So...whats for dinner?

Beaverntx

We were 14 at table today for Christmas dinner: beef tenderloin ( a once a year splurge), smashed potatoes with sweet potatoes for those who preferred them, green beans almondine (no green bean casserole as my son abhors mushrooms), green salad with little tomatoes and a selection of dressings. Dessert choices included mincemeat, pumpkin and pumpkin walnut pies, white fruitcake, and a selection of homemade cookies 🍪.

Have a group of 25 or so coming tomorrow night for a choir Christmas party. I'll provide sliced ham, brisket, and turkey breast and beverages; everyone is to bring a side so it is always interesting.

Think the cook will be ready for a few days off, although we will have house guests for another couple of weeks--7 leave on the weekend, 3 leave Jan 2and the last 2 go back to college near mid January.

carolehalston

My sister and I had decided in advance to simplify the Christmas dinner menu by having fewer side dishes but ample amounts. Then six extra people showed up. Two of my oldest brother's grown children with spouse and one daughter each. My sister and I had a moment of panic as we laid out the food buffet style. But there was food left over.

This tendency to self-invite dates back to the days when my mother cooked big dinners on Sundays and holidays.

One holiday meal to go. New Year's Eve when dh and I will have a couple here for dinner. He just called the supermarket where he will pick up the standing rib roast on Monday. In the meanwhile I will have to assume the cleaning woman identity. Also call the restaurant where I had made a dinner reservation for four.

Today I am off to the gym. Later I will make turkey soup with the carcass from yesterday's turkey.

I look forward to resuming every day life in 2019. I don't choose to be one of those people who mostly endure the holiday season but somehow I turned out to be one of those people. It's so nice to be able to admit that to my bc.org friends. I consider myself fortunate that I enjoy my hum-drum life.

auntienance

Carole, more and more I find myself sharing your feelings. I love my family and friends but would rather see them without the context of holidays. I really am glad when it's all over. Perhaps I would feel differently if I had grandchildren. My resolution for next year is to not do so much. Pray for me lol

MinusTwo

I agree with Carole & Nance. I love the music of the season & eating with friends - but I'm glad to get back to hum drum too . Nance - you are probably right about the grandchildren since they are so fun to watch. I don't have any, nor will I ever. Still I'd rather spend quiet time reading to my nephew's 3 year old or playing a game with my niece's 2&4 year old boys. They get soooo many gifts at Christmas it's just crazy and exhausting. In fact it's hard for me to get any of them a present that parents or one or the other set of grandparents hasn't already purchased.

Nance - it can work. I spread out December celebration over lots of different small lunches & dinners & concerts with friends where we can really visit & exchange gifts. So I get to open gifts all month too. With my SIL's recent death and no family in town, I spent a very quiet day yesterday reading a Joyce Carol Oates book. I had a couple of invitations, but it was nice not to be obligated to go out. I ended up eating leftover prime rib French Dip - A huge portion and just as good left over.

auntienance

I'm hoping that if we move, it will help me curtail my overzealous holiday involvement. Carole, if we end up your way perhaps we can get together for an "unholiday" cocktail lol!

carolehalston

Nance, it's a date!

Minus, I like your version of celebrating Christmas with a number of get-togethers instead of one large gathering. I think we had 23 people yesterday.

The turkey soup is made except for the addition of pasta. It's amazing that the combination of water, tomatoes, onion, celery, carrot, and a turkey carcass can make such a tasty soup base. And most people just throw the carcass away. One Thanksgiving in Illinois three turkey carcasses went into the garbage. It broke my heart!

I watched a Cook's Country segment today on cooking a standing rib roast and Yorkshire pudding. I want dh to watch it. I had forgotten about the dry brining for 24 hours prior to cooking. I have never made Yorkshire pudding but it looked fairly easy.

My quiet day was restorative. DH just returned home from golf that turned out not to be a lot of fun because of slow play and wet course conditions.

If anyone communicates with Susan, I hope you'll let her know we think about her and hope she's doing well.

auntienance

I too have a turkey carcass in the freezer waiting to be made into soup probably this week. But for tonight it's a chef salad. For the first time I sous vided some eggs for the salad. Unless they are dramatically better, I'll stick to the pressure cooker for hard cooked eggs. In order for them to peel easily, it's recommended that the eggs be par boiled for three minutes before the sous vide bath. I don't need the extra step, especially when the pressure cooker eggs always peel easily.

Carole, my recommendation for Yorkshire puds is to disconnect your smoke alarm and make sure everything is ready to serve when you take them out of the oven. They are beautiful and delicious and I love them but they deflate quickly. Serious Eats has the best recipe I've ever tried. Yum!

I also miss Susan and wish her well. I think about her often.

eric95us

I have a fresh turkey to cook. The store where I got most of the stuff for Christmas dinner had some sort of special going on that involved buying more than $75 worth of stuff and getting a fresh organic turkey for $2. I couldn't resist and a 10-1/2 pound turkey came home with me.

When I told DD what we were doing (eating at a fancy table) she was, "I like the old table better. It's bigger". After the meal, she decided she likes the "fancy table".

DD took home as much left overs as she felt she could fit into her shared refrigerator.

ChiSandy

Well, the last-minute vegetarian-pescatarian-cow's-milk-avoiding dinner guest backed out at the last minute. So I'd busted my butt making Caesar dressing from scratch (with pecorino) for nothing--could've just used the Newman's Own in the fridge. But it was delicious, as was the brisket (which they made in the oven instead of BBQing in the smoker), mashed spuds, dressing, "green slime" salad (a family tradition based on ambrosia but with lime jello instead), tabbouleh with sheep feta, & homemade cranberry relish. We ate baklava for dessert, rather than digging into the tiramisu cheesecake and pumpkin pie. Another friend (who officiated my godson's wedding and made my BFF's mother-of-the-groom outfit) arrived toward the tail end of dinner and gladly ate the salad.

Bob worked till 7 and decided to eat down in Oak Lawn rather than heading up to Fireside for a late dinner. He brought home leftover prime rib, spuds & carrots, which I supplemented with asparagus and broccolini for dinner tonight.

carolehalston

The manufacturer of the Power Quick Pot produces a lot of the tv shopping kitchen stuff, including square copper skillets and copper loaf pans. I got an e-mail offer I couldn't pass up. Five of their products, normally $20 plus each, for $8 each with free shipping. One of the products is an egg cooker. I haven't received any of them yet so I conjecture they were shipped from China by slow ship. Impulse shopping on the computer. I resisted all the "upgrades" and stuck to the $8 each. The packages will be like presents as time passes and memory fades. LOL. "Oh! I ordered THIS!"

The turkey noodle soup was very good last night with Premium wheat crackers. The latter are the cheapest crackers on a low shelf at the supermarket and they're my favorite. We sprinkle vinegar into the soup, an idea I got from a recipe book self-published by the author years ago.

Probably chicken legs tonight. Air fried sounds good.

My Christmas wish was for a house cleaning person to appear at my door wanting a job. So far it hasn't happened. I may have to look for her. Or him.

Eric, your Christmas dinner at the fancy table sounds very nice.

eric95us

It was a lot of fun and it wasn't a huge amount of work. The table setting skill was still there.

Chi, their backing out at the last minute is annoying, but I guess I rather have it be a "decided not to come" that having to not come for a "bad" reason like someone getting hurt and going to the hospital, getting sick, was in a car crash or something similar.

I was looking at the bread pudding "porn". I love bread pudding, but Sharon does not, so I don't make it very often.

I'm now somewhat immune to the kitchen stuff purchases (but I did recently get a very nice pizza stone from the 90% off final clearance table and a pizza peel). My problem is that I'm running out of room because I wasn't always "immune" to the purchase of kitchen stuff. :-)

Beav...14 and then 25...wow.....That is a LOT of people. :-) I wouldn't have the room here to do that unless I set up out in the driveway.

Lacey12

I just read through several days worth of posts and it sounds like folks had some really nice holiday meals....both at home and “out”. When I am not falling asleep, I will share our meal experiences from over the Christmas holiday. But I wanted to let “threaders” who asked about Susan know that I have not recently been in touch with Susan but “see” her posts on Facebook. She is still going through treatments, and busy in her kitchen baking her wonderful breads....and for Christmas breakfast, her “best bagels yet”. I’ll let her know that you were asking for her!

Nance, Carole, and Minus.....maybe it is our similar age/life stage that leaves us feeling less than excited about December holidays. I also really experienced that this year...about Thanksgiving too. However, this week we got invited to really lovely celebrations with neighbors (Xmas Eve dinner) and other friends, (Xmas dinner) and I just needed to do partial prep for those, so it wasn’t as exhausting as I expected. My sister and her big wild dog drove down from VT, and my biggest effort was keeping everything out of reach of the beast! But we did have a nice visit with her. She left today, and I will be happy to be back to our dull normal life, too, once we rid our house of dog hair.

MinusTwo

My spirits were lifted by a rep play last night - "Who's Holiday". Cindy Lou Who (who was not more than two) is now 40 & living in a trailer on Mt. Crumpit. While she's preparing for a Christmas Eve party, she's telling the story of her life since she first saw the Grinch stealing their tree. Oh my - raucous & bawdy - but funny. And all done in Seuss rhymes. They did say no children and anyone who is easily offended should pass, so the audience was appropriate.

Ate the last of the curried creamed eggs last night. Today I'll finish random salad items that are becoming sad. Hopefully tomorrow the fridge will finally be empty enough for me to make meatloaf & potatoes.

carolehalston

Tonight's dinner was to be pasta with red sauce and turkey Italian sausage. But I spotted Gulf oysters in the seafood department and remembered Oysters Mosca. So into my cart went a carton of oysters and a little carton with six large scallops, which will sauteed in butter. Hot French bread to go with the baked Italian oysters is a must so I bought a loaf of fresh-baked French bread. We'll have a salad with romaine as a side dish and also warmed up scalloped potatoes.

I bought store made pork Italian sausage and turducken sausage. Also a brisket, cabbage, and a package of black eyed peas for New Year's Day.

sparrowhawk

I made this. Pumpkin salad with cranberry, feta and crispbread. Whole fish with ginger and soy dressing.

bedo

I am so glad that you are all doing either well or kind of, and I hope that things will pass. if they are not.I hope that you had the warmest and best of holidays imaginable.

It's freezing in my house. Retirement is no joke! I may have to work again, as my cat and I are spending the night in one room with a space heater..to be turned off when we go to sleep.

For dinner for the last 4 nights Lox and bagels with red onions and, cream cheese. Yup, needed some non-vegetarian protein

My SIL and daughter bought us matching PJs

So far so good with the BC.

Thank you all so much for the support that you have given me. I would not have been able to get through this without you. I will have to delete this tomorrow, as my DD has a thing about posting her son on line.

I

auntienance

Awww, love ya Bedo!

eric95us

I'm having a hard time typing right now because of numb fingers. I went running this afternoon. It was 50F when I started and the sun had gone down by the time I finished. Yeah, I know that's probably warm by many standards, but shorts and a sweaty long sleeve shirt in the dry air.....and I'm shivering.... :-)

Hi Bedo. I'm glad I got to see the picture before you deleted it. Things are going well with Sharon and I....your comments made me remember it's been almost 7 years since Sharon found the lump.

Hi Sparrowhawk. That looks good.

MinusTwo

Bedo - I to am so glad to see the picture and the cute jammies. Sorry about the heat. Are you back in MA? To be w/o heat there is no joke. Can't believe your GS looks so grown up. I remember back when your DD was thinking just about getting PG.

Dinner was indeed a large salad with avocado & artichoke hearts in addition to the regular culprits. I wanted something warm, but I had steeled myself to finish off the greens before they had to be tossed.

Beaverntx

Dinner tonight was an early happy birthday dinner for our granddaughter who turns 13 tomorrow -- turkey burgers with fixins', steak fries, charro beans, charred broccoli and birthday cake and ice cream--so her five cousins could celebrate with her. Tomorrow night will be her favorite homemade pizza with only 7 of us here. 😁

ChiSandy

Awww, Bedo--so cute! Sorry about the lack of heat, at an inopportune time to boot. Makes me glad we have hot water radiators & baseboards. Gets chilly in the front room (we need to caulk air leaks), but the upstairs is downright toasty--have to run the ceiling fan so we can sleep. Heat rises, of course. If we lower the thermostat, it's way too cold downstairs.

Last night was Bob's stay-over-in-Oak-Lawn night, so I hit the leftovers. Dinner was spaghetti with chopped peppers & mushrooms and the remainder of an overripe tomato. Had the leftover gumbo for brunch; and just now made a frittatta with peppers, onions, mushrooms, the dregs of a can of corned beef hash, and sharp cheddar. (One jumbo egg & 2 whites, the latter left over from making French toast with only yolks, per ATK's recipe).

Looking out the front room window as I type this--it's snowing and sticking on the grass and cars. Have to drive out to the NW suburbs for a party at noon, so am hoping we don't get any freezing drizzle to boot. Forecast for NYE (when we & our guests will be walking to dinner and then back here) is for heavy cold rain, that may turn to snow showers or sleet. Ugh. Better than driving in that stuff on Amateur Drunk Night.

carolehalston

Glad I saw the picture of you and grandson, Bedo. He is definitely cute. Retirement with no heat? Maybe we need to start a GoFundMe.

Good Food Porn pictures, Sparrow. I watched a cooking show recently about making salads that aren't boring. One salad had roasted butternut squash diced into one inch squares and roasted grapes as ingredients.

illimae

Tonight is grilled steak with northern beans & spinach and creamy garlic Brussels sprouts.

MinusTwo

Oh yummy Illimae.

I cooked a meatloaf and paired it with a new thing from the produce section - Kroger Private Selection petite potatoes that are pre-packaged in various flavors. I choose Hatch Green Chili/Ranch. You microwave for 5.5 minutes, rest a minute, sprinkle the flavoring & toss with butter (or EVO). I thought they were delicious. I took half of the meal to a neighbor who can't get out & doesn't eat much but was ready to try meatloaf and said the potatoes sounded good. I told her to pop them in boiling water to wash off the spices if it didn't suit. I'm interested to hear her reaction. I also cooked the leftover artichoke hearts w/melted butter, which I didn't share, and sauteed mushrooms in butter with onion & garlic & tarragon, then added wine & simmered to reduce. Maybe that goes better with steak than meatloaf, but they needed to be cooked.

carolehalston

Minus, I have bought similar boxed small potatoes with included seasonings, and they were quite good. I think the ones I bought were herb and garlic flavor.

Illimae, you always eat well.

Our meal last night was delicious. I mistakenly cooked angel hair pasta instead of linguine but it was still good because I cooked it only a few minutes. The sauce was Rao's marinara (thank you, Susan, for introducing me to Rao's!) with sauteed Italian sausage, the real thing instead of my home-made turkey Italian sausage. The salad was iceberg, perfect avocado, campari tomatoes, blue cheese and kalamata olives.

Tonight will probably be jump ups, leftover pork roast, turkey soup, and something freshly made.

Today i have to do some house cleaning in preparation for company tomorrow night. I will clean the "public" areas of the house! Thank heaven for doors to close off unpublic areas.

CeliaC

Belated Happy Holidays to all. Made an impromptu decision on 12/16 to fly to NYC on 12/21 & back home on 12/24 in order to rendezvous with DS & DD for a much needed visit. Good times (free Fridays at MoMA for "art fix", Christmas markets, Rockefeller tree/skating rink, St Patrick's cathedral, light/music show on Saks storefront + Cartier, Tiffany, Swarovski, etc. lights/decorations), wonderful meals & company. Brunched on Sat & Sun in Harlem (stayed in a sweet AirBnB, Harlem sure has changed since last time there) at a place called Ponty Bistro. French/Senegalese chef, excellent preparation & reasonable $ - Crab Benedict, Lobster Benedict, w/wonderful home fries, side of sauteed spinach & lovely Sauvignon Blanc. Delish pizza at Denino's in Greenwich Village - thinly shaved prosciutto, parmesan, tons of arugula with a drizzle of balsamic, on a divinely thin crust. Also a delish risotto with crab & shrooms and homemade lobster stuffed ravioli with spinach in a lemon butter sauce at another Italian in midtown. Best lemon meringue pie ever at Scotty's Diner near Grand Central - just the right tartnesss, "crust" was a delicate layer of sponge cake. Not even thinking about the calories, obviously!

Took the easy route on CM Day and had a pre-brined, buttered & herbed bone in turkey breast along with roasted brussels & carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce & tried a veggie based stuffing mix from Trader Joe's (really quite good, & low cal). Will be going out for dinner on NY Eve & then back home to celebrate with Christmas present Moet et Chandon & chocolate covered cherries from favorite chocolatier in Cleveland, OH.

NY Day will be pork chops w/apricot mustard sauce, roasted brussels w/balsamic, dauphinoise potatoes & whatever else I fancy making.

Hope everyone has a nice New Year's Eve!

MinusTwo

Bought another package of the 'petite potato' selections at the store today. This artisan seasoning blend is Smoked Gouda, Onion & Thyme. Sure is great for people who live alone.

Ugly, grey, rainy day. It never got over 48. I made a big pot of Ham Hocks & Navy Beans and took some to a 'shut in' neighbor. I'll add a handful of black eyed peas from a can on the 1st. They're not my favorite but because I live in the South I follow the tradition of black eyed peas for good luck. Cabbage (or greens) for prosperity. I made some coleslaw.

A friend ordered me some Spinach Tamales. I'll pick them up tomorrow and have an early NY drink with them around 3pm. For sure I'll be home by dark.

auntienance

We had ham and beans yesterday as well. And of course corn bread. Tonight dh had a Trader Joe's pizza margherita and I made cacio e pepe for myself. Don't know what tomorrow's menu is but for sure we will have hoppin John on Tuesday.

I have taken the bold step of disabling auto correct on my phone. I can't believe how much stress that has eliminated lol

GreenHarbor

I tried my Instant Pot for the first time I decided to make chicken and dumplings. It was broth based. My husband and I both said we’d prefer a thicker base. Next time I’ll thicken it up with a slurry. Very tasty, though! I’m looking forward to trying other recipes.

illimae

Minus, I’m gonna try those potatoes, especially the ones you just had, they sound very tasty.

Tonight was Parmesan crusted pork loin, sautéed squash/zucchini/red onion and carrots.