Christmas Eve/Day menus

[empress of self-improvement]

Not pizza! Took me 4 days to eat that damn pizza from Thanksgiving. Probably just get a couple subs when I get out of work and call it a day. I have no interest in peopling and already told my sister that I'm staying home. In-laws are of the out of sight, out of mind variety so I haven't heard from any of them since October. Fine with me! Most of them refuse to take the virus seriously so I don't want to be anywhere near them.

[Miss Tequila]

Dec 4, 2020 8:46:49 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Maybe French onion soup. We have prime rib. I have a melting potato recipe I love. And 20 different kinds of sweets.

I’ve never heard of a melting potato. Could you share your recipe please?

ETA: I read further and saw you posted the recipe. Looks delicious. Thanks!

[thyme4change]

Dec 4, 2020 22:38:58 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

Dec 4, 2020 8:46:49 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Maybe French onion soup. We have prime rib. I have a melting potato recipe I love. And 20 different kinds of sweets.

I’ve never heard of a melting potato. Could you share your recipe please?

ETA: I read further and saw you posted the recipe. Looks delicious. Thanks!

On the plate, they look kinda fancy - especially if you sprinkle a fresh herb on top. But it is just russet potatoes, butter and broth. I got way more credit than I deserved for them. But don't tell my family! They think the potatoes are special. 😀

[irishpad]

I love cooking and so I love this thread! 


Miss Tequila Our family for years got together every other year for a few days at Christmas (we are spread out and my siblings went to in-laws the opposite years)  One year I made Cioppino (an Italian fish stew) for one of the meals and they loved it.


thyme4change   Those melting potatoes look great.   I've bookmarked that recipe and will try it for sure! (ETA, anything melted in lots of butter is going to be great!)

[jelloshots4all]

Dec 4, 2020 6:36:27 GMT -5 irishpad said:

Family tradition is oyster stew to start and the ham and sides.  I love oyster stew and so simple to make.  In past years at my parishes, we (other priest, seminarians that are home) would gather for a Christmas Eve meal between the early Mass (about 4 or 5 p.m.) and the late Mass (anywhere from 10 p.m. - Midnight) and I would do something different every year: pork crown roast, lamb crown roast, cornish hens, prime rib, etc.   Probably not doing it this year since we are adding more Masses so that we spread out the number of people at each service so will not have time for much of a meal.   

irishpad, my grandmother always made oyster stew for Christmas.  I liked the broth with lots of oyster crackers 

[Tennesseer]

The mentioning of oyster stew reminded me as kids back in the '50s my mom served us Campbell's Oyster Stew condensed soup. Though not the same as homemade oyster soup, Campbell's version was tasty.I liked it.

I wondered if Campbell's still made their canned version of it and I see they do though I have never seen it in stores over the years. It can be ordered on-line.

[Ava]

Not a clue what's on the menu.
I'm 99% sure I'll stay home on my own. The two friends who invited me to their respective homes for Christmas Eve and New Year are hosting additional guests and I don't feel comfortable spending quite a few hours indoors with 8-9 people.
I work Christmas Eve, so it will be a regular day and dinner will be whatever.
I'll probably cook something for Christmas, not sure what yet.
No idea what'll happen on New Year's Eve or New Year. Probably the same, stay home and cook something tasty.

[Deleted]

My maternal grandmother always made oyster stew on New Year's Eve. It was another occasion for all the aunts, uncles and cousins to gather and an opportunity for the kids to stay up way past midnight. None of us kids liked the oyster stew, but we thought it was dandy that we got to ring in the New Year. We'd go back to grandparents' house again on New Year's afternoon for another holiday dinner.

Christmas Eve was always a big occasion at their house starting at 7, but Christmas dinner was sometimes at noon, sometimes at 4 so that would explain working 7-3 or 3-11. My mother and aunts must have done a lot of the cooking if my grandmother worked Christmas Day.

Thinking back to those years, I'm wondering how in the heck she managed to do all that because she was a nurse and worked a swing shift. Maybe after the first 20-30 years at the same hospital and being head nurse she got to arrange her schedule to accommodate holidays.

Wish I could ask her...

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I'm going to have to try that melting potato recipe, that looks really good and I might be able to do it with my prime rib.

Prime rib has to be one of the easiest things to make, ever, once you get a good hunk of meat.  I lay down a bed of carrots, onions, celery and garlic in a pan.  This bed of vegetables is the rack for the prime rib.  The prime rib gets slits cut in it and slivers of garlic get shoved into the slits.  The meat gets a layer of Kitchen Bouquet, and heavy salt and pepper.  A box of beef stock goes in the bottom of the pan and put into the oven as high as the oven goes for 30 min with a meat thermometer in it (I use one you read outside the oven).  Turn the oven off after 30 min and DO NOT OPEN OVEN.   Pull meat out when it reached 120°, cover with foil and let set.  Carry over cooking will take the meat to perfectly medium rare.

The vegetables get pulled out of the beef stock.  One year, I tried to blend them up to thicken the gravy but the gravy tasted too veggie and not enough meat, and wound up orange from the carrots, not horribly appetizing.  I use that liquid to make the gravy.  

If you cook potatoes for mashed potatoes in half and half, they taste incredible.  After they've cooked, use the half and half they cooked in to finish up the potatoes.  

Not a low calorie meal, I only do it a few times/year for special occasions.





I'm hungry NOW!!

[Tennesseer]

Dec 5, 2020 15:32:12 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I'm going to have to try that melting potato recipe, that looks really good and I might be able to do it with my prime rib.

Prime rib has to be one of the easiest things to make, ever, once you get a good hunk of meat.  I lay down a bed of carrots, onions, celery and garlic in a pan.  This bed of vegetables is the rack for the prime rib.  The prime rib gets slits cut in it and slivers of garlic get shoved into the slits.  The meat gets a layer of Kitchen Bouquet, and heavy salt and pepper.  A box of beef stock goes in the bottom of the pan and put into the oven as high as the oven goes for 30 min with a meat thermometer in it (I use one you read outside the oven).  Turn the oven off after 30 min and DO NOT OPEN OVEN.   Pull meat out when it reached 120°, cover with foil and let set.  Carry over cooking will take the meat to perfectly medium rare.

The vegetables get pulled out of the beef stock.  One year, I tried to blend them up to thicken the gravy but the gravy tasted too veggie and not enough meat, and wound up orange from the carrots, not horribly appetizing.  I use that liquid to make the gravy.  

If you cook potatoes for mashed potatoes in half and half, they taste incredible.  After they've cooked, use the half and half they cooked in to finish up the potatoes.  

Not a low calorie meal, I only do it a few times/year for special occasions.

I'm hungry NOW!!

Do you serve you prime rib with horseradish sauce on the side? They go great together.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 5, 2020 18:22:33 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Dec 5, 2020 15:32:12 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I'm going to have to try that melting potato recipe, that looks really good and I might be able to do it with my prime rib.

Prime rib has to be one of the easiest things to make, ever, once you get a good hunk of meat.  I lay down a bed of carrots, onions, celery and garlic in a pan.  This bed of vegetables is the rack for the prime rib.  The prime rib gets slits cut in it and slivers of garlic get shoved into the slits.  The meat gets a layer of Kitchen Bouquet, and heavy salt and pepper.  A box of beef stock goes in the bottom of the pan and put into the oven as high as the oven goes for 30 min with a meat thermometer in it (I use one you read outside the oven).  Turn the oven off after 30 min and DO NOT OPEN OVEN.   Pull meat out when it reached 120°, cover with foil and let set.  Carry over cooking will take the meat to perfectly medium rare.

The vegetables get pulled out of the beef stock.  One year, I tried to blend them up to thicken the gravy but the gravy tasted too veggie and not enough meat, and wound up orange from the carrots, not horribly appetizing.  I use that liquid to make the gravy.  

If you cook potatoes for mashed potatoes in half and half, they taste incredible.  After they've cooked, use the half and half they cooked in to finish up the potatoes.  

Not a low calorie meal, I only do it a few times/year for special occasions.

I'm hungry NOW!!

Do you serve you prime rib with horseradish sauce on the side? They go great together.

Yep....freshly made, never jarred.

[irishpad]

Horseradish....... yummmmm   I like it straight, no sauce.  Will even sneak a spoon full just as a treat every once in a while.

Funny story about my first experience of it.   My maternal grandparents grew horseradish.   Us grandkids in the summer would get a chance to stay with them for a few days (we lived a hour away)  Anyway, when I was about 5 or 6, grandpa said, "come here and try this" and fed me a spoonful of horseradish.   Of course he knew as a kid what my reaction was going to be and he laughed at it.   I don't think I had horseradish again until I was a teenager.   


ETA: A younger cousin of mine died of MS 10 months ago.  I told that horseradish story during the homily.  After the funeral, about half of the 20 cousins told me they had also experienced that with grandpa.   lol  

[Wisconsin Beth]

My Dad grew horseradish in the garden, up against the garage wall.  I don't think he harvested it yearly or anything so the roots were huge when he decided to dig some up and make horseradish.  He scrubbed them, chopped them up and dumped them into Mom's blender to get the right cut.  And then he took the lid off the sniffed it.  First time I ever saw my Dad cry.  The fumes were so strong they drove everyone out of the kitchen.  

[Wisconsin Beth]

I've emailed Cooper's Hawk to ask if they're doing a Christmas/New Year's takeout, similar to what they did for Thanksgiving.  We'll see what kind of response I get.  They're supposed to respond within 72 hours.  

If they're not, we'll figure something else out.  

[Blonde Granny]

I live alone, there won't be any Christmas activities or special breakfast lunch or dinners for me. Please, please, let's just get this over.

[raeoflyte]

Oyster stew is what my mom makes on christmas eve. Dh and the kids love it. I'm guessing mom will make that and we'll pick up our bowls and eat over zoom. I've never met anyone else that does oyster stew. Is it a midwestern catholic thing?

If I could get an electrician out before then to add some more outlets on our patio we could have a distanced outdoor meal under electric blankets. Its really tempting but we've been spending money like crazy and I keep thinking I should rein it in. Plus the way its going even that may be too much exposure risk.

In-laws sent us a meal from omaha steaks thats in the freezer already. I think that plus crab legs would be good on christmas day.

[Lizard Queen]

Not this Midwestern Catholic.
No offense, but oysters are 🤢 to me. dH's family does smoked oysters on crackers. They aren't Catholic, not sure if that's a Dutch thing, or from DHs dad's side.

[Tennesseer]

Dec 6, 2020 11:05:24 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

Oyster stew is what my mom makes on christmas eve. Dh and the kids love it. I'm guessing mom will make that and we'll pick up our bowls and eat over zoom. I've never met anyone else that does oyster stew. Is it a midwestern catholic thing?

If I could get an electrician out before then to add some more outlets on our patio we could have a distanced outdoor meal under electric blankets. Its really tempting but we've been spending money like crazy and I keep thinking I should rein it in. Plus the way its going even that may be too much exposure risk.

In-laws sent us a meal from omaha steaks thats in the freezer already. I think that plus crab legs would be good on christmas day.

I don't know if oyster stew is a Midwestern thing but seafood meals on Christmas Eve are at least an Eastern Catholic thing and probably in many other areas of the country too.

Nothing better though than to be invited to an Italian-American's home for Christmas Eve dinner. Great tasting fish and shellfish dishes.

[kadee79]

It will just be the 2 of us...so probably some snacky stuff on Christmas Eve and then I started a new tradition for Christmas dinner....several years ago.  
I go all out cooking Thanksgiving dinner...homemade noodles & homemade pie crusts....so Christmas is easier.
We do "build your own sub sandwich".  I get at least a couple types of cheeses, 4 or 5 types of cold cuts, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced onions, sliced bell peppers and we put them all on sub rolls...usually from the Walmart bakery.

[irishpad]

I'm wondering if it was somewhat common in the Midwest because it was a seafood that could be transported to middle America unlike so many other types of seafood.   I know it has been traditional in my family since 1900. 

Don't know if it was a Catholic thing.     I do know I'm thankful I wasn't Norwegian Lutheran, because then it would have been lutefisk.  

[Deleted]

Some of my neighbors do Posadas through the neighborhood, go to Mass, come home for tamales, tequila, and fireworks.  DH always takes his hearing aids out at bedtime and I'll put in earplugs because the festivities go on until 2 a.m. or so.  

[Lizard Queen]

We usually have salmon of some sort. (My brother is a fisherman, so it's free from Lake Michigan.) The more Polish appetites would enjoy pickled herring. I'm an American of 💯 Polish descent, but I don't like many of the traditional foods--beet soup, herring, mushrooms--though I'll eat a small amount of that.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 6, 2020 9:12:45 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

I live alone, there won't be any Christmas activities or special breakfast lunch or dinners for me. Please, please, let's just get this over.

Why not?  I used to live alone, and while it is difficult to cook for one, it’s not impossible to make something special.  

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2020 13:52:00 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Dec 6, 2020 9:12:45 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

I live alone, there won't be any Christmas activities or special breakfast lunch or dinners for me. Please, please, let's just get this over.

Why not?  I used to live alone, and while it is difficult to cook for one, it’s not impossible to make something special.  

Cornish hen!

[kadee79]

I lived alone many years before I married & then as a widow.  I always made holiday meals for myself.  I made extra so I could freeze some & not have to cook on days when I was really tired.  That worked great for me.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 6, 2020 15:28:27 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

I lived alone many years before I married & then as a widow.  I always made holiday meals for myself.  I made extra so I could freeze some & not have to cook on days when I was really tired.  That worked great for me.

My favorite splurge was rack of lamb.  I could buy just one, and was only eating it for 2 meals.  

When I was cooking for the rest, I cooked things to remake during the week, and for leftovers to take to work for lunch.  

[daisylu]

Dec 4, 2020 16:43:31 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Dec 4, 2020 12:28:12 GMT -5 swamp said:

melting potato?    I'm intrigued.  Care to share the recipe?


I usually have about 25 over and do prime rib, crab legs, ham, and turkey.   Sides include mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean almondine, squash, creamed spinach or brussels sprouts, and a few other random things. 

this year it will probably be 6 of us.   I have no idea.  Prime rib?  Crab legs?  

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/katie-lee/melting-potatoes-5513135

They were easy, and very good.

@missrigby
daisylu

Thank you!

[stillmovingforward]

I so need help with this year! I have one vegetarian, one allergic to nuts, one allergic to eggs. I only want to cook one meal for christmas eve!

There are 7 of us total. All in my little house for the past 9+ months.......and 1 vathroom.....

Edited to add: one allergic to all seafood.

[trippypea]

For us, Christmas Eve is always seafood. This year will be salmon, shrimp, and oysters (for DH, the only one who will eat the slimy monsters).

We normally do what we call 'Buffet' on Christmas. That would be tons of different dishes for the immediate family during the afternoon, and then everything pulled back out again in the evening when all the extended relatives come over. This year, we aren't having it due to Covid. Since it will be just me, DH, and the kids, we still plan to do Buffet, just in smaller quantities and more things we actually like (I usually kept to the same menu my Mom always used).

[thyme4change]

Dec 7, 2020 10:52:05 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

I so need help with this year! I have one vegetarian, one allergic to nuts, one allergic to eggs. I only want to cook one meal for christmas eve!

There are 7 of us total. All in my little house for the past 9+ months.......and 1 vathroom.....

Edited to add: one allergic to all seafood.

Sounds like dairy and gluten are okay?

Stuffed zucchini, peppers or portobello mushrooms. You could do a stuffing with beans, cheese, quinoa and other vegetables, and meat if needed to some of them. Cheese and breadcrumbs on top.

Or, brusetta - then you can can just put out toast, and have everyone choose from different cheeses, meats, nuts, veges, herbs, fruit (or jam). You can also put out avocado. We call this "toast night".

French onion soup (with veggie broth and red wine instead of beef broth) or some other soup, along with cold or warm sides.