Thanksgiving was ok, but never been a big fan of traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas fare. So this Christmas will be one of my fav offerings… Mexican!
Red: chicken tinga, Mexican rice, tomato salsa.
Green: guacamole, salsa verde, chopped cilantro.
Earth Tones: carnitas or shredded beef (depending on which fatty roasts are available at the local Safeway), refried beans, chopped onions, queso fresco, tortillas.
Throw any/all of the above together anyway you like! Who else is planning something really different?
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
I’m 73. Every year of my life, Christmas has been a family “turkey and tinsel” affair. I’m so bored with it. For years, it’s been a genuine bucket list item to have Christmas Day lunch somewhere warm, overlooking the ocean, eating a very large steak. Not a turkey in sight. For various family reasons, it’s not been possible. We hoped it would have been last year but medical issues meant we couldnt get travel insurance so had to cancel. I’m hopeful that it will happen this year. Fingers crossed.
I know tamales are popular at Christmas with some of my relatives out west.
We eat Huevos Rancheros or a Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Casserole on Christmas morning.
I’m not sure how Mexican food at Christmas isn’t Christmas food.
I make seafood on Xmas Eve, which is a Catholic and Continental European thing to do, but I often make a moqueca (Brazilian Seafood stew). Sometimes I attempt 7 Fishes, like the Italians do. I have attempted some of the 12 dishes served as part of Ukrainian Xmas Eve some years, but it’s 3 of us so 12 dishes are a lot of dishes. I have made a salmon coulibiac for Xmas Eve before, as well.
I like trying other cultures’ Christmas recipes.
I already bought my Christmas goose for dinner on Christmas Day.
We usually roast a duck, and occasionally a goose. I’ll probably make red cabbage, maybe also a cold cherry soup.
It’s just the two of us, usually (unless some of our friends end up staying in town - then they celebrate with us, of course), so we will eat whatever floots our boot.
I’ve made more ‘traditional’ meals like roasted duck or beef tenderloin, but I prefer a snacky, small plates kind of dinner for the most part (just like the rest of the year).
This often involves my gravlax, any variety of seafood salads, steamed crab, shrimp cocktail, etc. etc. - you get the picture.
I love this post! I like to do different things on Christmas.
Once it centered around tasting varietal wines from different regions, complete with a “wine class” video and some placemats I made to keep our glasses and notes straight. Dinner was finger foods, selected to pair well with the different grapes. My favorite, but others didn’t like as much, was a really bright Framboise (not grapes but whatever!) paired with truffles for dessert. (Another A+ dessert pairing that only I loved best: Fruitcake with Muscadelle (Tokay)).
During the pandemic, we all had steak dinners at our own homes. Delicious meal. Worst dinner.
Once we had a meal along the same lines as @ScottinPollock: Carnitas, frijoles a la charra, red rice, salad, habanero-orange pico de gallo, pineapple pico de gallo, agua de jamaica, and key lime bars for dessert. During the day we snacked on Oaxaca, Guerrero, and panela cheeses, taco pickles, a cold salsa verde and a warm red salsa, chips, and ponche Navideno.
I’ve been very tempted to try a Chinese-American take-out dinner (standards like sweet and sour pork, fried egg rolls with mustard sauce, fortune cookies, etc.). Have the menu ready and everything, but not sure I could have everything ready at the same time and enjoy time with others as well.
Nothing outlandishly different. We’re doing ChannukaMas for the second year. Celebrating with the four of us, my mom, my neighbor whose husband died last month of ALS, her 2 daughters, and her parents (also neighbors). So 10. Brisket cooked on the gas grill, salmon, latkes, mac and cheese (college girl request), Caesar salad, probably other stuff added at the last minute. Birthday cake on account of 12/25 being my husband’s birthday and 3 January birthdays close on the heels.
I thought about that as Chinese is another one of my fav cuisines. But one of the coolest things about Mexican is that, with the exception of the guac, everything tastes better the next day.
Some yes, some no. I tend to gravitate to the saucy fried stuff and veggie laden dishes, and while it still tastes good, that sticky/crispy texture is just gone for the most part.
“Chinese and a movie” is a longstanding Christmas Day tradition in many (non-Orthodox) Jewish neighborhoods. Definitely need a reservation for the restaurant …
Christmas 2023 Snacks
Chex Mix
Seared Shrimp? Other Seafood
Chips with Sikil P’aak (Pumpkin Seed Dip)/ Salsas / Guac (all? Some?)
Meat Balls with Dip/Sauce Main Meal
Red Chili Pork Tamales
Red and Green Chicken Tamales
Roasted Squash / Red Rice / Refritos
Little Gems with Toasted Nuts, Citrus, Beets and Creamy Lime Dressing
Dessert
Coconut Caramel Flans
Mexican Wedding Cookies
We often do the Tradition German Meal.
Roast Goose with Gravy
Potato Dumplings
Braised Red Cabbage
Brussel Sprouts or Kale
Roasted Pears with Brandy Crème Anglaise
Cookies
Schnapps
The Woks of Life website also had a series of Takeout recipes, all the standards seem to be there (about 70 recipes).
Fortune cookies that you can stuff with custom messages:
Takeaway boxes that you can add a message onto before printing, maybe to hold flowers for the table or something:
Can you tell how much I want to do this?
6 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
19
I’ve asked my e-pal, Allan, who lives in the south. He tells me that the Cabildo has done a lot of replanting of trees, etc, which should establish well as the north had a lot of rain a couple of weeks back. It’ll take time of course.
