish or salmon salad, but it's gotten out of hand.
DH made latkes all morning and is now reheating them. When I got home from seeing clients, my house smelled like oil! I asked one person to make a salmon salad and I just read on Facebook she made poached salmon and verte sauce... sigh, guess which friend this is?
Then my friend who is making a really good kugel (noodle pudding) volunteered to bring sliced roast chicken that she happened to have in the freezer. We are rounding out the meal with bagels, cream cheese, salad, and of course, the latkes with applesauce and sour cream.
I made sour cream chocolate chip cake and brownies, as well as buying an apple crumble pie at Idylwilde Farms, and ice cream.

[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!