I’ve posted this before but for the past couple of years we haven’t had Christmas dinner! We have a breakfast spread; after that everyone picks an appetizer that they like and we nibble all day. It’s so liberating! (And besides, apps are my favorite…)
@doschicos How do you cook the beef tenderloin?
@JustaMom5465 We do the appetizer thing on Christmas Eve.
@intparent I’ll send you the recipe.
We also do appetizers on Christmas. It’s better than Thanksgiving dinner IMO! Everyone goes all out making great things.
Christmas Eve tradition is shrimp scampi.
We also do an appetizer buffet on Christmas Eve. Our Christmas Eve this year will be December 26…we will celebrate family Christmas the morning of the 27th.
Christmas Day will be with friends. That’s a 4:00 start.
We do a nice Christmas morning breakfast. I think this year it will be waffles.
Our son watched that video his senior year of high school and asked if he could make it for us for Christmas. DH was reluctant to give up his traditional standing rib, but relented. It was heaven. Kiddo made it perfectly and has been making it for us at Christmas ever since. (He’s also a whiz at making pasta a la Ramsey and is getting his own Mercato pasta maker for Christmas.) But, I should add, that he’s been cooking with us since he could hold a whisk and is no amateur in the kitchen. Now, he does the Wellington, DH does the Yorkshire pudding, and I do the mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.
Wait, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet! Gotta get through that meal first.
(Christmas and Thanksgiving are the two days of the year we prepare a meal with meat.)
We aren’t going down to my dad’s this year since S1 will be on the East Coast for only a couple days. We will probably participate in the ancient Jewish tradition and go for Chinese and a movie.
I’ll go down to GA in late January for my dad’s birthday and drive the big loop so I can see the sibs, nieces and nephews who won’t be able to travel and actually be able to have a conversation.
OMG, I think I will try this Beef Wellington dish. 
It looks like the mini-processor might come in handy here.
Gordon Ramsey looks hopped up on something in that video. 
Too much eggnog?!
@intparent, those beans look fabulous! Bookmarked the recipe.
@anomander, so the big question is, did you like it?? 
@HouseChatte Good lord, what a PITA! At least it sounds as if these are really serious allergies, rather than fashionable whims
I am normally not a big steak eater, and I have no desire for something like prime rib, because the big bloody slab kind of turns my stomach. We often have shrimp etouffee for Christmas dinner. But since I’ve been on chemo–just finished on Friday, yay!–I’ve been anemic and the NP told me to eat a rare steak the second week of every cycle. It does bring my red blood cell count up, and I’ve actually found myself kind of craving it.
I’ve never made Gordon Ramsay’s version of wellington. I always used the version in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But his video does have excellent technique tips. I notice that his fillets are always perfectly cylindrical and perfectly trimmed. No tail to deal with. Only the center of the cut. I shudder to think how much they cost. But you could make a lovely little saute or something with the trimmings.
@Nrdsb4 Tournedos Rossini is food of the gods. I prefer it on a crouton or nothing, not artichoke hearts. The pate de foie gras (I prefer it to actual foie gras) and Madiera for the sauce alone will set you back $$, let alone the meat! And you are in the stratosphere if you add the black truffles also. I’ve never experienced that, even in a restaurant. If the pate is truffled, that is good enough for me!
@doschicos Luckily, my kitchen is not small, although it does have other deficiencies.
@ChoatieMom , my S has no ambition to make the dish himself, he just wants ME to make it, LOL! Luckily, it is well within my capabilities. This is the kid who volunteered me to bring petit fours to his summer camp party when he was 6. I said, whatever happened to cupcakes? But I made the petit fours anyway. I gather than the other 6 and 7 yr olds liked them.
=))
@Consolation I mistakenly confused your situation with your Thanksgiving post where you were cooking in someone’s small kitchen.
If you love truffles, go to Tuscany this time of year and you will cheaply get your fill of fresh truffles. They just shower dishes with them in November. Yum.
Congrats on finishing up with chemo!
We make 7 fishes for Christmas eve. We have friends over and they usually are the ones to bring stuffed lobsters. ( We used to make cheese fondue also but that got crazy). We still make the chocolate fondue. We have a fondue fountain. Kids love it.
For Christmas Day we visit family. They cook ( mostly) but we often help as they aren’t exactly cooks. They buy those expensive steaks from the Mid West and have them flown in. They are good but not great. Honestly, by Christmas Day I’m not really hungry as we have been eating non stop for a couple of days by then.
@Consolation definitely not fashionable whims. I’m lucky to have guests who are really flexible and game to eat whatever I make that’s within their safe zone. And LOL at your discerning summer camper DS!
@doschicos Tuscany for truffles sounds heavenly! Funny I misread your post at first and thought you meant to pop over to buy them there!
More creativity will definitely kick in if DS1’s girlfriend gets up here, but I will feed her and feed her well. A vegetarian friend of my was going to extended family for one holiday and was told “well, you can have the potatoes.” The sin of pride prevents me from ever saying that kind of thing to a guest under my roof.
@Happytimes2001 Your house sounds like the place to be on Christmas Eve! Yum!
OMG, stuffed lobsters and chocolate fondue? Can I come over, @Happytimes2001 ?
@katliamom Yes, you can. They only the sell the special fondue chocolate in 2lb bags. I got the fondue fountain for $2.00 at a flea market and have spent a bit more on chocolate over the years. And we always have too much food. Though we have seven fishes, the lobsters and shrimp cocktail are the only one everyone eats. There’s always a few kids who don’t like lobster.
What are the other 5 fishes served, @Happytimes2001?
Will you make the Wellington the Gordon Ramsay way, with the Parma ham? If I were making it, I’d leave out the ham, even though I’d then have to be very careful to get all the moisture out of the duxelles so the puff pastry wouldn’t get soggy.
The wellington with duxelles and proscioutto was absolutely fabulous I must say!