Christmas Day Fare

 Christmas Day Menu

Breakfast

Egg Casserole

Bear Claws

Coffee and Juice

Lunch

Party Ham Sandwiches

Fresh fruit

Dinner

Shrimp Cocktail

Meatballs

Currywurst

Crab Dip with French Bread

Veggies with Ranch

Olives and Pickles

Crackers and Cheese

Limoncello and Wine

Dessert

Cookies and Candy

Hot Cocoa

Bear Claws

Egg Casserole

Party Ham Sandwiches

Veggies with Ranch Dip

Crab Dip (served with baguette and crackers)

Sharp Cheddar, Pickles, and Olives

Cocktail Meatballs (in my brand new crock pot!)

Currywurst

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

and MeeMaw made these cute little doughnut snowmen for the girls :)

Christmas Eve Fare

I think we start looking forward to our Christmas Eve dinner at Nana and PeePaw's on Thanksgiving day every year. The menu is always the same and it's always SO good. Steamed shrimp, ham, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, fruit salad, BBQ chips... This is a picture of my first plate.

I was balancing it along with one for each of the girls so I couldn't really load up like I wanted to. Like the one little piece of celery? Lest you think I actually put something healthy on my plate I have a confession - it was filled with cheese :) I did go back for more mac n cheese, some beans, and of course more shrimp.
Leyna ate shrimp (after I gave them a "bath" to wash off the Old Bay), lots of beans, and of course a roll with butter. Cora ate macaroni and cheese and fruit salad. She wouldn't even take a bite of anything else. Oh well, she made up for it with cookies later on...
Can't wait to have it all again next year!

Pizza Friday - Holiday Theme

Christmas Cookies

Today baked our annual Christmas cookies with Nana. They turned out so cute! You can see the other details here, but here I'll just give you our two favorite recipes.

The Low Fat Sugar Cookies recipe can be found here

And here's our yummy Gingerbread cookie recipe (which is also low fat). These come out big and soft and perfect :)
Gingerbread Cookies
from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, Bridal Edition

Ingredients
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 C dark molasses
2/3 C cold water
7 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
2 t ground ginger
1 t ground allspice
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt

Directions
In large bowl, beat brown sugar, shortening, molasses and water until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet lightly with shortening or cooking spray. On floured surface, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with floured cookie cutters. On cookie sheet, place cutouts about 2 inches apart.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.  
This makes A LOT of cookies.  I would say at least 4-5 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

Afternoon Snowman Snack

Christmas Day Breakfast

Our traditional Christmas breakfast consists of our favorite Egg Casserole and Bear Claws. Both are SO yummy. I made them a day ahead and they kept perfectly in the fridge. It was so nice to just pop everything in the oven and concentrate on the fun!

Cinnamon Almond Bear Claws

http://www.odense.com/index.php?page=recipe&id=96

Ingredients

1-7 oz box Almond Paste, grated

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Powdered sugar for dusting counter

1-17.3 oz box puff pastry sheets (contains 2 sheets)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat Almond Paste, sugar and cinnamon with mixer or food processor until the texture of fine crumbs. Set aside.
3. Dust counter and rolling pin with powdered sugar. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry. Roll out to an 11 by 12 inch rectangle and brush with butter. Sprinkle center with 1/3 cup loosely scooped almond mixture and fold one side over filling. Brush unbuttered top with butter and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of filling.
4. Fold remaining 1/3 dough over entire rectangle, pinching edges to seal. Fold ends under. Brush top with butter and evenly sprinkle with 1/4 cup mixture. Cut into 8 equal slices (about 3&1/2" X 1&1/2"). Make five 1/2" cuts in each piece.
5. Place claws on baking sheet and separate cuts by spreading into a slight smile shape. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden brown and pastry is well puffed. Place sheet on wire rack until claws are cool. Store in an air tight container.
6. While claws are baking; repeat steps 3-5 with second sheet of puff pastry and remaining filling.

Egg Casserole
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/egg-casserole-recipe2/index.html

Ingredients

8 hard boiled eggs
1/4 C butter or margarine

1/4 C all-purpose flour
2 C half-and-half
1 t House seasoning, recipe follows
1/4 t dry mustard
1 C freshly grated Gruyere
1/2 C freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Gently remove the shell from the hard-boiled eggs and cut in 1/2. Place cut side down in a baking dish greased with margarine.
In a saucepan, melt the margarine, add the flour, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the half-and-half gradually, and stir until mixture thickens and season with house seasoning. Add the dry mustard and the Gruyere and stir until melted. Pour the sauce over the eggs and sprinkle top with Parmesan. Bake for approximately 20 to 30 minutes until bubbling and top is golden brown.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve dinner is something we start looking forward to just shortly after Thanksgiving. Pee Paw makes his famous shrimp and ham and Nana makes the best baked beans and my favorite macaroni and cheese. Leyna's favorite parts of dinner were the ham and the rolls. Cora chowed down on the mac and cheese and fruit salad. And Daddy was nice enough to peel all of my shrimp for me. Now that's love ;) YUMMY!!!

Christmas Eve Eve Dinner

We decided this year that our new Christmas Eve Eve tradition will be to have Chinese food for dinner. We don't get it often so it's a good special treat and way different from all of the other foods we'll be eating over the next few days.
Tonight Cora feasted on Vegetable Lo Mein and Fried Rice, while Leyna stuck to Egg Drop Soup. I didn't get any pictures but it was all quite tasty!

Chocolate Pretzel Candies

In my opinion, there is no better sweet & savory combination than pretzels and chocolate. Leyna and I wanted to make some goodies for Daddy's co-workers so we whipped these little goodies up. They are so easy and SO addictive. Leyna helped to unwrap and place the Hershey Kisses. We used 4 bags of kisses & hugs so I think we made over 200 of these things. Yikes!

Chocolate Pretzel Candies
pretzels "snaps"
Hershey Kisses or Hugs
M&Ms

Preheat oven to 250. Lay pretzels on a non-stick or foil-lined baking sheet and top with one Hershey Kiss or Hug each. Place in oven for about 4 minutes, or until the chocolate is soft enough to give when you press it. The Hugs will melt a little faster than the Kisses and I know oven temperatures vary so you may have to eyeball it a bit. As soon as you take them out place an M&M on top of each Hershey Kiss or Hug and gently press it down. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden, then store at room temperature in a sealed container. Summon all of your will power not to eat them all in one sitting!