Christmas Preparations 2023

[gulfporter]

Mi esposo finished his Tuxedo Creme Brulees and they are in fridge.  We will have a sneak preview of one tonight with Xmas Eve Dinner.  

[gulfporter]

Forgot we had half a container of guacamole from my take-away pollo al carbón last night. 

 

There's a schmear of it under the shrimp salad.  

 

 

 

 

[mazza]

Feeling on top of the big meal tomorrow

scallops and black pudding defrosting overnight in the fridge 

sage and onion stuffing made 

braised red cabbage done 

chicken defrosting, only 2 of us so not doing turkey 

just the veg to prep and make the gravy from the roasting juices tomorrow and the cooking 

christmas pudding was bought in and cheese just needs removed from the fridge to warm up before eating 

our Christmas is pretty chilled, been there done that with the craziness, now we have an all afternoon into evening day of eating with big gaps between courses 

[Katie Meadow]

Christmas prep? What is that?  I'm very happy to report that this year I'm doing less than ever. I made a vegetarian black bean soup to bring up to my sister in law's house for a small xmas eve dinner. Christmas eve has always been celebrated by my husband's family. This year the venue has changed and the party is small; My other SIL has come down with covid, so and her sons will not be coming.

 

I'm also pleased to say that no decorating has taken  place, no visitors for xmas day, just the two of us and a quiet day. Breakfast will be my husband's fabulous biscuits. The afternoon will see a grazing menu of appetizers, all of which are unfussy and can be made with hands tied behind backs. We plan to bake a simple poppy seed cake and treat ourselves to Irish coffee made with my gift of exotic coffee beans to my husband. No rushing, no stressing. Great opportunity for doing essentially nothing on xmas day. Lazy! Happy Holidays to all!

[Shelby]

Merry Christmas Everyone!  Got up at 6--Ronnie and Scout went out to look for ducks and geese.  I'm sitting here drinking hot chocolate and watching A Christmas Story.  

 

I made @ElsieD's Moose Farts a couple days ago.  Easy, fun and good!  I rolled most in these pop rocks

 

 

 

The rest I did in graham cracker crumbs

 

 

Had Ronnie's kids and grandkids over for brunch yesterday--they all got a laugh over the farts lol.  Along with those I put out candies

 

 

and Christmas flavored Whoopie pies that I ordered from an online bakery

 

 

 

Dried beef cheese ball, wheat thins, cheese rolled in prosciutto, nuts and pretzels

 

 

Broccoli salad

 

 

@ChocoMom's Apple snickers salad

 

 

Berries to eat or put in champagne 

 

 

 

The wheels fell of the picture train after that lol.  The kids showed up and it got chaotic --in a fun way.  Ronnie did sausages and bacon out in the garage--less mess for me to clean up.  I did biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and cheesy hashbrowns in the slow cooker.  We had a fun time.  After they left I cleaned up and then it was time for wine and football .

 

For Christmas Eve my mom and step dad sent me that wonderful cioppino from Phil's Market that we love.  Easy.  Delicious.  We ate a TON of it along with crusty buttery bread.

 

 

 

I have a small prime rib resting in the fridge for Christmas dinner tonight....not sure on sides yet.  Since it's just the two of us no pressure and I can do as much or as little as I want lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

Our Christmas has been postponed until tomorrow. We had a big rain storm move through the area over the past day or so. My sister's house took in so much water in the basement that the pump went out. They had to spend the night bailing out water to keep it from reaching the furnace and water heater. We will do it tomorrow, though there is supposed to be snow by then. After all my years of living in So. Calif, I'm still not keen on driving in snow, but we'll work it out one way or another. 

 

I just pulled out some steak tips to defrost and will braise with carrots and potatoes. And make a salad. Cake for dessert. A mini makeshift Christmas.

 

Best laid plans...

[chromedome]

I made up additional cookies yesterday morning, so I have enough now for the various gift boxes we'll be giving away. Then I prepped the meal, because we typically eat ours on Christmas Eve. The three grandkids were "his, hers and theirs," so there's lots of juggling involved in balancing our immediate household, oldest/youngest's paternal family, middle one's dad and his parents; and this way one or more of the other families gets to have them on Christmas day.

 

As it happens this year there were a lot of abrupt changes of plan owing to miscommunications, illnesses, shift changes, etc so it all went pear-shaped despite our best efforts. I'd shifted the meal from our usual mid-late afternoon slot to more of a dinnertime schedule (6-6:30), but then - as I said - things changed at the last minute. So I told them "you see us every day, go to [in-laws' place] and have fun, we'll eat when you get back." That ended up being nearly 9 PM, but so be it.

 

I spatchcocked the turkey, made stuffing, baked a buttercup squash in slices (glazed with honey, with fresh black pepper and allspice ground over it, because my sweetie wanted a sweet side dish); made a quick stock in my IP with the neck, back, keelbone and wingtips for gravy purposes; cooked Brussels sprouts low and slow in a large skillet with onions and turkey bacon (because my GF can't have the regular kind); made a big bowl of mashed potatoes; and the rest of the veg were peas, green and yellow string beans, carrots and greens. I often do the beans as "green bean casserole," but forgot to buy the fried onions this year so I didn't bother.

 

The potatoes, beans, greens, carrots and peas all came from my garden, and with the carrots coming out of the ground just a few days ago and some of the greens (and herbs) being harvested on the day. Row covers are a wonderful thing! The squash and turkey came from local farms, about 15 and 10 minutes up the road respectively. The Brussels sprouts were also local, from a farm about 30-40 minutes the other direction. If people were still obsessing over "food miles," it would be considered a pretty virtuous meal in that respect.

Sorry for the lack of photos, but in addition to my usual litany of excuses (cramped and unattractive kitchen, poor lighting, elderly cell phone camera, deficient photography skills) I can safely say "C'mon, you've all seen lots of roasted turkeys..."

 

Gift-opening happened this morning, and was every bit as much fun as you'd expect. Grandson (5) had to periodically give vent to his excitement by leaving the area of the tree and thundering up and down the hallway, celebrating the most-recent "best gift ever" at the top of his lungs. Funniest of all was the hulking mastiff, who gets her own stocking filled with toys and is even more excited about it than the kids. She stands there quivering and dancing with anticipation as my stepdaughter pulls out each toy in turn, giving each one an exploratory chomp, until one of them just "does it" for her. At that point she and her newly-designated favorite disappear into a little world of their own for a half-hour or so. Eventually she emerges with head and tail high, swanking around the living room and squeaking it proudly for everyone. It's sweet and hilarious in such a big, burly dog.

 

All of the veg trimmings went out to my rabbits at this morning's feeding, so they've had a holiday feast as well.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

╰🌟🌟𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒔, 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆🌟🌟╮

[TdeV]

@Shelby, such a lot of glorious looking treats! Up to your usual style, I see. Can you tell us a bit more about @ElsieD's Moose Farts and @ChocoMom's Apple Snickers Salad?

 

Good luck to your family, @Maison Rustique - hope the weather improves.

 

@chromedome, it's always a joy to read your writing.

 

@Tropicalsenior thanks for your good wishes; they are fully returned 😀

 

Welcome to a fine place, @mazza.

 

@Katie Meadow, yours is a Christmas to envy.

 

@gulfporter, I've been contemplating your marvellous Christmas story for a couple days now.

 

Such a lot of good friends . . .

[Shelby]

12 minutes ago, TdeV said:

@Shelby, such a lot of glorious looking treats! Up to your usual style, I see. Can you tell us a bit more about @ElsieD's Moose Farts and @ChocoMom's Apple Snickers Salad?

 

Good luck to your family, @Maison Rustique - hope the weather improves.

 

@chromedome, it's always a joy to read your writing.

 

@Tropicalsenior thanks for your good wishes; they are fully returned 😀

 

Welcome to a fine place, @mazza.

 

@Katie Meadow, yours is a Christmas to envy.

 

@gulfporter, I've been contemplating your marvellous Christmas story for a couple days now.

 

Such a lot of good friends . . .

Here's the link that @ElsieDsent me for the Moose Farts  

 

and here's the recipe that @ChocoMomgave me:

 

1 bag of mini-marshmellows

4-6 large Granny Smith Apples, washed and chopped

1- 22oz pkg of Snicker bars, diced fairly small

1 large tub of Cool Whip. (I know, I know...but it works!)

[Duvel]

Before the storm …

 

[ElsieD]

wow!

[TdeV]

I counted 19 place settings @Duvel. I'm just imagining all the great food . . .

[FauxPas]

I cooked a turkey breast roast from Costco on Saturday with stovetop stuffing. If you like white meat and don't want to deal with a huge bird, those roasts aren't bad at all. Made some orange-cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and gravy. Also made a pumpkin pie for dessert and we ate the same meal last night. 

 

Today is turkey sandwiches for lunch and tourtiére for dinner. 

 

I made tourtiére a few weeks ago when I was trying to clean out our small upright freezer in prep for a bigger model, so I wasn't thinking of making one for Christmas Eve this year. My husband went to the butcher's shop a few days ago to get something else but they actually had some of their freshly made tourtiére in stock - every other time we have checked there, they were either not ready yet or already sold out. So he bought two and they are in the new freezer now. 

 

Then yesterday afternoon a friend stopped by to drop off a little Christmas Eve gift she had made - yes, another tourtiére! But a really lovely one and I'm sure it will be very tasty. Since we were already set up to finish off turkey leftovers last night, we saved her pie for tonight. 

 

Here it is, decorated with a lovely little bit of art - our cat, Mijo, watching a bird in the sky. Made me laugh, when I saw that. 🙂

 

 

[Steve Irby]

I had the shrimp do double duty for the appetizer last night.  They topped out the tuna tower and were layered with remoulade sauce between the fried mirliton slices in the Shrimp Napoleon. 

 

[rotuts]

@Duvel

 

Ive counted 24 , but there might be two more.

 

a bit ofa glare on that far end.

[Shelby]

And I'm a basket case with 6 

[rotuts]

i doubt @Duvel is in charge of the ' storm '

 

he did drive to Spain ?

 

maybe just its documentation ?

 

looking again at the offered picture 

 

it seems to just go off into a White Light 

 

 

 

 

 

[Duvel]

Ahh … @rotuts is correct on the amount of plates and on the location. The picture was the prelude to the Escudella i carn d‘olla, the non-negotiable „lunch“ (~16.00h-21.30h) on the first Christmas day. Over the years I have graduated to play a bigger part of the preparation, and this year I did most of the work (under the watchful eye of my MIL) and all of the service. 24 adults and 9 kids - it was a busy evening …

 

But starting from the beginning: my in-laws have a huge rooftop terrace, and in a sheltered corner the magic starts to happen two days before the meal …

 

 

In different stages vegetables, organ meats, ears, bones, salted pork products and cured ham scraps are boiled for hours and eventually removed.

 

 

It yields a rich, unsalted stock not unlike a good ramen base. Some hours before serving, the stock is salted and divided. In the larger part a variety of sausages, potatoes and cabbage are introduced and simmered for some more time.
 

 

 

In the smaller part, huge garlic-heavy pilotas (meatballs) are simmered, then renoved and a special kind of pasta (huge shell shaped) filled with sausage meat are cooked. When done, the stocks are combined again and it’s time for service.

 

 

First course (and what all are eagerly waiting for the whole year): the soup with pasta. You wont believe how much some Catalans can eat of that …

 

 

Second course: boiled meats (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), ears, sausages, potatoes, cabbage and pilota, served as per request and dressed on the table with olive oil and salt. To be repeated until ~75% full …

 

 

 

Third course (cooked in the meantime): roasted chicken with plums, raisins and pine nuts, that were marinated overnight in brandy, white wine and some proto-stock. Simmered until reduced and well caramelized.

 

 

 

Fourth course: roasted apples with minced meat filling …

 

 

 

Fifth course: coffee, brandy, cookies. Plus the kids reciting Christmas poems and collecting money from the grown-ups …

 

 

Sixth course: Champagne & the Christmas toast.

 

No complaints (even a foreigner made the soup 😜) !

 

Bon nadal 🙏

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Duvel (log)

[gfweb]

@Duvel what is this device?

 

[rotuts]

@Duvel

 

what a feast 

 

thank you for guiding us though it.

[chromedome]

It had never occurred to me to wonder about it, but CBC published an article about the local tradition of candles in the window at Christmas (all but invariably faux candles now, of course). I don't recall whether I saw them or not out West.

 

Is this something that happens where you live? I'm kind of curious now.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/east-coast-tradition-christmas-window-candles-1.7066387

[Duvel]

55 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@Duvel what is this device?

 

It a triple ring propane gas burner, suitable for oversized pots (like this 30L+ model) or paellas, mounted on a sheet if „unburnable“ metal …

 

Something like this.

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, Duvel said:

Ahh … @rotuts is correct on the amount of plates and on the location. The picture was the prelude to the Escudella i carn d‘olla, the non-negotiable „lunch“ (~16.00h-21.30h) on the first Christmas day. Over the years I have graduated to play a bigger part of the preparation, and this year I did most of the work (under the watchful eye of my MIL) and all of the service. 24 adults and 9 kids - it was a busy evening …

 

But starting from the beginning: my in-laws have a huge rooftop terrace, and in a sheltered corner the magic starts to happen two days before the meal …

 

 

In different stages vegetables, organ meats, ears, bones, salted pork products and cured ham scraps are boiled for hours and eventually removed.

 

 

It yields a rich, unsalted stock not unlike a good ramen base. Some hours before serving, the stock is salted and divided. In the larger part a variety of sausages, potatoes and cabbage are introduced and simmered for some more time.
 

 

 

In the smaller part, huge garlic-heavy pilotas (meatballs) are simmered, then renoved and a special kind of pasta (huge shell shaped) filled with sausage meat are cooked. When done, the stocks are combined again and it’s time for service.

 

 

First course (and what all are eagerly waiting for the whole year): the soup with pasta. You wont believe how much some Catalans can eat of that …

 

 

Second course: boiled meats (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), ears, sausages, potatoes, cabbage and pilota, served as per request and dressed on the table with olive oil and salt. To be repeated until ~75% full …

 

 

 

Third course (cooked in the meantime): roasted chicken with plums, raisins and pine nuts, that were marinated overnight in brandy, white wine and some proto-stock. Simmered until reduced and well caramelized.

 

 

 

Fourth course: roasted apples with minced meat filling …

 

 

 

Fifth course: coffee, brandy, cookies. Plus the kids reciting Christmas poems and collecting money from the grown-ups …

 

 

Sixth course: Champagne & the Christmas toast.

 

No complaints (even a foreigner made the soup 😜) !

 

Bon nadal 🙏

 

 

 

AMAZING!  Thank you for showing us.  I'd give you guys a run for your money on that pasta.  

 

33 people  .  I bet you guys are kinda tired today!

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

It had never occurred to me to wonder about it, but CBC published an article about the local tradition of candles in the window at Christmas (all but invariably faux candles now, of course). I don't recall whether I saw them or not out West.

 

Is this something that happens where you live? I'm kind of curious now.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/east-coast-tradition-christmas-window-candles-1.7066387

 

Since as long as I can remember.