Because I decided late in the game to prepare a Christmas meal for those of our relatives who cared to join us, I went with preparing what I had on hand rather than going shopping and spend a lot of money on things I didn't have. There was no Oreo Delight, simply because I didn't have any Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding. I simply made two pumpkin pies and one Cherry cheesecake pie. Looking back, I wish I'd made bread pudding instead of pumpkin pie, which we had on Thanksgiving.
Let me stop right now and confess something: I've never thought about it before, but I seem to prefer doing all the cooking! Not because I think I'm such a great cook, but because I can fix what I like best, the way I enjoy it prepared. Never before have I admitted that to myself, let alone others. Of course, that usually means a lot of work on my part, but it's what I like to do. Everyone is willing to bring something, which is fine as long as I can make the stuff I like to eat.
I didn't even wear myself out cooking, either. I boiled the chicken on Monday, then deboned and de-skinned it, put it back in the broth I cooked it in and put it in the freezer. That part of my chicken-and-noodles was done. On Tuesday I rolled out and cut the noodles, put them single-layer on cookie sheets, and put those in the freezer. On Thursday I made the Ree Drummond mashed potatoes, put them in a pan, and covered them with foil (just like Ree does it). All that saved me a lot of time and energy on Friday. I used the grandson's oven to heat the fully-cooked ham, which left my oven free for the beans, mashed potatoes and rolls. I gave Cliff the job of going over to the grandson's house, making the graze, and applying it to the ham. Then I did something I'm sure most organized cooks have been doing for centuries: for the first time in my life, I wrote down what time each item on the menu had to start cooking in order to have dinner at 3 PM. I ended up at one point having an hour-and-a-half doing nothing, so I peeled some sweet potatoes I hadn't planned to use and cooked them. That worked great, except for one thing: I would have done better forgetting about the sweet potatoes, because I already had enough on the menu without them, and I had a couple of great-grandchildren showing off their cuteness outside: Our daughter's family all came early, and I was cooking then. That's my own fault, though. I'll remember that next year and get my priorities right! If I see idle time, I'll make a note to use that for family time, not for cooking another item we don't need. One other thing I regret is that I wanted to get a group picture of all thirteen of us; several people had left before I thought about it.
Did I mention it was 70° outside? Because there would be only thirteen of us, I had planned to eat in our trailer house, although I was a little concerned about all of us being crowded into our limited space while Covid is rampant. Once I heard the forecast for Friday, we moved the meal to the shop, where the doors were open, we had a lot of space, and the children could play outside. As if it were meant to be!
This is Ivan, my youngest great-grandson |
He's 18 months old, but bigger than most two-year-olds |
There were thirteen adults and the two great-grands. No picture of Amara, my sweet and lovely great-granddaughter, who I think is going on three years old, and of course we missed the ones who weren't here. After today we're done with leftovers. All I need for New Year's is a big pot of the most delicious black-eyed peas I've ever tasted, discovered just a year ago. You know, for good luck. I'm not superstitious, but it's fun to pretend.
And that's how our Christmas gathering turned out.
I love having my favorites but am fine letting my older daughter do the cooking which she loves. My talent is clean up. :) We are at 20 degrees, snowy and miserable. My poor heat pump is waving the white flag of surrender! (furnace has had to kick on numerous times)
ReplyDeleteYour weather is coming our way. No snow, but temps will be in the teens Thursday night.
DeleteWhat a beautiful Christmas you had, Donna, and beautiful pictures too. I'm so happy for you. People only bring to our gatherings what I ask them to bring. If they bring something I usually make, I give them the recipe for it ahead of time. *lol* But by and large I make all the food myself too and I've got a system down, in the way I prepare things, that I think I could do it in my sleep. Such-and-such on this day, such-and-such the next day, such-and-such the day after that. I've even got a specific day ahead of time when I like the addition table set-up. Nothing is left until the last minute. It's all very "robotic" and scheduled. It makes things so easy that way. Only when the special gathering is actually done and over, do I feel tired.... only because I can, at that point. :-) ~Andrea xoxoxo PS~ How about having done all you did for Christmas a month before, for Thanksgiving, as well and then do it all over a third time for New Year's Eve?! Welcome to my world! :-D
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like….
ReplyDeleteIt’s a wonderful life.
Well you certainly went all out but if you love doing it, it had to have been a pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThat Ivan is ADORABLE. So happy you had such a wonderful Christmas.
That sounds wonderful. And happy. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteFamily always makes for the happiest of times. Glad you had such a great time with yours. You do love feeding all of them and yourself too !
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about not going out and spending extra money but making a marvelous meal out of what you already had on hand. That's the way it should be. The main thing is getting together with family. Your Christmas sounded wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHere's wishing you and your family a very healthy and merry New Year.
You had a great Christmas dinner! I took what family I had to "Just Us" ..a restaurant in Neodesha. I no longer like to cook. And this apartment is too small to accommodate everyone.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good Christmas , your dinner sounded so good .
ReplyDelete