Let buttons pop and colons strain; it's (almost) Christmas Dinner time

December 24, 2018 5:42 AM

As singers are watched and children handle the truth, if not substituted for bangers and chips, what's yours? Is it boozy? Spuds mashed or roasted? Parsnips? Is it photo-worthy? Outdoors? In Doncaster, captive diners enjoyed beef bourgignon; in County Durham, there's a dainty little dinner; in Manchester there's chicken and jollof rice. But in Grimsby: Turkey Rage. To drink? Blossom Hill topped up with lemonade or Brussels sprout margarita. Pudding? Speck and parmesan muffins or banana bacon trifle. Perhaps a mince pie: popular, ice cream, beer, ...but is his poo...? From Devon to Dunkeld, they deep-fry it - or just the pud in Edinburgh. [bonus]
posted by Wordshore (31 comments total)

As I reached the semicolon (perhaps there to take up some of the strain on the colon), my brain was already registering “Wordshore!”
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:45 AM on December 24, 2018 [9 favorites]

“The doctors have told me to eat very slowly, as my body will be adapting.”

This sounds like a superhero origin story: he ate too many mince pies and gained astonishing, although largely useless, powers.

My shameless US voice-to-text tried to make “mince pies” into “mint patties,” which would also work, I suppose, although even more sugary.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:52 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Pigs in Blankets Teabags

I would very much like to secretly replace one bag in our tea box with one of these.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:12 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

...with one customer telling how she waited 90 minutes just to get cobs and pork pies
posted by Wordshore at 6:24 AM on December 24, 2018

If some of the links within have not put you off, I'm curious as to what other MeFites - wherever in the world - will be consuming on Christmas Day...
posted by Wordshore at 7:44 AM on December 24, 2018

I shall be making a topside of beef with red wine and shallot gravy, roasties, brussel sprouts with lardons and chestnuts, roasted butternut squash with pecans and blue cheese, pigs in blankets and carrots/peas tomorrow. I currently have a cola ham a la Nigella simmering for Boxing Day (my in-laws are coming over), which will have roasties and roast veg as the sides.

My mother is making the puddings for both days so I am leaving it up to her as to which one she makes and when. Before I go to bed tonight, I will put the dry ingredients for Nigella's Christmas morning muffins, which I have been making now for about a decade.
posted by halcyonday at 8:18 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m making a pork stew for a friend and she’s making carrots sautéd with dill. It should be nice.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:45 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Breakfast: traditional holiday bowl of cereal
Lunch: traditional holiday pbj
Dinner: traditional holiday mac n cheese.
I do so love the holidays and the traditional foods .
posted by evilDoug at 8:57 AM on December 24, 2018 [6 favorites]

We host Christmas brunch, and I'm making these cinnamon rolls that I also made last year. They are ridiculously good. I also made this little yule log for a party over the weekend (it is almost too chocolatey to eat).

Oh and I had yolks left over from the buttercream so I made pastry cream that will go into some choux buns to bring to a Christmas Eve gathering.

I guess I'm not doing savory this year. That's alright.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:59 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Not Christmas Day but for Christmas Eve I always make Bergen Fish Soup. (I make Andres Viestad's version).
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:01 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I spent an hour*waiting the butchers to pick up the fresh skin-on pork loin I to make flaesksteg. I have texted a coworker with a Danish mother for instructions because I am getting conflicting information on the temperature to cook it at and got a third temperature option!

* I arrived when the butcher called out number i82, I had h11. Every time they rolled over to 00, a cheer rose up in the store Everyone was pretty relaxed and there wasn't any complaining which was a nice change from the usual wait in line.
posted by vespabelle at 9:13 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

As someone who grew up in the US, my knowledge of British culture is fairly second hand. But thanks to Viz magazine (I subscribe) I am at least aware of the remarkable British tradition of the hours long sit on the loo on Boxing Day, thanks to all this above gastronomic endulgence.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:19 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

we do pureed parsnips (with lotsa cream and butter) topped with chopped walnuts. its really good!
posted by supermedusa at 10:01 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Duck breast in green pepper sauce with asparagus and mashed potatoes.
posted by acrasis at 10:03 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

for today's dinner with MIL we do Swedish Koldomars (we use a different recipe, it has more butter..and more cream!), the parsnips, a blueberry pie (I recommend the vanilla ice cream option). tomorrow we will join friends for a second feast and bring...blueberry pie! and...parsnips!!! and some fancy cheese.

Happy Holidays of whatever sort. I hope everyone is warm and safe and gets to have some nice food.
posted by supermedusa at 10:08 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm working tonight in the ICU, but at midnight we shall pause, God willing, and enjoy our potluck dinner. I'm bringing Pannetone French Toast Bake. Jennifer is bringing ham, Ed brings tamales, the other Jen made pancit and Diana is bringing peas and rice.
posted by SyraCarol at 10:10 AM on December 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

Last year, I had Christmas lunch with the (large) family of my friend's in Hertfordshire, and it was the traditional English one. I was stuffed to the gills. I think my fave dishes were the shredded Brussels sprouts with bacon, the Beef Wellington and the roasted parsnips. I also loved the lighting of the Christmas pudding!

However, I think that for Christmas this year, I want a quiet, leisurely day where I don't cook, so I'm going out for a movie and Chinese food. The "English" part will be the movie (Mary Poppins Returns; Ben Whishaw's in it, so that counts, I reckon).

Today is a Christmas Eve lunch at a friend's house that will segue into some sort of evening festivities and I'm not sure what's on the menu, though I'm sure there will be Christmas crackers to pop. I'm bringing over two bottles of good apple and pear cider.
posted by droplet at 10:17 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Smoked whole duck with stuffed winter squash and roasted Brussels sprouts, and pecan pie for dessert. And cocktails, oh yes indeed.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:38 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Tonight I'm going to my niece's boyfriend's aunt's house for their clan's annual seven fish dinner. Tomorrow my sister and I will drive down to our brother's house where we will eat Chinese hot pot with his wife and in-laws. My sister is making a buche de noel; I am making this apple frangipane tart, which is in the oven right now.

I may stop at the store later for fancy cheese and crackers for tomorrow, as well.
posted by suelac at 12:32 PM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Seems like the appropriate place to mention some very old mince pies.
posted by gudrun at 2:49 PM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

I want to fly to London RIGHT NOW to try one of each in the "weirdest Christmas food" article
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 2:51 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's not traditional in any sense, but a combination of date inflexibility and food preferences led to a planned taco bar at my house, for just my immediate family. Then, I got sick. So my brother and I decided to get catering from Chipotle. So far I'm a fan. It was cheap, and seems like it'll be easy enough to put together tomorrow. There is SO much food though, so if anyone in the Chicagoland area wants tacos tomorrow night, c'mon over.
posted by Fig at 5:41 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

We are having Vegan Wellington in honor of a vegan family member who will not be gracing our table. (Too far for them to drive.) The Mister (head chef) was grousing about having to cook something vegan when he stumbled on the Vegan Wellington. He does cook tasty vegetarian fare for me on the regular. The Mister was intrigued so he decided to make it even though our vegan won't be with us. Mmmm, mushrooms will be included. Also, we will have brussel sprouts and salad. Apple pie and pear crisp for dessert! Tonight we are having falafel!
posted by goodsearch at 7:17 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

We had almond orange cake for breakfast.

Then later we are having approximately 60,000 chilled prawns with lemon dip. Followed by savory crepes, salad, halloumi, chorizo and tomato stacks. Followed by mini cheesecakes and fruit daiquiris.

This is not the traditional Christmas dinner we usually have. My husbands parents are Swedish and although they now live in NZ, Christmas with them (on the 24th) usually means sill, meatballs, Janssons frestelse, and ham. But couldn't get there this year so we can do a more reasonable Southern Hemisphere cold meal.
posted by lollusc at 7:55 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

In the US, but borrowing some UK dishes. I'm cooking a beef tenderloin with both orange horseradish sauce and port sauce, Brussels with pancetta and chestnuts, potato au gratin and kale salad and then we'll finish up with my fruit cake that's been soaking up brandy in the pantry.
posted by peacheater at 8:17 PM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

We are having brisket and yorkshire pudding. You can pretty much guess the respective backgrounds of my spouse and I from that alone.
posted by 41swans at 8:20 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Today I made, and joined in the consuming of, the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Modern Adaptation for Non-Catholic-Yet-Italian Mother-in-Law. Highlights were my homemade lobster and crab ravioli served in roasted red pepper sauce, and bourbon salmon made with whiskey I bummed off a neighbor.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Consumption of the Leftovers.

To all of you I wish good food and companionship, in whatever form brings you joy.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 9:24 PM on December 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

Breakfast: miniature Christmas pudding, coffee with brandy.
Brunch, or second breakfast: miniature Christmas pudding.
Lunch: potatoes, broccolli, oat cakes, Norwegian cheese, miniature Christmas pudding.

+ + + + + Projected food intake + + + + +

Mid-afternoon, while watching the Queens Annual Speech: miniature Christmas pudding.
Dinner: Tomato soup, granary loaf, miniature Christmas pudding.
Late evening, while listening to the first day's play from the MCG: Miniature Christmas pudding.

(no prizes for guessing what I bought a six-pack of yesterday)
posted by Wordshore at 5:55 AM on December 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

A power outage meant we had no way of baking our tourtière, but we were fortunate enough to have access to a wood stove and plenty of wood, so we rigged up an oven out of a covered roasting pan and set it atop the wood stove. It came out rather more like a steamed pork bun, at least on the top, and we did set off the smoke detector a couple of times, but we dined by the light of scavenged tea candles, and it was actually quite lovely!

Today we have electricity, and friends are roasting a goose for tonight, and I am attempting to freestyle some Italian meringue (as I have no candy thermometer) and rigging up a jelly-roll pan with some tin foil dividers, and with any luck I'll have constructed a passable bûche de Noël in a couple of hours.
posted by halation at 12:50 PM on December 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

We had hot pot with my brother's family, and it was awesome. Also a quite tasty buche de noel and an apple-frangipane tart. NOM.

Now I am home ensconced with the Yuletide exchange and a glass of Irish whiskey, and I'm on furlough so I can stay up as late as I like reading...
posted by suelac at 9:33 PM on December 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Not every Christmas food treat is the best Christmas food treat.
posted by Wordshore at 3:38 PM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]