What is your traditional Christmas meal? Is it turkey, ham, prime rib, or something else? As a kid, we always had turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. Rick's family, however, had turkey for both. He tells me ham is for Easter. Funny how his mom called on Christmas Day saying how she'd bought a Honeybaked ham for dinner. Hmpfh! Regardless, Rick cooked a big turkey for Christmas dinner and it turned out wonderful.
I remember one Christmas as a kid that was just a disaster. Someone left the ham on the counter while we went to church. When we got home, we discovered our dogs had fought over it and had dragged it throughout the house. Ham grease and carpet don't mix, by the way. Not to mention a couple of dogs with belly aches. It was an absolute mess. I'm reminded of that every time we watch A Christmas Story and the Bumpkin dogs come into Ralphie's house and attack their turkey that is on the counter.
Last night was the first night since Christmas that we didn't eat leftovers. That was a nice change. As much as we like leftovers, it doesn't take long before we're tired of them. I'm not much into turkey sandwiches, so I've been using it in salads. Add some pineapple chunks, chopped pepperoncinis, croutons, a little bit of cheese, and that's good enough for me. Top it off with a no-calorie salad dressing (which I actually like) and I'm all set. With as much chocolate as I've been eating, a salad certainly won't hurt. If you do a big meal over the holidays, what do you do with your leftovers?
My family has turkey for Thanksgiving,and we had turkey AND ham for Christmas up until this year. My brother,mom and niece can't have it because of gall bladder issues,so we cut it out of the menu. We use leftover turkey(if we get to have any) mostly for sandwiches,which I love. I did make chili with it,but don't think I'll ever do THAT again.LOL
ReplyDeleteLeanne
My mom made turkey on Christmas too! And we never eat turkey. It was delicious. She pounded the breast out flat and then stuffed it with mushrooms, onions, breadcrumbs, celery and prosciutto. Then she pan roasted it. It was moist and fabulous.
ReplyDeleteSo we ate the leftovers the next day. Along with leftover mac and cheese and salmon and butternut squash soup. (What can I say? The woman went food-nuts!)
But normally, I'm like you when it comes to leftover turkey or chicken. It goes in a salad. I love salad with leftover meat in it. Same goes for pork, steak, fish, shrimp, whatever...
I had to laugh at your ham story! I remember 2 incidents from my childhood. One time our oven wasn't working but no one knew it until dad took the turkey out. One side was cooked and the other was basically raw. My dad cut up the cooked side and we ate it... this was before we heard of salmonella! lol And the other incident occurred when the turkey caught fire. Dad always covered the bird with a paper bag and one year the grease caught the bag on fire. There were flames and the fire alarm went off - now we say that dinner is not ready til we see the fire! lol
ReplyDeleteAs for left overs, we obviously have turkey but this year Vince did a smaller turkey and a ham. He went crazy with all the side dishes too and I was so afraid of left overs! But he had a plan. We had 15 for dinner and everyone of them left with a tupperwear container full of whatever they wanted - sweets too.
Happily we had no turkey left, only a bit of ham (which Vince had put aside for his sandwiches!) and some cookies!
I knew I married him for a reason, I just didn't realize it was because he was so good at cleaning out our fridge! lol
Well, not sure if I have ever had a traditional xmas dinner. This year was a new meal, though. Roasted chicken and vegetables...it was yummy! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's always too hot to cook a turkey around here at Christmas. Our family tend to all bring a dish of one kind or another with them and then they take the leftovers home with them. So no one ends up with a fridge full of things they don't feel like eating.
ReplyDeleteWhat have you got about pigs, at least we do not get stuck with eating turkey for a week.
ReplyDeleteChristmas day
Succulent roast leg of pork.
Boxing day seeing the servants have all gone home cold pork cut wafer thin with chutney sandwich.
then a good pork chop on the barby,
and if you want to go the whole HOG make brawn from the rest of it that will keep well in the cold storage for at least six months.
stuff the turkey as usual.