Above: A Winter Walk sold at Victorian Trading Co.
Hello Ladies,
For Thanksgiving, people go all-out, preparing the traditional foods, which take a lot of shopping planning and cooking time. For Christmas, not everyone relies on the same type of meal, so I was wondering what you are cooking or having on Christmas Day.
What are you planning? If you are British, or otherwise European, what are your traditonal foods at Christmas? Are they time consuming? What are the Australian women preparing on the hottest day of the year? If you participate in Christmas in India or the Phllipines, what do you eat on that day?
Below: one of the photos from our recent trip through the mountain pass:
23 comments:
I am of British descent, and on Christmas day I cook a roast beef dinner with Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Maybe some day I'll attempt a trifle, but for now I just put out a plate of sweets for dessert. :)
The picture of the deer in the snow is charming! It reminds me of my family's first travels in Germany decades ago. We landed in snowy Munich, from warm Abilene Texas, and the picture along the road to our new home was just like that snow scene!
As for Christmas, I am finding it a bit consuming to have such a big meal only three to four weeks after Thanksgiving. This year we plan to have an applewood smoked ham with a smaller beef roast to go along with it. Side dishes will be cabbage, garlic mashed potatoes, carrots, and rosemary potatoes. Dessert will be A pecan pie, along with a cherry pie, and cookies which we plan to spread out by having a different recipe each day for 12 days after Christmas :)
I have been reading your blog since 2005, and it has been such an inspiration in my own homemaking and journey as a wife and mother! May God bless you this Christmas!
Our family learned to make Puerco Pibil, a slow roasted pork dish from Mexico. We loved it so much, we make it for special days, such as Easter and Christmas.
For Canadians, we usually go all out for Christmas because our Thanksgiving was over 2 months ago. There will be turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, a hot veg such as Brussels sprouts or peas & carrots, a couple of cold salads (i.e. garden salad, a jello salad). For dessert, a must have is mincemeat tarts and assorted homemade cookies, perhaps a plum pudding with sauce! Now, this is what I will eat at one get-together; at the one that I am hosting there will be a glazed spiral ham, broccoli-cauliflower gratin, mashed potatoes, cornmeal muffins and salad. Apple pie and cookies for dessert. Lots of hot tea to wash it down!
Merry Xmas!
We will be having a smoked prime rib, a potato casserole and fresh green beans. And a Cranberry Christmas cake for dessert!
Merry Christmas Lydia!
Hugs & Blessings,
Amy
Ham, sweet potatoes and broccoli cheese casserole with cheesecake and fresh strawberries. Merry Christmas lady Lydia!!
Ham, sweet potatoes and broccoli cheese casserole with cheesecake and fresh strawberries. Merry Christmas Lady Lydia!!
Ham in the crock pot
Roast pork loin
Dressing and gravy
Speckled Butter Beans
Field Peas with Snaps
Broccoli Casserole
Wild rice Casserole
Deviled Eggs
Yeast rolls
Carrot Cake
Oreo Cheesecake Bars
Sweet Potato Pie
Tea
Coffee
Assorted Soft Drinks
There will be (hopefully) about 15 of us.
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Roasted Duck (I saved $3.00/per month for twelve months)
Mashed Potatoes
Vegetable Casserole
On Boxing Day, we will enjoy a curry made from the duck leftovers.
Since my husband is British and I am American, I try to incorporate a bit of both.. This year, we are having Turkey with all the trimmings, roast potatoes and parsnips, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and crescent rolls. For desert, profiteroles with cream or Christmas pudding with brandy sauce.
There will be leftovers so that on Boxing Day, 26th December which is a"pajama day", I won't have to cook another dinner.. bliss!
Wishing you and your family a lovely Christmas, Lydia.
Christine xx
Our plan is to have Spiral Glazed Ham, Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans, Rolls
and dessert. Definitely scaled down from Thanksgiving. Love Kelly T.
We have hot Christmases in South Africa. Our family prefers traditional South African Christmas food, though. Normally glazed gammon, chicken pie, and ox tongue, roast potatoes and yellow rice with raisins (often called funeral rice) gravy; either pumpkin fritters with caramel sauce or candied sweet potatoes; a baked green bean dish, and a cold salad. Trifle for dessert. We have the hot meal on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day cold meats, breads and salads, and some more trifle. A lot of families prefer a braai (barbecue, but with loads of different meats: chops and steaks and boerewors (traditional sausage) and chicken) with salads. We mostly eat outdoors on Christmas eve, but indoors on Christmas day to escape the heat. And we eat a lot of watermelon throughout the festive season!
First...let me say how beautiful your mountain pass photo is....to have captured the deer, is just great!
My big thing is Christmas Eve....and I will be making Chicken Pot Pie, a green salad with Raspberry dressing and a Cherry Cobbler with vanilla ice cream and topped with home made whipped cream.
Christmas Day I will be at my daughter's family's home to eat....
Dear Bloomer...
I have been wondering over the past few days just what to make for the 12 days of Christmas...your cookies is just the thing! Thank you for that great idea....and have a blessed and happy Christmas!
Scallops, shrimp, wild rice and asparagus. No dessert as my grown up sons don't care for sweets. The best part is having my boys at the dinner table! Merry Christmas with prayers for a good New Year.
In Singapore, my mother-in-law will order from the supermarket Christmas ham, roast beef and a variety of sausages for a Christmas Eve feast. Sometimes on Christmas Day or New Year, we have Indian food delivered :)
WE will have croissant sandwiches, shrimp and sauce, baked beans, potato salad and stuff to nosh on. Our two big dinners are Thanksgiving and Easter. Christmas is much lower key.
Blessings to you and yours on this Christmas Eve.
We had our traditional Italian seafood feast on Christmas Eve, and today will follow with a prime rib, yorkshire pudding, corn pudding (also a side dish), a great fresh green salad, and whatever side dish others plan decide to add.
We have our traditional Italian seafood feast on Christmas Eve, and today will follow with a prime rib, yorkshire pudding, corn pudding (also a side dish), a great fresh green salad, and whatever side dish others plan decide to add. I made about a dozen different cookies, but will also make cannolis for dessert.
We normally have a turkey or ham on Christmas Day with the family, however this year I started a new tradition that everyone enjoyed. Being from California near the Mexican border I grew up eating Mexican food. So this year I decided we would have spicy enchiladas for Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we ate at our son's home and they had ham with all the trimmings.
My mother always made ambrosia. Being as she passed two yrs ago, I represented her with a big bowl of ambrosia (her recipe) at our Christmas Day ham dinner. Gramma Honey's Ambrosia was a big hit and I left a portion with the hostess.
Janet
We have prime rib and a filet of salmon, roasted potatoes, green beans with garlic and cashews, cranberry chutney, dinner rolls, and eggnog cake and Christmas pudding for dessert. It's all delicious and we each bring a dish so that it isn't to much work for anyone. We gather at my mother's house, but we all cook and clean up so she can rest and visit. Wonderful!
Christmas in Australia,
Dearest Lydia,
Christmas and New Year’s Greetings to you and yours. May the peace of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you.
I’m chiming in a little late here, but thought I’d share our Christmas traditional foods from Australia.
for many decades, despite Christmas falling during the hottest time of the year, many families still put forth the traditional Christmas Dinnner (borne of our English colonial herritage, it only being 115 Christmases since our Federation – from colony to Federated Commonwealth). Turkey, Roast Pork and leg of ham (hot or cold for the latter) with all the baked veg accompaniments (especially including Pumpkin – eaten as a savoury food in Aus), gravy and if one is really lucky, bread sauce and chipppolatas. Dessert, known as ‘Pudding’ amongst those of English heritage (the term used for all forms of the sweets course) would consist of Christmas Pudding, also known as ‘plum pudding’ though plums are rarely used in its creation, neither prunes, served with custard, cream, hard sauce (brandy butter) often flambéd with brandy while grandly carried to the dinner table.
Over the last two decades or so, many Australians have drifted towards something more suited to our hot Summer Christmas climate, consisting of a cold luncheon – turkey, ham, pork or barbecued lamb reminiscent of that enjoyed by the folk of the Southern mediteranian with the lamb marinated in garlic, mint, lemon rind and juice, olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper, either baked in an out-door oven or barbecued, any one of these served with salads. Often seafood will at least begin the Christmas dinner, smoked salmon (with all the trimmings) and/or prawns served, diners encouraged to peel their own, a range of home-made dipping sauces provided. Pavlova and Trifle are very popular Christmas pudding options, with ice-cream Christmas pudding Cassata harking back to the fruit and cognac notes of the hot English ancestor mentioned above. Fruit mince pies and shortbreads are enjoyed as coffee and teatime treats during December and January, with Christmas Cake a favourite among many folk (I make a very good one and give it away as gift to family and friends – it needs to be started in July to be really tip-top by our Summer months. Here’s a fantastic recipe http://www.abc.net.au/local/recipes/2011/11/14/3364324.htm
I can’t end this reflection on Aussie Christmas fare without mentioning our abundant stonefruit and tropical fruit offerings in season at this time of year, with cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, mangoes, pineapples and lychees highly sought after, along with raspberries, blackberries and the amazing queen of fruits, the red currant, available fresh for a startlingly short season of only around three weeks.
Many of us have outdoor patios and decks to share our hospitality on, taking full advantage of Australia’s amazing Christmas weather. Even in the far south of Tasmania though it can turn very cold at this time of year as you would well remember, heat can also be the order of the day.Our highest mountains enjoy mild temperatures of 19-35 degrees celcius during the day depending on whether a heatwave is passing across the continent.
May you be richly and wonderfully blessed this Christmas and continue to inspire us and model Christ’s way for we women all around the world in 2017. Thank you for everything you do.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah.
Sarah Elliot, it is nice to hear from you.
Janet, it is good younuse your Mother's recipes.
Gail, I like that people do as the like with food at Christmas.
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