Lasagna, garlic bread, salad, trifle for dessert.

Our Christmas dinner is always prime rib.

We make a tourtiere, using Ann T's recipe. My husband's family is French Canadian and his mother always made them but Ann T's is perfection. Pickled beets. Baby sweet gherkins. Ketchup for the pie!

Having never heard of a tourtiere, I googled it. Question: could it be made without beef, just pork?

Only pork.

We do turkey for Christmas too....and since my daughter has taken over the meal, we have a ham too.

We always travel 'home' to L.A. for Christmas and take over cooking duties for my mom. Dinner for 12-15, so DH reliably whips up his crowd favorite chile verde pork burritos, Spanish rice, guac and salsa.

ETA: Thanksgiving is traditional: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and new family favorite: mac and cheese.

I did not realize until just now that TG is just a week away. However, we are going out of town, and I'm not cooking. So I guess now I have to plan something for Christmas. I'm off the week of Christmas Eve, but I have to work the day after Christmas, but that's a short week (three days). I should therefore have time to make something interesting for Christmas, but we'll have it on Christmas Eve and probably barbecue outdoors. Weather is usually very pleasant on Christmas (around 70°), and it usually does not rain. Therefore we will probably eat outdoors as well, but it will just be the two of us. I might go to the fish market and see what is available there.

Here we have Christmas with just Elery and I, but we have a family dinner with his kids and one with mine.

His family Christmas is kind of "pot luck", everyone brings something. We'll take pulled pork, lasagna with homemade noodles and probably sliced beef. Homemade venison sausage and cookies and fudge. Everyone else will bring something, his kids all get together and make up the rest of the menu, our responsibility is the main dish and a cookie tray. This year it's on the 16th of December.

My family will then have a dinner, probably turkey and ham, stuffing with gravy, au gratin potatoes, whatever vegetable suits me and the dessert that I feel like playing with. Date is undetermined, whenever everyone can make it.

Christmas Day will be Elery and I and I try to make something we love, like cioppino or lobster or something else time consuming and expensive and otherwise "special".

Annie

I really enjoy reading about what everyone is planning for Christmas dinner. I especially like reading about the non-traditional meals. I think that we are going to make prime rib.

I used to make a beef tenderloin and bring it to DD's house. However SIL misses having turkey won't eat meat that is even cooked medium, it has to be medium well! That's too sad to do to a beautiful filet. So I think this year I'll just cave and let them make the turkey. She always makes enough for an army.

We avoid turkey at Christmas and try meat roasts--crown roast of pork or lamb with stuffing or pork roast or beef rib roast with Yorkshire pudding. We always have pumpkin tea bread and sometimes cranberry nut bread and yeast rolls, a potato, vegetables, salad and a decadent dessert.

We have ham at Christmas.

We're not a Christmas family, but there are always visitors at that time, so we often have a Christmas Eve dinner anyway. I've only gone out for Chinese on Christmas when I was with a landscape photographer in a desert town of 5000, where the Chinese place was the only thing open, though I know it's a Jewish tradition in the East.

I want to make a goose! I've never cooked a goose, but I'm good at reading. I could even do it sous vide if I got cold feet. I've always read about fattening up the goose and the Christmas goose, and without the pressure of a big holiday and services and all, and I would give me such a good excuse and ability to do it at leisure. I have been informed that no goose shall be served on Christmas or any other holiday, Jewish or not. :( Sigh. At least said proclamation will save me from interminal variations on "your goose is cooked." :/

Our Christmas meal will be very much like our Thanksgiving meal. We all like it and it includes the turkey, ham, and chicken and noodles. Most likely when Easter rolls around, we will all want the same thing. I see nothing wrong with not having turkey for Thanksgiving if you prefer something else. It is all in what you want and like. Now, we do change things for our New Year's Eve. For New Year's Eve, for many years we have had a cook out and as with our other meals everyone pitches in and brings food. It is usually more of a party type stuff along with our hot dogs and hamburgers. We will probably start around 4 in the afternoon and no one stays up till midnight. Most are gone home by 8. No one really wants to be out late, especially me! That will already be past my bedtime. Enjoy all of your meals whatever you have, the main thing is to be with friends and family.

Sue

We usually have a turkey but since it’s just DH and I this year I’m debating whether to have a whole turkey or just a breast roast.

My late stepdad disliked turkey and always wanted a goose. When we moved to the small country town where I now live, I saw a notic on the local board to the effect that someone was selling geese for Christmas. So, I called and ordered one. The guy showed up on our doorstep with a LIVE goose! What do we do with this? We asked. That’s up to you, he replied.

The next day, when our then 3yo DD was at playgroup, we dispatched the goose with one blow with a very sharp machete. (Tip: don’t do this next to a fibre-concrete fence because you’ll always be able to see faintly where the bloodstains are). Then I took it to a friend who showed me how to pluck it, and we delivered it to my stepdad. We didn’t get to Mom’s for Christmas dinner so I don’t know how it turned out (I recall she complained bitterly about the amount of fat it gave out).

Pillog, do you do special meals for Hanukkah? It's usually around Christmas, isn't it?

We should swap families for a meal, pillog, my 2 sons have asked me a couple of times to cook a goose for Christmas. I prefer the traditional turkey, & since I'm the one cooking.... I do ask their preferences for dessert, but turkey is non negotiable.

Prime Rib. I also cook one for Thanksgiving in addition to a turkey breast.

In the past I have made Beef Wellington; Shrimp Creole; Salmon with Mango glaze; Pork Tenderloin Roulade with red wine reduction. This year will be traditional since I’m cooking for my mother. Standard turkey (smoked) and ham...

They give us a free turkey at work every year. It's inbetween Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I cut off the breast, and save it for Christmas eve, making Ina Garten's roulade with stuffing. I cook the other parts that are left because we didn't get enough at Thanksgiving. We're turkey lovers here, and since there are two of us, we each get a leg for each time I cook a turkey. Works out well. Christmas morning is the big birthday bruch for my younger sister.

We alternate between standing rib roast and goose. We'll be away for Christmas- at a hotel, not a rental- so we'll see what happens this year.

Plllog, goose is super simple to make. Maybe you could make a goose for one small course of a dinner? Redcurrant sauce with goose is a must (cranberry can be substituted.)

Rita, can you post your goose recipe? (Also the red current sauce). I can't do rib roast, husband won't eat anything except well done and I refuse to mess up a good roast. I might try a goose once.

Sherry, I will be back this evening and post the recipes.

Okay, we are going out also. No rush, I won't do one for Thanksgiving. We bought a smoked turkey and ham from the oldest grandson's wrestling team this year. That will be a first. I usually just do a plain roast turkey at Thanksgiving and smoke one myself during the summer. I thought I might do a duck one Sunday in December, if I had a tried and true recipe. I've never cooked a duck and neither my Dad or my grandmother on Mom's side cooked duck. (Mom couldn't boil water).

Sherry, traditional food for Hanukkah is something of a joke. The holiday centers around rededication of the temple and relightling the eternal flame, with the story that they had a day's worth of oil which lasted for eight, for more to arrive. So we fry things to honor the oil. :) The universal tradition is to take whatever's yummy and fried from the surrounding culture. :) I usually do a grazing buffet with lots of fried things. I'm not sure this year because of flux in the family.

I'm looking forward to Rita's recipe. Maybe I can make some new friends who want to eat goose!

We fell in love with Prime Rib a few years ago, so that is always on our Christmas Dinner menu. Following is what is in the planning stages for now. Still have to round it out, but will get there.

Prime Rib

Spinach Madeleine or Spinach Maria or Creamed Spinach –
still deciding

Cheese Onions

Yorkshire Pudding - perhaps

Homemade Hot Rolls

Chocolate Cheese Cake and Applesauce Cake - perhaps

How can Yorkshire Pudding be a "perhaps" with prime rib ? ; )

Fawnridge, a traditional tourtiere is just ground pork......no beef.

And seagrass you need to hope Ann does not see you mention ketchup with her tourtiere !!!!

When I was a kid, we always had turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas.

Today, as an adult, we still do full-on tradition for Thanksgiving

But we mix things up for Christmas. We do our nice big meal on Christmas Eve (a roast, a ham, depends upon my fancy and what's on sale), then a nice breakfast mid-morning on Christmas Day (always Filet Mignon hash), and then we finish up Christmas Day with some sort of make-ahead casserole ... if I had to say right this minute, I'd say a poster here just swayed me with talk of lasagna.

New Year's Eve we tend towards soup and sandwiches, though that doesn't sound very exciting.

Lasagna, salad, bread. Assorted desserts. <-------- Possibly the best part. :)

(always Filet Mignon hash)

Mrs. Pete, are you inclined to share this recipe? Sounds marvelous. I've never heard of this before.

Roast Goose

Ingredients

one goose

half an onion

clementine

2 cups of red wine

3 Tablespoons red currant jelly

a good grating of nutmeg

salt & pepper

the juice of half a lemon

For the goose

Pierce the skin of the goose with the tip of a paring knife all over.

Season the goose with salt and pepper inside and out.

Stuff the cavity with half an onion and a pierced clementine.

Truss

Place the goose on the rack of a roasting pan, breast side up.

Leave the giblets in the bottom of the roasting pan.

Cook for 1h 10 minutes at 425 and then 1h 30 minutes at 375.

Baste the goose once or twice.

The goose is done when the juices run clear when poked at the joint (internal temp of 175 at the thickest part of the thigh or 165 in the breast.)

Once the goose is cooked, place it on a warmed platter if possible, cover loosely with aluminum foil and return it to the oven with the heat turned off.

Remove the giblets.

For the sauce

Skim the fat out of the roasting pan, add the wine- once the the juices are simmering, add the red currant jelly, salt and pepper and nutmeg.

(I tend to deglaze the roasting pan into a sauce pan as opposed to making the sauce in the roasting pan as some recipes call for.)

Boil until the sauce is reduced by one third.

Turn off the heat and add the juice of half a lemon.

ETA Since this is a family recipe, not from a cookbook, I checked mine against other, proper goose recipes. The one thing many of the recipes noted was the need to remove excess fat from the roasting pan throughout the cooking. I can't say this is something we ever do. I've never noticed that our geese were particularly skinny, so just be aware that this could be an issue when and check in from time to time. Be sure to save the goose fat for frying potatoes.

Thank-you, Rita!

What size goose are your times for?

I wish I knew the answer to that question, plllog. I don't have anything in my notes aside from the temperature and the butcher does not offer me any choices when I placed my order. I hope the temperature guideline is helpful. I will call the butcher shop in the morning and ask what size geese they stock and get back to you tomorrow.

PS I feel like an idiot :-(

ETA I deleted the reference to the NYT recipe that suggested 15 mins per pound. The recipe was considerably different, roasting the goose at a lower temperature longer than my recipe.

From the d'Artagnan website:

The goose is cooked when the meat measures 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer and the breast juices run pale pink (not rose-colored, like a duck) when pricked. As a rule of thumb, calculate between 13 and 15 minutes per pound unstuffed, and 18 to 22 minutes per pound stuffed.

Rita, Thanks. It is hard to tell someone how to cook something you just do. I don't have a recipe for turkey and dressing or fried chicken. lol. I appreciate the trouble you took. It sounds delicious.

Chase, the Yorkshire Pudding is a "perhaps," because I have never made them.

Thank you for the kind words, Sherry.

Ditto Sherry's sentiments, Rita. You absolutely should NOT feel like an idiot! Whenever any of my (grown) kids ask me to send/message them one of my TnT recipes, I break out in a cold sweat...so much isn't written down. Plus, keeping the recipes in my head and out of their hands keeps them coming home. ;)

My mom has a longstanding reputation of turning out Chinese delicacies that could rival many of the popular dim sum places scattered throughout the San Gabriel Valley (CA). If anyone ever asked for a recipe? The reply: get into the kitchen and watch me.

I agree about getting into the kitchen and watching the preparation. For years I tried my darnedest to cook cabbage the way my Mom did, but it just never turned out quite right. I made many calls to her over a period of several years, even long distance calls. When Mom was visiting me one fall, I asked her if she would prepare the cabbage and let me watch. She said it would be okay. So I watched everything she did. Finally, I aw where I had been making a mistake. I always cut the core out of the cabbage and threw it into the compost bin. Mom cut the core out, but cooked it with the cabbage and when the cabbage was done removed the cores and tossed them. She said she never thought to tell me that because she thought that is what everyone did with cabbage. I asked what the purpose and she replied the the cores sweeten the cabbage a bit. From that time to today, that is how I cook boiled cabbage.

My point is that watching something being prepare in the kitchen truly does pay off.

with everybody having such busy schedules, getting everybody together for holiday meals ON that holiday can be really difficult. My sister does "Thanksmas" for husband's family... most kids/sibs have to travel far. my brother does he "Festivus, for the Rest of Us" between t-day and Christmas.

last year he did something different... i thought a really good idea. roasted a turkey and made a messa great gravy a few days ahead of time. kinda did a "pulled" turkey in gravy... crock-pot. baked off a tone of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry cups to put turkey and gravy in. did normal sides. didn't have to deal with any of the BIG stuff that comes with doing a turkey.

Thank-you, Rita! It's very kind of you to go to all that trouble! I was just comparing to when I make a turkey it's 20-22 lb. and when I make a chicken it's 3.75-4.25 lb., because that's what I buy. So I thought maybe you knew offhand how big your geese were.

The recipe itself sounds simple, as you said, and also delicious. Thank-you very much for everything.

I agree with the watching, but it also goes in retrospection. When I ask my mother how to make some old favorite, I've done the watching, know pretty much what the ingredients were, and just need a few details on proportion. The famous Auntie S's blintz "recipe" for the pancakes (which are about 3-4 times thicker than crêpes) has the important step of "you know it's the right consistency when you're using a rotary crank egg beater in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup and the crank feels like X, and when you lift it out of the batter it flows off of it like Y. Definitely had to be there. :) But blintzes are for a whole different holiday! Back to your regularly scheduled Christmas dinner!

Christmas Eve is at my house. It starts off with oysters on the half shell with champagne in the LR. Then we move to the DR, and have a salad of avocado and grapefruit with red currants and poppy seed dressing. This is followed by lobster stew and hot popovers, with more champagne. Dessert is store-bought mini custard puffs dusted with powdered sugar, raspberry sorbet, and a choice of hot fudge or lemon curd. Then we waddle off to church, oinking all the way!

On Christmas night, DD has a beef tenderloin, my mother's recipe for cheese grits, slivered Brussels sprouts with pancetta, a pear salad, and for dessert, a plum pudding I order from Mother Speery's Plum Puddings - they are fabulous and she's a hoot! Sometimes her father brings some special shrimp that his club in St Louis make, for hors d'oeuvres.