That was good...What's on the table over the next several days?

[grislyatoms]

One of my "customers" just brought a great big bowl of homemade posole and a couple of homemade tamales. (I'll have to remember to be nicer to her. )
The posole was thin and red with big hunks of pork and hominy. The tamales were perfect, not too dry, not too mushy. Good stuff!

I pick kiddo up on Tuesday, we are going to do the usual thing: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc.

Anyone fixin' up something unusual or is it all going to be the standard Christmas dinner fare?

 

[grampster]

Wife crumbled up some peppermint candy canes and pressed them between a thin layer of white chocolate and dark chocolate.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[grislyatoms]

Thats sounds good, Grampster. My Grandma used to make candy cane ice cream that was pretty darn good.

[K Frame]

Mom's been baking up a storm.

Must...

stop...

eating...

cookies!


Other than that, pretty standard fare for Christmas.

Going to be kind of sedate. This is the first Christmas since my Dad died, and to be quite honest, I'm not really dealing with it well.

[Jamisjockey]

Dad and step mom are here.  She makes all your mothers' cooking look like dog food!
Tonight she's brewing up some Tortilla soup.  She's making Key Lime cheesecake for thanksgiving, as well as an apple pie and banana pudding.
Tomorrow it'll be a chicken salad that's amazing. 

[K Frame]

"She's making Key Lime cheesecake for thanksgiving..."

What, she's taking you all back in time a month?

Or is the green fuzz on top of the cheesecake just making you THINK that it's key lime?

[Gewehr98]

More important question...

How is Mason striking it up with your mom, Mike?   

[AmbulanceDriver]

Our family usually does fondue Christmas Eve.   Brother takes care of the meat dish, I do the cheese fondue (Fondue Neuchatel...  mmmmmm), and mom does the chocolate fountain (not quite a true chocolate fondue, but still NUMMY!!!!!).  That and assorted sundry finger foods.  We just graze from about 6pm until we open presents at midnight.

[BridgeWalker]

Chili over here.  Christmas is on the road for us, the great circuit to various friends and relative.  And so, big ol' pot of meaty chili, half regular half chipotle (smokier, rich taste).  Cheap--made with dried beans soaked in yogurt water to prevent any negative social consequences.  Sits outside, since the pot doesn't fit in the fridge; we bring it in when we're getting hungry.  After it's been warmed a couple of times it gets really good. 

May not be too traditional, but sure is warm and good.

[Fjolnirsson]

Delta, tell me more about "yogurt water"....

[BridgeWalker]

Delta, tell me more about "yogurt water"....

Simple: get some plain yogurt (not vanilla, but plain, unflavored). Put about a cup or so in a large container.  Add luke-warm water.  Stir to dissolve.  Add dried beans--make sure there's enough water to allow for expansion.  Let soak for a day or so.  Dump out soakwater and rinse the beans thoroughly.  Make chili. 

Turned my chili from um, tasty but consequential to tasty and utterly harmless.

Seems the probiotics in the yogurt do a number on the enzymes in the beans, or so I surmise.  A friend who is into natural foods and other such things taught me to do it.

[K Frame]

Things were a little dicy last night when I got here. Mom's dogs can be very... over the top enthusiastic. That kind of cowed Mason a bit, but today they're getting along just fine.

[Paddy]

This is the first Christmas since my Dad died, and to be quite honest, I'm not really dealing with it well.

I know what you mean.  I don't think we ever stop missing them.

[Scout26]

standard Christmas dinner fare

I'll do our traditional Spiessbraten and fried potates.  Mrs Scout is making her famous homemade apple pie.

Better then Thanksgiving.....

[grislyatoms]

I'll do our traditional Spiessbraten and fried potates.

Had to look up Spiessbraten. That looks pretty good. I actually considered getting a beef rib roast this year but kiddo wouldn't have it. She expects a roast turkey.

I think I may grab a pound of crab legs on my way home tonight though, and maybe some smoked salmon, as my present from me to me.

[Iain]

I'll be making Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's (he's a real person, honest) chocolate and chestnut cake again this year. Awesome stuff, more like a mousse consistency when warm, not tried it cold, it didn't last long enough last year.

Other than that it'll all be fairly standard. Might make apple, sultana and marzipan chelsea bun things again, that or a stollen.

[Stand_watie]

     I'm going over to my cousin's house tommorrow. His wife will be cooking. She's Mexican-by-birth (now naturalized) and I can guarantee you her food will be both fantastic, and not something on the typical gringo menu Don't know what though.

[Stand_watie]

I'll be making Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's (he's a real person, honest) chocolate and chestnut cake again this year. Awesome stuff, more like a mousse consistency when warm, not tried it cold, it didn't last long enough last year.

Other than that it'll all be fairly standard. Might make apple, sultana and marzipan chelsea bun things again, that or a stollen.

     How about a goose? My dad claims that that is a traditional English Christmas dinner. I want to do Christmas in England sometime. Somewhere out in the countryside, in a little stone cottage that looks like it came out of Tolkien's "Shire".

[grislyatoms]

Green chile stew, tamales, and posole seem to be traditional Christmas fare around here. I love it all.

[grislyatoms]

My ex-step-uncle used to bring a goose every year. Great stuff. He would roast the potatoes in the goose fat (schmaltz?) and sprinkle on a little rosemary. The goose was damned good, but the potatoes were a whole 'nother story.

Biting down on little bits of shot is unnerving at times, though.

[Jamisjockey]

"She's making Key Lime cheesecake for thanksgiving..."

What, she's taking you all back in time a month?

Or is the green fuzz on top of the cheesecake just making you THINK that it's key lime?

Ah hell I wasn't paying attention.
It, obviously, is for christmas.  No green fuzz....

[Iain]

Haven't ever eaten goose. My mother's family used to keep geese and ducks when she was a kid, apparently they could never bring themselves to kill the things and she still won't eat duck to this day.

Turkey is standard christmas fare in the UK these days. You can buy tins of goose fat though, for the roast potatoes. King Edwards or Maris Piper roasted in goose fat... I look forward to Christmas lunch more than anything else about Christmas. I've frozen my knackers off in my one carol service, but it's all going to be worth it, those roast potatoes and last years christmas pudding.

You'd be welcome Stand, but I'm afraid Kidderminster is nothing like the Shire and I'll be at my parents place which is Victorian, brick and likely to be very cold. My place is flat in a converted warehouse in the former carpet district, so not much like your imaginings either.

[Stand_watie]

Haven't ever eaten goose. My mother's family used to keep geese and ducks when she was a kid, apparently they could never bring themselves to kill the things and she still won't eat duck to this day.

Turkey is standard christmas fare in the UK these days. You can buy tins of goose fat though, for the roast potatoes. King Edwards or Maris Piper roasted in goose fat... I look forward to Christmas lunch more than anything else about Christmas. I've frozen my knackers off in my one carol service, but it's all going to be worth it, those roast potatoes and last years christmas pudding.

You'd be welcome Stand, but I'm afraid Kidderminster is nothing like the Shire and I'll be at my parents place which is Victorian, brick and likely to be very cold. My place is flat in a converted warehouse in the former carpet district, so not much like your imaginings either.

I have. It was my job to kill and pluck the Christmas goose. One year, tired of plucking, I decided to skin the goose instead. It was very dry.

Regarding your parents place... no fireplace? I imagine fireplaces in all English homes.

[K Frame]

Roast goose is very good.

There's an odd tradition in the area where my parents grew up called "Goose Day." It's supposedly the only place in the United States where Michaelmas is still celebrated.

Here's a link to a good article on Goose Day by Mary Margaret Pecht. I worked with her at The Sentinel in 1989-1990 when I was just starting my career. I used to tweak her by telling her that one the day I was born (April 19, 1965) she had a front-page article in the paper!

http://www.villagehost.com/calendar/gooseday.html

[Fly320s]

I'd love to have tamales for Christmas dinner.  Alas, they are a bit difficult to find in NH.  I haven't tried mail order tamales... it seems so wrong.

We'll be having lasagna for dinner.  It's good stuff.