Christmas Eve 2016 - Mom

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Dressed up before heading over to dinner at Mom's place.

Bought this cute little guy about 16 years ago from the school secretary at the school I was working at at the time. Her name was Tammy and she and her mom made these and sold them. 

We had a wonderful time at Mom's. Her friend Lynn joined us and after appetizers we had cheese fondue and then filet mignon. She only made one batch of cheese fondue as last year Dale wrote her a post it note and put it on the cover of her cookbook to remind her. Lynn brought a mushroom mix to put on top of the steaks. She was horrified they shrunk as much as they did after putting them in the microwave for only a minute and a half. We all thought it was delicious none-the-less. She also brought a tiramisu cake for dessert which was very delicious, especially so because it was not overly sweet.  Lynn also brought over a DVD of a fire in a fire place. The audio was of the crackling sound of a fire and also a loon calling in the distance. Dale was particularly taken with the video.

Mom's tree looked beautiful as usual.

Christmas Season 2013/2014 - The Host with the Most

Dale serving up the egg-bake at our holiday brunch.

Christmas Day 2013 - Christmas Day Dinner with Mom

Mom came over at about 3:30 p.m. and we ate around 5. In addition to the beef bourguignon we had a sald of field greens with grape tomatoes, walnuts, feta cheese, and Annie's mango poppyseed dressing. Dale did some oven baked Brussels sprouts. For dessert we had a lovely chocolate cake from Kowalski's. 

Christmas Day 2013 - Chef Dale

Dale and I had originally planned to make Julia Child's beef bourginoine recipe for this year's Christmas Day dinner. That would have meant spending a good chunk of Christmas Eve day preparing it and with having to sing for two Christmas Eve services we decided that there wouldn't be quite enough time without making the day overly stressful. Instead we combined the bourginoin recipe with out crock pot beef stroganoff recipe which cut the total prep and cooking time by more than half.

Christmas Day 2012

Mom came to our place for dinner on Christmas Day.  We had beef stroganoff and a nice chocolate roulade for dessert. 

Christmas Eve 2012 - Dinner

For Christmas Eve dinner Mom made the traditional cheese fondue along with a colorful salad.  We also had steaks and Baba Dessert for dessert.  

Christmas Day 2011 - Christmas Dinner

Mom came over to our place in the afternoon and we had Christmas dinner at about 5:00 p.m. We had turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans amandine and dinner rolls. It was all very delicious. Dale did almost all the dinner prep although I did help baste the turkey. I also carved the turkey and Mom made the gravy. We had chocolate roulade for dessert. It was all delicious.

Christmas Eve 2011 - Dinner at Mom's

After the Christmas Eve service, Dale and I went to Mom's for dinner. We started with some lovely hor d'ourves of brie cheese and jelly on crackers. For dinner we had cheese fondue and steak. Brownies for dessert.

Christmas 1972 - Dinner

Mom helps to cut Sam's food as I eat a sandwich. A sandwich for Christmas dinner? What was I thinking?

Fondue Part 2

Fondue on Christmas Eve has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. I decided to do a little research on this thing I've eaten for 45 years on December 24. Here's what I found out...

According to James and Kay Salter in their book Life is Meals, the town of "Gruyeres is about seventy miles northeast of Geneva as you head into the heart of Switzerland. It produces one of the two cheeses - the other being Emmenthaler - that are the basis for fondue, which comes from the French verb fondre, 'to melt.' "(p. 391) Also, "Fondue likely originated in remote mountain villages during winters when food was scarce and people softened their old, hardened cheeses over a fire, scooping from the pot with pieces of bread." (p. 391)

I know that my mom uses Gruyere cheese and a basic swiss cheese, but I'm not sure if the swiss she uses is Emmenthaler. Here is the recipe she uses:

Alpine Cheese Fondue

1 clove garlic, cut in half

½ pound natural Swiss Cheese, shredded

½ pound Gruyere, shredded

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups dry white wine (Chablis)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Dash Pepper

Dash Nutmeg

2 Tbsp Kirsch or cognac

1/8 tsp salt or to taste

French bread.

Rub inside surface of ceramic fondue pot with garlic; discard. Toss shredded cheeses with flour. Heat wine on the stove until small bubbles show on the bottom of the pan. Stir in lemon juice and handfuls of cheese, stirring constantly, after each addition, with wooden spoon until cheese melts. Stir in spices and kirsch or cognac. Pour into fondue pot, temperature on the lowest setting.

Fondue

My family has been doing fondue on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. We used to fondue meats in oil for many years but for about the last 10 years we have not been doing that as our tastes have changed and the oil now tends to be a gut bomb on our digestive systems. Now we tend to just do a cheese fondue sometimes a chocolate fondue as well. When Sam was home for Christmas a couple of years ago his wife Becky prepared the whole fondue shebang starting with cheese (bread being the dipping item), then meats (mostly beef and scallops) in oil, and finally chocolate fondue with fruits. Again, we've been doing it as long as I can remember so it was quite a trip down memory lane.