Holiday Cooking in Our House
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It’s here! Time for the second day of the 5 Day Preparing for the Holiday Themed Blog Hop with the Schoolhouse Review Crew…
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Today’s focus is on holiday cooking, something that always gets done (as we have to eat), but often feels like a last minute thought for me.
Thanksgiving
Both when we lived in Ohio and now here in Alaska, we have two Thanksgiving meals. On Thanksgiving proper, we’ve gone to another house bringing our assigned dish(es) to share. (You can see an overly warm toddler enjoying his dinner on dad’s lap from last year below.)
The beauty of that arrangement for me is more time to focus on visiting with friends or family members and less on the cooking aspect. But, as hubby loves his leftovers, we usually cook our own traditional meal over the weekend.
What will you find on the table at our house?
Turkey (of course!)
stuffing (homemade with either store bought or homemade bread for the base)
mashed potatoes (made with a potato ricer for a really fine texture)
gravy (usually homemade with the giblets)
sweet potatoes (plain baked ones for us)
sweet peas
cranberry sauce (canned and homemade)
Croissant rolls (I’ll admit to Pillsbury being my supplier!)
pumpkin pie (with freshly whipped cream on top)
D really enjoyed a turkey leg last year at our ‘second’ Thanksgiving meal.
Christmas
My mother’s family is Italian and they have a long standing tradition of fish for dinner on Christmas Eve. Growing up, we didn’t have that observance. However, hubby and I enjoyed the Italian Christmas Eve dinner we shared at my Nana’s house the year before our wedding so much that we’ve started doing some kind of fish for our Christmas Eve dinner. Last year was baked salmon as we had plenty in the freezer from dip netting. As we didn’t get any new salmon this past summer, I’m not sure what we’ll do this year. All but one boy adores shrimp, so I might do my healthier version of shrimp scampi for the main course.
As we have typically gone to Mass on Christmas Day, the morning is a bit low key for food. We’ve done homemade cinnamon rolls some years or just more of a brunch (pancakes and eggs.) Mr. O’s family had the tradition of chocolate Pop Tarts which he wanted to do with our family. So, some years we’ve given the boys Pop Tarts at breakfast time. (Personally, I’d rather make the super high calorie sausage casserole my mom made when I was growing up than to eat a Pop Tart.)
Christmas Day’s main meal is typically a beef roast with potatoes, homemade bread or croissant rolls, at least one vegetable and a dessert. I haven’t really considered this year’s meal. What I would like to do is have the boys become more of a part of the preparation. And, I do plan to set a pretty table with my china and crystal like last year.
Holiday Season
Of course, the entire holiday season has plenty of opportunities for special meals and treats.
We always make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins during this season.
Pizzelles are another favorite holiday cookie for us.
Mexican Wedding Cakes/ Russian Tea Cakes are a cookie that are a particular favorite as well. Some day, I hope to find the recording of P demonstrating how to make these cookies that was made to show a ‘talent’ for his 2nd grade class. (They loved that he brought the cookies to share after watching the short video.)
What are you cooking in your house for the holidays?
For us, Thanksgiving always had to have Turkey and Pie. Side dishes are interchangeable but we have to have turkey and pie! lol. Christmas Eve is always Pizza and Christmas breakfast is a traditional European breakfast called Statch. that’s from the husband’s family tradition.
Turkey is pretty much a given for Thanksgiving, isn’t it?
My boys might enjoy pizza for Christmas Eve, but I love the Italian heritage connection.
You do have me curious about Statch, so I’ll have to do a search on it. I love traditions!
Wow–wished we lived closer-so I could drop by and try your feast out. I never cook for Thanksgiving–we go to the parade in Manhattan and then go to the sil’s house–we bring a dessert-and I do Christmas! Enjoy!
Kathleen,
I don’t think I’d be cooking dinner if we went to the Macy’s parade, either. I love the potluck style family holiday dinners as you get great time together and no one is bogged down in the kitchen.
That shrimp dish looks marvelous. All look yummy though!
Thanks, Mel! The shrimp dish was delicious.
Ummm…can you come cook for me? LOL. For Thanksgiving, we have made it a family tradition to go to San Antonio to the Raul Jiminez Thanksgiving Dinner downtown. Afterward, we go and visit the Alamo. Then that night we head to the bingo hall owned by our friends and play some bingo. I’ve had the privilege in my ex-husband’s family to follow my Mexican tradition and make tamales the week before Christmas Eve (usually about 100 DOZEN) and eat some on Christmas Eve. I miss that the most. For Christmas now, we just go to my MIL’s house and let Monster enjoy the family there!
Marcella,
That sounds like a wonderful tradition for your family! I’d love to try making tamales, but haven’t ventured there yet.
Those all look so good! I cannot wait for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners!
Neither can my boys, Ellen! Just today, my 9 year old was commenting about cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and how many days until that happens.
Can’t wait for this year’s feast!
mmmm so hungry now, your feast looks amazing!
Thanks, Kelsey! I made sure I wrote the post after eating so I wouldn’t get hungry looking at the scampi.
The Scampi looks delicious! Have you posted the recipe?
Jeana,
The recipe is a coming soon post. I’ve actually got at least 5 or 6 food related posts to get written and published.
Your holiday meals look pretty amazing! I usually keep it pretty traditional for the holidays.
Thanks, Angela! It’s pretty traditional around here, although we sometimes disagree on what is traditional.
Growing up we always had turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that we also do things with my inlaws, they do turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas.
Ham makes me think of Easter rather than Christmas. I can appreciate wanting to not have turkey for holiday meals that are so close together, though.
Wow! All of those pictures look so yummy:) The shrimp dish sounds delicious.
Thanks, Lora!
I need to get the shrimp recipe written up as a separate post. I just didn’t have enough time to do it before this post went live.
We eat cinnamon rolls quite often for breakfast on Christmas morning, as my husband is usually preparing to go to work!
They do make for a yummy breakfast, especially with the house smelling like cinnamon.