When I was young, my Grandmother(s) cooked Christmas dinner. As the Grandparents aged, the cooking responsibilities transferred to my Mom's generation. When one of the aunts hosted Mom would make a side dish, but when it was her turn to host I helped Mom in the kitchen which is a fond memory for me. Other than everything made from scratch, we didn't have any tradition as far as food and our entree ranged from ham to Italian stuffed shells to prime rib.

When Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer she gave me a handwritten cookbook of the family favorite recipes from my paternal grandmother, my maternal grandmother, and Mom. Mom has been gone for 12 years now and my Grandmothers have been gone 9 years and 21 years.

For most of the last 12 years, I've cooked Christmas dinner with 100% of the menu coming from recipes in that cookbook. My favorite combo is Mom's London Broil, Mom's zucchini stir fry, Mom's grape salad, Grandma's baked beans, and Grandma's peanut butter pie.

What are your family traditions for Christmas dinner?

P.S. don't be crass. Let's keep this thread rated G.

We usually go to a very disappointing restaurant.

Arguing

My wife's grandmother always brings an utterly delicious ham from the Ohio Amish to PA with her, they roast it with a little ginger ale and serve it with a pineapple stuffing and together they are amazing.

^^^ I've had Coke and Dr. Pepper on ham, but I've never had ginger ale. Sounds good though.

Pineapple stuffing sounds delicious with ham or any other pork entree. For Thanksgiving, I don't like any of the traditional cranberry recipes so I make a cranberry stuffing to keep cranberries in the holiday. I bet I could substitute pineapple for the cranberries in that recipe.

It's been a while, but growing up my mom did Thanksgiving and my uncle (her brother) did Christmas dinner.

It was a huge get together, as it was moms/his side and his in-laws.

He did a turkey or some type of beef, but the thing even year, and the thing that I looked forward to was a stuffed glazed ham. This was before Honey Baked Ham Co., but it had a Honey and brown sugar glaze, with herbs and spices in it, stuffed with a cabbage mixture. It was out of this world!

Mom, and a few others would bring a dish or two, mom always brought her Deviled eggs and her Baked Beans, but are the best that I have ever tasted, and thought I have the recipe, never seem to be able to recreate as good.

An aunt, their sister would bring "grandma's" green beans, as she made them just like grandma, which drove my mom nuts because she could never get it just right.

Desserts were many, but Cherry pie, pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie were a guarantee! Plus my uncle's Black Walnut Cake, this thing is a delicious work of art!

Now, not much in tradition, mom has passed, my uncle is to old to do a big dinner. Family has grown old, died, or broken apart.

Nowadays, I usually go to a friend's house and it's chili, or laguna or something like that.


I don't have a large house, and I tried to do a Christmas Eve thing with finger food/light dinner, but I never could gain traction, as I live in the sticks, on a steep twist road and people didn't like driving it in the dark, so most didn't come or just for an hour or so.


ARman.

quote:

Originally posted by ARman:
... her Baked Beans, but are the best that I have ever tasted, and thought I have the recipe, never seem to be able to recreate as good...

Sounds like my paternal grandmother's baked beans. I'm an engineer and my normal cooking style is everything is precise, but Grandma was the opposite. She leaves out steps (e.g. do you cook with the lid on, off, or a little of both?) and 2 of the steps are to add this ingredient until the color changes (e.g. add brown sugar and stir until the color changes from red to brown). I've had a hard time achieving both taste and texture, but last Christmas Dad and I both agreed that I had finally achieved both taste and texture.

Nearly all of my great-grandparents immigrated from Norway so we have lots of scandinavian sweets for every holiday (sandbakkles, krumkake, lefse). My daughter (25), fiancee and I typically make them together. The lutefisk tradition is dying (thankfully) with my generation.

My fiancee's heritage is from the Ukraine, perogies are commonly seen with their gatherings.

The main course is usually ham, turkey or a tenderloin roast.

Growing up, we usually had a ham for Christmas dinner. I remember my mom sticking cloves into the outside of the ham. My wife and I didn’t really have Christmas dinner tradition with our kids, but for quite a few years now we’ve established a tradition for the two of us—-we have Alaskan King Crab legs on Christmas Eve.

I think this thread is USELESS if no one is going to share some of these recipes.

Peanut Butter Pie....Hint...Hint.

We are in our 70's and immediate family members are gone or live away from this area so it's usually just us and maybe one or two friends. Xmas eve we always cook a 3-4 rib prime rib with the typical sides and has been a tradition for around a decade. The left over roast is made into chili and stew or hoagie sandwiches in the days following.

Jim

Wife is Italian, so it's fish, fish and more fish. Everything from oysters to fried fish to fish spaghetti sauce (which is not my fav) and just about everything you can imagine that goes along with fish. Sadly, no family gathering this year as it would involve 20+ people including small children so it will be just my wife and I. We'll have fish but it will be scaled down. The good thing is, it seems like lobster might be in the mix.

Swedish meatballs and Lefsa were a must

quote:

We usually go to a very disappointing restaurant.

^^^^^^^^^^^
That was funny! You leave a big tip even though service was lousy?

Growing up, there were a number of years where we'd have lobster for Christmas.

My immediate family used to vacation in Maine just about every summer, so it was a way to get a little taste of Maine at Christmas. (Albeit at significantly higher prices than in Maine.)

Usually just standard steamed whole lobster, but occasionally mixed it up with something like lobster pasta or lobster pizza.

quote:

Originally posted by TomV:
I think this thread is USELESS if no one is going to share some of these recipes.

Peanut Butter Pie....Hint...Hint.

This is the easiest dessert ever. My grandmother invented it as a teen during the Great Depression. She used to make her own crust, but by the time I was born it was the purchased crust recipe that it is today.

Ingredients:

cook n serve vanilla pudding. It's essential that it's the old-fashioned vanilla pudding where you have to heat the milk up. Jello brand calls this cook n serve vanilla pudding.

Smooth peanut butter

Graham cracker pie crust (Dad won't be able to attend this year so I'm trying something different which is using an oreo pie crust).

Milk. However much the side of the pudding requires. Don't buy skim as it needs some fat.

Directions:

Prepare vanilla pudding the way the side of the box says

While the pudding is still hot, mix in 3 heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter. This is Grandma's recipe so spoon size not specified, but IMO it's not possible to put in too much.

Stir in the peanut butter until even color achieved.

Pour into pie crust

Cool in refridgerator

(my addition) Protect and enjoy

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

Wifey makes Manicotti for Christmas dinner, probably for the past 8 years. We are not of Italian extract, just like being unconventional with regards to holiday dinners, except Easter. On Easter we have a ham.

Our family Christmas dinner was pretty much Thanksgiving v 2.0, but the traditional family recipes were those we made for our Christmas Day guests. We would generally have 20-30 people stop by during the day to socialize, many year after year after year.

We would start about 10:00 AM and mix up a big pitcher of Brandies Alexander, the drink that traditionally lubricated our guests. Then, perhaps about noon, dishes would start coming out of the kitchen:

Herb and Cheese Spread
Tiropetas
Patti's Crab Dip (after Patti got married and stopped coming, we had to make this ourselves)
Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts
Lil' Smokies in Jim Beam Sauce
Hot & Spicy Nuts
Various cheeses, home-baked breads, and crackers

The great virtue of most of these is that the bulk of the preparation can be done in advance, and this greatly reduces the time needed to be spent in the kitchen (rather than sucking down the BA's).

By the time we chased everybody out, 6:00 PM or so, dinner didn't really matter that much. I will admit that there were years, after my dad died, when we didn't get to it at all.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by TomV:
I think this thread is USELESS if no one is going to share some of these recipes.

Peanut Butter Pie....Hint...Hint.

This is the easiest dessert ever. My grandmother invented it as a teen during the Great Depression. She used to make her own crust, but by the time I was born it was the purchased crust recipe that it is today.

Ingredients:

cook n serve vanilla pudding. It's essential that it's the old-fashioned vanilla pudding where you have to heat the milk up. Jello brand calls this cook n serve vanilla pudding.

Smooth peanut butter

Graham cracker pie crust (Dad won't be able to attend this year so I'm trying something different which is using an oreo pie crust).

Milk. However much the side of the pudding requires. Don't buy skim as it needs some fat.

Directions:

Prepare vanilla pudding the way the side of the box says

While the pudding is still hot, mix in 3 heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter. This is Grandma's recipe so spoon size not specified, but IMO it's not possible to put in too much.

Stir in the peanut butter until even color achieved.

Pour into pie crust

Cool in refridgerator

(my addition) Protect and enjoy

Thank you for that! My grandmother made that for me when I was a kid. Haven't had it in over 30 years. Will try to make it over Christmas!

For the last 20 years, since we moved into our present house. We host, I cook 2 Prime Ribs, the better half does some side dishes, but the best thing of all is that family coordinates with each other, and the dishes are plentiful and delicious!! Never a need to go hungry!!

Must add that as the cook for the Prime Rib. It seems I always get an end cut, overdone, but delicious. Putting my foot down this year and cutting my slice first as I prefer medium rare.