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
jÃcama,
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.
