Christmas foods/Christmas cooking!

[Blackdog Lin]

We don't do much in the way of gifting for Christmas, instead we give ourselves permission for indulging in foodstuffs that we normally don't spend the money on. I'll bet many of you do the same thing. Share your stories.

For us
- a big bag of big shrimp. Cooked 1/3 of it yesterday using a super-easy super-good Pinterest recipe, it turned out awesome. DH says it's a keeper. Had it with
- Royal rice, I think that's what it's called. Nothing we'd normally even look for, but it caught his eye at Wal-Mart, it was fairly expensive but I said hey it's Christmas grab it, and oh my!.....this stuff was excellent! Kinda like the pilaf one gets at Red Lobster and similar, only BETTER. (we decided this one might have been a bad idea - the stuff is so good we're gonna want to have it on hand always.)
- a bottle of actual maple syrup. We've never even tried real maple syrup before. (again, it caught DH's eye at the store.) Will have to let you know, testing it tomorrow morning with buckwheat waffles and sausage.)
- good coffee. Bought a pound of the good-stuff-beans from the coffee house next town over. O.M.G. doesn't the house smell so good with really good coffee brewing in the morning?!!!
- and the biggest ham I've ever seen, that we found in our freezer dated August of this year, and we can't remember when we bought or why we bought it (obviously it was on sale really cheap, or we wouldn't have), but boy! is it ever gonna be a Christmas ham! Thawing now, think I'm gonna bake it Monday, make a special meal with it, and have ham leftovers all through the week.
- and a plan to use more of the shrimp for shrimp-n-pork dim sum dumplings, maybe a Christmas day special thing. I bought wonton wrappers.

What are the rest of y'all doing with "specialty" Christmas foodstuffs?

[Tussiemussies]

My sister's husband is Hungarian, so at Christmas Eve dinner we follow their tradition that on Christmas Eve the animals spoke English, so no meat is eaten. His mother makes a wonderful traditional mushroom soup and my sister serves different types of pirogues along with an array of seafood. This is wonderful for me as being a vegetarian, I don't eat the seafood but enjoy the rest with vegetables... A very nice dinner.

When we had celebrated in our own family when I was young, my mother would make homemade cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, and kielbasa with sauerkraut I believe, along with a cooked ham and I think she provided deviled eggs along with bread and cheese, condiments in order to make a sandwich. My brother still loves this with a good rye bread and pirogues added to the mix. Tons of different homemade cookies were always served as dessert on both days.

For Christmas Day itself she would make a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Sometimes she would layer the mashed potatoes with butter and cheddar cheese -- delicious. My mother is the embodiment of Christmas itself, she loves it and always made the holiday very, very special. She still hosts it every other year at the age of 72!

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to take a walk down memory food lane! Chris

[IshbelRobertson]

I made my Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings and Black Bun a few weeks back. I've 'fed' them with brandy regularly and I will be adding the marzipan and royal icing to the cakes later today. I make mincepies, first batch to serve with mulled wine or apple juice to the regular carol singers, some to have on hand for those who pop in at this time of year and a final batch on Christmas Eve which I make with my daughter, as we have done since she was tiny!

The black bun is for Hogmanay, the bigger of the season's celebrations in Scotland.

[cdttmm]

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without lefse! I prefer homemade, of course, but since I don't live near any if my Norwegian family members, it is hit or miss as to whether I'll get to enjoy any homemade. I could make it myself but my significant other won't eat it so it would be an awful lot of work for just me. Worst case scenario, I'll get some store-bought and keep the lefse eating tradition alive. My only other holiday food must have is eggnog. My grandmother used to make it for the family gathering. I have her recipe and could make it myself, but I actually found a local farm that makes it with local milk and eggs, bottles it, and sells it. It's so good I've been drinking it since Thanksgiving!!!

[Florence]

We are having ham, cornbread-sausage dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, spinach salad. And for dessert I am making Apple-Pear Tart.

[SteveinMN]

My family has always been a bit on the odd side in not having any must-have holiday-meal favorites or preparations. Christmas meals have included turkey (roasted, barbequed, stir-fried, etc.), rib roasts, dim sum, bagels and cream-cheese brunches (back when no one watched calories or carbs),... But every Christmas stocking since childhood has included a tangerine (wrapped in a napkin and a plastic bag) and a little Whitman's Sampler box (a tradition which persists despite the fact that it's not very good chocolate). This year we're providing the turkey and potatoes and the rest of the meal will be pot-luck.

[JaneV2.0]

Egg nog and fruitcakes. As in Ishbel's case, their will be brandy involved. I have a smashing recipe for fruitcake that doesn't involve wheat, so I'm all set. And I usually treat myself to good chocolate with my eggnog while I'm wrapping presents. On Christmas, it's not unusual for us to have Chinese food.

[Simpler at Fifty]

I love reading these stories.

[Blackdog Lin]

Me too. Appreciating all the responses. What fun!

Our only firm Christmas food tradition is having breakfast pizza on Christmas morning. A holdover from when our son was little, and we had all the gifts to open. I would pre-make the pizza the night before, up to the egg stage, and then finish and bake it while we were opening gifts. I ask DH every year if he still wants "Christmas pizza", and he still says yes every year.

[razz]

Never heard of breakfast pizza so looked it up on Google. I am going to try that recipe with next overnight visitors

[rosarugosa]

Lin: I am eager to hear what you think of maple syrup. Living in New England, it is hard to imagine that I ever didn't know what it tasted like. My BIL in New Hampshire even makes his own, and his wife makes maple sugar candy, which I am crazy about!
We both come from Italian backgrounds, so seafood and pasta play starring roles in our holiday meals. I guess I kind of assumed this was true for everyone, but reading the responses, I'm more aware that of the influence of my family background and geographical location.