OT - Christmas Dinner in the USA

[Paul]

@vomitbunny

Rumor has it thet they have twinkies for dessert too. But I wouldn’t know.

Moonpies and RC Cola, of course.

[Darwin]

@Paul

@vomitbunny

Rumor has it thet they have twinkies for dessert too. But I wouldn’t know.

Moonpies and RC Cola, of course.

Is you a Brother Dave Gardner fan?

@fearfaoin

@vomitbunny

But Granny says Hoppin is too close to Dancin, an’ God hates that.

Fine, don’t shut up… that was pretty funny.
I hear the Southern Baptists have condemned sex while standing up… too close to dancing…

[toughknot]

For some, MilkDud Casserole and Junoirmint Stew are hard to beat at any holiday.
VB is hilarious

[IDAwHOa]

We usually go to someone else’s house for Christmas because no one will go “over the river and through the woods” to over the big, bad mountain to NorCal’s house. They are too scared of the fairly steep, windy road.

We currently live in California, have most of our lives both pre and post marraige. No fancy, dancy sub-cultural celbrations for us. Just the standard Euro-Anglo stuff for us.

Starting this year it will be over the river, over the mountain, through the desert and to IDAHO the will have to go, NOT!!! Fine, let them be that way. We’ll just have to find someone else’s family to scrounge Christmas dinner off of (like our oldest son’s girlfriend’s family). Hey, does that count as a Christmas Tradition?

[DCrom]

@NorCalMusician

We currently live in California, have most of our lives both pre and post marraige. No fancy, dancy sub-cultural celbrations for us. Just the standard Euro-Anglo stuff for us.

Starting this year it will be over the river, over the mountain, through the desert and to IDAHO the will have to go, NOT!!! Fine, let them be that way. We’ll just have to find someone else’s family to scrounge Christmas dinner off of (like our oldest son’s girlfriend’s family). Hey, does that count as a Christmas Tradition?

Well, maybe - if we don’t host, we usually have the holiday dinners with my brother’s family (easier for the 4 of us to drive than the 7 of them, plus sis-in-law’s extended family).

But our family celebrations pretty much have to be multi-culti on the food - my far-better half is Chinese, and sis-in-law is Mexican-American. For the big American holidays, we do do mostly American trad dishes, but with a few flourishes (my wife often makes California rolls, or pot stickers, or egg rolls as appetizers - and sis-in-law always makes a truly wonderful, and incendiary, salsa). Some of the combinations work really well together, too - homemade salsa mates beautifully with turkey or ham, and it’s worth cooking a turkey just to have the makings of the next day’s Singapore noodles (best way EVER for using up leftover bits of turkey or ham, IMHO).

We used to go with a Napa Vallet tradition - “Malfatti” - as a side dish, but they’re fiddly to make. When we still had family living in Napa we’d order from a deli - now that we have to make it from scratch it seldom appears. Think ravioli filling rolled up into finger-sized portions, served with a red meat sauce - I’m told the first Italian settlers in Napa, over a century ago, popularized this. Probably a modification of a standard Italian dish, I’d guess, but I’ve never found anything exactly like them outside of Napa.

We emphatically DON’T make Great-Aunt Anna’s Candied Sweet Potato casserole - living proof that it IS possible to have too much sugar and butter in a recipe.

[spittin_in_the_wind]

@TomB

Would that be “fried baloney”?

Um…been there, done that.

Robin

[Walden]

@jbarter

Hi there all you beyond the pond. Do you do the same turkey dinner again for Christmas or do you have a different meal rather than repeat Thanksgiving?

We generally always have turkey for both meals, and generally have ham with Christmas, but likely have ham with Thanksgiving too. In general, there is more variety with Christmas dinner… more kinds of pie… more kinds of dishes in general.

At Thanksgiving there are usually pumpkin and pecan pies, both pumpkins and pecans being native and in season. At Christmas there is likely mince meat pie and chess pie, and meringue pies.

Generally, Thanksgiving traditions and Christmas meal traditions are about the same. It has been suggested that the Puritans were intending to replace the Christmas tradition, which they perceived as “too Papist,” with something they saw as more in tune with their theology, a harvest thanksgiving.

[vomitbunny]

Ah jus got a phone call from Aunt Momma and Uncle Daddy las nite an they says we are gonna have turky an chicken for Christmas. Turky and Chicken hotdogs. I asses if we was gonna have macaroni for a vegtable, an they says no, they found some little Debbie cakes what has green and red icing on 'em, an that counts as a vegtable.

[jbarter]

Will O’B wanted to know about the Christmas food over here so here’s a normal/average Christmas day in the Barter household.

Wake up
Bacon butties (mushrooms and brahn sauce to taste)
Open prezzies
Commence eating any confectionary items received as prezzies
Open sherry and start drinking
Commence cooking dinner (veg prepared last night and turkey’s been cooking low since coming in from midnight church service)
Relatives arrive
Open more sherry and get the beers out
Drink same while scoffing mince pies and shortbread
Start eating nuts and crisps (coz you fancy ‘something savoury’)
Open more sherry (beer by now in constant flow)
Join in Hokey Cokey happening round the piano in the music room
Open the red wine ready for dinner (it’s gotta breath ya know)
Herd everyone towards the table
Pull crackers and don party hats contained therein
Dinner {Turkey, quorn roasty thing for Adam, roast spuds, boiled spuds, creamed spuds, brussels, peas, carrots, roast parsnips, stuffing (two sorts), cranberry stuff, bread sauce, gravy}
Stagger away from table and wait for dinner to subside enough to tackle the pudding (will ya have a whiskey while you’re waiting?)
Stagger back for Christmas Pudding and either custard or brandy sauce depending on your inclination (“One of each please” in my case)
Coffee and mints
Sit and chat in the front of the house or go play music in the back (sherry, beer, and whiskey will be present at both locations)
Eat some fruit coz it’s healthy and you’re actually on a diet
Lay out the food for the buffet tea on the table {bread, crackers, cheeses, cold meats, pickles, cakes, nuts, crisps, dips}
Keep travelling backwards and forwards to table all evening until relatives go home and family fall asleep.
Eat Terry’s Chocolate Orange
Wake Anthea and go to bed muttering “If it wasn’t for the sake of the children we wouldn’t bother really”

[emmline]

@jbarter

Will O’B wanted to know about the Christmas food over here so here’s a normal/average Christmas day in the Barter household.


Commence eating any confectionary items received as prezzies

yep. we do that.

@jbarter

Open sherry and start drinking
Open more sherry and get the beers out
Drink same while scoffing mince pies and shortbread
Open more sherry (beer by now in constant flow)
Open the red wine ready for dinner (it’s gotta breath ya know)

you’re not staggering yet?

@jbarter

Stagger away from table and wait for dinner to subside enough to tackle the pudding (will ya have a whiskey while you’re waiting?)
Stagger back for Christmas Pudding and either custard or brandy sauce depending on your inclination (“One of each please” in my case)

oh, ok…now you’re staggering.

sounds like fun, but I wouldn’t make it to bedtime.

[dubhlinn]

That’s what the coffee is for…,

Slan,
D.

[Will_O_B]

Thanks, J. Sounds like quite an event at the Barter house. I love it! LOL

I have to hand it to you. If I went through a day like that, I don’t think I could remember it the next morning . . . I can’t handle the juice like I used to.

Will O’Ban

[Will_O_B]

@vomitbunny

Here in the south we have chitlins stuffed with souse. Some people use those little vienna sausages. You pronounce it like Vie-eenie. Rymes with beenie weenie. Then some stuffing made with cheetos. If you want a vegtable with that, you usually make macaroni and cheese. Usually served with our famouse egg nogg or boiled custard, made out of whiskey and ice. Some fancy types fix fried hot bologna and tater tots, but that’s beyond the means of most of us. Thems for folks that live in double wides. Rumor has it thet they have twinkies for dessert too. But I wouldn’t know. Gramma says them folks gonna burn in hell anyway, alla them worldly goods and stuff, sos I’ll just do without no twinkies.
On new years, we have our own version of Hoppin John too. But Granny says Hoppin is too close to Dancin, an’ God hates that. So we just eats pork rinds and beer nuts. In the John. Things just ain’t been the same since Pappy lost his pro-stetic leg. We couldn’t keep up the payments. Deer huntin season come, an’ I needed a new scope.

Hence, the name . . . VOMITBUNNY

Will O’Ban

[Jay-eye]

I like it, jbarter, I like it.

Now I’ve got something to aspire to!

j.i.

[Shyanni]

Our Christmas schedule starts Christmas Eve Day:

10am – Meet my brother and sis-in-law at local soup kitchen, peel potatoes and carrots for two hours. Set up 20 tables with tablecloths, napkins, silverware, salt&pepper, etc.

7pm – go to Mom & Dad’s place to stuff stockings. Guzzle a pot of tea and eat thumbprint cookes, butter and mince tarts, fruitcake.

8pm – go to hubby’s family gathering. Stuff ourselves with smoked salmon (several kinds prepared by various brothers), homemade wines (rhubarb, strawberry, plum, but the best is blackberry), nuts, cheeses, cookies, etc.

12pm – play the gift game (each person brings a wrapped, generic gift, usually second hand, hand crafted or recycled – names in a hat, whoever’s name get’s drawn chooses a gift and opens it, or can choose to steal one somebody else has already opened, then that person has to choose again).

1am – stumble home and sack out.

8am – go back to soup kitchen and help prepare meal – turkey, mashed spuds, carrots and corn, gravy and stuffing, cran sauce, bread rolls, etc. Wash and/or dry dishes for hours.

11am – act as Santa’s helper, handing out gifts to underprivilaged kids.

12 am – serve dinner and/or wash dishes for hours.

1:30 pm – grab a bite to eat, then clear tabels and wash more dishes

2:30pm – go to Mom & Dad’s and open prezzies

3:30pm – go to my sister’s place, exchange prezzies then collapse for a while

4:30pm – help my sister make dinner

5:30pm – eat said dinner – more of the above, plus Mom’s traditional Christmas dessert – Broken Glass Cake. (no we are not suicidal, it is several colors of Jello, cut up and mixed into a pineapple, cream and gelatine base with a graham cracker crust – very colorful and tasty, but light after the heavy meal.)

6:30pm – clear table and wash more dishes

7pm – Go for a walk, play games, sing Christmas songs and visit

8pm – Go home and open prezzies for each other (hubby and me)

The main Chrismas theme for us seems to be dirty dishes and more dirty dishes, prezzies everywhere, and exhaustion by the end of each day.

[jbarter]

I can’t believe it! I forgot to mention the pork pie and the trifle.

[Flyingcursor]

The capacity for food and drink I’ve witnessed among the English is astounding. Yet they remain thin. What’s the scoop?

[jbarter]

@Flyingcursor

The capacity for food and drink I’ve witnessed among the English is astounding. Yet they remain thin. What’s the scoop?

Alas, see my posts on the diet thread.

[Martin_Milner]

@jbarter

@Flyingcursor

The capacity for food and drink I’ve witnessed among the English is astounding. Yet they remain thin. What’s the scoop?

Alas, see my posts on the diet thread.

Inside every thin Englishman (or woman) there’s a fat American trying to get out.

Actually, it’s all to do with the water.

[Jay-eye]

@jbarter

I can’t believe it! I forgot to mention the pork pie and the trifle.

I can’t believe it either. Of course that’s pork pie and trifle with lashings of Baileys and cream in our house!

j.i.