Boy I have a lot to ask these days. i am hosting Christmas Eve this year. I asked earlier about any vegeterian dishes and got a lot of great ideas. Know I am looking for a main course and vegatable to serve. The main course that is NOT vegetarian. Any great ideas? I really want to wow my guest! Plus I have someone who will have be celebrating her birthday that day, any special thought on what I could do special for that? Thank you all so much. What would I do without this site!!!!!
Great link http://www.allrecipes.com and william sonoma has some great recipes. I made one last year that the had which was fresch brussel sprouts. It was deliscious. It had bacon in it. Yummy!! The great thing about allrecipes is that other people have tried and and mentioned what they did or would do to make it great. Good luck.
I would get a spiral cut ham from a butcher or Jewel/Honeybaked. they usually come with everything you need and pre-cooked so you just finish it in the oven, for about an hour I think. We did that last year and everyone was impressed, it was so yummy and it gave us time to focus on the other dishes. We got ours from devon Ave. Meats in Park Ridge, they are awesome!
Well, I know you asked for something that is not vegitarian but I have a great recipe for soup. I haven't found one person that doesn't like it either!
Black Bean soup
3 cans black beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can sweet corn
1 can diced green peppers
1 carrot
1 onion
Saute the onion and carrot for a few minutes until the onion is soft. Add all other ingredients. Simmer for about an hour or more (depending on how thick you want it) serve with sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and tortilla chips. YUM!
You could put it in a crockpot and let people serve themselves. And I am sure you could double the recipe with no problem.
If you don't use this as your main dish it would make a nice side or something great for a football night. =) Even my 4 year old asks for it!
As for meat. Buy a nice ham, a small can of crushed pinapple, some brown sugar and a dash of cloves. Put your ham in a pan, mix pinapple, brown sugar and cloves, baste ham with mixture, cover with tinfoil and put in the oven. Easy, smeasy. :P
We have more cookbooks in our house then we have brains... but the best thing I have ever had at Christmas was a Standing Rib Roast with a herb crust. Seriously- everyone was wowed! For a vegetable you might try steamed Green Beans with olive oil and crushed garlic, salt and pepper. There are lots of recipes out there. Here are the sites I like to use:
www.eatingwell.com
www.foodnetwork.com
www.williamsonoma.com(I found the best cranberry sauce ever here)
For the birthday maybe you could have a seperate party for that person. Like have the Christmas and then later bring out a cake and sing to that guest.
I agree with Amanda, I think that the birthday guest should have her birthday celebrated and not in a Christmasy-Slash-Birthday sort of way. What about after the meal, for one of the deserts you could have something different, like an icecream cake. They sell them at Jewel and you can have them put her name on it and use candles and have everyone sing to her. You could have a separate holliday pie. For the main dish, something like prime rib goes over well for any occasion.
Good luck! My birthday is Dec. 8th and I still get people wanting to mix the celebrations - not that I care anymore as an adult, but when I was younger and I'd come home from college for the hollidays, instead of my mom sending me a birthday package, she'd give me joint Christmas/B-day presents but it was always funny that my brother and sister still got the same amount. Oh well! At least I had family to come home to for the hollidays! :)
I don't know about what dishes to serve but I know about Christmas birthdays. Mine is Christmas Eve and when I was a kid I hated it. I don't know if it's a child or an adult celebrating with you but... I know when I was younger I always hated those birthday cakes that were decorated like Christmas (red and green etc) and birthday cards that were Christmas cards as well. I always felt my birthday got lost in the shuffle of Christmas. I guess my advice would be to put aside a part of the day to focus on her birthday as a separate event from Christmas. Good luck with dinner!
A thought on the birthday...if it is a child, what about celebrating her "half-birthday" in June? That way it is separate from the holiday celebrations. But I would agree, try to make any birthday festivities that day be "non-holiday" and any color except red and green!
As far as food, I have a recipe for a berry stuffed roast that is very tasty and impressive. Best of all, it's relatively simple to put together. If you are interested in the recipe, let me know...
For Christmas eve I usually do Prime Rib and Turkey. If it's a smallish gathering I do one or the other. My favorite recipe site is allrecipes.com and for I also go to marthastewartliving.com
