Christmas dinner consisted of slow cooked Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Brown & Serve Rolls and gravy. Not your traditional side dishes that go with ham, but these are the items that Sunshine and I like, so I made them. Everything was GREAT!! The kitchen is all cleaned up, dishwasher is running and I’m done… Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!
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Well, that gave me a “wait, what” moment!
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Oh… I see.
Yes… my girlfriend is NOT a morning person. It all started out as a joke with “Good Morning, Sunshine” and she would roll her eyes and scowl at me. As with most nicknames, it just kind of stuck.
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Spending the holidays in Hawai’i, so… Sushi Bake and Mai Tais.
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We hosted a potluck and about half the guests were foodies, so it was a delicious as well as fun afternoon.
I made/served:
Nibbles
Ina Garten’s caviar dip with ruffled potato chips (I double the sour cream and add chives)
Relish tray - beet-pickled hard-boiled eggs, sweet and dill baby pickles, spicy pickled green beans, pickled okra, pickled beets, and pickled peppadew peppers with garlic cheese. (I just realized I forgot to serve an entire platter with Castelvetrano olives, marinated artichoke hearts, and olives. Whoops.)
Crudités and pretzel thins with parmesan-peppercorn dip
Grissini, salami, and prosciutto
Homemade Chex mix, Old Bay peanuts, spicy cashews, and shelled pistachios
Port wine cheese spread with almonds and assorted crackers
Friends brought a cheese platter with fruit and a Caprese “tree”
Mains
CI’s holiday scalloped potatoes with way more/different cheeses and herbs
Samin Nosrat’s Butternut Squash agridulce
Baked ham with maple-mustard glaze
Cranberry-apple-orange sauce
Rhodes rolls and Plugra
Friends brought: a side of slow-roasted salmon with lemon, dill, and herbed yogurt sauce, baked mac 'n cheese, sauteed kale, roasted Brussels sprouts, broccoli salad, Italian stuffed squid, red cabbage, green salad, roasted Delicata squash, and parsnip puree
Dessert
Chocolate Bundt cake (glaze/decorating disaster!)
Friends brought a cookie platter and cheesecake (the latter a squirrel/racoon demolished b/c my husband helpfully stored it on the back deck, second offense 
)
No one had room anyway…desserts and leftovers were packed up and sent home.
Drinks
Open bar
Wines
Kombucha, seltzers, strawberry lemonade, and juice boxes
Friends brought a gin-ginger cocktail with a Lindemann’s framboise float, a spiked hot cocoa dubbed “Santa’s shift drink” by my DH (he’s forgiven for feeding the wildlife), fancy Champagne 
, and lots of beer and additional wine
Hopefully we didn’t just host a super spreader event. 
It’s been a long time since we entertained like this!
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Looks amazing! Good night!
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Goose is one bird I’ve never eaten. Yours is beautiful. I judge a roasted bird by the crispiness of it’s skin, which is my most favorite part.
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What a beautiful home you have, and that spread of food is to die for! We retired to Cape Cod. It’s frigidly cold this weekend. Very remote where we live and the two of us spent the weekend alone with our two Australian Shepherds. When we were younger, we used to have fabulous parties from Thanksgiving through the New Year. And then again in March, because the holidays were behind us and we needed something to get us from the winter doldrums to spring and summer.
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You’re kind to say that. Thank you! Truth be told, I feel a little exposed showing my house in these food pics. But oh well! A quiet cozy Christmas definitely has appeal, too. 
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What a wonderful spread!
Btw, I love your kitchen, ChristinaM!
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Thank you! This is the 4th or 5th goose I’ve roasted over the past 20 years. I had joined Chowhound in the spring of 2003. My first few geese and a couple ducks turned out tough, so I had turned to the Home Cooking Board for troubleshooting a few times. 
The last couple years, I’ve figured out how to get our roasted poultry the way we like it. 
I started this bird with a 400 ⁰ blast, then cooked it at 300 for several hours, until the stuffing inside reached 165 on my thermapen thermometer.
If you enjoy duck, I think you’d probably enjoy goose. I encourage you to try it. This 7.8 lb bird is enough to feed 4 to 6 people. I have about 2 cups of goose fat rendered, which i could use for roasting potatoes , or frying.
I based my stuffing on this Nigella Lawson Roasted Goose with Pear and Cranberry stuffing recipe , swapping 400 grams of fresh pears (2 large Bartlett pears) for the 400 grams of dried pears, and swapping 200 g sour cherries in syrup from a jar (Polish or German imports, found at Polish supermarkets) for the 175 g fresh or frozen cranberries.
We usually make a bread stuffing seasoned with sage and poultry seasoning, so this was a change to make a stuffing heavier on fruit than bread, and seasoned with clove, cinnamon and ginger.
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Thank you for the pointers!
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Having decided to stay home rather than travel for Christmas, I decided that homey comfort food would be just right as a holiday meal for two. Our main course was braised beef in red wine, very loosely based on a Marcella Hazan technique, but with lots of vegetables.
Now I’m looking forward to reducing the sauce and serving the leftovers over polenta in a day or two.
Chocolate cake with mocha icing—one of my favorite cake and icing combos—for dessert. A local café owner bakes Christmas goodies, so these days I order a cake and some cookies from her and holiday baking is done. Treats to eat, treats to share.
Hope that everyone is keeping warm, able to have a good meal, and feeling better if you’ve been under the weather. Happy holidays, all!
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That is a stunning cake!
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Of course, that’s the clue that I didn’t make the cake myself. 
I think that the owner of the cafe we love so much outdid herself with that Christmas cake this year!
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Oops! I totes read over that & just assumed you created this!
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Everything looks delicious! We bought a small prime rib roast and DH was in charge of that. I’ve cooked them before, and could always eat the end pieces but for some reason the way he did it, even those were so rare I just couldn’t enjoy it. When I learned he was also making gravy to go with it, I ditched my plans for a horseradish sauce and scalloped potatoes. I made parmesan mashed instead so I had mashed with gravy and green beans for dinner. Plenty of leftovers - I think I’ll pan sear my portion of rib roast tonight…
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Outstanding meal and lovely home! Sounds like a great time was had by all. The olives and artichokes platter can be a treat for another day.
What all out of the spread did your son enjoy?
Repeat-Customer Raccoon must be especially happy with the food and service chez vous.
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Luckiest raccoon ever!
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