A Simple Christmas Eve Dinner

When the family voted a few weeks ago we would do our own Christmas food this year I was happy to go along with the flow. I should have known when we went food shopping the other day that I was being kept out of the loop and we were going back to what we have always had which is basically everything. My family does not know what simple is and this morning I was sent on a mission to complete the items I could not find yesterday. I should have known better and expected this was going to play out this way.

Yesterday the hunt started to try and find Glace Cherries which goes onto the glazed Christmas Ham and is a rather important part of the final presentation. 6 stores later and I was still empty handed and was starting to understand this could be a problem. The other part of the shopping list was to locate and purchase parsley for the potato salad and at shop number 6 found one loose packet of fresh Parsley mixed in with the packs of lettuce. One was better than none as we needed at least 2 or 3 of these fresh parsley packs.

Last night granny reminded me of the Muslim cake supply shop which supplies all types of cake ingredients in wholesale quantities and knew they would have cherries. This morning I set off and did the 30 minute drive only to find they were closed for Christmas. This was not part of the plan as what Muslim celebrates Christmas?

Another 3 shops later and I found 3 tubs of green Glace Cherries and this year instead of red we will have green cherries on our Christmas ham. I had to phone and check first that these were acceptable and that they do not change the flavor in any way. I knew it was just a green dye instead of a red dye used but it is always better to check with home base before completing a mission. At the same store I found another 2 packs of fresh parsley to at least now my job was kind of over besides helping with the cooking.

My family knocked off work at 2pm today so things are on track for a normal Christmas eve dinner. This will be roast lamb, glazed ham, two roasted chickens with stuffing as most of us are not fans of the turkey and a pickled beef tongue which I avoid. This will be accompanied by various salads being potato with parsley, rice with peaches, a banana curry salad with cooked onions and there will be other salads not mentioned. This will be followed by a sherry trifle which I started last night topped with crumbled chocolate and crushed pecan nuts.

This is for 5 adults and two grandkids so there will be left overs tomorrow which I plan to cook a beef fillet on the fire. This is a far better option than visiting a restaurant which will just not be the same and why this year we would rather be at home. yes it is a hassle preparing all the food, but once it is done you kind of appreciate the effort.

We have two days off now and back to work on Saturday the 27th plus an important business meeting on Sunday the 28th. This meeting I will discuss over the coming days as I need to start thinking and preparing for this. Personally I actually do not mind this really as staying busy is not that bad. I need to build in some small breaks for the rest of the family as this is too full on non stop. They have stepped up this year and will be rewarded in the New Year with salary adjustments which they fully deserve.

Tomorrow morning we will go down to my daughters home and open presents with the grand kids making amess at their home instead of ours. The trick then will be trying to leave without the grand kids in tow as they tend to spend most weekends with us. Now the school holidays are on it is like one big weekend so we shall see if this is even possible to leave them behind.

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