2022 Christmas Dinner Menus!

[TripleB]

Christmas Eve

Going to an early Christmas party, then dinner at a friends Restaurant. Then at midnight watch the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol”

Christmas Morning

Dad’s breakfast - bacon, fried eggs and white rice.

Christmas Dinner (With Wife’s side of the family) Dec. 25th

Chinese takeout (nephew’s wife is due 12/24. Everyone in anticipation of the delivery of the best Christmas present…..a little girl).

Christmas Dinner (With my side of the family) Dec. 28th

Charcuterie board/Philo cups/tomato & basil skewers
Shrimp cocktail
Grilled Cornish game hens w/ a triple sec sauce
Rice pilaf
Green beans
Fresh fruit tart

[barelfly]

Excellent menu!~ love it! Enjoy!

We have our charcuterie board going tonight as I cook for the weekend!

[BloomHybrid]

First Chrismas in Oregon and I forgot my deflector plates back in AZ and my grill is currently frozen shut. So yeah.... My wife works a 12 on Christmas day. Hopefully will be able to get to the store tomorrow to grab a few things for indoor cooking.

[barelfly]

Hope your wife gets home early so you can enjoy that dinner and indoor cooking!

[58limited]

Prepping for the Beef Wellington. I cleaned the whole tenderloin that I bought from Creekstone Farms last year. Starting weight: 5.8 lbs. Trimmed 1.8 lbs and divided the remaining 4 lbs into three roasts: Head, Chateaubriand, and tail. The Chateaubriand is dry brining right now. The other roasts and the trim are vacuum sealed and frozen for future use.

[Reds Fan 5]

Christmas Eve
Cocktails
Cheese, olive, nuts, crackers board
Shrimp and grits (polenta)


Christmas Day
Cocktails
Lobster bisque
Beef tenderloin filets with port sauce
Mashed potatoes
Blanched/sautéed green beans with shallots and garlic
Cake, cookies

[Draznnl]

Christmas Eve dinner: my Irish wife’s traditional choice of pasta with pesto and eclairs for dessert.

Christmas: I swear I left the choice up to her. Pastrami on rye with Koop’s stone ground mustard and potato latkes. Chocolate cake for dessert.

[CHNeal]

About an hour ago my daughter informed her mother that she wouldn’t be home for Christmas dinner tomorrow because Mr Wonderful invited her to his folks home….After having what i have been told was a beaut of a melt down my Mrs called me at work and told me I was leaving at 3 to get started on tomorrows dinner tonight….Allllrighty then.

[fzxdoc]

Been there... Kids don't like it when the folks have alternate plans (like a trip to another relative's home over the holidays) but heaven forbid the parents put up a fuss when the kid peaces out on a holiday meal, or the whole holiday for that matter.

It could be worse. Good friends of ours are having their family Xmas on the 29th because their 20-something daughter decided to go to Spain with her new boyfriend for 2 weeks over the Xmas holidays.

Kathryn

[texastweeter]

Same as always. Standing rib roast, scratch made green bean casserole, mashed taters, yorkshire pudding, bourbon pecan pie.

[Panhead John]

I need directions please.

[texastweeter]

59 north, take a left onto 204, then hit 110 right into whitehouse. When you hit the main drag, call me. Panhead John

[Jfrosty27]

I mentioned a couple times that my son ordered pastrami from Katz’s deli in NYC. OMG. Truly amazing. Everything it was supposed to be. And for me anyway, the best I have ever had. Only a couple pics. Too hungry and to be honest, excited about it. Yum.

[RolfTaylor]

You are completely forgiven for the marble Rye! I know it isn't traditional, but I often choose it. These year seeded Rye. I wish I had some of that Katz to compare to my latest creation. Dare I say mine might be as good?

[RolfTaylor]

Christmas Eve is our bigger meal. Kept it simple this year, slow roasted rib roast (dry brined over night) (in the oven <ducking> at 240 degrees and then rested for 30 minutes and then seared in over 10 minutes at 500. Perfect edge to edge medium rare.

Why not in the BGE? That's because I was making pastrami for today's low key smorgasbord.

Three Corned beefs. Took from freezer and thawed and desalted for 4 hours. Then put on the rub and left overnight. Smoked 4 hours and then wrapped. Back in the egg until it petered out because the temperature was dropping outside (BGE is only a medium so it does this sometimes anyway) so I finished it out for 45 minutes in the oven. It was wrapped at that point anyway so no harm.

Final temp was 196. It was past time for bed and I didn't want to warm up the fridge and there was no time to let it cool. So I left it outside to freeze overnight.

This morning I brought it in and sliced while still semi-frozen, which worked out well. Having a proper slicing machine is the best way to make the most out of something like this. My little Bosch is not the best, but does the job.

I don't have it with me but I will share my rub later (final tweaks were a great success). My secret is to add some some juniper berries and an equal amount of caraway seeds in addition to the usual ingredients. Mixtue of apple cherry and a lesser amount of pecan. Do NOT use hickory or mesquite.

Pastrami is the first thing I smoked and I have now finalized my technique after a couple and am happy. Very happy!

I then warm portionas as needed to make a sandwich. I just wrap a portion in wet paper towels and microwave just long enough till the fat is transparent.

Speaking of which, I just finished my nap, time to try it in a sandwich. Seeded rye bread, two kinds of mustard (brown and coarse french). I have no swiss so no cheese. Got to go!

OK, a cople of quick tips. I can do two layer on the Medium as I have shared before. But the lower rack always cooked faster. Now I do one later and put them in a rib rack (with balls of foil so they don't touch) and I can do three at a time with even cooking performance. As I mentioned elsewhere, be aware your egg can get frozen shut. And do try some caraway and juniper to give some nice sublety.

I am hungry. Will post the final recipe later.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

[fzxdoc]

Great tips! Thanks.

Kathryn (WSCGC not an Egg, but still...)

[RolfTaylor]

Found notes and posted recipe in the beef section. Somehow I forgot the mustard seed which I usually use so I made that optional. Increased the amount of caraway seed & juniper berry. I think maybe not having the mustard helped them shine. I may increase both of those more next time, but this was my best every, Given the pre-made corned beef the actual meat varies. 3 more months & time to stock up again. Need to get enough in March to keep me happy with corned beef and pastrami for a year!

[MBMorgan]

Not sure. Weather and UAL permitting, we’ll be in the DC area at our son’s place this year. Our DIL is a vegetarian… so there’s that. In an effort to stay in the will, our son is prepping a small brisket for the smoker … so there’s THAT. DIL is not a fan of adult beverages … so there’s that.
Our son is a fan, at least of beer , and he knows that wine comes out of the pointy end of the bottle … so there’s THAT.

Update: It went FAR better than I expected. Our son struggled a bit with a brisket cooked on an old, rusty, on-its-last-legs Old Smoky electric (it literally fell apart when he picked it up to put it away) ... but with a little help from Moi, it turned out really well. I still don't know where he got his rub recipe from but (wait for it, Texicans) in spite of having no beans in it, it worked:

2 tablespoons (26g) brown sugar
2 teaspoons (5g) chili powder
2 teaspoons (4g) black pepper
1 teaspoon (2.4g) onion powder
1 teaspoon (2.8g) garlic powder
1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon (6g) coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon (1g) cumin seed , ground
1/2 teaspoon (1g) fennel seed , ground
1/4 teaspoon (0.5g) cayenne pepper

It reached wubba-wubba texture after only about 6 hours sealed in the air tight, steamy cooker at an unknown temperature. It looked good but the "bark" was mush until I had him hold it uncovered in a 170F oven for a few hours to dry it out. The finished result was pretty damn good with plenty of pepperiness up front.

Adult beverages were plentiful ... sides were awesome and suitable for vegetarians ... and the "in-laws" (parents of the DIL) were about as great as "in-laws" can be ... seriously!

If it weren't for the dumb idea to fly from Denver to DC on the 22'nd (which, by coincidence was the temperature below zero that morning when we got to the airport), it would have been pretty much picture perfect ... except, of course that there weren't any pictures to prove that it happened 😐 ...

EDIT: Looks like the rub might have come from here: https://www.ourcookbooks.com/recipe/...t-brisket.html ... who'd a'thunk it?

[Jerod Broussard]

I didn't make it to the store for my ribeye, so I got a Bone-in Ribeye Tony Brining until Saturday whereby I can weld and grill.