Traditional, Non-traditional Christmas Eve Dinner
Traditional, Non-traditional Christmas Eve Dinner
Call me retro – our traditional dinner was all the rage in the 50’s and became our tradition in the 80’s. It’s fondue, carried to extremes. No cheese here – only piles of cubed filet mignon, bowls of shrimp, platters of broccoli and cauliflower florets and mushrooms. All raw and waiting to be cooked in bubbling pots of peanut oil enriched by cubes of butter, set on the festively decorated Christmas table.
After years of setting the table with red, green or white linen, Whatever semblance of a Martha Stewart design was immediately destroyed the moment the black fondue pots were placed. Why did it take years to figure out the solution? A black table cloth! The ugly pots disappear. The silver center piece tree and candlesticks and silver chargers with white china and napkins is stunning. The stage is set!
Over the past, almost 50 years, the guests have come and gone - all of them contributed to the refinement of the dinner. One friend provided small sauce dishes to hold your individual sauces. Yes, sauces – blue cheese butter, Hollandaise sauce, maitre d’hotel butter, horseradish and whipped cream dip and an unusual cucumber, onion and cream cheese cumin sauce, particularly good with the beef. Generously filled baskets of garlic bread is the only addition needed.
We’ve had some experiments that failed. Lobster meat sounds like it should work, but doesn’t. We can’t rely on getting baby artichokes and they weren’t that great, the attempt to par boil small potatoes was a flop. So we’re sticking with the tried and true. And scallops weren’t a big success.
No fondue tragedies…...yet. No one has tripped over the cords stretched to the outlet, thus avoiding being boiled in oil. Lips have been neither pierced nor burned by red hot fondue forks. And…...to my knowledge, no cardiac arrests occurred.
You might realize the feast is not without some effort – trimming and cutting vegetables, cubing meat, cleaning shrimp, etc, Not to mention making the sauces. That’s why I found it hilarious, that at one of the dinners when I was feeling particularly exhausted, one of the guest told me that it made her happy to know that I didn’t have to do any cooking!
We end the meal with a cranberry cake and butter sauce - because we haven’t consumed enough butter!
Cranberry Cake
Sift together
2C flour
1C sugar
2 ½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
Add
3 T melted butter
2/3C milk
1 egg
Add 2 cups or more whole cranberries
Bake in a 9” ungreased pan for 40 minutes at 350.
Serve warm with butter sauce
Butter sauce (better known as Code Blue sauce)
1/2C butter
1C sugar
3/4C heavy cream
Cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Serve generously over cake.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MAY ALL YOUR POTS BE BUBBLY!
Oh, how I miss this dinner—my annual reminder that Christmas calories don’t count when cooked in bubbling oil and butter. I can still hear the gentle hiss of the fondue pots and the clink of forks as we hovered like very polite, very hungry vultures. That table! The black cloth was pure genius—camouflage for the pots and a stage worthy of the silver and candlelight. And the sauces…oh, the sauces. Each one felt like a tiny gift, especially that mysterious cucumber concoction that I still dream about (and fail to recreate).
ReplyDeleteWhat I miss most, though, isn’t just the filet or the shrimp or the bread. I definitely ate too much of everything - it’s the feeling of being gathered, unhurried, laughing, and ever-so-slightly aware that we were tempting fate with extension cords and peanut oil. Thank you for years of tradition, warmth, and butter (so much butter). Christmas Eve just isn’t quite the same without it—but I’m grateful beyond words to have been part of such a delicious, joyful, and unforgettable ritual.
What a great menu! Move over Martha Steward. Thank you for sharing cake recipe, a perfect ending to a perfect meal.
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