Christmas Dinner

[ning]

Wow! This thread is so cool! The only baking I can do now is fruit tarts. XD And I'm working tomorrow (on Christmas itself, yes) so I'll be eating take-aways. No pie, no cheese, no turkey. Wished I lived with you guys!

[Tina ☺]

Fruit tarts sound good, Ning! Oh man, what a bummer. What sort of job do you have that makes you work on Christmas? lol

Amylu... this is a great case for listening to your parents!

Wow Jill, you mean they actually have canned pumpkin in your area? I've checked several stores around here and there's no canned pumpkin in sight! I guess your canned pumpkin shipments don't arrive out of Georgia.

Those muffins sound yummy and I'm gonna make some whenever I do find some pumpkin!

[cubanray36]

I will be making a cuban skirt steak that has to be left in the "unknown" ingrediants for two days and some yum black rice with beans and what not. Also made some key lime pie and some brownies for the dinner. *sigh* I'm tired haha

[Tina ☺]

Mmmm, key lime pie! YUM!

I have my pumpkin pies in the oven right now and now I have to go peel boiled eggs. Oh boy, get ready for the fresh aroma of farts to spread through the house!

[joandsarah]

Ning, what do you all eat for Christmas over there? Apart from fruit tarts. Do most people celebrate Christmas?

cubanray36, where do you come from? Is that what you would normally eat for Christmas?

I'm nosy, I find it very interesting what other countries do with the same celebration.

Well we had cold turkey, ham and pork, cold rice salad, pasta salad and tossed salad. Cold pickled beetroot and French stick bread.

My BIL is a vegetarian so I did his pasta salad with sun dried tomatoes and olives instead of ham. He had those olive3s all to himself too as no one else likes them! Eww they smelt bad!

Desert was Tipsy trifle which is sponge cake, jelly, fruit, sherry and custard. Although it can be made non tipsy without the sherry.

As you can see all cold summery foods. When I was a kid we were still eating hot English style food with roasted vegetables and plum pudding with coins and hot custard. I guess because so many of us are only first or second generation Australian that a lot of whatever customs the parents or grandparents were use to carried on awhile. Although I remember mermarings from years ago about "Why are we eating this hot food when it's so hot!" Then we started having both hot pudding and trifle, or some hot veggies and salad. At some point we must have got a clue and tossed in the hot food.

Has any one else had this kind of experience with food?
That is if your parents or grandparents came from another country to where you live now, did you keep the original foods they came over with? Or at some point make the swap over to what everyone else was eating?

[Tina ☺]

All I know is that I ate my Christmas dinner and now I'm stuffed!

[joandsarah]

How many generation of American are you Tina? Not that your pumpkin pie isn't interesting, I mentioned it to my MIL who pulled a strange face at the idea. But I think Ning, Cubanray and Pixx! Can't forget Pixx, might have something more interesting. So far all the summer girls I've talked to: Dez and Kaima (Aussies) and Gillian (South Africa) have all had cold meat, salad and trifle!

[Tina ☺]

Gillian? Where is she? That woman needs to stop in here and say hello sometime.

I have no clue how many generations of American I am..lol. I've never traced my family tree and with some of the relatives I have currently, I don't know if I even wanna know! I do know that I do have some Native American ancestors as well.

[jillyson]

I'm of Polish descent, so we usually have keilbassi and sourkraut along with the "traditional" American fare. We did it for Thanksgiving, but not for Christmas this year. (I personally hate the sourkraut, which is some sort of shredded cabbage concoction, but make it for everyone else) We do this on Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, as well as having it many times during the year. I like to grill the keilbassa in the summer.

Also, since my DH is Italian, we have 2 Christmas meals. I usually make the ham meal on Christmas day, then the day after (if I'm off from work) or the following weekend, we have cavatelli pasta and cheese stuffed ravioli, homemade sauce that cooks all day with pieces of pork, italian sausage, and meatballs in it, and lots of garlic bread. When we go to his family's house on Christmas day, that's what they serve. Also, fragile vanilla waffle like pastries called pizzelles. They look like snowflakes and taste like Heaven! Sometimes they're made with Anise, but I prefer the vanilla ones.

I also have Irish and Native American blood, and Bohemian, which as far as I can tell is some sort of cross between Checkoslovakian and gypsy. All of this is from my mother's side. My father was just Polish. The only other food tradition I do is corned beef brisket on St. Patrick's day. (Irish)

How cool that you have Native American too, Tina! Mine is Blackfoot tribe of the Cherokee nation.

[Tina ☺]

Wow, you even know which tribe, Jill? My great grandmother on my mom's side was a full blooded Cherokee, but I have no clue which tribe she decended from. There's also some Cherokee somewhere on my dad's side of the family.

I think there's a bit of Irish or Scottish in me somewhere as well.

[joandsarah]

I knew this could be an interesting thread...now we just need some more people to answer.

Quite a few Americans I talk to mention some Native American ancestry.

I don't think mine is all that interesting, just English, Irish,Welsh and possible some Viking and Norwegian. The viking is about as interesting as it gets.

Dh father is German and he likes the sourkraut, but no one else does so he doesn't get any! He also likes this rather disgusting dish called Kernas burges clops (Which I'm sure is spelt wrong) DH loves it too, well lets just say I am NEVER cooking that stuff. >yuck!<

Jilly, your dh is Italian? Does he know some good Italian names? Would he be a good translator? I use Italian baby names online for my Mobacy's, and online translations for the Italian words I use here and there, but you never know using something online if it's correct or not.

Tina, Gillian posted on my LJ thread and also to her own LJ, so I know she is around.

[Tina ☺]

Man it's quiet today! I'm ready for some leftover Christmas dinner now... I'm hungry!

[NoReins]

For Christmas Eve my mom and I did all the cooking. We had chili, pin wheels, deviled eggs (my specialty), veggies and ranch dip, pimento cheese spread and crab dip with crackers, rice krispie treats, cupcakes, and a selection of fudges. We got together with friends and family to share the joy of the season.

For Christmas we went to my grandparent's retirement community. They served green bean casserole, cheesy cauliflower, asparagus, mashed potatoes, turkey, lamb, and beef wellington along with a large variety of dessert.

As far as family backgrounds go, on my mother's mother's side I am Swiss. On her father's side I am French and Native American. I don't know about my father's side because no one has tried to find any family history.

[jillyson]

Chili! I love chili!
My dh doesn't speak the language, so he won't be much help. His dad does, I think. I know his Grandma did, but she died. Did you see the movie Goodfellas? They make a joke about all the boys being named Peter and Paul, and all the girls being named Mary or Marie. In dh's family, the boys are all Frankie and Joey, and there's lots of Angela's and Mary's.

[joandsarah]

I don't think I've seen Goodfellas, but Lol Frankie and Joey certainly ring Mob bells. What is it short for?

Hi NoReins, good to see you posting. Your Christmas dinner sounds yummy.