Christmas Dinner

[joandsarah]

What are you having for Christmas dinner? Share your recipes.

We are having turkey, ham and salad. Christmas is in the middle of summer here so we normally have salads with the meat.

I am making a rice salad, a pasta salad and a tossed salad.

Jo's Rice Salad

This is a recipe I make each year although I lost the recipe a few years back, so err quantities are a bit of guess work. It's quite a sweet tasting salad.

I cup of rice cooked and left in the fridge until cold.

A tin of corn, a green apple, red capsicum (What you call a bell pepper I think)shallots, pecans and sultanas.

Dressing oil, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and curry powder shaken in a bottle.

[Tina ☺]

LOL... I have a few of those recipes that are now and bit of guesswork, Jo. I'm just waking up and groggy, so I can't think of any of those now though.

[Harley]

Rice salad sounds good...

With 25 years in the restuarant business, I never ever once used any recipies or measuring devices...

We be having ham and stuff.......

[joandsarah]

Are you a chef Harley? Ever since I lost my recipe I can't seem to get the dressing quite right. It might be missing something. I just put in brown sugar because maybe that is it.

[Harley]

Me be a Certified Chef fo sho...

Ummm What dressing are you refering to Lass...

[Tina ☺]

I don't really do recipes much for Christmas Dinner. I just throw the stuff together. LOL Soon, I will be making pumpkin pie for tomorrow, though.

Crissy has made sugar cookies and red velvet cupcakes. She said she feels like she's on a baking frenzy! She made cupcakes for Steph's birthday and then she made cookies for a Christmas party she attended as well. I told that I was soon to go on a cooking frenzy!

We are having ham, candied yams, spinach casserole, deviled eggs, fruit salad, and a lima bean dish I've never made before, so for that one, I will be using a recipe.

[joandsarah]

Is he pulling my leg? As to what dressing..the dressing I just posted.

So is pumpkin pie an American Christmas staple?

I was hoping people would post what they have for Christmas in the varies countries they all come from. Come on people!

[Tina ☺]

LOL... I guess he's wondering if the dressing has an actual name so he maybe able to tell what is supposed to go into it because you asked if brown sugar was correct or something because you couldn't quite remember.

Ah well... Oh yeah, people here have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas here. I usually just buy a frozen one and put it in the oven, but this year I decided to make it from scratch, which haven't done in years. Go figure... there is a pumpkin shortage due to the floods in Georgia and you can't buy a can of pumpkin ANYWHERE around here! The do, however, have pumpkin pie filling in cans, so I am having to do that.

Ah well, I have a sour cream topping I'm making for it, so at least that part will be from scratch.

[joandsarah]

I find this quite fascinating. So sour cream means it's savory? I thought pumpkin pie was a sweet?
You know, I've never eaten it. But I've heard of it. I don't even think pumpkin comes canned over here. I've noticed you all get a lot more canned foods.

The dressing is just the rice salad dressing. I didn't put sugar in last year and thought it seemed too sharp.

[Tina ☺]

Pumpkin pie IS sweet. Sweet and yummy! The sour cream topping is made sweeter by adding sugar, etc. It compliments the pumpkin pie by just adding a bit of tartness to it. It's not the usual way pumpkin pies are topped, though. It's a bit different. Most times you eat it without topping or dab a bit of whipped cream on top. Wish I could send you one! You just don't know what you've been missing!

Here's the recipe I was going to use:

1 (9 inch) unbaked pastry shells


1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin


1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
sour cream, topping
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Place rack in lowest position in oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Combine all ingredients except pastry shell, mix well. Pour into pastry shell.

3.Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees, bake 35 to 40 minutes longer. Cool.

4.Sour Cream Topping:

5. Combine sour cream, sugar and vanilla. After 30 minutes of baking, spread evenly over the top of pie; bake 10 minutes longer.


Now I'm stuck just using the pumpkin pie filling, which has all the pumpkin pie ingredient already in it. Ah well, it does save a bit of work...lol

Hey, now that you have a recipe, you make your own! Of course, if you don't have/can't get canned pumpkin, you can use fresh pumpkin. Of course that would have to be cooked and pureed first.

[joandsarah]

We normally have pumpkin as a vegetable or soup. I don't make soup too often because of all the cutting up, pie would be the same. Wonder what my family would say to pumpkin as a desert?

[amylu1988]

I actually helped my Mum with the Turkey this year! ;D I finished it off this afternoon while she was at work, getting it out of the oven and testing the juices, etc.

Over here, we have Turkey and the trimmings and that's pretty much the staple. Yorkshire puddings, veg, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. Christmas Eve night (about 8 hours away from now) we have turkey sandwiches to, ahem, check the meat.

Breakfast is more interesting and is probably going to make no sense at all, as these are local things we eat. Right: stilton cheese, wensleydale cheese, pork pie, pigs in blankets (sausage in bacon), dips and breadsticks, and I think that's it.

And pudding is my faaaavourite, because it's stollen and mince pies. Sorry I've got no recipes, it's mostly Mum cooking and me helping out, so it's pretty traditional and the same stuff every year, but I love it. *hugs mum* ;D

[Tina ☺]

Well, Amylu, the things I could make out sound good!

LOL... I don't know, Jo, but you should try it sometime and find out. It's GOOD! *licks lips* Crissy and I had some pumpkin soup on a cruise and we LOVE IT! I found a pumpkin soup recipe I was going to try but then . . . . NO PUMPKIN!! I refuse to buy a fresh pumpkin and do all that work when canned pumkin is usually in great supply...lol. Since there is no canned pumkin available, our pumpkin soup experiment will have to wait.

[amylu1988]

Ooh, yummy; I haven't had pumpkin soup for years. We usually have it at Hallowe'en, but I was away this year, and we don't generally have pumpkin at Christmas. But it is lovely.

Turkey's all cooked now, and Dad just turned to me and said 'eat what you want; it's Christmas!' I think I'm going to do as I'm told haha.

[jillyson]

You should always listen to your parents! Lol!

Easy Pumpkin muffins:

1 15oz can of pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 spice cake mix
1 cup water
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips.

Preheat over to 350@, mix all, blending chips in last. Fills muffin pans and bake for 20 - 25 min. Makes 24 muffins.

I was given this recipie by weight watchers when they came to our office, and I make these all the time. They're only 1 pt, low sugar, high fiber, and really good and moist!

These will be he only low cal part of my holiday meal - Ham with brown sugar and honey glaze, scallopped potatoes, baked beans with molasses, and more sweets than you can shake a stick at!