Christmas Menu

In New Zealand it's summer and normally a hot day but it's the same every year.
Leg of lamb roasted with mint sauce
Rolled turkey roast stuffing inside it. Withcranberry jelly.
Rolled pickled pork boiled for two hrs slowly. With apple sauce
New potatoes from our garden dug that morning.
Peas picked from garden and frozen daily.
Roast potatoes, kumara ( sweet tatter ) pumpkin, parsnip and carrots roasted.
Home made gravy.

Trifle my daughter makes.
Then a lie down,lol.

Grandkids love Xmas day. So do I !!

Rus
 
As we are atheists, our celebrations start with Hanukkah 10th to 18th December. We the celebrate standard christian Christmas and New year here. We then travel to Serbia to be with Mrs Blanks relatives in Krusevac Serbia for Orthodox Christmas January the 7th followed by New year 14th of Jan.
 
and I have an Excel spread sheet where I can enter "sit down to eat time" which then does clock math backwards for all the tasks. at clock time, , , take out the butter to soften, make the X-salad, turn on oven to preheat....
which exports to another "alarm program" - which monitors the system clock and beeps/alarms/alerts the cook . . . there's this 'thing' to be done at this time . . . .

:eek:

I don't worry too much about timing - if its a turkey it goes on early and then the rest of the meal is cooked to fall in line with when the bird is ready (including resting time). The key is that a large bird will rest anything up to 45 minutes or more covered in foil, giving ample time to cook accompaniments.
 
We always stay with my wife's cousin Miki and his wife Mira they have two wonderful girls so Christmas is a big event. We hire a Jeep so we can visit relatives outside Krusevac. Christmas Eve .The four family of relatives buy and share a spit roast pig from a friends farm. I drive with Miki to pick up the pig, then we go to get the Carp his friend catches. It is always very cold with lots of snow. Lujbe portions the pig for Christmas day. Mira chops the carp, dust it in flour and deep fries it for that evening to be eaten cold. Mrs Blank and the girls make salads etc. They then walk to buy baklava for desert. I fall asleep next to the wood burner with Rasha the cat.
Miki (very religious) blesses the food the goes to every outside opening door, window and splashes holy water on it to stop evil spirits entering. We sit down at about 20.00 and eat. Miki and the girl clear up. Marina and Mira bake bread and cakes till after midnight. Because I feel safe and surrounded by love I have a few drinks..
Christmas day I wake up to a miracle the food is laid out on the table so at 08.00 precisely Miki unlocks the door physically and spiritually for the first guest to arrive. The food is topped up through the day till about 16.00 hrs as guests come and go. We then go out to visit, I make a beeline to Lujbe's house where his Macedonian wife produces some of the best patisserie I have eaten.There is no time to watch tv !
The next few days are made up of visiting friends and relative and eating.
Our present to Miki Mira and the kids is always the same. We go to the local hotel hot springs spa for two nights to purge ourselves before the onslaught of New Years eve. Ribarska Banja Spa
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It is easy for the main feature, T-Day, turkey cooked in some fashion, Xmas, prime rib. Only thing left to figure are the sides and most are already decided.

T-Day:
Dressing (type to still be determined)
Sweet Potatoes Foster
Cranberry Jelly (mainly for the after dinner sandwich, or 2)
Others to be decided

Xmas:
Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding
Recipe - Mushroom Bread Pudding
Brussel Sprouts (style to still be determined)
Others to be decided
 
I have a shopping list / menu for both USA Thanksgiving and USA Christmas.
duck simple - save as XmasMenu2010 ... 2011...2012....

and I have an Excel spread sheet where I can enter "sit down to eat time" which then does clock math backwards for all the tasks. at clock time, , , take out the butter to soften, make the X-salad, turn on oven to preheat....
which exports to another "alarm program" - which monitors the system clock and beeps/alarms/alerts the cook . . . there's this 'thing' to be done at this time . . . .

one upon a time I attempted to share that kind of stuff with members in a cooking galaxy far, far way.
unfortunately.....the discipline required to do entries usable by "clock math" in Excel exceeds the willingness of users to actually learn/abide by MicroSoft's Excel requirements, so I stopped offering those files.

Excel for Christmas menu, just what I would need
 
So...sitting here making a list (of things to make) and checking it twice, I've had a bit of a change of plans.

Normally, MrsTasty and I go out for a fancy-schmancy holiday supper right before Christmas, but that ain't happening this year.

That's when I hit upon the idea of moving our usual Christmas Day meal (featuring a standing rib roast, Fred Flintstone style) to one evening just before Christmas, taking the place of our night out, and on Christmas Day, I'll just throw together a bunch of noshy finger foods and appetizers to munch on at our leisure.

Win-win!
 
Ok, Christmas Day is planned, very simple:

Cold plate of salami, roast beef, ham, Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella cheese
Veggie tray, just the standard stuff of radishes, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, whatever looks good, along with a creamy buttermilk dip
Pretzels and potato chrisps (that's my new all-inclusive word for chips/crisps)
Deviled eggs
Assorted cookies
Cranberry-Apple Crumsple (that's my new all-inclusive word for crisp/crumble)
Beer, champagne, festive hot drinks
 
...and our special holiday meal is set:

Standing rib roast
Roasted potatoes
Brussels sprouts gratin
Salad
Yorkshire puds
Spice cake

Wow, I'm still bracing myself for "pumpkin spice" season. :thumbsdown:

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CD
 
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