What is your Christmas dinner menu?

[N F C]

Um, Bon Jour!

We're starting the countdown to dinner with:

Deviled eggs
Shrimp Dip 'n crackers
A small relish tray of fresh veggies

And then........

A huge ham, studded with cloves, pineapple, and cherries
Sweet taters 'n apples (the grandkids wouldn't be happy with anything else)
Baked beans
Rolls so light you have to catch them to butter them
Orange Fluff (don't know what it is for sure but my daughter-in-law makes it every year and it's SOOOO good)
A mixed green salad

Followed by -
Pumpkin pie made with the pumpkins my 9 year old grandson grew for me this year
Chocolate pie (so hubby Ken and son Kenny can have "chunklin" pie on their dessert plates)
Lemon merangue pie
Alka Seltzer

Then after dinner is over, the dishes are done, and the leftovers doled out, we'll all head across the street to our son's house for gifts, giggling, and lots of giant hugs. I love Christmas! The little kids will take turns telling the Christmas Stories - Evan and Katie switch off. This year Evan will tell the story of the Birth and Katie will tell the story of her great-gramma LaVonne's Charlie Brown Tree.

Had to laugh at the last item on your menu...Alka Seltzer! Always a 'have to have' at holiday dinners, lol. Why do we do that to ourselves?

Your Christmas plans sound perfect, how nice you all are close to share the day. Bon Appetit! as Julia Child used to say.

 

[N F C]

I used to eat squirrel when I was a kid. It was okay.
I am not about to eat it now.
One invertebrate zoology class and my entire epicurean world got way smaller.

Your brother is yanking your chain.
They used suet instead of butter or lard, that is where the 'meat' came from. ...or, at least that's what they TOLD me.

Another story I heard was the vinegar and spices were supposed to cover the taste or the rancid meat. Which is when grandma chimed in with the suet theory.
AHH! Now I am questioning EVERYTHING!!!
Adults lie, then we grow up and retell the lies as fact and then AHHH!

off to google it.
because we know the internet never lies.

Not too sure bro is just kidding. There was some sort of ground meat in Grandma's pie, along with raisins and other stuff. She always used lard for everything but that was for pie crusts, frying stuff, etc. Not 100 percent sure what all she made her mincemeat from but I do know...nothing you can buy at the store tastes like hers did!

 

[N F C]

Hmm, mincemeat is kind of interesting to read about. Recipes still exist from the 15th century. According to Wikipedia, here's one from the 16th century:
"Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it / suet or marrow a good quantitie / a lytell vynegre / pruynes / great reasons / and dates / take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe. And if you will have paest royall / take butter and yolkes of egges & so to temper the floure to make the paest."

Apparently it was during the 20th century when the meatless version began appearing.

Wiki also had a photo that looks similar to Grandma's:


Anyway, with or without meat, squirrel or not, never had one as good as Grandma's (but what is?).

 

[3goodeggs]

What are / great reasons / ?
I think pie is a good reason.

Well, squirrel pie- I can see that. I used to like fried squirrel. It is a dark meat.
I remember it well...with the little cranberry stuffed in its mouth...Carving it was a bear.

 

[N F C]

LOL, that's hilarious!

 

[TXchickmum]

Had to laugh at the last item on your menu...Alka Seltzer! Always a 'have to have' at holiday dinners, lol. Why do we do that to ourselves?

Your Christmas plans sound perfect, how nice you all are close to share the day. Bon Appetit! as Julia Child used to say.

X2

 

[wyoDreamer]

The family recipe that my dad uses for mincemeat contains venison. He looks forward to getting a deer, just so he can make his mincemeat. It is his mothers recipe, from her side of the family. She was a hoosier, from Indiana. I am sure it is a regional thing. He always ate the entire pie by himself, we girls were picky.

Our Christmas lunch is a gathering, everyone brings something somewhat snacky. So far the menu is: deviled eggs, veggie pizza, meatballs, ham, salad, and ??? (brain fart, can't remember what else). I need to figure out what to take, I haven't been able to be there for over 8 years, so I am a newcomer to the feast. So far I am making Irish Cream and possibly brandy slush.

Any ideas? maybe taco dip or shrimp dip ...

 

[3goodeggs]

I loved the relish tray best when I was a kid. I still love those little gherkin pickles.

 

[Blooie]

The family recipe that my dad uses for mincemeat contains venison. He looks forward to getting a deer, just so he can make his mincemeat. It is his mothers recipe, from her side of the family. She was a hoosier, from Indiana. I am sure it is a regional thing. He always ate the entire pie by himself, we girls were picky.

Our Christmas lunch is a gathering, everyone brings something somewhat snacky. So far the menu is: deviled eggs, veggie pizza, meatballs, ham, salad, and ??? (brain fart, can't remember what else). I need to figure out what to take, I haven't been able to be there for over 8 years, so I am a newcomer to the feast. So far I am making Irish Cream and possibly brandy slush.

Any ideas? maybe taco dip or shrimp dip ...

Well, a family favorite here is simply creme cheese, cocktail sauce, and a package of little frozen shrimp, thawed and rinsed and drained well. Soften 2 or 3 packs of creme cheese, mix in cocktail sauce until it's a kind of pinkish color, spread it onto a plate, layer the shrimp on top of that and then drizzle a little more cocktail sauce on it. Serve with crackers. Simple, fast, and yum! Even my 3 year old granddaughter would stand next to the plate with a spoon if we let her. But this isn't one of those things you can make the day before - you'll have a watery, ugly dish to share if you try!

Have a wonderful time and enjoy every minute of the time you spend together! I know about finally spending a holiday after a long absence. We drove 700 miles to have Thanksgiving with my family. Been 18 years since we spent a holiday together, but only because of distance and the logistics of driving over the mountains of Wyoming and the prairies of South Dakota in winter. Of course, I see them regularly throughout the summer but two Christmases ago we almost lost our sister, Linda, to an abdominal aortic aneurism. She survived, her kidneys didn't, and she's been on dialysis three times a week since. Then this spring she had a triple bypass done and we almost lost her then, too. So this year nothing would keep me away from spending the holiday with her and the rest of the family, especially after learning that she has now been permanently removed from the kidney transplant list.

 

[N F C]

Have a wonderful time and enjoy every minute of the time you spend together! I know about finally spending a holiday after a long absence. We drove 700 miles to have Thanksgiving with my family. Been 18 years since we spent a holiday together, but only because of distance and the logistics of driving over the mountains of Wyoming and the prairies of South Dakota in winter. Of course, I see them regularly throughout the summer but two Christmases ago we almost lost our sister, Linda, to an abdominal aortic aneurism. She survived, her kidneys didn't, and she's been on dialysis three times a week since. Then this spring she had a triple bypass done and we almost lost her then, too. So this year nothing would keep me away from spending the holiday with her and the rest of the family, especially after learning that she has now been permanently removed from the kidney transplant list.

Enjoy the time with your family Blooie and God bless your sister. No one can ever know us AND still love us like our sibs.