Christmas Eve or Day Hanukkah Menus/What you cooking?
Ok people we are down to a week before the wire here let's type out the Menus so those of us who want ideas can get some creative juices flowing. Those who are new or recent foodies and want ideas and recipes this is the place to ask those questions. We are ready and willing to help anyone out if they need ideas and recipes. Share the love people.
What ya cooking?
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36 Comments:
Ok I am making:
Baked Brie with craberry conserve a real hit from thanksgiving
Some cold shrimp with cocktail sauce
assorted grapes and some sliced cheeses
chive crackers
Ham glazed with cola and Jim beam.
http://recipe.aol.com/recipe/smoked-ham-with-bourbon-brown-sugar-and-cola/84304
Nigella's potatoes gratin
http://recipe.aol.com/recipe/smoked-ham-with-bourbon-brown-sugar-and-cola/84304
Buttermilk refrigerator rolls (I found this recently and want to try it/dough can be made 7 days in advance)
http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2008/09/amazing-buttermilk-rolls.html
String beans yet to be figured out
Chocolate Cake
Raspberry Cheesecake Dorie Recipe inspired by Susan over at Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy.
http://stickygooeycreamychewy.blogspot.com/search?q=cheesecake
And of course the giant box-o-love cookie assortment.
I have not picked wines yet but since we got 12 bottles at thanksgiving I think I know where I will be looking for them.
JerzeeTomato at 12:28AM on 12/16/08
I haven't even come close to finalising my Hanukkah menu, but I'm quite certain I'll be making:
mixed green salad with walnuts and orange segments
potato latkes (applesauce, sour cream)
zucchini latkes
roasted cauliflower with sunflower seeds
beef brisket - either smoked and served with caramelised onions or braised in red wine with root veg
doughnuts (with at least 2 different fillings - jam and dulce de leche)
I may still add other things, depending on how many people we'll have over.
brooke29 at 1:15AM on 12/16/08
Jerzee girl, how can you still have that wine?!
Appetizers compliments of my 12 year old son whose been cooking since he was 7. Most recipes he found or came up with.
Proscuitto wrapped shrimp
Tortilla wraps with grilled tilapia, his crema recipe (SO good) and red cabbage. Cut into individual portions
Roasted new potatoes with creme fresche and caviar
A cheese, sausage and olive platter
(The 14 year old has been enslaved as his assistant)
Individual beef wellingtons (houseful o men)
Rosemary roasted potatoes
Green beans w/my famous wild mushroom ragout
And now I'm going to steal Jerzee's refrigerator rolls
For dessert, my daughter is blessing us with her flourless chocolate basil torte.
And wine. And champagne. I love bubbles.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 1:36AM on 12/16/08
Definately not Kosher, but....delish
Wonton Cups
1 lb sausage, (I only use Jimmie Dean)
1 1/2 cups grated Jack cheese
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar
1 small can chopped black olives
1 cup Ranch Dressing
1/4 c. EACH chopped bell pepper and green onion (optional)
1 pkg. Won Ton wrappers
Using a cupcake, or muffin pan, Pam it. Brush wonton wraps lightly with veg oil. Place one wonton wrap in each cupcake pan and bake at 350 for 10 mins., or til light golden brown.
Put sausage in fry pan, saute, breaking up into small pieces. Drain well. Mix in bowl with remaining ingredients.
Spoon mixture into Wonton cups and put back in oven for 5 minutes, or until bubbly.
lamora at 1:51AM on 12/16/08
Since the Other has to be back at work on Friday (new job, meh) and family is a long 5 hour drive away, we're having our first Christmas "alone" (meaning, we're inviting over our local friends for dinner). I'm actually looking forward to it after the utter chaos that's surrounded the last few Christmases (how many families can we visit in one day?).
For dinner, we're having:
Sausage balls, spiced nuts, raw veggies, and cheese and crackers as appetizers (served throughout the day)
Homemade fried chicken (because we can).
Semi-homemade dressing.
Creamy mashed potatoes.
Sweet potato apple souffle' with streusel topping.
Green bean casserole (a request)
Corn spoon (a Southern dish somewhat between a souffle' and a pudding)
Gravy (because what's chicken without gravy?).
Olive-rosemary bread.
Cranberry-nut bread.
With pumpkin and/or pecan pie for dessert.
Sweet tea, Riesling, and mulled cider.
Assorted cookies as take-home gifts.
Obviously, I'm a little touched in the head to think I can make this all by my own. At least the Other is willing to chip in with the mise en place and cleanup!
jenilowrance at 3:01AM on 12/16/08
i did chanukkah early, this weekend, with the family -
potato latkes (grandmas recipe)
apple sauce (grandmas recipe)
salad with pears pommegranates and walnuts, with a pommegranate vinegarette (from rick rodgers thanksgiving cookbook)
roast chicken (the husband made it!)
mushroom turnovers in puff pastry (from martha stewarts every day food mag)
caramelized onion quinoa (from mark bittmans how to cook everything vegetarian)
squash leek and apple gratin (i think its an old martha stewart recipe)
baklava (martha recipe)
jelly donuts (recipe from a friend, not sure the original source)
nalega at 8:25AM on 12/16/08
On our list to bring to his parents for christmas are spiced nuts, foccacia, and something for dessert. He has delusions of making baccala for Christmas eve but it's not happening. Hanukkah at my parents is simply enjoying the latkes, roast chicken, and sour cherry pie.
annabanannas at 8:53AM on 12/16/08
xmas day with fam and friends (12-15 people)
dates stuffed with goat cheese & wrapped with proscuitto
really good cheeses, cwackers, olives, roasted peppers, that stuff .....
fresh salmon salad with dill on cucumber slices
dinner:
homemade semolina gnocchi with a light tomato sauce
local fresh ham stuffed with tons of whole garlic cloves and slow cooked until it's falling off the bone and the skin is crusted and cracklin'
roasted radicchio drizzled with olive oil x-v
roasted beets with balsalmic glace
escarole salad with ruby red grapefruit
pavlova with fresh whipped cream and berries
maybe home made cream puffs with pastry cream filling and
chocolate sauce
mom's xmas cookies
fresh fruit - grapes and clementines & nuts
thanks, i need to write this stuff down!!!! now i KNOW what i'm making!
pooch at 10:12AM on 12/16/08
@jerzee tomato - how do you do the baked brie? I want to try one this year and would love your recipe - you listed all your recipes but that one, and I would like your advice.
bareneed at 11:27AM on 12/16/08
For Hanukkah, the fam is so obsessed with latkes, that we usually don't make much else. Maybe a small salad. I love making latkes, and I'm pretty good at it. My SIL has requested a Hanukkah in July celebration, because she feels that latkes once a year is just not enough.
For Chrismas Eve, everyone will bring a Polish dish. I'll do golabki, my dad does Polish bread. Pierogi, kielbasa, sauerkraut are brought by others.
Kerosena at 11:31AM on 12/16/08
@nalega and pooch - I'm drooling just reading your menus. Thanks for the inspiration!
Junie at 11:38AM on 12/16/08
Christmas Eve will be boeuf bourguignon and potatos boulangeres with green salad and something seriously chocolate for dessert. Christmas day will be at Tujaques restaurant.
NO_Pam at 11:54AM on 12/16/08
@kerosena... We make latkes one night during Passover each year, no one misses bread that night!
annabanannas at 12:48PM on 12/16/08
Too much traveling already this year, so there are just 2 of us for the holidays.
All I've managed to decide is that we'll be eating duck. I'm debating between the holiday-ness of a whole roasted duck, and the deliciousness of a good, medium rare duck breast. I think the latter is going to win out, because I'm afraid I won't be able to make a whole duck taste good.
Of course, I'm also a fan of stealing holiday traditions from other cultures, so I'll make latkes one night soon, too.
cyberroo at 1:52PM on 12/16/08
Christmas day is going to be an assortment of crackers, cheese, chutney, nuts and chips. The BF and I decided last night that we are having just a few people over since the others will either be out of town or w/their families, so I plan on grilling an assortment of steaks, pork, chicken, fish and having some sort of veggie on the side as well as latkas. Then later in the week when everyone is back in town and avail I plan on making a turdunken with all the trimmings.
pjracz10 at 6:02PM on 12/16/08
@nagela - i may steal your baklava idea .... forget the pavlova i did it last year. i did one that i unfortunately burned in my friends electric oven and i've been wanting to recreate it again:
baklava with pistachios and rosewater!!!!! when it burned in the oven i wanted to CRY. i never got to taste it.
so thanks for the inspiration.... the polish dinner sounds good, too .... love that stuff... stuffed cabbage and pierogi's are my favorites, and the saurkraut cooked in tomato with little pieces of smoked pork....
man, i'm glad you people are food people, because i'm starting to feel
rather decadent and piggy!!!!!
pooch at 9:09PM on 12/16/08
@cyberroo: best thing my husband found about roasting a whole duck is after cleaning duck, to then pour boiling water over it to shrink the skin. its fun to watch and makes it crispier. then rub with spices. we used kosher salt, pepper, garlic pepper.
I am not sure what we are doing for Christmas. It might depend on if my parents have power.
blizcheetah at 12:37AM on 12/17/08
For Hanukkah I will stick to my now yearly menu which will definitely include:
1. Homemade pigs in blankets
http://www.izzyeats.com/2007/12/pigs-in-blankets-enduring-allure.html
2. Brisket (may try this recipe from todays Times and substitute brisket for flanken)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17appe.html?_r=1&ref=dining
3. Latkes and Homemade Applesauce
http://www.izzyeats.com/2008/12/hanukkah-preview-latkes-with-shot-of.html
4. Rugelach or Cheesecake
Still need to include something green and couple of other hors d'oeuvres.
izzy's mama at 1:54PM on 12/17/08
Okay...Christmas Eve is ALWAYS Crab--served cold and cracked--served with salad, french bread and wine. Being Italian means having seafood on Christmas Eve and being from Humboldt County, California means only one kind of seafood--Dungeness Crab. Christmas Day--honey baked ham (by order of the 15 yo), scalloped potatoes (courtesy of Elise at Simply Recipes), this year the veggie will be green beans with pancetta and mint (Saveur) and a salad, still debating about the salad with apples and cranberry in the new Ina Garten or the tried and citrus salad. Dessert this year is Panetonne Bread Pudding. Don't think anyone will go hungry!
jsd517 at 4:47PM on 12/17/08
For Hanukkah- Latkes with applesauce and sour cream, brisket with onions, cucumber salad with dill and pickled beets. The latkes are the stars of the night- my dad comes over and we work together, at this point he directs and mixes and squeezes the excess moisture out by hand with cheesecloth and I peel and grate and fry. A wonderful time- cooking and eating is had by all. Oh, I am making Sufganyiot for the first time- I bake but I'm not much of a fryer- latkes and chicken are about it so this is a momentous occasion.
deefine at 6:09PM on 12/17/08
I've been asked to do a smoked turkey on my WSM for xmas eve. The technique I will be borrowing can be seen here.
steamsoldier at 7:59AM on 12/18/08
I'll be doing a beef tenderloin-hopefully on the grill- for Christmas dinner. I live in Michigan so it will depend on how long it will take me to clean off the snow. My friend gave me a recipe for a green bean dish that uses red wine and cognac and I think maybe I'll try a potato-turnip gratin. Not sure about dessert yet-I think I'll make that my husband's responsibility. It's just the 2 of us and we'll be doing a huge brunch at a friends house earlly in the day so I'm trying to keep dinner on the lighter side.
Rottenmom at 8:56AM on 12/18/08
No cooking for me, but I can't wait to head to my uncle's for the annual uber-German Christmas meal. He basically stages a raid on the Usinger's outlet and gets a zillion varieties of i-forget-what-wurst. Hated it when I was a kid, but now, some blood sausage, ham hocks, spinach with warm bacon dressing, silts and herring all sound pretty good. And yes I will be going for a run on Christmas day.
Y'all have inspired me to try some latkes this weekend. Easy but time-consuming is the general consensus, right?
TruckBoatTruck at 12:41PM on 12/18/08
@TruckBoatTruck - that's exactly it!
brooke29 at 12:49PM on 12/18/08
@TruckBaotTruck Oh man you get the blutwurst, I love that, and the headcheese, fleischsalat and all the others, I have to go to get some, that is my fav of all time.
pjracz10 at 3:53PM on 12/18/08
My vegetarian Hanukkah menu :
traditional potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream,
Mark Bittman's falafel with tahini sauce,
this Bon Appetit salad with feta, pomegranate seeds, beets and walnuts,
and a simple fruit salad and chocolates for dessert.
overw8 at 3:08PM on 12/19/08
@brooke29: I want to go to your place for Chanukah.
I'm not cooking for chanukah but I did make candied peanuts to take to my family's chanukah brunch - just to take something. They didn't turn out as well as the first time I made them. I might make a salad tomorrow with whatever I have on hand (boxed greens, avocado, apple, nuts, perhaps some canned vegetables).
CanadianFoodieGirl at 5:45PM on 12/20/08
For baked brie get some puff pastry and thaw it. Then take a rolling pin and roll it out a bit larger than your wheel. Grab an egg and beat it for the egg wash. Take the puff pastry and wrap your brie like a gift folding over the extra on the top.
Some people like to add things to the top I don't do it too often.
Like a pecan, brown sugar mix or cranberries and walnuts.
Baste with egg wash and put the whole thing in the freezer for no less than 25 mins. Puff pastry works best if it has to steam from being frozen.
Pop this in the oven at 350 for about 20-30 mins eyeball it should be golden brown and puffy when done. Pop a hole in the top to let the steam out.
I serve with a conserve of fruit for the winter cranberries.
Serve with crackers or baguette toasts.\
Google baked brie for some add on suggestions.
Raspberry preserves (no seeds are good) pear butter all kinds of ideas.
JerzeeTomato at 1:06AM on 12/21/08
Our 'fusion' menu (I am a half-Jewish Argentine and my partner is British) will consist of:
- Argy homemade empanadas with green salad for starters (the empanadas will be filled with: creamy sweetcorn and buffalo mozzarella, basil and sundried tomato)
- Roast duck and roast pheasant in a plum and red wine sauce with all the trimmings (roasted parsnips, pottoes, sweet potatoes, leeks, butternut squash and broccoli)
- My special white & dark chocolate mascarpone cheesecake with a warm dulce de leche sauce for dessert
- A selection of cheeses, crackers, home-baked white and brown rolls, pickles and chutneys for dinner
- The mandatory home-made mince pies for that extra Christmassy feel...
HappyMuncher at 8:46AM on 12/21/08
NY Strip Roast with a peppercorn crust and herbed butter for the guys.
Orange roughy with white wine, lemon and herbed butter for me.
Crispy oven roasted baby red potatoes.
Rice pilaf.
Homemade rolls.
Corn with crumbled bacon
Roasted mushrooms and pearl onions with thyme in a balsamic glaze.
Salad with baby greens.
Cranberry-horseradish relish to serve with the beef (and on sandwiches).
Tangerine-pomegranite sorbet.
Wine and beerfor the adults and chocolate milkshakes for the kids.
dhorst at 5:36PM on 12/21/08
For first night of Chanukah, we made the following:
homemade latkes served with applesauce and sour cream (not homemade)
Fennel and citrus salad over baby arugula (in NYT Dining section last week)
White beans,greens, garlic, tomatoes sauteed and then baked
Whole organic chicken in slow cooker with onions, sweet potatoes, thyme
homemade berry and apricot jam filled sufganiyot
sdemarco7 at 9:38AM on 12/22/08
I'm only making one dish to bring to Christmas dinner and it's broccoli cheese casserole. Dinner will include a beef ternderloin roast, potato casserole, Ceasar salad, baked mushrooms, creamed corn, broccoli cheese casserole and peas.
gammypie at 5:06PM on 12/22/08
I'm going to a potluck, and the people attending, most of them don't cook. So I am quite curious to see what is going to go on the table. (Probably very similar to the potluck picture posted on SE earlier in the week, haha!)
I am making 2 big pans of lasagna, so there should be enough if that is the only entree. I am also making deviled eggs, because I love them, haha! Oh, and cupcakes!
erinlovestoeat at 5:16PM on 12/22/08
@CanadianFoodieGirl - consider yourself invited!
brooke29 at 5:26PM on 12/22/08
Christmas eve fondu, in front of the fire, next to the tree...it's our family tradition.
derosa at 8:05PM on 12/23/08
For the 2nd Christmas in a row, I'm making a Christmas dinner for a small army direct from Nigella Lawson's "Feast". My menu choices were a huge hit last year, and I'm doing a repeat. But seriously, I really am tired of turkey after Thanksgiving... but no one will humor my Prime Rib and Ham whims.
Maple Roast Turkey (Brined, baby!)
Cornbread & Cranberry Stuffing
Allspice Gravy
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Chestnuts (and a splash of Marsala)
Homemade Liquored-up Cranberry Sauce
Maple Roasted Parsnips
Roast Potatoes (with duck fat substituting for the goose fat)
Traditional English Christmas Pudding (bought at a local Irish Deli) + Fire Extinguisher.
Rum Butter (from scratch)
Lots of alcohol to drink and set the pudding on fire with
Other assorted desserts from whoever is bringing what
One guest is bringing homemade Passover Haroset -- it's a great relish for turkey... and ham!
Add to this all some challah rolls and a simple green salad with toasted walnuts, mandarin oranges and dried cranberries and you've got a nice meal. With the exception of desserts and the rolls, everything is homemade. I'm proud of myself for baking the cornbread for the stuffing all by myself. It turned out decently, considering that I haven't really baked anything since my grandmother tried to teach me how to make Austrian pastry when I was little (scary, scary, scary.)
bronxbrinergal at 11:38AM on 12/24/08