christmas eve dinner thread!

what are all you guys making for dinner? i'm not italian, so we don't do anything fancy like 7 fishes or the like. decided on some cornish game hens, everyone gets their own little bird. i'm not doing anything overly complicated with them, simply seasoning them with salt, cracked pepper, and fresh thyme. they will be roasted on a bed of onion, celery, and carrots, and i will whip up some sort of pan gravy. for a side i'm gonna do a simple rice pilaf, and roasted brocolli. share your meal!

edit: we have some nice looking cremini mushrooms in the fridge, so i'm gonna slice them and roast them with some thyme. they will make their way into the pilaf, as i think it will go great with the hens. i'm also gonna add the stems to the chicken stock that i'm gonna use to make the pilaf.

Reposted from Facebook, with links added:

Enjoyable night with family. Totally worth the 12 hours of cooking (and shucking) over 2 days -- yes, I overdid it (24 stuffed clams [from my mom's New York Times Cookbook (1990, Revised) -- double the stuffing!], 24 shucked oysters for Rockefeller [Again, double the stuffing! -- Replaced Pernod with white wine], 24 escargot, 24 seared scallops [a-la Gordon Ramsay], 9 servings of homemade lobster bisque (broke down 2 whole lobsters, not just tails), few dozen Italian Anise cookies, and finished off a batch of limoncello.

Plus Mom made shrimp scampi, Dad shucked some raw clams, and Bro steamed even more clams and brought a Cannolli cake. I skipped the planned Caesar salad and asparagus side cuz enough was enough during gametime! lol

Back's broken, and feet were hurting before I even started today after yesterday's prep. Would I do it all again? Absolutely.

Holy cow, JGeoff! You worked harder than Santa Claus yesterday! Sounds like a great meal and good time!

dinner came out great! after the hens were done roasting, i heated up the roasting pan and deglazed with a little white wine, and added my chicken stock. let that reduce, and strained all the veg out. i put it to the side in a glass bowl and allowed the fat to seperate. i skimmed the fat off, and set it aside.

the remaining juices were returned to a saucepan and set on low heat. i adjusted the salt and pepper, and added a bit of kitchen bouquet to darken it up a bit as well as add a rich flavor. i then used the skimmed fat to make a roux to thicken it with, and cooked it down for about 15 minutes to cook the raw flour taste out of the roux. it came out great!

All the meals sound great! Geoff, I'm especially impressed with your efforts! Yum.

My brother and his wife cooked, so I only had to make dessert and a cheese platter. We gorged ourselves on shrimp, which they roasted rather than steamed and they were lovely. We also had a hot crab dip with crackers, toasted bread topped with sautéed granny smith apples and goat cheese, and crab cakes. Then they served lobster ravioli and tricolor fettucini in a lemon alfredo sauce. It was quite lovely.

We went to my in-law's today and she made a ham, broccoli, asparagus and sliced canned yams baked in a brown sugar sauce. She's not the greatest cook in the world and the word "over-cooked" was invented to describe most of her cooking.

Christmas Eve, we had a lovely gammon joint cooked in Guinness. It was delicious

Sounds outstanding. I drank a little Guinness Christmas day.

Christmas Eve dinner at the in-laws was exceptional. My wife made a large antipasto, which was followed by angel hair in oil and garlic with a hint of red pepper to give it a subtle kick. After that came an endless buffet of lobster, filet mignon, shrimp scampi, clams casino, and homemade seasoned french fries. Of course there was a wide assortment of cookies, pies and nut rolls.

For breakfast the next morning I had an omelette with some of the leftover steak and lobster.

mom did a ham on christmas, it came out pretty good. i was lucky to catch her before she went the white trash route and added canned pineapple rings to it i made a nice glaze for it with shallots, bourbon, and honey, very tasty!

i made a divine ham and potato soup with the bone. i covered it with cold water, added the pan drippings, and simmered it with carrots, celery, onion, a few bay leaves, and 3 smashed garlic gloves. a brought it up to a boil, and reduced it to a simmer and let it go really low overnight. i strained the stock through a cheesecloth, and set it aside. in a seperate pot, i sauteed finely chopped carrot, celery, onion, and a minced garlic clove in half a stick of butter until translucent, not carmelized. i then added a few tbsp of flour to make my roux, and cooked it down for a minute.

the ham stock was then added, and whisked briskly to dissolve the roux. i added a few diced yukon gold potatos, and let it bubble away for about an hour. whats nice with this recipe is you don't have to worry about overcooking the potatos, as if they get a little overdone they simply break down and add a nice texture to the soup. towards the end i added diced ham, a cup or so of heavy cream, adjusted the salt/pepper, and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes. hands down the best soup i've done, and i've made plenty both in restarants, and at home. the taste was just as i had envisioned, and thats alot harder to do with food than tv can make it seem as there are just so many different variables to take into consideration!

Sounds good. I made split pea soup with ham leftovers. Yum.

Not only did my MIL make her overcooked ham and vegetables for Christmas, but she did the pineapple rings and maraschino cherries. Then, she waited for the end of the meal to eat them and was pissed because her granddaughters already had.

I'm getting the impression that you're not a big fan of your MIL's cooking... lol

The only thing that SB likes that her MIL made is the Good Doctor.

I recieved some Traditional English Dark Ales from Santy. I guzzled them on Christmas night, delicious and strong, similar to Guinness. Only thing is it turned my poop black the next day

She also makes a decent meatloaf.

Although this is a bit off-topic, I'll tell you a quick story about her cooking. My youngest loved asparagus when she was a toddler. My MIL made some once and went on and on how she made it special for my daughter. When it came time for dinner, she said, "Now eat some asparagus for Grandma! She made it just for you!" My daughter, who was about 3 at the time, picked up a stalk and it was so overcooked that the head fell right off with a small splat. She threw the stalk back onto her plate in disgust and said, "Yuk! It's dead!"