Since we already have a Thxgiving thread, why not look ahead to the next Big Holiday Celebration?
As for casa lingua, we will just have gotten back from our Philly stint, so nothing too fussy & delish are major criteria. For xmas eve, we often go with seafood stuffs — shrimp cocktail, gravlax, seared scallops, ceviche, salmon mousse topped with trout roe, etc. …or a spread of fancy charcuterie (think smoked duck* & truffled liver mousse / paté) and splurgy cheeses with a bottle of Bublé and some nice bread from the local bakery.
Christmas day is often spend at our friends’ house, so that’s usually an afterthought for us, and — having grown up in Germany — xmas eve is kinda the bigger deal anyway.
What’s on your agenda this year?
*That reminds me to order smoked duck from Nueske’s soon.
I’ll be on my own, as is my usual preference since Mom passed. I’ve been making the beef tenderloin with cognac cream sauce from Epicurious for years for both of us (and then just myself), because Mom enjoyed a nice tender slice of beef on (medium) rare occasion. Now it’s done more in memory of having Christmas dinner with my Mom and remembering her enjoying it.
So that’s still on my radar, but I haven’t yet thought about it. Christmas is a Wednesday this year, and I’ll be at work the following two days (gotta pay the employees their last paycheck of the year and get all the year-end stuff done!), so probably nothing too elaborate. Noshing throughout the day would also be a nice way to deal with it - shrimp cocktail, bacon-wrapped dates, etc.
I’ll probably decide closer to mid-December.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
4
There’s a firm rule in this house that the C-word is not mentioned until after Bonfire Night (5/11). I’ll be back to the thread in due course.
The Christmas Ham is already purchased and quietly resting in the big freezer… waiting.
I grabbed one when they were on a deeply discounted sale, as I know Sunshine loves ham on Christmas.
I’ll go over the sides with her when we get closer, but I know she likes cornbread stuffing, butter & brown sugar sweet potatoes, homemade rolls (from Glen & Friends cooking), corn, peas, cranberry sauce and lots of gravy.
I’ll probably purchase a pecan pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert.
I love pecan pie, even though I’ve seen it made. The amount of sugar sources that go into it is truly mind-boggling. A local bakery makes mini pecan pies that look great & can probably still be shared between 4 people and be satisfying.
Well, @Harters? Any development in your holiday meal planning as of yet?
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
16
Absolutely loads.
We’ve got ideas for every dinner from 23/12 through to 1/1. The Christmas Day turkey is on order (for collection 23/12). And we’ve been to the posh butcher on the other side of town so the meat for several meals is now in the freezer.
There will be a number of things that get made in advance and will be frozen. For example, gravy for Christmas Day has been made this afternoon - we had roast chicken for dinner over the weekend and the carcass as been the basis for stock. Other makes for the freezer for the “big day” will include chestnut stuffing and bread sauce. I’ll also be making Nigel Slater’s Xmas terrine from Christmas Chronicles and mince pies, of course (originally I think a Jocelyn Dimbleby recipe that I’ve been doing for years).
As for planning, all we have to do is make our shopping list spreadsheet. Such a lot of stuff to do - compared to last year when we went to Tenerife for the festives and I had steak and chips for lunch on Xmas Day. And, next year, we’re already talking about a break in a nice country hotel maybe up in the Lake District.
I’m glad I checked my own post, bc so far I have not yet ordered Nueske’s smoked duck breast, and I should probably hop on that pronto
Instead of enjoying a romantic tête-à-tête, we decided to throw a small soirée for our dear friends who had us over for turkey day, plus my widowed friend who’d otherwise be spending xmas eve with her six dogs, and our HK bud and his boo.
There will be bublé & an assortment of other libations — maybe even a festive cocktail if I can convince my man to make a pitcher (or two) of French 75s
My gravlax is pretty much set in stone, so I’ll be hopping on that the day after we return to the boonz, since I prefer a 3-day cure, ideally.
We’ll likely bring back a loaf or two of bread from one of the city bakeries we love, as well as a nice hunka blue & other fancy cheese we cannot get back home. I might break out the ice wine I was gifted recently by the owner of our Sichuan jour fixe place to have with
If Aldi isn’t completely sold out of black tiger shrimp, a cocktail of those. Other treats TBD.
And I may have to splurge on a big jar of trout roe again, bc it makes everything delicious and those bright orange pearls are so festive
Be cool if my dude made biscoff ice cream, OTOH — none of us are big on sweets…well, he is
I like it! We’re hoping to go petit soirée too, with a few close friends. Probably it will happen post-Christmas due to their schedules, still being worked out.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
20
We did the weekly supermarket run this morning. Not as planned - as I was supposed to be having my first prostate cancer treatment. But, there was a voice mail saying it was cancelled due to an “error” and will now be tomorrow. FFS! I can guess what’s happened - they’d allocated it to a nurse who isnt trained to do it. Double FFS!
Back to the thread…We’ve now got all the stuff for the various Xmas makes and I’ve already made a start. A Nigel Slater recipe for red cabbage with orange and juniper. It’s going in the freezer in portions (should get three meals worth). It’s only festive outing is on New Years Day, when it’s getting paired with pork.
A couple of Xmas Day things planned for tomorrow. Chestnut & mushroom stuffing. And bread sauce. They’ll just need defrosting and heating through
