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Christmas Eve Dinner Potluck

John Liu
6 years ago

We are having our customary Christmas eve dinner tonight. About 25 people including the family. We can just barely seat that number using two dining tables, but some people may sit on couches and armchairs.

The traditional, for us, Christmas eve food is cracked crab. So I have live crabs in the garage, and will cook, clean, and chill them ahead of time. Otherwise it is potluck. SWMBO (DW) has made a list of what else people are bringing:

Cracked crab (dungeness)

Au gratin cauliflower, double quantity

Salad, type unknown. That's the thing with a potluck. It could be a Casear salad, a beet salad, a seaweed salad. No idea. Makes a coherent menu impossible.

Fruit, type unknown.

Cookies, Christmas type.

Cheese and olives, apparently in some sort of ball - I've never heard of this and will approach cautiously

Potato salad - my friend Bill makes great potato salad. He says it is in his genes. I'm not sure if he means the German genes or the Ozark hillbilly genes.

Dessert - no idea what this will be

Veggies and hummus

Some sort of vegan dish - this guest told us she is troubled about the slaughter of living crabs but is steeling herself to come anyway if I do it humanely. This is what a dinner host has to deal with in Portland.

Baked brie - SWMBO is making

Lemon linguine - SWMBO is making

I will make some little appetizer bites, as follows:

Pork and shrimp dumplings

Veggie dumplings - I usually never make these, but we'll have two vegetarians (maybe three).

Braised spare ribs - in Hoisin sauce

Roast pork belly

Pearl balls - this is essentially a dumpling but but instead of wrapping the filling in a dough skin, you roll and coat the filling in sticky rice, then steam. I got both white and black rice.

Hmm. (Steps back and studies list.) Seems like we need more vegetable dishes.

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