Holiday Menus

[MaineWriter]

Greetings, all!

A suggestion was made in chat to have a thread for Holiday Menus (not recipes). Since we are such an international group, we thought it would be fun to see what people traditionally eat for special occasions during this holiday season...Hanukah brunch, Christmas Eve dinner, New Year's Day, etc...you name the event and tell us what is found on your table. Don't include recipes here. If you want to include recipes, post them on the appropriate thread. And if you want to ask someone for a recipe...that's fine too!

Have fun! I am looking forward to reading lots of interesting menus!

Leslie

[MaineWriter]

I'll get the ball rolling...just as Santa will always come down the chimney, this meal will always be on the table for Christmas Dinner in our family.

THE NICOLL FAMILY CHRISTMAS MENU

Standing rib roast
Yorkshire pudding
Creamed onions
Creamed spinach
Peas
Horseradish sauce

Dessert -- varies. Nothing particularly traditional about dessert in our household, for some reason!

Leslie

[Jeff Wrangler]

This is really jumping ahead, but the traditional Pennsylvania German New Year's Day dinner is roast pork with sauerkraut. It's one of those dishes that's supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year if you eat it on New Year's Day. Contrariwise, no proper Pennsylvania German would eat chicken on New Year's Day. Why? Because chickens scratch backward--a bad sign at the beginning of the new year--whereas hogs (pork) root forward. 

Since sauerkraut is said to be rich in vitamin C, perhaps there is kernal of truth behind the tradition of eating it on New Year's Day. Back in the days before people knew about vitamins, it would be a good thing to consume something rich in vitamin C in the depth of winter.

[ednbarby]

Here's my menu for this Thanksgiving (we're having two couples over):

14-lb roasted turkey
Giblet gravy
Traditional stuffing (made with baguettes, onions, celery, chicken broth, and lots of butter)
Mashed potatoes (made with Idaho potatoes, heavy cream, and lots of butter)
Cranberry relish (made with fresh cranberries, oranges, and orange liquer (but no butter!))
Green bean casserole (the hokey magazine kind, made with mushroom soup and that dried onion stuff on top)

And for dessert: a triple-layer chocolate mud pie, made with a chocolate pie crust, semi-sweet bakers chocolate, chocolate pudding mix, pecans, and whipped cream.  (I wanted to do my specialty - Southern bourbon pecan pie - but my husband doesn't care for it, the nutjob, so I promised I'd make a pie he was guaranteed to like this year.)

[MaineWriter]

Green bean casserole is one of those comfort foods I like to eat about once, or maybe twice, a year. I made it a few weeks ago for dinner at my parent's house. According to the Durkee's French Fried Onions can, it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Imagine, a casserole having an anniversary!

L

[Jeff Wrangler]

Green bean casserole is one of those comfort foods I like to eat about once, or maybe twice, a year. I made it a few weeks ago for dinner at my parent's house. According to the Durkee's French Fried Onions can, it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Imagine, a casserole having an anniversary!

L

Hunh! Considering that it uses Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, I would have thought the green bean casserole was older than a mere 50 years.

I can safely say without fear of contradiction that green bean casserole is something that has never graced a holiday table with its presence on either side of my family. For vegetables we stick with corn and lima beans. Even mashed potatoes are considered de trops because we always have sweet potatoes, in addition to the stuffing.

Some cooks actually include mashed potatoes into the mixture that makes up the stuffing, though my mother never did, and I've never particularly cared for mashed potato stuffing.

[MaineWriter]

My mother was definitely a woman of the 50s and 60s and took advantage of all those convenience foods we laugh at now...green bean casserole, jello salad, tuna wiggle...you name it, we ate it. Now I read these recipes and say mostly say "Yuck!" but there are a few holdouts I remember fondly, and still make.

Leslie

[Meryl]

Man, am I getting hungry!  I'd gladly show up to dinner at any of your houses this week! 

Jeff, thanks for the interesting low-down on pork and sauerkraut.  My mother always served that on New Year's Day, and it's nice to know the reasoning behind it. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

What on earth is "tuna wiggle"? Do I really want to know? 

Thankfully, my mother seems to have missed that one.   

[southendmd]

I'm guessing "tuna wiggle" is canned tuna inside a jello mold.  That's enough to make a vegetarian out of me.


Re green bean casserole:  My Mom was also into the new conveniences of the 50s and 60s, which meant we rarely had fresh vegetables.  However, at Thanksgiving, we always had fresh green beans (cooked to death in the pressure pot).   We had a variation on the casserole, but for the leftovers:  it was like lasagna, in layers.  A layer of shredded turkey covered with a layer of stuffing covered with a layer of green beans, the whole mess infused with cream of mushroom soup and baked.

Those onion thingies in a can scare me.