378 Comments

Christmas food thread. What are you eating for the holidays?

Tonight we will have ham from a suckling pig, tomorrow it will be goose, and then (to round out the birds) duck on boxing day.

Expand full comment

Im drinking liberals tears

Expand full comment

Good name for a beer.

Expand full comment

And really fitting, poetically speaking.

Beer cans and bottles have these warnings, that children and pregnant/breastfeeding women should avoid it.

Just like liberals should be avoided by those groups.

Children especially.

Edit: put in the missing "and" between children and pregnant women.

Expand full comment

Haha!

Expand full comment

That really would be a great name for a beer. I'll mention that to my local brewmaster.

Expand full comment

Great idea!

Expand full comment

Great sentiment. I bought a specialty gin called Hendricks Neptune - has a salty, seaweedy taste. I'm thinking it would serve as a good stand-in for liberal tears. If I can use it to create a new cocktail, I'll name it liberal tears. For all you gin fans out there. If it's good I'll post the recipe on this blog. Serve it to to your liberal friends BEFORE you tell them the name.

Expand full comment

LOLOLOL!

Expand full comment

I have a thermal cup labeled liberal tears Skoal!!

Expand full comment

Cube ,Every thing liberal is poison ,Don't tough it with a ten foot pole .

Expand full comment

Fancy! In the part of the world where I am from it is traditional to eat tamales on Christmas.  We have a very large crowd, so lasagna on Christmas Eve and tamales on Christmas day.

Expand full comment

sounds great!

Expand full comment

AH! Tamales!

A native New Englander, I spent nearly 20 years in Deep South Texas. I often worked on Christmas day....and my holiday co-workers brought tamales to the office. Tamales made by someone's "tia" or "abuela."

It remains a fond memory.

Expand full comment

Lasagna tonight after Mass, then soups, breads and salads tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all!

Expand full comment

That sounds great!

Expand full comment

Green chile chicken enchiladas, Anasazi pinto beans, tamales, brisket tacos & sopapilla cheesecake here in New Mexico. Merry merry E., & to all of the co-commentators & readers here!

Expand full comment

Fresh Dungeness crab tonight with a green salad, French bread, and a really good bottle of Champagne. Tomorrow, prime rib, followed by chocolate mousse.

Expand full comment

Can I come over?

Expand full comment

Of course I will send the limo .In the meantime I start the music .

Expand full comment

I’ll bring the Dom Perignon! 🍾

Expand full comment

Darn it the limo got stuck in the snow ,so I will send one of my helicopters .

Expand full comment

But what good is it to me ,you did not invite me .So I may have to do some fasting ,instead of feasting . Too bad I ate all the cookies long before Christmas .

Expand full comment

Thanks Debbie for noticing my often naughty comments .I spend Christmas by myself but I'm not unhappy .It gives me a quiet time to think back on my life and the lives of loved ones who are no longer here .I do have a wonderful wife but she is needed to look after someone who can't help them self during Christmas . Getting together with family and friends is priceless and I'm just as happy as they are to see that it is happening in so many homes .

Expand full comment

In the PNW and having seafood Christmas dinner. Clam chowder, Grilled salmon, seared scallops, Scalloped potatoes, shrimp & grits, Asparagus, 🍎 pie.

Expand full comment

Tonight will be a Beef Standing Rib Roast; Christmas Day will be Roast Turkey with a Yule Log Carrot Cake decorated as a white birch log for dessert.

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas to you and yours🌟 I’m grateful to have found your work on Substack.

-ham & turkey on Christmas eve and brisket on Christmas Day (our Texas holiday food tradition)

Expand full comment

Our family's tradition has been inviting friends over on Christmas morning for bacon-and-date sandwiches and mimosas.

Dinner would be Chinese takeout.

Expand full comment

I love bacon and prunes. I don't think I've tried it with dates.

Expand full comment

It’s the perfect taste combo.

Expand full comment

It was fun watching friends discover a new taste combination when they came over. Many were doubtful, but went away true believers.

Expand full comment

Then I'll get the bacon because I have the dates.

Expand full comment

Save the date!

(Sorry, I just had to....)

Expand full comment

Haha!

Expand full comment

Decaf ,I did not get a date for Christmas all my girl friends are busy .If you have an extra date send her over .

Expand full comment

If I had an extra date, he would be male. Sorry!

Expand full comment

Bacon rolled mustard-coated bananas… slowly fried in butter till the banana is mushy. Mmmm

Expand full comment

Appetizer buffet: Meatballs in BBQ sauce, Mushrooms swimming in butter, Lil’ smokies in an apple/mustard glaze, egg rolls, baked treats & much more!

Expand full comment

What's a "lil smokie"?

Expand full comment

A tiny bear who fights forest fires.

Expand full comment

Haha are you from New Mexico?? The original Smoky the Bear mascot was a cub who survived a forest fire in Capitán NM in 1950

Expand full comment

A mini smoked sausage

Expand full comment

Im doing pigs-in-a-blanket with a cranberry -horseradish mustard sauce

Expand full comment

Sounds bloody amazing

Expand full comment

They’re really good if you can find them James - wrap bacon around them, roll in a bit of brown sugar & bake - OMG

Expand full comment

So Cindi what is a big smoked sausage ?Is it a sausage a la maximum ? If I can learn something I'm happy .

Expand full comment

Fröhliche Weinacht überall!

Jul dinner... oh, it's almost easier to list what isn't on the table!

But here goes:

1st plate, five kinds of pickled herring, red onions, beetroots, cucumber sliced wafer thin - all pickled separately. Hard-boiled eggs, home-made mayonaisse, beetroot salad (boiled and diced beetroots in a creamy salad dressing, with horseradish, mustard, apple and raisins), and a small glass of Akvavit (schnapps) and tall glass of a dark porter.

2nd plate, Jansson's temptation (casserole made of potatoes, onions, pickled sprats, bread crumbs and cream), brussel sprouts, vörtbröd (a dark loaf where you use wort instead of water when baking) with various sausages or cheeses for toppings, glass of svagdricka (a type of small-beer, sort of).

3rd plate, four kinds of meatballs, prinskorv (linked sausages, name means "Prince Sausage"), boiled potatoes, three kinds of sylta/sültze (jellied meat served sliced), and a sausage made from lamb, a dark pilz for drink.

4th plate, honey-glazed oven-roasted spare ribs, tenderloin of pork spiced and cooked as to resemble a steak, Julskinka (a large piece of ham covered in a layer of mustard and then heated in the oven before serving), root vegetables boiled in the cooked-off fat from the meats, more Akvavit, and Julmust (Malzbier, sort of) for drinking.

And a generous heaping of saphron buns, ginger snaps, home-made chocolates and other treats, and knäck (hard butterscotch candy, also home-made), toffee, dried figs and dates, and maybe something very strong in a small glass, for the indigestion.

Eat until you start sweating and celebrate life and Frej's bounty on the table and gladden yourself that Freja is returning with the Sun!

Expand full comment

Wow.. how many people are there at your table?Sounds like a spread for 50 people! So yummy!

We had fondue and raclette, with lots of family who were wondering why the hell the media said they should be fighti g with each other. I had read one of the generic articles that gave thr younger generation advice on how to handle racist/transphobic/unvaccinated/nob-vegan/climate change denying relatives and I was dying to pout in a dignified way and glower at auntie A. Or uncle B., shouting : "This does not correspond with my values, let's close this discussion RIGHT NOW."

Alas, I never had a chance.

Expand full comment

Heh, the wife is a professional chef and she usually cooks up julmat/yule food enough to last us until New Year's Eve, so from today until January 1st, it's julmat all the way every day.

Good thing I have firewood to chop and snow to shovel, or I could call myself Jabba the Hutt Jr.

I hate articles like those you refer to, teaching strife and hatred between family-members. People spreading strife and spite used to get pilloried if male, or forced to wear an iron jaw with a blade jutting into the mouth if female. We had such laws and punishments on the books up until the late 1700s here.

Sometimes it hard not to feel those laws had some good points.

Expand full comment

Okay. That's it. I'm leaving here, flying to Germany, and dining with you. With that sumptuous dinner, I'm sure there's enough for one more.

Frohliche Weinacht, mein Freund. Ich bin halb Deutsche. Meine gross eltern waren Deutsche und ich habe studiert in Munchen in 1973. Sorry for my broken German.

Expand full comment

Sorry to disappoint (?) you, but you have to go further north, to Sweden. What we had is a traditional swedish julbord ('yule table' would be the literal translation).

And there are several dishes I've left out, such a lutfisk (lye-soaked fish) and dopp i grytan (bread dipped in the salty fatty run-off from cooking a whole ham), liver wurst so soft you can spread it with a knife, svartsoppa (black soup, made from blood ofpgs and geese) and more.

Edit:

Here's an english language page about swedish cuisine, it's really good too!

[https://www.swedishfood.com/]

If you scroll down, there's an article about julbord with links and explanations and translations of the courses, quite comprehensive.

Expand full comment

Okay, I'll fly the extra miles for your smorgasbord! I love Swedish yogurt too. Hitchhiked through Sweden in August 1973. In the forested countryside, you could leave a pair of skis on the side of the road for months and no one would steal them.

Expand full comment

I'd advise against hitch-hiking nowadays. Too many wrong'uns out and about.

Though here in the deep dark forests, it's much the same as it was then. It's the cities, even the small ones, where the troubles are.

And... don't forget, we do eat surströmming. Fermented Baltic Herring. :)

Expand full comment

Ah...it was a different world back then! There were cheap youth hostels everywhere and special rates on trains and planes for students. You could walk right up to the Masaccio frescoes in the churches. And it was safe. The Swedish hostel was a large boat; the Finnish one was the old Olympic stadium (and so on). Museums, archaeological sites, everything was accessible. From what I hear Europe is altogether different today; I could never go back again, it would be too disappointing.

Expand full comment

A close family friend of my parents was Danish and this is very similar to what she would have, the homemade mayo, Akvavit, and dark pilz did it! She also made homemade liverwurst - oh my! I miss her so much, and her tons of food and the different courses, but the meal lasts for hours and the conversations go on and on and everyone has such a lovely time. I loved celebrating Christmas at their house where our parents talked and talked and us kids ate and played. It was wonderful. Thank you for these memories.

Expand full comment

Wow! Impressive! Real attention to detail and flavors... my type of meal.

Expand full comment

Sign me up!

Expand full comment

Where is my invite? I'll bring the wine pairings for every day! Merry Christmas, thanks for all your work and insight it helped keep me sane over the last few years.

Expand full comment

Wow! What time are you serving?😝 Quiet meal with the neighbors in the great Northwest: Steak, roasties , asparagus and salmon. Dungeness tomorrow.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Expand full comment

A turkey with sliced carrots and small red potatoes around the base, red wine and champagne. Cheers!

Expand full comment

excllent.

Expand full comment

Traditional Polish Xmas: no meat on Eve, so fish and borscht today, then ham and chicken cacciatore on Xmas day. Coconut cake.

Expand full comment

Turkey, gravy, pigs-in-blankets, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings. Excellent.

I like the European thing of goose or another bird like that, will have to try it one day.

Expand full comment

Tonight is low key as my husband died two years ago on this day. For years though Christmas eve was spent at my in-laws who served a traditional Episcopalian turkey. That meant the bird was not carved until the Tanqueray was gone. I once tried to explain that turkey could and should be served hot but it just made them hide the carving knife from me. Thank G-d for my mother who served hot standing rib roast for Christmas day dinner.

Tomorrow morning we will have Christmas breakfast with my son and his family. I'm bringing overnight French toast. One big advantage is that it taste just as good as leftovers. This year my daughter wants to handle Christmas dinner and has decided to make braised short ribs. I am fully confident they will be delicious.

Expand full comment

Well, you know that old Episcopalian joke, right? "Wherever there are 4 Episcopalians, there's a fifth."

Expand full comment

One of my late mother-in-law's favorite quips.

Expand full comment

eugyppius,

So glad I found you on substack. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. Enjoy your family.

I look forward to your material in 2023. The deranged and those suffering from covidmania will no doubt continue to supply any needed material for your observation and comment.

There is no doubt we are immersed in the Big Ugly. I think that 2023 will be the "Year of the Great Disclosure." We will need to keep the Narcissist’s Creed in mind as things move on:

That didn’t happen.

And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. 

And if it was, it’s not a big deal. 

And if it is, that’s not my fault. 

And if it was, I didn’t mean it.

And if I did, you deserved it. 

Thank you!

Expand full comment

I'm going to sharethe narcissists creed, but after the holidays. Thanks.

Expand full comment

We all need to take a break from the Narcissist’s Creed. They won't. Happy Christmas.

Expand full comment

It feels good to see that many people will be with family and friends at Christmas ,forgetting for a while what so many went through in the last three years .Some lost a good friend ,like I lost my brother recently and many others will never recover what is lost . I will be by myself for Christmas ,since my wife must be taking care of a helpless person ,I understand and don't regret . As so often it will give me time to think back ,what once was ,something i do often .I have no problem finding enough food and I know how to cook it ,it's my hobby .I wish all of you a very happy Christmas with family and friends .,In many cases you are my family and friends ,sadly we will never meet in person ,only in the comment section here . Rich is not the ones in posession of riches ,but the ones doing without and be happy .

Expand full comment

"Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Clarence" (It's a Wonderful Life)

Thank you for sharing your wife this Christmas from someone who has been sick and alone before on Christmas Day. You are kind. I'm sorry for the loss of your brother and friend, it makes this season more grey with poignant memories. Cook light but traditional meals. Save a few bites for your wife, she'll appreciate the thought. A good Christmas.

Expand full comment

Disclisure: Germans, you've been slandered for 70 years for utterly no reason.

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas! Thank you for writing. Knowing we're not alone has been such a blessing.

Expand full comment

‘While I like to think that we may have played a small part in defeating the hysterical clowns and their virus circus...’ What you certainly have done is help prevent some of us from going mad with frustration and ‘am I the only one who sees it?’ despair. For that and the invaluable information and analysis, many thanks. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. John

Expand full comment

Yes, felt exactly the same (am I the ONLY one who sees what is really going on here) until I found this INTELLIGENT discussion.... and for the most part, rational discussions and comments. It was something of a miracle to have stumbled upon it, considering what people on some local neighborhood boards and blogs were writing...the usual insanity about how the unvaccinated people should be JAILED, or fined, just the illogical screams of terrified people who (apparently) were so frightened they could not even comprehend how much was NOT actually "science", as so much is now slowly being shown up for what it was. Close GYMS ? Forbid hiking and biking on public trails ? Keep people inside and OUT of direct sunlight ? Say nothing about good nutrition, weight loss, vitamin intake, or exercise for maximum immunity ? Do you think the world learned anything ?

Expand full comment

Thank you E!

I am so happy I stumbled upon this forum.

You get the award for the most common sense in all of Europe...and so much more.

Thank you for being a beacon of light during these dark times.

Forever grateful my friend!

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas! Jesus showed us how love with his life and the power of grace in his death. Blessings to all. Keep being lights of love, joy, and truth even in a world of dark hearts and cloudy souls.

Expand full comment

Let us not forget Jesus lived a short life and was murdered by the state ,just as the state is doing now with us .

Expand full comment

Yes, and just like today, Jesus was murdered after a poll was taken (I'm talking about you Musk). Rule by democratic mob - the worst sort of government.

Expand full comment

"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”

Phillip K Dick

I thought that fits.

Merry Christmas and best of luck for your job change plans.

Expand full comment

That's a keeper. Merry Christmas!

Expand full comment

"Vaccine uptake has no straightforward correlation with all-cause mortality." ? Say what? From what I've seen, COVID vaccine uptake increases all-cause mortality.

Expand full comment

I'll rephrase to be clearer. I mean that there is no reducing effect.

Expand full comment

That jumped out at me too.

Expand full comment

no negative correlation :-)

Expand full comment

Thank you for being a voice for sanity and reason, at the very least, to latch on to in such a disturbingly ugly psychological war! 2+ years is a long time. So many of the insane people were given free reign.

Merry Joy filled Blessed Christmas to you and yours

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas. Thanks for your writing. I pray that we all bring glory to Jesus, the newborn King on Christmas.

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas. God bless you and my fellow subscribers/readers.

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas to you too.

One does wonder what would have happened if Omicron hadn’t!

Here in Belgium they admitted that the vaccine passports were only to coerce the unvaccinated to comply. I live in an region where uptake was 90% + - one wonders what kind of mentality it takes to deprive citizens of their basic rights in order to bully another 10% (and not even that as some must have been unable to take it) to take something that they knew didn’t perform as it said on the label.

My faith in humanity has been severely dented and not sure I have enough lifespqn left to allow time for it to return!

Expand full comment

"My faith in humanity has been severely dented and not sure I have enough lifespan left to allow time for it to return". Same here.

Expand full comment

I used to be a LONE RANGER ,when I was young ,but now I'm just a hermit .

Expand full comment

In my case, I never had that much faith in humanity, so it's more like my worst misanthropic tendencies have received an, ahem, booster shot.

Expand full comment

Christmas 2021, my family tried doing a "virtual Christmas"

I wouldn't make an appearance on camera....

..instead, I went to each of their homes and personally delivered their gifts.

I think some were upset. I was upset in March when I stayed home shutting down my business for weeks voluntarily because I was afraid the kids were going to all die because Twitter allowed Chinese and Fed ran propaganda to proliferate. Thanks psyops #teamMockingBird

Expand full comment

Lincoln ,is that family worth it going and delivering presents ? Virtual Christmas is an insult ,unless they had no other way and were prisoners in their home . What present did you get ?Was it a box of masks .?

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas is the best revenge today.

Today and there will be a tomorrow.

Expand full comment

Merry Christmas! I hope we all have a better year.

Expand full comment

But don't you know, eugyppius, we have Justin Trudeau to thank for getting Christmas back—where's your gratitude to him? 😹

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJ90z3THUw

Expand full comment

Who’s gonna tell JT that Christ can’t be stopped, and that Christmas will always come despite his silly rules to those who hold Jesus in their hearts as Prince of Princes, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings?

Expand full comment

Amen!

Expand full comment

Who's gonna tell the Pope as well? He's still doing the evil work of trying to destroy the Church from within. But I worry not. The war has already been won. Jesus has won. Everyone else are just whining losers trying to seem important.

Expand full comment