A 'Some Kinda Wonderful' Christmas Meal

tehehe... I just couldn't resist the title. Forgive?




Our Christmas Day meal:


Turkey (I finally got my turkey leg!)
Sweet Potato (baked with real butter on it)
Thomas' Mac-n-Cheese (from Alton Brown)
Brussels Sprouts (steamed with lemon juice sprinkled on at the end)
Cranberry Sauce (canned, jellied kind)

That's it. Nothing fancy. Just couldn't muster the umph to go all out. Everything was pretty simple, plain, and yummy. I stuffed the turkey with chopped apple, orange, celery, onion, cinnamon stick and a few cloves and rosemary sprigs. Sprayed it with canola oil and let it go. Turned out really moist, tender, and tasty. I love the way turkey accepts the flavors of what you cook it with. Sometimes I make a herb butter to stuff under the breast skin, but didn't this time. It was good never-the-less.
The sweet pots were just wrapped in foil individually and baked for an hour. Pete and I prefer them that way, instead of making a sweet, sticky, casserole or "candied yams" with them. They aren't "yams" anyway... well, I won't go into all that right now. :)
Thomas makes the mac n cheese and he does a super job of it. I do prefer my mac n cheese baked so it gets a little browning on it and the corners get chewy and crunchy, but I can always do that with some of the leftovers... in fact.. I already have!
The brussels sprouts were just steamed until tender and then sprinkled with lemon juice and tossed with a bit of butter.
I'm the only one in my family of three that will eat cranberry sauce, of ANY kind. And I prefer the canned, jellied kind. My sister makes a very good cranberry relish with fresh berries but I can't see myself making it just for me. Especially since I really like the canned stuff anyway.

I never got around to making the pumpkin pie. I will bake one for New Year's Day. We will eat about half of it while still warm and the rest will get thrown away. Sad, but true. I pretty much only like them when they are still hot from the oven. Reheating a single slice later on is... not... the... same. It gets watery sometimes when you do that. Nasty.

So... that was my family's Christmas 2008 Dinner. It was good. It didn't take much effort, and it was (mostly) enjoyed by all of us.