December 19, 2020

WEEKLY MENU 12.20.20

It’s all over but the waiting – and the final touches. Our Weekly Menu 12.20.20 includes a plan for Christmas Eve, Christmas Dinner and some easy meals~

We’re STILL making Christmas Cookies – one small batch at a time, but most of the presents are wrapped and on the top of the breakfront – as I talked about during the Weekly Menu 12.13.20. The sense of accomplishment when we fill up the area is real, folks.

Presents for the Weekly Menu 12.20.20 — ^{How cool is the dark blue ceiling? I love it.}

Stymied by a gift for that special someone? Check out our fabulous (some might even say epic) Gift Guide. It’ll help – there are 50+ ideas in there.

We’re eating cookies almost as fast as I’m making them. The energy we get from them works to keep us moving as we head (quickly) towards the Christmas weekend.

Christmas is going to be… different this year.

We usually head over to my oldest brothers home for a big, family centric Christmas Eve after Christmas mass. My sister-in-law makes a fabulous dinner with Roast Beast (actually beef tenderloin) and all the trimmings. They set up two (very) full tables – and the sheer noise from all of us getting together partying is one of my favorite parts of the holidays.

Alas, Covid has changed all that. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re on lockdown, so getting together such a big group is just not allowed. With people coming in from all over the place, it’s probably not a great idea, either.

We’re not going to duplicate Christmas Eves gone by.

Nope. We’re going completely opposite. We’re getting a keg of beer and having sandwiches and soup. Of course, everything will be high-end. It IS Christmas Eve, after all.

We’re starting out with an enormous Christmas Board. It’ll be like a charcuterie board, but we’ll bump it up with Christmas foodstuffs. (Hello Rum Balls!) A little red, a little green, and plenty of variety. I might even polish up a silver platter to put everything on. If I think of it (and I haven’t had too many Mich Ultras), I’ll post a picture.

Ox Roast is a thing in Erieland.

It’s actually not ox. It’s beef that’s been seasoned and slow roasted. Then it’s sliced thinly and served in au jus. Our butcher makes some of the best ever – all I have to do is pop it in the crock pot and let it warm. We eat it on fabulous, soft rolls that are locally made. And we add horseradish. Plenty of it. You know you’ve got enough horseradish on there when you can’t fully catch a breath after a nice bite.

We’ll round out the board, soup and sammie with an easy Crab Soup. Is it soup? Bisque? Chowder? I don’t know. I just know it’s delish.

Weekly Menu 12.20.20 has Christmas Dinner too!

For that, we ARE going full on traditional. We’re having ham, family favorite scalloped potatoes (we’re debating about adding Scalloped Onions) and a Baby Jesus Birthday Cake. Get all the deets at the link below.

CHRISTMAS DINNER

Honestly, I’m leaning towards a Pepperidge Farms Coconut Cake for Baby Jesus. It looks like our Baby Boy will be the youngest at the table, so he’ll do the honors blowing out the candle. After a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday to You”, of course.