Christmas Eve and Christmas plans/traditions?

Great minds ;))
I’m trying to roast the stalk itself too for the first time, followed their suggestion to steam it first covered the pan in foil and got tired of waiting for it, gonna finish the stalk part tomorrow.

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On Christmas - Sri Lankan for Lunch at Red Pepper Diner in Wappinger’s Falls
For dessert, a shwarma from Al Shami on Main St. in Paterson and a kanafeh and a tea from Taskin’s Bakery.

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I’ll tell you what won’t become a tradition…waiting in line at Monmouth Meats on Christmas Eve for an hour and a half.

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We host Christmas Eve I have my brother’s family and all my nephews and nieces and their children over. (What are they considered, my grand nephew’s and nieces? Great nephews and nieces? Anywho…) We also have good friends who join us, which was convenient since I used to play Santa but I was concerned the kids would begin to recognize me so my buddy now has to earn his Christmas Eve dinner!!

Menu:
Apps:
Southwestern chicken egg rolls with a spicy southwest dipping sauce & Italian egg rolls with marinara,
charcuterie board, mini ruebens, shrimp cocktail, biscuit sticks and sausage gravy (my father is from Virginia this is one of his favorite foods) mixed salad and pigs in a blanket.

Entrees:
Prime rib, turkey, ham, pork roast with saukraut, stuffing, Italian green beans and sausage, roasted fingerling potatoes and broccoli rabe, mac n cheese and fettuccine alfredo with peas and prosciutto.
(I was too busy cooking / serving to take pics)

A wonderful evening with family and friends and a visit from the jolly fat guy (besides me ) to top it all off. God Bless you and yours during this season!

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I was there about the same amount of time. I really think there should be a pick up only line. If you called in your order and want nothing else there can be some kid there to give you the bag and take the payment. The standing rib roast was incredible as always and worth the wait.

God bless you JR, I’m exhausted just reading that. Sounds and looks amazing.

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How did your father like the biscuit sticks and gravy?

He enjoyed them very much thank you! I also had plenty left over that I just had to re-heat it for breakfast in the morning, although it really thickened up with the reheat.

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I have two traditions: I have a fancy dinner out on Christmas Eve with my partner and my sister, and I make a brunch for my family on Christmas Day. This year, we went to Augustine in lower Manhattan. Good food, great service, and we ran into some friends from Los Angeles, which was a very big (and happy) surprise. And this is what part of the brunch spread looked like:
brunch%20spread
Not pictured: cheese & crackers, crudite and dips, latkes and kugel. Way too much food, basically. I’ll be eating bagels and lox every day for the foreseeable future.

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That all looks great, Bob! Fwiw, yes-those are your great (or grand) nieces and nephews, and that makes you their GREAT uncle!

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Good looking food!

We feasted but I didn’t get many pics.

Gramps is still going strong! That ham is now cooking in a pot of pea soup and stuffed cabbage. It smells amazing in here.

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Wow I picked up on Saturday to avoid that situation. No line at all

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moving

We do the fish dinner with my in-laws but due to a number of poor timing decisions we left before lobsters and dessert. On the plus side, I made lobster rolls today. I took nearly zero pictures but here is one of the antipasto and today’s lobster roll.


Yesterday, my mom made latkas since all the kids missed Hanukkah this year and we sweet talked her into combining. Yummmmmmm!

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Christmas Eve at Barnacle Bill’s was excellent as usual. Pretty packed in the restaurant area. Bar crowd was moderate. Went with the baked seafood combo and we had calamari as an appetizer. Probably as close to the Feast of Seven Fishes as I’ll get. Started with the ubiquitous LIT before moving to a gin martini in memory of my dad.

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At 9 PM, a man dressed as Santa with a group of elves singing Christmas carols burst in. Everyone sung along and cheered. He then started calling out for a particular person, saying he had a gift for them. It was one of the waitresses. Everyone quieted down and awaited anxiously with baited breath as the waitress sat on his lap and he gave her a package. It ended up being a tiny plastic roulette wheel, like one of those tacky $5 tabletop games you would get someone you don’t really know but think you need to buy a gift for. I think everyone was waiting for someone to come out and propose or reveal a bigger present like a trip to Vegas or something. But it never happened and the “event” dissipated rather quickly with grumbles and hushed “What the hell was that all about?” comments from the crowd. It was bizarre and what started out as a super cool restaurant moment ended up being a glorified annoyance.

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My grandma who is 90 also joined us and polished off a rather large glass of Sangria!

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As for Christmas, we really scaled it back this year. We had some snacks and leftover charcuterie from the party last week. Dinner was fried chicken cutlets, macaroni and cheese, stuffed mushrooms, and Brussels Sprouts with cubed honey ham. It ended up being just enough, with some leftovers for tonight.

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I love that you shaped the antipasto dish like a Christmas tree! Very creative. That lobster roll looks amazing.

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I can’t take the credit for the antipasto but thanks on the lobster roll!

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We celebrated with Chinese food on Christmas (after sundown, so I don’t know if that technically counts, but the organizers of the expedition are mostly Reform so it’s ok.)

Last year we had Chinese food twice, and the current Star Wars movie, but we were visiting my niece in small-town Kansas, and it was the only place open for dinner in town except the truckstop, where we’d had dinner the night before. (Apparently there was a hamburger drive-through open at lunch time, but we’d missed it.)

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We’ve already seen the movies we wanted to see and after being terribly disappointed in a couple of our go-to Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day, we stayed in and spent the day preparing an outstanding Indian butter chicken with pulao rice, onion pakoras and nan. Best Christmas meal we’ve had in years.

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