So...whats for dinner?

carolehalston

I will have to go to the supermarket at least once before Christmas. I'm out of salad greens and also need green onions for stuffing the pork roast and makings for the creamed spinach dish my sister Michelle likes so much. I always make it for her as one of my Christmas dinner offerings, plus others like it, too.

Last night was re-purposed chili that had already been re-purposed with added elbow pasta. I added grated cheese and heated in a corning ware dish. Side was tossed salad with the last of a head of purple leaf lettuce that had amazing staying power in the refrigerator.

The bathroom scale tells me I should ditch the rest of the cheese spread which calls to me from the refrigerator.

We always said that the family gatherings for holidays would disintegrate once my mother was gone. This year there will be three of the six siblings. One sister has a good reason for not attending. Two brothers prefer to stay home for their own reasons. The numbers will be increased by a niece and nephew and their four children. The youngest child is not quite a year.

It is what it is.

ChiSandy

Last night I finished the remaining two Filipino skewers (turns out they were pork, not chicken--no wonder they were so juicy), a leftover roast chicken wing, and a big Caesar (romaine, Boston, red leaf lettuces) with one of our last small homegrown tomatoes, English cucumber, Cardini's dressing and grated pecorino Romano. No croutons--could have fried some low-carb bread cubes, but wanted to save my carb ration for the Mikey's keto "English muffin" on which I made yesterday a.m.'s Benedict, dark chocolate and ultra-filtered milk for my cappuccinos (my machine's back from the shop--oh, how I missed REAL espresso!). Was soooo tempted to take a starch-blocker and have some of that leftover pansit and lumpia.....no, BAD Sandy!

This a.m. I used the other half of the ersatz English muffin as the base for two old-fashioned creamy British-style ultra-creamy scrambled eggs with truffle oil. Have to use a regular stainless saucepan over very, very low heat because at first you need to whisk the eggs & butter as they cook, and nonstick-safe whisks just won't work well. As the butter melts and the eggs start to reduce, switch to a rubber spatula. Stir constantly--alternate 30 sec. on & off the burner--till fully curdled but still very moist. Pour over the "absorber" of your choice (traditionally, an English muffin, crumpet or rusk made from good crusty bread like sourdough, pain au levain, or pain de mie--but cornbread works well too).

Tonight, not sure. Gordy is coming over to exchange presents--he's flying into Austin tomorrow where Leslie will meet him (having flown in from Houston to see her folks) and they'll go to an AirBnB in "hill country" for Christmas. (Yes, they will be up at dawn to wait in the line for Franklin's BBQ brisket--it's the law). Might do just a Caprese, with Bob eating the leftover Filipino stuff (especially the squid). Not gonna do the plum pudding--too carby (and I can't find it anyway). Weirdly, no fruitcakes arrived this year (we still have half a Collin St. one in the fridge from last year). We will be attending a friend's "leftover desserts" party--will bring baklava to supplement his cheesecakes. Maybe also bring a cheese & nut plate so I can indulge too.

Christmas dinner will be a bit of an outlier this year: Gorrdy & Leslie will be in TX, one friend is spending it with her neighbors out in the far SW exurbs, another at his new home in SC, and our friends who usually host it "just aren't feeling very Christmas-y" this year--not sure if it's economic, health, or just plain sociopolitical despair, plus their son & DIL can't afford to come in from Seattle--and one of them is doing the "My Fitness Pal" app diet anyway so her family recipes are off-limits. (Gonna miss not just her pies but also his family "Green Slime" whipped gelatin/mayo/nut/candied fruit salad). Bob will be working (both his partner and the interventional cardiologist who covers for him are out of state visiting family). So during the day I'll just eat soup or salad, and when he gets home we'll go to Fireside Inn, which is serving Christmas dinner till 3 am. (They're open 365 days a year). That late (probably around 10 or 11 pm) we won't need a reservation; I normally don't like their food--which I find heavy, "clunky," weirdly-seasoned and carby--but their holiday menus are okay, especially if I needn't "clean my plate" but can take home leftovers.

keywestfan

We always celebrate Christmas Eve with the same couple and usually go to some moderately upscale restaurant and wear red or kelly green. This year, The Barn in Evanston, which was once very much a barn, but is now both a fairly elegant, yet comfortable, steak house. Theoretically could be difficult because both DH and I have been vegetarian for 45 years, though we only met 19 years ago- married for 17. But they have a quite marvelous roasted vegetable plate, beautifully colorful for meand a great pasta dish for DH. So, looking forward to another year celebration with David and Beth, our friends, and a better year for all.

Beaverntx

We have DS1 and his family here and DS2 and family are to arrive tomorrow. We will total 14. "Christmas" dinner will be Monday night as DS2 and family will be going to DDIL's family sometime on Christmas Eve. Dinner menu is beef tenderloin , mashed potatoes, asparagus with browned butter balsamic dressing, tossed salad, homemade rolls (in spite of having 3 gluten sensitive folks at the table), various Christmas cookies and fruitcake. Not certain what we will have on Christmas Day!

eric95us

Hi Key

Our college age daughter is eating vegan and she's convinced my wife to go along with it...and I'm going along for the ride. :-)

It's actually been a lot of fun to learn a whole new way of cooking!

DD goes to college about an hour (if there is no traffic) drive from home, so she comes home quite often, but she had to work Thanksgiving and the next day and final exams started on Monday, so we rescheduled Thanksgiving dinner to December 17. It was all vegan. Normally I'll cook a little bit of a lot of things so there wouldn't be a lot of leftovers. This time I made sure she would have enough leftovers for a week, even if her roommates "helped out".

It sounds like a lot of folks are "not everyone can make it" for Christmas. It's the same here. DD is having to work Dec 24 through the 30th and she's meeting a bunch of friends in Denver for New Years...so Christmas dinner will also be rescheduled. Like Carole said, "it is what it is".

Beav....14 people! Wow. I've helped make a "fancy" dinner for 8 to 10 and it seemed like 10 was twice the work compared to 8. Again, wow on 14. I took a look on the internet and there are a lot of recipes for gluten free dinner rolls...no idea how what they are like, but the pictures look good. :-)

Chi, if I were nearby, I have the perfect knife for that monster sweet potato. When my parents were in China, mom needed a stout knife, so dad had a local blacksmith make one. Dad said it was made from a leaf from an axle spring off of a wrecked 5 ton truck. Whenever I pick it up, it reminds me of the movie line..."that's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!" It weighs between 3 and 4 pounds and looks like a cross between a hatchet and a 10 inch chef's knife. :-)

One thing I do with sweet potatoes is to oven bake sweet potato hash browns with a bit of fennel mixed in while it bakes. Everyone here loves the licorice taste, so it doesn't last long before it's all gone. This makes good use of the cast iron skillet.

Auntie, my favorite apples are the Pink Lady and Jazz varieties, but I'll eat any apple that happens to be in the house.

auntienance

Carole, we seem to be right behind you with your menu, we had chili mac tonight.

Cookie doughs all made today for baking first thing tomorrow. I bought a two rib roast for DH and me only on Christmas night. I'll start dry aging it tomorrow. Cornish hens bought and soon to be dry brined. I'll do some more prep work tomorrow for Christmas eve dinner - cutting up vegs, etc. Tomorrow's dinner will be something uncomplicated.

Eric, I will eat what apple is available too, but I have my faves. I did make some spiced apple rings with pink ladys.

eric95us

My family and I were visiting my Aunt Addie (dad's oldest sister) in Kentucky and I think I was 7 or 8 years old at the time.

Aunt Addie had made a large bowl of baked apples for breakfast and she set them down on the table in front of me. "Eat them all if you want."

I tipped the entire bowl of baked apples onto my plate and ate them all.

Aunt Addie was thrilled. My mom.....was not thrilled.... :-)

ChiSandy

Our friends who are not "feeling Christmas-y" this year didn't bother with a tree or decorations. They explained that Thanksgiving was dull because we were out of the country and none of the kids (ours, theirs, their friend from school) were in; and even though we're staying here for Christmas, their son & DIL are in Seattle, Gordy & Leslie will be in TX, Gordy's pal John is staying put in L.A. and his dad is flying out there, and a mutual friend is spending the holiday with neighbors in Minooka. Bob says he'll try to get out early enough Christmas Day that we can invite our friends to Fireside Inn for dinner around 8 or 8:30.

Took a carb-blocker and had some pansit and two lumpia for early supper (mixed the pansit with snow peas & bean sprouts); at the party tonight I had cheeses, paté, keto mini-cookies, parmesan crisps (in Italian, "frico") and some low-carb millet chips. Washed it down with CA champagne.

ChiSandy

Just found out on the Chabad website that the first latkes were made not from potatoes but rather...cheese! (Judith fed warm cheese latkes to an enemy soldier; the warm-milk component of the cheese made him sleepy--and Judith proceeded to decapitate him while he was out cold and saved her village. Sorta gory backstory for a happy holiday marked by miracle, candles, chocolate coins and spinning dreidels). So it'll be almond-coconut flour lemon-ricotta latkes for me and potato for Bob.

carolehalston

Last night's dinner was pork steaks and baked sweet potatoes. I breaded the steaks with Italian breadcrumbs, browned in a skillet, then finished in a hot oven. The result was a C plus in my estimation. With no apple sauce in the house, we substituted cooked cranberries.

Tonight will be fresh okra cooked with stewed tomatoes from a quart jar of home-cooked tomatoes I bought at the nearby produce stand. The meat will probably be chicken breast slices. I may use an easy recipe I like: spread Dijon mustard on the chicken, press on grated romano cheese. Cook in skillet starting with a cold skillet and browning each side.

Moonflwr912

Wanted to wish everyone here a Merry Yule, Happy Hanukkah, amd Merry Christmas!

May all be bright, and all be right, in your world.

Much love

Monica

ChiSandy

Right back atcha, Monica!

Tonight instead of going out for a fancy dinner we had latkes--potato (with applesauce) for Bob and keto-ricotta for me. Yeah, definitely not balanced, but sometimes tradition & ritual prevail over common-sense nutrition.

M0mmyof3

Last night was a soup and sandwich night. Tonight is pork chops, applesauce, and salad

Beaverntx

Last night was soup, chicken cheddar chowder and/or tortilla. Tonight will be Christmas dinner with our family, since DS2 and family will be going to his in-laws tomorrow evening. Looks like tomorrow will be leftovers or I'll need to get another refrigerator😁

carolehalston

I enjoyed last night's dinner. The fresh okra cooked with half of the quart of Uncle Bruce's home-made stewed tomatoes (purchased at produce market) and a good amount of fresh garlic and pepper flakes was delicious. I also liked the flattened chicken breast fillets cooked as described in my previous post.

DH baked his oatmeal chocolate chip cookies yesterday. We have been watching Martha bake on the pbs channel. I was amused when dh said he would use the stand mixer this year instead of mixing the dough by hand in an enormous bowl.

Today I will cook the mustard greens I put on "hold" at the produce stand yesterday when the delivery hadn't arrived. I will also turn two lovely eggplants into my usual (and much-liked, by me) layered eggplant dish.

Christmas will soon be over-r-r-r. Fa La La.

Merry Christmas, Moon. Good to see you!

Sandy, do you make the latkes? DH loves potato pancakes and I keep intending to make them. My hangup is the onions. If I grated them, they would cook well enough not to interfere with the potato taste. Any recipes out there worth sharing?

auntienance

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah my friends.

Big prep day here. I'm obsessed with do ahead stuff in the hope that I have less to do later. It usually works lol. But I'm off to a slow start today. First up - bake the cake. The mascarpone frosting is the time killer. It's fussy and prone to disaster.

Dinner will be something from the freezer. It's looking like green chili chicken burritos courtesy of Trader Joe. Rice or beans on the side.

ChiSandy

I cheated and used Manischwitz mix for the potato latkes--no spuds (other than Teenage Mutant Ninja Sweet Potato) on hand. For the keto latkes, I used Birch Benders keto pancake mix as the base, unsweetened almond milk instead of water, an egg, and 1/2 c. of Galbani ricottta (the brand I had on hand). I fried the potato latkes in a stainless steel skillet with 1/4" hot oil (mostly canola with a little peanut & olive). Tried that method with my first keto latke, but it fell apart. So instead, I put a bit of the oil in a nonstick skillet, swirled it around, and fried the keto latkes the same way I would any normal pancake.

M0mmyof3

Tomorrow is prep day. Got a German Chocolate cake to make and frost, a hash brown casserole to prep. So figuring on making something simple and quick for dinner.

MinusTwo

Tomorrow is my lazy day. I think I'll have grilled cheese sandwiches w/the mushrooms that have been hanging in the fridge. Made on the delicious Boudin's San Francisco Sourdough bread my son sent. With a side of cucumber spears.

CeliaC

Sandy:

The CBS Sunday Morning program did a feature on latkes & their origin. They spoke to Niki Russ Federman, 4th generation owner of Russ & Daughters in New York City re: how to make latkes & also explained Judith's role. My brother & sister-in-law recently completed their conversion to Judaism, but due to kids, are having a "blended" holiday. Love hearing about the Jewish traditions & foods. (and, I love latkes!)

bedo

I had sushi and beer for dinner. I'm looking forward to a new pair of family pajamas this year with the SIL, daughter and baby. A new one is on the way, we think. Hallelujah and peace to everyone.

bedo

You've outdone yourself, lol.

I'm happy to see that you are doing well

bedo

I think that now I will put mushrooms on all of my grilled cheese sandwiches, lol

Merry Christmas!

carolehalston

Hi, Bedo! The grandson is adorable. I was thinking about you recently and hoping you are doing well.

Today I plan to cook a pork roast for tomorrow's Christmas dinner at my sister's house. I will stud the Boston butt roast with stuffing: chopped green onions, garlic and cayenne pepper.

I'm thinking I will also prepare the creamed spinach casserole. In addition to spinach, ingredients include chopped artichoke hearts and water chestnuts.

Last night's dinner was yummy. Mustard greens, eggplant casserole and cornbread.

Tonight we go next door to a neighbor's annual open house. Big pots of chicken gumbo will be serve yourself dinner food.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

bedo

So now I will have to put mushrooms on all my grilled cheese sandwiches, lol

I am glad that you are doing well

bedo

You have outdone yourself, lol. I am glad that you are doing well

auntienance

Hey Bedo - great picture! That baby got big! So good to hear from you.

Carole, your pork roasts always sound so good.

Cornish hens are roasting, waiting on the kids and grand dog to show up. Looking forward to not having anything to do for a while. Time to baste!

MinusTwo

Bedo - REALLY great to hear from you and see the picture of your "baby". Love to hear what you're up to if you have time.

Carole - I'm doing a pork roast too, but likely not until tomorrow since I didn't take it out of the freezer in time. I'll rub mine with sage. I like the additions of artichokes & water chestnuts to the spinach casserole

Nance - Ooooo - cornish game hens. Did the mascarpone frosting work? I'm going to post an interesting frosting recipe.

eric95us

Since DD has to work tomorrow, she's here today and I made the annual zimtkuchen this morning.

Hi Bedo! Good to see a picture of you and one of the "grands".

Back to DD, MIL and Sharon.

MinusTwo

OK - here's the recipe I found from "she knows". It was specified for gingerbread cookies, but I bet it would be delicious on anything. Chocolate cake?

Baileys Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks salted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
• Baileys Irish Cream

Directions:

1. Beat the butter until it is fluffy and pale yellow in color. A lot of recipes will call for unsalted butter, but I love the flavor play using salted butter in my buttercream.
2. Slowly add in the confectioner's sugar until thoroughly combined.
3. Slowly add in the Baileys until you have your desired, velvety frosting texture. I always eyeball this step, so I couldn't tell you how much I actually use. But if I had to put a number on it, I probably dribble in 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup when all is said and done.

The best part? Since the frosting isn't cooked or baked in any way, the alcohol in the Baileys doesn't get cooked out of the recipe. Enjoy responsibly, as they say.