This is a blog for people to discuss what they are eating. There is a theory that by journaling eating habits, people will eat healthier. I am trying to cook more at home and feed my family a wider variety of foods. People can just read or join as co-authors. Topics don't have to be recipes with nice photos. You can write about eating habits, special diets, culinary cultural differences, etc.

Friday, December 26, 2008

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.

7 Comments:

Blogger pamwax said...

It all looks really good except for the Brussels sprouts.

We had ham that didn't stay in the oven long enough(I told them 8 minutes wasn't enough), Canned corn and mashed red potatoes from a box mix. Oh well it the gifts that count.....

December 26, 2008 at 6:24 PM

 
Blogger tricia said...

Never heard of an 8 minute ham...

Looks good Holly. We skipped the cranberry sauce this year. Kept it simple too but added fried okra.

December 26, 2008 at 7:51 PM

 
Blogger Some Kinda Wonderful said...

nummy nummy... I LOVE fried okra. Pete says okra is hog food. I say snort snort in my best piggy imitation. If okra is hog food, then he's married to a hog!

December 26, 2008 at 8:39 PM

 
Blogger Some Kinda Wonderful said...

Was it a store bought Honey Ham kind of a thing?

December 26, 2008 at 11:06 PM

 
Blogger pamwax said...

It was a fully cooked pre sliced ham. Not a very good one but I put my special sauce on the top. Would have been a little better if it had been in the oven longer.

December 27, 2008 at 3:19 PM

 
Blogger Chaki said...

Hey, great meal Holly (as usual) Never thought of putting stuffing under poultry skin! I love stuffing and our tiny oven right now would only fit something so tiny it would be sad to eat.

The big bird can be overrated. All that tasteless white meat... But I do like taking the white meat and making it into chicken salad and have chicken grilled cheese sandwiches the next day. Then I also make a big pot of turkey soup with the bones. I feel like an Eskimo, not wasting any part of an animal...

December 27, 2008 at 6:14 PM

 
Blogger Some Kinda Wonderful said...

You could do little cornish hens. I love them. And they are all dark meat, pretty much. You have a 4 member family, so... two hens, with a nice stuffing... each person gets a half a bird. Perfect. I like to stuff them with herbed rice or other type of grain. Really nice.

December 27, 2008 at 6:26 PM

 

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