Cheryl J
Chef Extraordinaire
Very cute, di! I can identify with a few of those lines...
It's virtually impossible to get a whole turkey where we are in Italy, but we live in an area where you get white truffles, so my Christmas Day menu will be Parma ham and melon, wild mushrooms in consommè, homemade tagliatelle with truffles, quail in a champagne sauce with cèp mushrooms and truffles, pears braised in moscato wine with ginger, amaretti. I only ever have items in the freezer that are for cooking, and never have prepared dishes in there - you can knock up a pasta dish in no time. There will be Panettone, Siena nougat, and other sweet delicacies. In the evening, an omelette fine herbes and salad, and for my husband, plenty of sweet things to nibble on. The risotto's, stews, and other seasonal dishes come out between Christmas and the New Year.
di reston
Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
It's virtually impossible to get a whole turkey where we are in Italy, but we live in an area where you get white truffles, so my Christmas Day menu will be Parma ham and melon, wild mushrooms in consommè, homemade tagliatelle with truffles, quail in a champagne sauce with cèp mushrooms and truffles, pears braised in moscato wine with ginger, amaretti. I only ever have items in the freezer that are for cooking, and never have prepared dishes in there - you can knock up a pasta dish in no time. There will be Panettone, Siena nougat, and other sweet delicacies. In the evening, an omelette fine herbes and salad, and for my husband, plenty of sweet things to nibble on. The risotto's, stews, and other seasonal dishes come out between Christmas and the New Year.
di reston
Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
Someone is bound to buck me on this, but here in the US turkey is often not on the menu for Christmas. Thanksgiving is only a month before, and turkey is on nearly everyone's table that day.
At least in my house, "the definition of eternity is two people and a ham".
Christmas eve tradition: I make a big batch of pizza dough and roll out individual pizzas and provide a wide array of toppings and a hot oven so everyone can build it and bake it as they like.
Christmas dinner will be prime rib roast, mashed potatoes and pan gravy, a "not so sweet potato casserole", a selection of vegetables, perhaps a green salad, and I found my spring form pan so now I can make the pecan crusted pumpkin cheesecake I had planned for Thanksgiving. I just hope I saved the recipe.
What? no Seven Fishes? or is that only the American-Italians tradition on Christmas Eve? My husband's family does at least seven, but sometimes 12...
Oh it is very much an Italian tradition brought over from Italy. I remember as a kid, the priest would go from house to house blessing all the fish. There aren't that many Italians left in this town. So it doesn't happen anymore. My SIL is Italian and when my daughter has her in-laws up for Christmas Eve meal, she might do two or three sea foods.
As a kid, there used to be fish mongers plying their wares in a wagon with all the fish on ice. We kids would follow and try to get some ice to suck on.
If you find the recipe PLEASE share. It sounds wonderful!
Seek, and ye shall find. Ask and thou shalt receive:
Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust
• 2 cups pecan flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 6 Tbs butter, melted
Filling
• 3 eight ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 15 ounces can solid-pack pumpkin
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
Topping
• 6 Tbs butter, softened
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions:
Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of prepared pan.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, cream, cinnamon and cloves until blended. Add the eggs and beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into crust. Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan and bake at 325°F for 1 hour. While the cheesecake bakes, combine butter and brown sugar in a small bowl and stir in the pecans.
After 1 hour, sprinkle the topping over the hot cheesecake and bake it 30 minutes longer or until center is just set. Turn off the oven and allow the finished cheesecake to cool in the oven. Move the cheesecake to a wire rack and loosen the latch on the springform pan to prevent cracking and cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan.
We will be spending Christmas day at my older son's house with the rest of the family and we've decided to do four ducks for the feast. Here's a recent picture of the last one I did, and it's a killer good never fail recipe provided the directions are followed exactly. I've done them several times.
The Best Way to Roast a Duck (Hello, Crispy Skin!) | The Hungry Mouse
Now the plan has changed to the SC and I cooking the ducks here and transporting them to son's house 20 minutes away. For one thing, I trust my new oven and it will take some concentration without distraction to do four ducks at once, with rotating the turned and poked ducks every hour. We're having fun with the planning and will be using doubled disposable pans with racks in the bottom. We found two racks on sale, and the SC cut them in half to fit the pans perfectly. It's a good thing our new oven is huge. We'll be able to throw the pans away, but keep the racks. We will do the last step of glazing the birds when we get to his house. We have to start cooking early Christmas morning, so the ducks will be all ready to go in the oven on Christmas eve.
The rest of the family members will do the sides, and I've requested one of the sides to be rice pilaf for the birds. This is gonna be fun and we're excited. I'll try and remember to take pictures.