...family, friends, home and other tidbits of a blessed life

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

What is on your Christmas menu?

What is on your Christmas menu?
That is ours.. missing on the list
Hollandaise sauce for the asparagus
olives, pickled okra, 
butter
the asparagus is white
the green salad is butter lettuce with pomegranates, tomatoes, parsley, and green onions
The best ever lemon vinaigrette

It's a simple menu. Easy to carry out when the kids get up at 4am.
Oh yeah, they are grown now, we don't quite do that unless the youngest spends the night! 
And he's 30. 

Here's some info from wikipedia for Christmas diners around the world: If something isn't quite right, just leave a comment so we all learn! Thanks for your visit, thanks for your time, thanks for your friendship.
What's on your menu?

Australia

Christmas dinner in Australia is based on the traditional English version.[1] However due to Christmas falling in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere's summer, meats such as ham, turkey and chicken are sometimes served cold with cranberry sauce, accompanied by side salads or roast vegetables. Barbecues are also a popular way of avoiding the heat of the oven. Seafood such as prawns, lobster and crayfish are common, as are barbecued cuts of steak or chicken breasts, drumsticks and wings. In summer, Australians are also fond of Pavlova, a dessert composed of fruit atop a baked meringue. Fruits of the season include cherries and mangoes. Introduced by Italian Australians, Panettone is widely available in shops, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Brazil

In Brazil, the Christmas meal is quite a feast,( served in the evening on the 24th of December) offering large quantities of food, such as a wide variety of dishes which include fresh vegetables (including Couve a Mineira – Kale, highly seasoned with garlic), luscious fruits[2] and Brazil nuts. Accompanying these are bowls of zesty, colorful rice and platters filled with ham and fresh salad (sometimes cold potato salad is also served) served with roast turkey. Also some parts of Brazil feature roast pork, roast Chicken and fish. Other Christmas items include a variety of desserts such as lemon tart, Nuts pie, chocolate cake and also Panettone.

Canada

In English Canada, Christmas dinner is similar to that of its colonial ancestor, England. Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables and raisin pudding for dessert. Eggnog, a milk-based punch that is often infused with alcohol, is also very popular around the holiday season. Other Christmas items include butter tarts and shortbread, which are traditionally baked before the holidays and served to visiting friends, at various Christmas and New Year parties, as well as on Christmas Day.
In French Canada, traditions may be more like those of France. (See Réveillon)
Other ethnic communities may continue to use old world traditions as well.

France

In France and some other French-speaking countries, a réveillon is a long dinner, and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight.
The food consumed at réveillons is generally exceptional or luxurious. For example, appetizers may include lobster, oysters, escargots or foie gras, etc. One traditional dish is turkey with chestnuts. Réveillons in Quebec will often include some variety of tourtière.
Dessert may consist of a bûche de Noël. In Provence, the tradition of the 13 desserts is followed: 13 desserts are served, almost invariably including: pompe à l'huile (a flavoured bread), dates, etc.
Quality wine is usually consumed at such dinners, often with champagne or similar sparkling wines as a conclusion.
Stay tuned this week for our recipe for a Buche de Noel. I'm sure you will enjoy it and it's really not hard to make!

Germany

In Germany, the primary Christmas dishes are roast goose and roast carp, although suckling pig or duck may also be served. Typical side dishes include roast potatoes and various forms of cabbage such as kale, brussel sprouts and red cabbage. In some regions the Christmas dinner is traditionally served on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve. In this case, dinner on Christmas Eve is a more simple affair, consisting of sausages (such as Weißwurst) or macaroni salad. Sweets and Christmas pastries are nearly obligatory and include Marzipan, spice bars (Lebkuchen), several types of bread, and different fruitcakes and fruited breads like Christstollen and Dresdener Stollen.
We always had goose at our house. My mother made the best one. And then instead of a carp Christmas eve, it was bismark herring, and other prepared fish items!



Ireland

Preparations for Christmas dinner begin on Christmas Eve. People will boil the ham and may start to prepare vegetables. The Irish Christmas dinner consists of turkey, ham, brussells sprouts, roast potatoes, stuffing and various vegetables. The old tradition would have been a duck or a goose and many people in Ireland still follow this tradition. [4]The dinner usually consists of roast turkey (although other poultry such as goose, chicken, duck, capon or pheasant are alternatives), sometimes with roast beef or ham or, to a lesser extent, pork. Served with stuffing, gravy and sometimes forcemeat; pigs in blankets; cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly; bread sauce; roast potatoes (sometimes also boiled or mashed); vegetables (usually boiled or steamed), particularly brussels sprouts and carrots; with dessert of Christmas pudding (or plum pudding), sometimes mince pies or trifle, with brandy butter and/or cream.

Italy

Italian regional traditions are varied. They are polarized in two areas: Northern Italy and Southern Italy (from Rome southwards). Moreover, often the Christmas Eve Supper is more important than the Christmas Dinner, because the Holy Mass is celebrated at midnight.
The primo is usually a kind of soup made with pasta (usually filled pasta, like ravioli) boiled in meat broth.
The secondo is very different in the two areas. In Northern Italy they usually eat poultry, often filled, or roasted or boiled and seasoned with sauces, like mostarda. In Southern Italy they eat the fried capitone eel, which is typical of Christmas Eve, because this is a fasting day. On Christmas Day they could eat roasted lamb.
Christmas sweets are really varied and every region and subregion has its own. Generally speaking, in Northern Italy they eat a cake enriched with candy fruits, raisins, pine nuts, whose most famous type is panettone, followed by torrone nougat and nuts. In Southern Italy instead of one cake they serve many kind of marzipan, biscuits, zeppole, cannoli, candy fruits, fresh fruits.


Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine

In the areas of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (e.g., Lithuania, Poland), an elaborate and ritualised meal of twelve meatless dishes is served on the Eve of Christmas (24 December), Ukraine and Belarus (6 January). This is because the pre-Christmas season is a time of fasting, which is broken on Christmas Day. I've partaken in the twelve dish meal once at my paternal grandmother's in Ohio. It was a sight  my husband has not forgotten to this day.

Mexico

In Mexico the Christmas dinner, eaten on Christmas Eve evening, varies with region. Common dishes are various fruits (oranges, lime, tropical fruits) and salad (composed of several ingredients including jícama, beets, bananas, and peanuts). In several states, however, stews are made: either pozole, made of pork or beef and hominy in red chile sauce; or menudo made with beef tripe and hominy also in chile sauce. In the center of Mexico, bacalao (codfish) and romeritos (rosemary) prepared with mole are popular dishes. In the north of Mexico the most traditional Christmas dish is tamales served with sauce over them and sometimes cream and a bit of crumbly fresh cheese. For dessert, atole (a thinned hot pudding) with buñuelos (fried flour tortillas sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon), or buñuelos soaked in sugar (piloncillo) and cinnamon water, are served. There are also sweet tamales: corn with raisins or sweet beans, or strawberry flavored. Stuffed turkey or ham are also common.

Philippines

The Christmas dinner in the Philippines is called Noche Buena, and is held towards midnight of December 24. This usually comes after the entire family has attended the late evening Mass called the Misa de Gallo ("Mass of the Rooster"). The centrepiece of the Noche Buena is often the hamón or Christmas ham, which is usually a cured leg of pork ham. This is usually served with Queso de Bola, literally a ball of edam cheese, covered in a red wax. Other ubiquitous dishes are pasta and for dessert, fruit salad. The dinner would usually be accompanied with tsokolate or hot cocoa, which is made with pure, locally-grown cacao beans. Some families prefer tsokolate prepared from tablea or tablets of pressed cocoa powder that is either pure or slightly sweetened. Most of the food served on Noche Buena are fresh and usually prepared during the day of Christmas Eve.[5]
Middle-class and affluent families tend to prepare sumptuous feasts which sometimes includes any of the following: lechón or spit-roasted pig; lumpia; escabeche; adobo; rellenong manok or stuffed chicken; roast turkey; mechado (beef stew); kaldereta (spicy beef stew); paella; and other traditional fiesta dishes. Families that are not as affluent would opt for a more economical Noche Buena; the organising of even a simple gathering despite financial difficulties reflects the importance in Filipino culture of familial (and by extension communal) unity over most other concerns.
This importance placed on the family is also found in all socio-economic classes and ethnic groups in the Philippines in that during the Noche Buena, most if not all members from branch or extended families in a clan are always expected to appear at the celebrations. Relatives living abroad, especially OFWs, are highly encouraged to return home for the occasion, as it is the most important holiday of the year for many Filipinos. Most families prefer to exchange Christmas presents right after the dinner, in contrast to the Western custom of opening presents on Christmas morning.




4 comments:

Tricia said...

Sounds delicious, Marlis! We're also having roast pork, with twice-baked potatoes and broccoli, as well as homemade yeast rolls. It IS nice to sleep in a bit now that the children are grown!

Anonymous said...

Our Christmas dinner sounds just like the one under Canada on your post!! My shortbreads are all baked and in the freezer!! ;0) Thanks for visiting, Marlis!

xinex said...

Your menuy sounds delicious, Marlis. The Philippine menu made me hungry. Thanks for the interesting info. No babies here yet, still waiting that is why we do not know what we are doing for Christmas, lol. The unborn babies are controlling our schedules..Christine

Entertaining Women said...

Just served a yummy pork tenderloin for our family Christmas dinner this past weekend. Christmas Day we'll be serving fried quail on toast with cream gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, preserves, etc. Merry Christmas! Cherry Kay

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