Okay, I’m going to go first. Christmas Eve dinner is beef stroganoff for the omnivores, Ming Tsai’s tofu stroganoff for the vegan, both served over rice. Oreo crust vegan cheesecake for dessert which is being made now (not by me). For before, I was planning to have Chex mix. At this point I’ve blown two batches of it and have turned over the hors d’oeuvres to the others. Was it the healthier non-Chex cereal from Whole Foods? The Earth Balance fake butter? The soy sauce instead of Worcestershire? The alignment of the planets??? I’m a good cook, and I’m floored to have been defeated by something I’ve made a million times. Thank goodness there’s plenty of wine. Happy holidays!
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The Xmas of 1972 was our first together. And our cooking skills were minimal (mine haven’t improved that much over the years). It was going to be a traditional meal on Xmas Day, right down to the white sauce that was traditional to serve with the pudding. So, we bought a packet mix. It looked lovely poured over the pudding. But it didnt taste right. In fact it was pretty much inedible. We went to find the packet in the bin. Yep, that’d be a savoury white onion sauce to go with lamb.
Happy Christmas/Hannukah/Saturnalia/Solstice/Yule to all (delete as appropriate)
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I recall my first go at chocolate chip cookies resulted in my brother breaking a tooth on a nut because I used filberts that were in the bar cabinet and I didn’t consider the importance of chopping them well. I was in my 20’s. 
Oh yeah, bro still tells that ditty.
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Just arrived from Manchester the 24th December. I was too wiped to go to my aunts house but I sent a box of Thornton’s toffee. My uncle tried to chew on it and has never quite forgiven me for the root canal & two implants
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I think I’m gonna have to go with “Healthier Substitutes for the Real Thing for $1000, Alex.”
/
Some things you aren’t meant to be “healthy”…
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I completely agree. But I had to make it vegan (hence the fake butter and soy sauce), plus I couldn’t stand the thought of going to another store to get Chex which WF doesn’t carry. Whatever substitute cereal I bought smelled like a wet dog…
My hero husband took over, sensing that I was close to a meltdown. Now we’re having olives, and crackers, celery, and carrots with pimento cheese. The vegan bought some fake cheese dip. So all is comparatively well.
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Ouch, that’s pretty hardcore…
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Well, the adult children, our niece, and her guest from Spain all arrived at the same time, and gingerly tiptoed in; I was sternly reprimanding the cat to get off the fully set table (ok, yelling at the cat) 
, but they thought I was yelling at H. Whew, saved. After cocktails and apps, I began to mash the potatoes, but the hand mixer wasn’t plugged in. Unbeknownst to me, it was set on high speed, so when I plugged it into the power strip, it took off, flinging mashed potatoes all over and jumping out of the bowl. I immediately let out a stream of default Christian related blasphemies, like a sailor or something. (Not to besmirch the sailing profession in any way…) I’m sure everyone has heard worse, however. The Boston’s loved the mess on the floor and eagerly cleaned it up. Finally, as everything was ready to serve, H realized he forgot to steam the King Crab legs. Sooo, we kept it all warm and the wait was so worth it. An excellent meal and good company, after a few initial snags.
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Holiday cooking mishaps? Haha, our last Christmas eve dinner started after midnight, technically on 25th morning. Like usual, I underestimated the workload of making 2 desserts and all first time dishes, need to reread recipes several times…during the preparation. Each dishes consisted several of mini recipes. At one point, I needed to press beetroot juice, tried to find my centrifuge, one part was missing, In the end have to grate it and I used the garlic press!! (Well, today I read there are better ways!)
Also, I took some alcohol during cooking didn’t help to speed things up.
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Wow! I’d love to see THAT menu!
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People in Europe eat so much later anyway! I admire your bravery in attempting laborious dishes - you turn out some beautiful food @naf!
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One word . BREAD . A failure every time . It’s a Christmas eve tradition. The focaccia was a failure. Lol
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Oh no! At least you have a sense of humor about it - even failures can be fun traditions lol 
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Actually went off fairly “tV holiday comedy” script. Dessert was assured. Roast read ready an hour before expectation. Rush roasted carrots and broccoli. One grand-sprout, for whom I had peeled the stems calls out “I don’t like broccoli stems anymore.” “No prob,” I tell her," so you won’t need the cheese sauce. Check on Yorkshire which has risen but is very pale. Raise it to broiler. Get called into the living room for some (to me) minor catastrophe, return to find Yorkshire scorched. Seat everyone. Squabble over the “crackers”. Pop crackers. Don hats. Roast is RARE. Forgot horseradish cream; get up and throw together some. POUR THE WINE. No complaints.
They’re all coming back for ham in a couple of hours. I THINK its all under control. Mac and cheese, roast cauliflower, Cranberry sauce with Grand Marnier. More 18 hour bread. Mince pie and boozy hard sauce.
Cheers. (Sounds like I’m trying to DROWN out criticism. Would I do that?
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Mister complained the whole evening for his late meal, to the point i felt a bit offended and decided instead a 4-course meal for the Xmas, there would be only 2… and even that, we were too full to want the buche . Tomorrow will be the remaining 2 courses…
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Baked stuffed potatoes. Made them a 100x. Baked the potatoes. mistake #1; left them on counter for an hour or so (later read to be SURE to cut them in half to cool), then tried getting the very gluey mess thru the ricer - needed superhuman hand strength. At this point it looked like glutinous noodles. I still proceeded to add butter and cream, it was weird looking. Still, as I’d already hollowed out all the potatoes I decided to fill and bake one. Really unredeemable. Even the dog was uninterested.
Had time to bake more potatoes and no problems, came out perfectly.
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That made me snort laugh.
Glad you had time to make a new batch.
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thank you I laughed
good day to you, holidays and weekends
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The missus spent some time in Australia and love Cherry Ripes you can buy them in the UK but since the Australian shop closed in London they’re quite hard to find. Also I thought it might be nice to make some hand made ones for Christmas for her. It didn’t go all that well. Turns out you may be able uses a blender on a mixture of desiccated coconut, condensed milk and glace cherries but it will totally clog a stick blender. Also no matter how well you think you’ve oiled the tray ,solidifying melted chocolate will stick and rip the bottoms of your Cherry Ripes when you try to pry them off the tray. There are two that are passable at best. Still they’ll probably taste good. Not tried yet as I didn’t take them to the in laws where we spent Xmas.
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I got a cherry ripe in my stocking from my bro who was in Australia recently, never had one before.
If you try chocolate work again and have questions I’d be happy to troubleshoot. I suggest parchment or waxed paper instead of an oiled tray, once the chocolate has set it should peel off cleanly.
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