I have spent the better part of today trying to come up with my menu for Christmas Eve dinner. In my family growing up the big holiday dinner at our home was on Christmas Eve. With Heather & I ending up in the same city, our new tradition is Christmas Eve dinner is mine and Christmas dinner is theirs.
Our roads are still frozen with inches of compacted snow and ice. With quite a few hills between our neighborhoods, I decided instead of us all traveling back & forth cross town, that I would go over to Heather & Mike's on Christmas Eve to prepare dinner and stay through the holiday. I'll get the extra bonus of seeing the girls open gifts from Santa. Celebrating the holiday together and our safety is the most important thing. It will make it a much more relaxing time with us not all on the road. Bring on the wine!
I spent the afternoon looking over cookbooks and making up my grocery list, only to throw caution to the wind when the grocery store fish counter had good prices on lobster tails and king crab legs. So long salmon! We are having a decadent seafood dinner. I haven't quite fixed my mind on what I am going to do with 6 legs of king crab, maybe crostini, maybe a caesar...it's a good dilemma to have.
Having thrown my menu out the window, I needed some help in the wine department at QFC. I am a firm believer in asking for recommendations on wines, especially for special occasions. I have never been steered wrong. I picked up a Chablis from France and a Willamette Valley Pinor Noir. And a true Elswien (Ice wine) from Germany to go with the berry trifle for dessert. The extremely helpful wine stewards at the market were trying to finagle an invitation to dinner. Sorry, that is for a very exclusive clientele - my family.
What are you doing for the holiday meals? Any traditions you'd like to share?
Happy holidays and safe driving out there!
I generally cook a corned beef for Christmas Eve dinner. That way we get to have corned beef hash for brunch on Christmas day!
Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Jen Waller | December 24, 2008 at 03:14 PM
Merry Christmas Jen! The sounds yummy. And a good double dose of corn beef. Hope you had a good holiday.
Posted by: Jnet | December 26, 2008 at 03:28 PM