Brunch for eleven, which is all our living room can hold. Bagels and stuff to put on and next to bagels.
Avocado cream and crudite.
Cheese and fruit.
Celery salad, winter greens salad, deviled egg salad with ikura.
Latke muffins.
And bloody marys, bien sur.
Christmas Eve was our traditional (25 years running) clam chowdah and homemade baguettes (gluten containing) and Dutch oven boule (gluten-free). I made the chowder and baguettes Monday night so I just had to reheat the chowder after Christmas Eve service (where I was running an 8-member usher team, so the 75 minute service was a 3 hour affair for me). The chowder recipe is reputedly a knock-off of Union Oyster House’s in Boston. The GF bread was from King Arthur’s website and, for once, I didn’t deviate but just followed the recipe.
The GF bread timing was tight but it really is better eaten the day baked, so I started it a 9 a.m. Tues and got it into the hot Dutch oven as I was running out the door to church at 2:30, and had my daughter monitor and finish it. Wow it was good. Everyone tried a bit of her bread and no one could tell it was GF.
Christmas morning was the traditional sausage-egg-bread casseroles (large regular, small GF for the same daughter). The GF daughter (third daughter, the baker) made GF cinnamon buns based on a variation of a LoopyWhisk recipe that were fantastic and, as with the bread, you couldn’t tell it was GF.
But we deviated for dinner. For the last 25 years at least I’ve cooked a full (7-bone) prime rib roast, mashed taters, gravy, etc. This year we opted for a simpler/easier menu with Honey Baked Ham (my MIL’s neighbor had gifted us $100 in cards last year when she was sick), baked Yukon Gold taters (ug - I much prefer russets baked, but Yukon was the kid consensus, and I’m flexible) and a roasted sweet potato/Brussels sprouts/pomegranate/pan toasted pecan warm “salad”. Finished with a GF pretzel-cream cheese-strawberry jello sort of casserole thingie (family recipe pretty similar to this one, I think).
The End.
Edit - oh, and some kind of nasty mulled wine steeped with dried orange slices. I took a sniff and a sip and went back to my beer.
That looks lovely!
Christmas day dinner is always the same for us. It’s at my brother’s house, so he starts the turkey early in the morning, as our mother always did, after stuffing it with the simple bread filling we grew up eating and still prefer.
The turkey roasts in a countertop Nesco roaster, which is more like a steamer, and reliably produces a moist, evenly-cooked bird.
Ham - his wife likes to have a ham as well, even though we are just 5 people total. Oh well - the leftovers are great cold. The ham wasn’t overcooked/dried out this year, which is a big plus.
Mashed potatoes - I’m in charge of these. Boiled, mashed, butter+milk.
Veg - I brought some of the local corn and local limas I froze over the summer. Both were microwaved in a bit of water, then buttered.
Baked whole sweet potatoes - sure, but I will never double-potato when there are homemade mashed potatoes avail.
Filling - some cooked inside the bird, and some cooked in a casserole dish. The latter is reliably a bit crunchy, which can be nice.
Canned cranberry sauce - that’s how we roll.
Gravy - mom makes the giblet gravy. It’s based on water in which the giblets simmered for at least an hour, to which are added turkey drippings whisked with flour.
This Xmas we were spared the green bean casserole, the only element of the meal for which I am unable to muster any enthusiasm whatsover.
For dessert: a simple pumpkin mousse I’ve been making for many years.
Merry Xmas 
Thank you! It went over well.
How cool is that!?!?
I had to look it up. Googie is my friend.
That was my maternal grandparents’ name for it, don’t think it’s all that common usage for pouring rum or brandy over your Xmas pudding and lighting it aflame
I used Wondra for the turkey gravy … I’m a convert.
Wow! Did you do all that?!
So, we move on to the second day of Christmas. In the UK and a number of other English speaking countries of the Commonwealth, it’s a public holiday. Most, but not all, call it Boxing Day.
A number of other European countries celebrate it as St Stephen’s Day.
“Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen when the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even.”
So that’s OK then - it’s another feast day. Thanks, Steve.
Breakfast was streaky bacon and American style pancakes. Lotsa maple syrup, of course
Lunch - turkey sandwiches, chestnut stuffing, mango chutney. Home made red cabbage slaw. Leftover fruit compote or trifle. Or both
Dinner - crab cakes (supermarket purchase) & salad. Pork fillet medallions, mustard sauce. Bubble & squeak with yesterdays leftovers. Cheese. Dessert (see lunch).
I did! It’s mostly planning and shopping and assembly. The four hours before guests arrive are a frenzy of plating.
Boxing Day breakfast was at work while checking overnight lab results that had come through - a cup of black coffee and a handful of fancy Harvey Nichols dulce de leche popcorn.
Got home, more black coffee with toasted brown soda bread (from Marks and Spencer) and butter. Consulted with my son about the roast duck planned for today. He had taken it out of the packaging and left it uncovered in the fridge as planned. We had studied 2 recipes - the 5 hour duck (Saveur online recipe) and a 7 hour duck recipe (Duck de Marietta) I had stumbled across while searching for the 5 hour duck. I settled for the 7 hour duck recipe as it allowed me to have a long nap to catch up on sleep after work. We patted the duck dry (he had already seasoned it with sea salt yesterday), stuffed it with fresh bay leaves, an orange and a grapefruit and some star anise, scored the skin and put it in the oven at 110 degrees Celsius. I went and had my nap while husband and son went to visit friends and peruse their Boxing Day buffet.
Now I’m up, drinking some sparkling Pinot Noir and have prepared braised red cabbage (with apples, sliced fresh red chillies, pomegranate molasses) and checked on the duck and turned it around in the oven to try and ensure it cooks evenly. And found a bottle of infused vodka in the cupboard that we had forgotten about.
Xmas day with pretty much the same posse we hosted the previous day.
When we were cozily hanging out at our place on xmas eve post-feast, I’d suggested we all wear our pajamas for the xmas day dinner, which was met with tentative excitement.
Lo and behold, I was the only one showing up wearing my beautiful new xmas pajamas — ask me if I care. I was def the most comfortable person all night 
The spread consisted of our hosts’ deviled eggs,
a cheese plate and crudité, my gravlax w/mustard sauce & a SALAD,
our widowed friend’s delish bacon-wrapped prunes and fab mac & cheese,
our HK buddy’s amazing, super-meaty Cantonese duck,
and our hosts’ soups: a seafood soup very loosely based on bouillabaisse,
a kicky Mexican corn chowder,
and a potato leek soup I randomly had assumed would be blended.
It was not. I didn’t try it, as I’d done too much snacking on the app, soup, and duck front.
My PIC’s flourless orange cake & pistachio ice cream were a lovely combo, not sure why I didn’t take any photos 
It was a mellow, fun evening with friends. We were talking about how these have been our best holiday gatherings: no stress, no fights, no drama — nothing like my family’s holidays.
I am very grateful for that, and for the best friends anyone could ask for.
Merry, merry.
Sounds delicious!
We ware pacing ourselves and turning the holiday into a multi-day feast. I’ll see if I can adhere to my plans.
Xmas lunch (on the late side):
Cheese snacks mid-afternoon:
Xmas dinner:
26 Dec lunch (planned):
26 Dec dinner (planned):
27 Dec lunch (planned):
We will have our traditional Korean new years meal of dduk guk (rice cake soup) because we’ll be away in Myrtle Beach until 3 Jan.
Thanks for all the holiday musings, recollections, aspirations and reports on this thread, and best wishes to all! There were three of us for Christmas this year celebrated in my parents now our house in Ohio.
Christmas Eve daughter prepared delicious swiss raclette, with baby potatoes and grilled onions, peppers and mushrooms, drunk with delirium nocturnum (not a bad combo) and riesling kabinett from the mosel. (better IMO)
Brunch was a Pork Chop Benny, and purchased maple Panettone. Hot apple cider. I had some Christmas-themed flavoured coffee from a local roaster, too.
Dinner was sour cherry soup, goose stuffed with apple and prunes
, gravy, lingonberry sauce, roasted potatoes, cheddar scalloped potatoes, cauliflower cheese with Gruyère and Emmenthaler, brown sugar ginger baked beans based on the Ina maple bean recipe, pomegranate clementine romaine salad. Christmas pudding and whisky sauce.
The leftover Xmas Pudding.
Italian chocolates and Scottish fudge at midnight.
Every time I’m in charge of a holiday meal, I intend to change out of my cooking clothes. And each and every time, that never happens. Here’s this year’s holiday garb:
I mean… it’s a food holiday. Comfort > style 
Now, NYE is a different story altogether…
