Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Feasting

Ohhh boy, it’s the Feisty Family Christmas Eve Feast!  Actually, it’s going to be both days – Christmas Eve & Christmas… nomnomnom.  Above you can see the Xmas present I gave my sister – a tiered serving platter stand.  The platters are dishwasher safe, shatter resistant, and came with 6 platters – 3 clear, 3 clear-red, and I believe 2 divided (one each).  Perfect for our family gatherings – it creates so much space and allows us to display the appetizers nicely.  Grape tomatoes, deviled eggs, chips, homemade salsa, carrot sticks, black olives, celery sticks and I’m not sure if we were using blue cheese, ranch, or hummus for dipping that day…

Sometimes I go in places, wait on line, then get flustered when they don’t have what I want and wind up getting something completely different.  Such was the case when I went to my fave cheap cheese shop and they didn’t have mascarpone or triple creme brie (St. Andres, I love you!!!), so I took their special of the day – a TWO KILO WHEEL OF double creme brie.  Then I realized 1- I’m not that into double creme brie, and 2- TWO KILOS?! that’s 2.2 lbs!!!  Well, I tried to bring it to a friend’s holiday party, but that was the night of that crazy freak snowstorm, and we just never made it over there.  So, to use it before the cheese expired, I brought it to my sister’s – cut off the top rind (which everyone kept saying I didn’t have to do – yea… I don’t like that rind), then plopped brown sugar and walnuts over the top and put it in the oven till it got nice and delicious-smelling, and served it with Club crackers.  Some of the sugar didn’t quite melt; I might help it along next time and drizzle honey instead… My mother surprisingly really liked this – surprising because I don’t see her as a cheese eater… but she ate a good amount of it.  (We didn’t finish it, and I told my sister to chop it up and mix with hot pasta and a bit of pasta water [the water in which you cooked said hot pasta], but I don’t know if she did.) 

Homemade cole slaw, complete with pineapple chunks. 

King crab legs! my brother-in-law went all out.  He threw these on the grill.  SO good! 

Spaghetti fra diavolo (slightly spicy, nothing crazy; we’ve got two young children eating as well, after all!).

My first plate: spaghetti fra diavolo, mushrooms, green beans, crab legs, brussels sprouts… NOM!  I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of the LAMB CHOPS which were PHENOMENAL… mmm, baby!  We also had them for my brother’s birthday, so you can see them here.  There was also steak, but… you’ll see, later.  🙂

Banana bread and something else someone made for dessert.

Some other pastries someone brought for dessert, but I didn’t catch the name.

Berry tart with a really lovely cream underneath the berries.  Funny… I just saw Rachael Ray make something that looked like this. 

More banana bread?  (As you probably know, I don’t eat many sweets so I don’t really know what things are…)

My brother, who had to work that day, actually picked up Crumbs from the location right next to his office.  That right there is about $100 worth of cupcakes.  (Ok, maybe not, I don’t really know, but I know they are super expensive, but huge.)

The first box…

Revealed!  Apple cupcakes (which are bro’s favorite) and red velvets (I’m not a big fan of theirs, but they are OK). 

Second box…

Opened!  Carrot cake (my mother LOVES carrot cake), Oreo, raspberry swirl, and a mini-M&Ms one.

Gourmet chocolate covered pretzels. 

Here’s the third and last box of assorted mini-cupcakes… for the kids, said my brother.  So cute!  And yes, I took the grasshopper one for myself 😉  (mint-chocolate-chip, one of my favorite sweets combinations)

We were all HUGELY stuffed after all this food and surprisingly, a TON OF SWEETS (we normally go easy on sweets!).  But the next morning, as tradition now dictates, I was meant to make breakfast for everyone.  However, I decided to change things up a bit this year; stealing this idea from Spicy Ninja, I requested we have a cooking competition!  Everyone makes one dish for breakfast, and everyone votes! 

I had to make corned beef hash, just had to, using a corned beef brisket that I cooked myself (from the store).  While it was very tasty, I learned a couple of lessons that I will apply next time to make it even better!  🙂

My plate: corned beef hash, a sunny side up egg, a strip of bacon, and a bagel with cream cheese and a couple of slices of lox.  Nommy goodness.  My sister claimed her entry was bacon, but as that required … well, come on! … she was immediately disqualified.  Sorry sis! 

My brother-in-law had originally planned on making steak for Christmas Eve, but everyone was so stuffed after lamb chops and all the other food that he left them marinating overnight, but threw them on the grill the next morning.  He probably would have won, but he opted out of the competition.  (Phew.) 

My brother made crepes, which were pretty tasty.  However, in all fairness, I admit I told my mother what our entries would be before we began, and she said, “Oh, you won already, hello?  Homemade corned beef hash against crepes?  I want corned beef hash.”  I guess it just is a matter of savory vs. sweet… and though everyone sort of refused to vote but then seemed to consent only to appease me (I can be very persistent “Just vote, even if it’s for [my brother]!!! This isn’t a competition if there’s no voting!”).  So I kind of sort of won.  But not really.  Hopefully next year they will take it more seriously!  😛

Instead of gifts this year, because I am buh-roke (you read that I quit my job, right?), I made goodie boxes for a couple of people.  Chocolate dipped pretzel rods (some with peanuts, some not), homemade sea-salt caramels, the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made, Rice Krispie treats with craisins and dipped in chocolate, rochers (basically clumps of granola and peanuts held together with chocolate), and chocolate covered bacon, everything homemade 🙂  I think everything came out really well, and I’d totally do this again. 

And, as usual, after breakfast and gift opening, we headed down to BF’s aunt’s place.  She makes an AWESOME spread and they have this adorable Santa thing and just… I love it.  I love going there even though with the exception of this past year, no one usually talks to me (I’m fine just stuffing my face, thanks, haha).  I just love Aunt Joanie and I can’t wait until our kids can experience the tradition of Santa!  In any case, the above plate contains corn, awesome turkey with awesome gravy, stuffing, mashed squash of some sort, and … I love this dish, and my BF looks at me like I am CRAZY… lima beans in a cream sauce.  I am going to start making this for myself because she told me how and I know I can do it.  🙂  Oh, and a twice baked potato in the center.  So… good!!!  I only get it once a year so I stuff myself silly.  Then we go home and play with all our new Christmas toys 🙂 that is the tradition and I LOVE IT!!! 

Of course, I’d made such a big platter of corned beef hash, I had to take some leftovers home… and I crisped them up super much in a pan, then fried two eggs to go on top and poke the yolks over… oh my stars, that was some delicious eating. 

I hope you all had as wonderful and blessed a holiday as I did. 

Happy eating!!!