Cookies and other various and sundry sweets throughout the day kept us fueled until the big meal, which fell at about five in the afternoon.
Our Christmas feast was comprised of the following:
- Olives
- Cranberry Sauce
- Stuffing
- Mashed Potatoes
- Sweet Potatoes
- Green Bean Casserole
- Rolls
- Turkey
- Gravy
- Pumpkin Pie (topped with Cool Whip, god knows why my husband likes it)
- Apple Pie
- Food comas and intestinal discomfort for hours afterwards. Nasty weather prevented us from walking around to help the food settle.

The more adventurous among us continued to snack on cookies and sweets throughout the evening. I don't think I want to eat anything but fruit for the next few years.

Smoked ham
Roast pork
Two kinds of quiche
Baby greens salad
Scalloped potatoes
Cauliflower gratin
Stuffed shells
Meatballs
Noodles
Stuffed mushrooms
Whipped carrots
Baked eggplant parmigiana
Stringbeans sauteed with garlic

Chocolate covered cornflakes
Apple pie
Bread pudding
Chocolate mousse pie
Refrigerator cake
Cookies of all kinds
And more that I'm sure I forgot in the food coma.

All dairy-free due to daughter's gf's allergies. . .

Belgian waffles with berries and maple syrup.
Roast Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Ginger Bread Cookies
Gluvine w/organic red wine and spices.

Fried matzo for breakfast. Chinese takeout for lunch. Snacks for the rest of the day. Low key day for us!

I forgot the quiche for breakfast. We had quiche for breakfast.

- 10am: Toast, coffee, orange juice for breakfast
- 11.30am: Champagne
- 2pm: Turkey, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, kale, rolled-up bacon, sausages, sage & onion stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce
- 2.45pm: Christmas pudding (spiced fruited steamed pudding) and brandy sauce
- 3pm: watch the Queen
- 6pm: posh chocolates and Doctor Who
- 8.30pm: cheese, biscuits, grapes, mince pies and Downton Abbey

Order in Chinese cause Xmas *eve* is our big deal meal.

Honey glazed duck breast with arugula/pine nut salad and garlic roast potatoes, starter was salmon roe with lemon and pepper, champange all around, egg nog as dessert.

oh but Xmas morning was smoked salmon on bagels and yet more champagne (in the form of Bellinis, of course)

We were with The Fella's family Christmas morning, so we missed my family's traditional enormous and lingering Christmas breakfast.

7 a.m., half a cinnamon raisin bagel split with my BIL, who also provided us all with GIANT COFFEES THANK YOU PLEASE. My coffee was sooo delicious; after a bit, I realized the secret is cream instead of milk. Mmm.

11:45, a Baby Bel cheese provided by my 7-yr-old niece, who felt like a snack and suggested I have one as well.

1:30, The Fella came back from "stretching his legs and getting some coffee, are you sure you don't want anything?" at the rest stop with a drink for him, the biggest Coke possible (for me), and an order of onion rings to split. I didn't even know I wanted a Coke and onion rings until there they were.

2:30, a shot of blueberry liqueur on a mostly empty stomach, because I had to top up the bottle of homemade blueberry liqueur I made for my sister, which required several tiny tastings as I mixed in syrup and vodka.

4:30-6:30 as we opened presents, spinach & asiago in puff pastry, smoked mussels, grapes, smoked salmon & cream cheese rolls, clam dip with pretzel thins, cucumber, jicama, and radishes. Prosecco.

6:30-8:30, garlic-rubbed prime rib, yorkshire pudding, horseradish mashed potatoes, winter vegetable pot pie, roasted peppers and asparagus, mixed greens salad with pomegranate and an avocado dressing. A nice cabernet.

8:30-10, while we sat around moaning and playing Scrabble (my niece's gift to her mom), linzertorte, frangipani tart, orange cake with Grand Marnier ganache, toffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, candied ginger.

around midnight, while we watched an episode of the "Twilight Zone" box set The Fella gave me, a peanut butter Hershey's Kiss cookie delivered to our doorstep by some friends buzzing through town.

Ooooof!

For breakfast - 2 slices of toast.

For lunch - a peanut butter sandwich and far too many chocolate biscuits and cheese straws (at the dog shelter); I also inadvertently ate a dog treat, thinking it was a little chocolate-covered cracker.

For dinner - linguine and meatballs, but I was too tired to eat it, so I'm warming up the leftovers now.

I bought myself a lovely ribeye steak to have at the weekend though :-)

We did the Jewish Christmas of Chinese take-out (General Tso's shrimp -- yum) on Christmas eve, cause I was too tired to cook, but Christmas day I made an appetizer of pimento cheese melts on squares of pumpernickel bread (I'd been promising Jon pimento cheese for awhile -- came out quite tasty, I must say) and a main course of baked sesame/garlic-glazed salmon fillets, sweet potato fries, and broccoli with cheese sauce (not as gourmet as it sounds -- I used an Iron Chef glaze and frozen fries and broccoli, but still counts, right?).

This morning I made some cinnamon streusel coffee cake -- a mix, of course, but perfect with my morning joe, despite dropping an egg on the floor (eep). Jon was back to work today, but I'm off (thank goodness) till next Wednesday. After a few days of naps every couple hours, I'm starting to feel human. Though I am a bit sleepy again--

pimento cheese melts

Mmm, I've never had pimento cheese. Any chance you'd share how you make it?

I also inadvertently ate a dog treat, thinking it was a little chocolate-covered cracker.

At least you didn't eat a dog "treat" thinking it was chocolate ;)

This recipe is classic Southern pimento cheese except without the onion. The latter is just Southern Living's mandatory twist. A few country BBQ joints will offer pimento cheese sandwiches during lunch for kids, and I never had one with onions. However, pickle relish (either sweet or sour) is often added, probably two tablespoons for this recipe.

I just remembered. One Christmas at a work lunch party in Atlanta, one woman brought in a tray of deviled eggs made with pimento cheese. It was by far the most popular dish at that year's event.

Brunch: hot black coffee and my husband's awesome Eggs Benedict, made with spinach instead of ham for me.

Mid afternoon snack: Thai spiced cashews and a glass of a very wonderful Syrah

Dinner: Take number two on my husband's fantastic seafood stew, which he made initially for an Xmas visit to us by his sister and her husband. Yesterday he zipped it up with wonderful red peppers and more added pepper. And some of his (garlic rubbed) toast.

It was a good food day.

We were at my brother's apartment, and then my parents met us after having a traditional dinner with my mom's family.

Caveat 1: My brother works at Whole Foods
Caveat 2: I am just now recovering from the world's most godawful sugar hangover

So! Christmas Eve, we went to his friend and coworker's house. When he said, "You're welcome to come over to Fernando's," I thought we'd be hanging out, drinking a little, maybe playing some Wii or something. Instead, we got the full-on Mexican family treatment, with close to 30 people and endless pots of pozole (which I'd never had). Tons of Mexican rice made with turkey stock (pretty much my husband's favorite thing ever) and many other goodies. A great way to spend an evening.

We woke up yesterday and ate candy out of our stockings. Except for me; I fell asleep on top of two Lindor chocolates and it was a very bad thing. The entire seat of my jeans was covered in chocolate, so I spent the rest of the day in my husband's lounging shorts :P

I supplemented it with a ton of green apple licorice and the usual orange/satsumas from the bottom of the stocking. Also a crapton of Cheez-Its while we waited for my parents.

Then we had a dinner of risotto with add-ons: crab legs, mushroom sauce, flatiron steak, shrimp, acorn squash. Also a green salad with pomegranate seeds and more satsuma slices.

Of course, I am not much of a steak person, and there wasn't a ton of crab, so I mostly ate the risotto base.

Carbs: 287
Madamina: 0

Ungggggggh...

Pork roast, green beans, cheese ravioli, garlic bread. Nothing fancy, really.

hmm, I forget what we did for breakfast - I think it was a coconut milk fruit smoothie & coffee because we were in a rush to get out the door to xc ski, which we did for a couple hours (got 6" of snow overnight on Xmas Eve/Xmas morn).

lunch = homemade chicken soup and some really good fresh clementines (mandarins) we found @ costco.

dinner = special onion-braised beef brisket recipe I found on Cook's Illustrated. It takes 2 days to make, but it is well worth it. I omitted the flour and sugar (we follow one of those super boring grain/sugar and mostly dairy free deals but we feel so much better for it!) and used arrowroot as a thickener for the sauce. It came out absolutely perfect. I served it with blanched fresh green beans, roasted potatoes and a sherry mushroom thing I found on the Williams-Sonoma site. We opened a bottle of really nice Cabernet some friends brought us as a gift. Yes, alcohol is technically a sugar, but moderation in all things, including moderation!

Oh yum. If I wasn't still full from yesterday I'd be starving reading this thread.

As for us, I made pikelets in the morning, as I do every year. Lunch was nothing for the parents, and the kid had a pretzel as we were roaming around the city, as we do every year.

And as we do every year, we got all caught up in the Christmassing and I started prepping dinner hours too late for the kid to eat it. So she got risotto left over from yesterday.

Husband and I had lamb shanks, the abovementioned leftover risotto because I was too lazy to prep polenta, and roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, mushrooms, shallots in a cream sherry sauce. We didn't end up eating until nearly 9, because of the necessity to slllllooooooooowwwww cook the lamb, but it was well worth it. Nice malbec with it, too.

After dinner was egg nog and flan while watching 'Diner'. (were supposed to watch that on xmas eve, but got messed up by the netflix outage).

We have a little tray of stuff to nibble on before dinner is served, which has cheddar cheese, olives, mini pickles, crackers, and this year, polish sausage.

Dinner (really, a late lunch): Honeybaked Ham (om nom nom), biscuits, mashed potatoes, carrots, macaroni and cheese (my mom's recipe), and brussel sprouts. Mom also made an apple walnut chocolate bundt cake and there was pumpkin pie.

I also have come to the realization that my macaroni and cheese is better than my mother's. Oh dear.

Yes, Ardiril, that's one of the recipes I consulted in making our pimento cheese, with a few modifications. I'm afraid, Elsa, I have my mom's shitterine -- Yiddish for "little bit of this, little bit of that" -- recipe style, but here's, essentially, my own undoubtedly yankee-fied version (forgive me). It looks long, but once you have all the ingredients on hand, it's super easy:

--two 8 oz. packages of already shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (easier than grating blocks for me, but feel free to grate if you like)

--6 oz. jar of pimentos that I chopped up (never knew they were such large peppers -- only knew them as those slivers that stuff olives)

-- 2+ cups mayo, enough to fully moisten the cheese (more than most recipes called for, but needed, I think -- I used the good stuff, too, Hellmann's REAL mayo, full fat; it's the holidays, after all : )

--a large dollop of whipped cream cheese (not traditional, I know, but I think it adds to the creaminess, and Paula Dean has cream cheese in hers, dangit! -- I just happened to have the whipped, but any cream cheese would do, I imagine); next time, I think I'd make it two large dollops

--a few dashes of worcestershire; a few shakes of onion powder (no raw onion, I agree, Ardiril -- Jon wouldn't touch it with raw onion anyway, or relish, but feel free, Elsa); some black pepper, to taste

Basically, everything into a bowl. If you have a mixer, you can use that to mix and mash. I just used a large spoon, but I had to manually mash the cheese till my hand hurt, and it was still a bit chunky. An electric mixer might do a better job.

And Wallah! Pimento cheese! Some recipes advise letting it set in the fridge a few hours to let the flavors meld, but we couldn't wait. Yummy cold on crackers or as grilled cheese sandwiches. In fact, that's how Jon and I originally had it; he brought home these yummy grilled cheese sandwiches made with pimento cheese filling. A little googling, and it seemed easy enough to make ourselves (the restaurant sandwiches were NYC expensive).

The "melts" part of my "Pimento Cheese Melts" was inspired by my ex-mother-in-law, who made something like it, except with a different cheese mixture I can't remember (not with pimentos, though):

--lightly toast squares of pumpernickel bread (I buy the precut "party squares," but you could cut your own); I'm sure other bread would work, too, but it is especially good with pumpernickel

--glob pimento cheese mixture generously on bread

--put in 350 degree oven for ten minutes or so, finish for a few minutes under the broiler (careful... don't burn 'em!)

--top with a bit of sliced tomato, black olive, or pickle, if you like (we didn't, but I think it would cut the richness a bit) -- Enjoy!

(pimento cheese deviled eggs sound amazing, too)

I made a tray of the ooiest gooiest cinnamon rolls ever for breakfast. They had a maple-coffee icing. Yum. We had those with coffee and mimosas. And candy from stockings, of course.

Lunch was bagels with cream cheese and lox/red onion/cucumber

Dinner was ham and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and cranberry sauce.

It was just our little family of four (me, DH and two daughters) so we didnt go crazy with lots of apps/sides/pies/desserts/etc.

Yesterday?
Fettuccine with sauteed peppers, onions and garlic. Homemade focaccia bread.

For apps, there were clam dip with chips, Herb dip with cut-up veg (celery, tomatoes, cauliflower, carrots and cucumbers), smokehouse almonds, dried apricots and Brie and crackers.

For dinner, we had a glazed ham (leftovers!!), sauteed carrots, sauteed Brussels sprouts and cooked beets, and macaroni and cheese.

Dessert was nibbles from the collection of cookies and other sweets we've accumulated over the holidays.

My old mother did an old school christmas dinner:
crab cocktail with grapefruit and sherry
Consommée with parsley
Roast beef, pommes gratins, haricots verts
Bayrische Crème with cranberries
The wine was a Brunello di Montalcino.

We used the silver cutlery & the white damask table cloth.
I wore a black velvet jacket.
So old fashioned. It's what I grew up with. So that's what christmas is for me.

Christmas Eve was: Froot Loops for the birthday Bzou and our kid, oats, apple, yoghurt, chia and lsa for me for breakfast. Lunch was sushi while we collected groceries for Xmas Day. Then BBQ chicken wings and pizza for Bzou's birthday dinner. There were some nibbly crackers and whatnot in there too. And birthday cake!

Christmas Day was: Crumpets or English muffins, depending on personality, for breakfast. Roast turkey, slow-cooked pork belly, roast vegetables, potato bake, corn, broccoli, beans and assorted gravies for lunch with Bzou's family, with nibblies all around during the day. Afterwards we had chocolate trifle and/or mississippi mud pie. I had leftover roast vegetables for dinner, Bzou and Bunbun had Froot Loops.

Boxing Day was: Froot Loops for Bzou (sense a theme? It's his birthday cereal) and English muffins for me and Bunbun. We worked out Bunbun was a little sugared out when she swapped one of her honey drizzled muffins for my avocado with lemon juice and salt muffins. Then lunch was a selection of cold roast meats (pork, chicken, turkey) and seafood (prawns, lobsters, bugs) with roast vegetables, garlic cream sauce, smoked salmon salad, noodle salad and bread rolls. With pavlova, cake, macarons, shortbread, fruitcake, sugar cookies and christmas bark. For dinner I had salad with leftover roast vegies, Bzou had a turkey sandwich and Bunbun had a bonestick (turkey wing).

I'm Australian if you're quizzical on some of that!

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and spicy southern sausage mixed together and covered in cheese, ketchup and sour cream.

Lunch: At a Szechuan place near my office that's open on Christmas where they were having dim sum: squid, sticky rice, chicken congee, seaweed salad, steamed Chinese broccoli/bok choy (not sure which it is), jasmine tea, water, a couple different shrimp, pork, and shrimp-and-pork dumplings. It was packed in there.

Dinner: Grilled strip steak with truffle butter, baked potato with cheesy broccoli, truffle butter, and sour cream, fancy dinner roll, iceberg lettuce with sesame dressing and red onion, orange fluff dessert (made with cool whip, tapioca, jello and mandarin oranges).

Later on: cupcakes and red wine.

Christmas Eve: Mac 'n' cheese, with some wheat germ baked in to make it seem healthy.

Christmas Day: Leftover mac 'n' cheese, and a huge pot roast in the slow cooker with carrots and onions. Garlic mashed potatoes on the side, although I think I went a little light on the garlic. Meat came out perfect though, and since I don't cook with meat very often, that was a relief for me.

I want to visit jouke for Christmas next year.

I made filet mignons topped with blue cheese, baby carrots cooked in butter with crystallized ginger, and buttercream potatoes roasted with rosemary, garlic, and sea salt. And a salad of arugula, pickled shallots, and shaved gruyere, with a dijon vinaigrette.

My father contributed a very nice bottle of cabernet. We also (over)indulged in bourbon after dinner.