http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x71851Oh my.
Christmas is coming soon, and the primitives want things all planned out.
AwakeAtLast (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 02:36 PM
Original message
H*****y Meals
Post your H*****y meal plans here.
I'm still trying to decide. I will be having Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my house.
I think Christmas Eve will be roasted turkey breast with Au Gratin Potatoes and green beans of some kind.
Christmas Day will be either ham or beef tenderloin and macaroni and cheese and broccoli salad . I also have a really good Italian Beef recipe for the crockpot, but I'm not sure it's a Christmas Day choice.
Breakfasts will most likely be a breakfast casserole and monkey bread. Both are made the night before and baked that morning.
We will only have five people this year, so I don't have as much to plan for as others probably do.
Anybody else want to share?
What the Hades is "monkey bread"?
Grandma:
hippywife (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. So far all I know is that I'm going to order a duck from a meat market in town. I've never cooked a duck before so I thought I'd give it a whirl. We were having problems deciding because Bill didn't want more turkey and doesn't like ham. I could have gone with either, but this will be a nice change, too.
Man, nothing, but nothing, suits Alfred Packer.
AwakeAtLast (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 08:10 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Let us know how it turns out!
I have had duck exactly once, and it wasn't cooked particularly well, so I can't really say if I like it or not.
Irishonly (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 07:43 PM
Response to Original message
2. Christmas Eve will be ham and other stuff. I am not sure what the other stuff is going to be yet. Christmas Day will be split pea soup and corn bread. I usually always make sticky buns on Christmas morning.
Aha:
tigereye (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 08:44 PM
Response to Original message
5. what is monkey bread?
AwakeAtLast (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 09:07 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Also known as "Pull apart bread"
There are many versions, but this is the one I use:
QUICK MONKEY BREAD
1 package frozen (yeast) dinner rolls
1 package regular butterscotch pudding
1/4 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
Grease bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts on bottom. Arrange rolls over nuts. Sprinkle dry pudding over rolls. Mix sugar and melted butter together and pour (drizzle) over rolls.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Cover with towel and let rise over night or at least 8 hours.
Bake 350°F for 45 min to 1 hour.
COOL NO LONGER THAN 5 MINUTES. Turn pan over on serving dish and enjoy.
***I let them sit in the oven overnight for the 8 hours***
tigereye (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 09:31 PM
Response to Original message
8. well, we make v****e lasagna for Christmas Eve when we host the family
something my mom always did. My husband makes Greek salad, his trademark red pepper- curry- chicken saute, homemade French bread, steamed v*****s and cranberry apple pie and homemade nut roll for desert. I don't do yeast, that's my husband's dept.
Then I usually make a turkey breast for Christmas Day, with leftovers, since it's just the menfolk and myself.
AwakeAtLast (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 10:19 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Mmmmm.... Greek salad
There are a few places close by who make terrific Greek salads, considering I live in the middle of IN. Haven't had one for awhile. So good!
tigereye (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #9
19. now I don't know if it's technically the kind you might find in a really good Greek restaurant.
Want I want to make soon is Greek lemon chicken soup with those wonderful little bits of pasta - can't remember what they are called. That was one of my favorite things to eat at the Greek restaurant we used to frequent before it closed. They also made the greatest salads.
hippywife (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 11:06 AM
Response to Reply #8
17. I haven't had a decent Greek salad in forever.
My fault, I guess. Sounds like a really wonderful meal.
tigereye (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. my husband has a nice recipe for it, I can drag it out, if you like
My husband is a very good cook. He makes curry chicken from The Curry Book, he makes Thai recipes, great stir fries, and he makes really good bread. He was so pleased when I bought home the All-Clad seconds haul.
NMDemDist2 (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-05-09 11:57 PM
Response to Original message
10. I'll probably do a prime rib with the great Pecos beef at the local butcher's shop
it's become a New Mexico tradition for us
I bought a nice spiral sliced ham too, but that will probably wait til New Years since I'm going on furlough for a month starting 1/3 and will have time to deal with it
The wired gassy primitive, from the farmette up over there in Wisconsin:
grasswire (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 12:05 AM
NOMINATED FOR TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2009
Response to Original message
11. I think we will be alone this Christmas
Just two, my niece and me. That's hard to do, I think -- hard to be festive with just two. Everyone else is going other directions.
BUT...on the 14th we have a three-year-old's birthday to celebrate and an 18-year-old returning from working on a conservation project in remote SW, and so there will be nine of us for a sleepover in this smallish apartment. It's the only time we will be together until the end of January.
So for this auspicious occasion I'm thinking of corned beef if Trader Joe's has some nice organic cuts -- simmer it all afternoon. German potato salad, perhaps. I'd like to go to the Russian grocer for some special things -- we've had such fun opening all the unfamiliar goodies from that store. I might make some apple strudel for dessert, with birthday cake on the side. Or raspberry dumplings because I have lots of raspberries in the freezer.
Our traditional family Christmas breakfast is home-canned raspberries in my grandmother's depression glass berry dishes, link sausages, poached eggs with tarragon cream, English muffins, and apple strudel. Perhaps too ambitious for this tiny kitchen.
All subject to revision!
One thing for sure this season, I'm going to have some Dungeness crab. The harvest is excellent this year, with big meaty crab-critters coming in. Unfortunately, one crab fisherman was already lost at sea two days into the season, and another boat sank but crew recovered. I don't forget the danger the crabbers must face.
hippywife (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 11:01 AM
Response to Reply #11
15. Your gathering on the 14th sounds like it's going to be full of lots of fun, warmth and love.
Lugnut (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 02:03 AM
Response to Original message
12. We'll be doing both dinners again this year.
The Christmas Eve crowd will be larger than the one on Christmas Day. We do our own version of the traditional Italian seven fishes (we do five) dinner on Christmas Eve. The menu consists of aglia olio (anchovies sauted in olive oil and garlic), smelts, calimari, baked haddock and potatoes in tomato sauce, shrimp scampi and a mixed greens and tomato salad. My daughter is making homemade pieroghi to maintain a small part of my Slovak heritage and impress her Russian boyfriend. We're expecting to have 11 or 12 people for dinner.
On Christmas Day we're having a standing rib roast, leek Yorkshire pudding, green beans and mashed potatoes. My daughter is preparing dinner for six of us. I'm making a hash brown, egg and sausage casserole for breakfast.
Tesha (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 06:46 AM
Response to Original message
13. Our h*****y is still undecided with the kids grown and other people claiming their time, it can be quite a dance to get everyone together.
Bur Mr. Tesha is his best deal hunting tradition came home with a standing rib roast with a sticker saying "$8.50 Off"!
So that's waiting in the freezer - maybe Gruyere, leak and potato casserole as the carb - something fresh and green as a side - a nice anti-pasta to begin, and a soup ??? hmmm and the cheese course with a few old favorites with bread and grapes
followed by that wonderful Chocolate Roll we made for Thanksgiving I saw on Jacques and Julia - no flour - like a souffle...
that should take a few hours and give us time to relax and enjoy what ever day we get to share.
The next morning is the old standby Gingerbread with whipped cream - the little boys make from a box
Mr. Tesha's Baked Candy Bacon and a breakfast casserole of some kind. Fruit, eggnog, maybe some of those
breakfast sausages....
looks like we won't go hungry
hippywife (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #13
16. Mr. Tesha rocks! LOL
I was thinking of a standing rib roast but in the voting, the duck won out.
That casserole sounds really fabulous!
Obviously Alfred Packer does all the voting in Grandma's house.
Grandma's best friend, the miserable primitive from nearby Arkansas:
sazemisery (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-06-09 10:12 AM
Response to Original message
14. Christmas is at my house on Christmas Eve, 17 confirmed diners.
Crown Roast of Berkshire Pork
Smoked Chicken
Cranberry Apple Stuffing
Spinach Mashed Potatoes
Tomato Bread Pudding
Butter Lettuce with Mangoes, Avacadoes, Goat Cheese & Lemon-Honey vinagrette.
Assorted breads
Desserts provided by guests.
This is just the menu in it's preliminary stages. There appears to be an overabundance of starch as I read over it so there will be vegetable dishes added as I get closer to Ground Zero. The above sides are ones that are requested every year and have become mainstays.
