What's for Christmas Dinner?

We will be able to have the whole family together this year, no side trip to Chicago or New York. The kids are doing Christmas with the other side of their family on Christmas Eve so it will be a true Christmas Dinner a rarity for us.

Appetizers:

Homemade Egg Nog the adult kind with rum served warm in cups with whipped cream and nutmeg on top.

Butter Creams, Walnut Fudge, Chocolate coated Pretzels, cherry tomatoes stuffed with crab salad, Cream cheese topped with Jezebel sauce and butter crackers. We always have a sectioned serving platter with green and black olives & sweet pickles. Deviled Eggs topped with caviar and a few oyster shooters, oysters in a shot glass with spicy cocktail sauce.

Dinner:

There is a meat market that makes boneless stuffed chickens and we will cook 2 of them stuffed with cornbread dressing.

Chicken Gravy

Dirty Rice - my standard recipe but for Christmas I like to add about a quart of oysters.

Squash Casserole - yellow & Zucchini squash, red & green bell peppers, onion, eggs, bread crumbs, butter and cheese baked till bubbly. Pretty dish and good to eat.

Candied Yams - will use the big marshmallows this time and add a cup of chopped pecans.

Homemade yeast rolls.

Serving tip - cut the boneless chickens into 4 pieces 2 white meat & 2 dark meat then put them together so they look like a whole chicken again. Fill a big turkey platter with the dirty rice dressing and put the chickens on top. Sprinkle fresh chopped parsley over all just before putting on the table. You can pretty up the platter some more by ringing the platter with curly leaf parsley or fancy lettuce. Slices of boiled egg placed around the chickens on the rice dressing is another nice touch. The main dish should be special. A couple of rings of red or green bell pepper on top of the squash casserole is a nice touch.

Deserts:

Pineapple Upside Down Cake - pineapple centers filled with red and green maraschino cherries for that Christmas look.

Cherry Pie - because I am hungry for cherry pie

PattheCatinSaudi said:

We always have chicken & sausage gumbo and mincemeat pie.

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I bet its been 25-30 years since I have had mincemeat pie. I remember my grandmother making them and she passed away in '92. I have had real mincemeat made with lean meat, fruit and spices and meatless made with fruit, nuts and spices. I have always thought them as an odd pie but never passed one up. I still use my grandmother's egg custard pie that was a favorite of my great grandfather and it is a very good pie. You should post your mincemeat pie recipe, that pie is almost lost.

BamaLuver said:

I'll be happy if I don't see another piece of turkey or chicken for weeks!

For New Years, we'll have a big ole pot roast (with carrots and potatoes), cornbread, black-eyed peas, and something green (I don't do turnips or collards)!!

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I hate collard greens too. For me they are the toughest and most bitter of the greens family. I am more of a turnip and mustard greens fan. I used to hate turnips but I can tolerate them in small doses. My father and grandmother used to have a contest each year to see who could raise the biggest turnip lol.

Every year since I can remember we baked a ham, steamed cabbage, blackeye peas and yams for new years. I really never have liked blackeye peas there is something about that hard flaky little eye that I dont like in my mouth. Also over the years in Louisiana and eating lunch in little greasy spoon diners for lunch it seems all of them got a discount on blackeye peas so they were always on my plate and I got so tired of them.

This New Years we are doing something completely different. We are making BBQ pulled pork sandwiches (there is the pork) and cole slaw (there is the cabbage or greens) and will have a can of blackeye peas (can't figure a way to disguise them) heated up for us to eat a spoon full of. To go with the sandwiches I am also making sweet potato fries tossed with sugar and cinnamon instead of salt (yam dish).