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FM
‘Tis the Season!
I can’t believe it’s Christmas already. The year went by so fast, time seems to have gone three times as fast since I became a mother anyway. Overall it’s been a really good year, but still I can’t wait for 2010. Even though I’m not looking forward to my son starting school this year—the house will be so empty and quiet—it does always feel like a fresh start and clean slate. A new chance to make all your dreams come true.
We’re having a really low-key and intimate Christmas this year. We seldom to never do something official with our second day of Christmas other than shopping anyway—one day of Christmas food and dressing up is more than enough for me. This year I’m opting for “Gourmetten”, ( I can almost see you frown!), it’s a typically Dutch thing for the holidays.
Gourmetten or (raclette) is more of a social meal where everyone makes their own food as they eat it. We use a big grill (a raclette), with small frying pans underneath it. I’ll prepare lots of small pieces of marinated steak bites, mini hamburgers, mini slavinken (seasoned ground beef wrapped in bacon), pork strips, spicy chicken, yummy gambas and mini kabobs. Not to mention loads of crispy French bread, special dipping sauces and a potato salad on the side. The small frying pans are reserved for sautéeing finely chopped leeks, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, melting cheese over your mini burgers and even pancake batter for the munchkin. It’s just a really fun way of having dinner and it can last for hours on end, which is wonderful with a large group of family or friends.
What are you all cooking for Christmas this year? I’m always curious how people celebrate their holidays and what kind of food they’re making. Here are a few of my last-minute dinner suggestions!
No Christmas without a good potato gratin.
Here’s the potato salad I’ll be making.
And I might just throw in these delicious Mezgaldi.
These best beets ever really do their name justice.
I bet you these creamy Brussels sprouts will convert even the biggest hater!
These fragrant easy baked carrots will be a hit for young and old.
If all else fails, go for slightly more exotic Mango & Carrots.
Faux red lobster biscuits will be appreciated as well, mark my words.
Whatever you do, make your very own garlic & herb butter, please!
And last but not least, raspberry cheesecake brownies, the dessert of champions.
The only thing left for me to do is wishing all you great people out there a very merry Christmas. Happy holidays from my family to yours.
~Kay
I am picking up a Honey Ham today and will also have Twice baked potatoes,Portuguese Stuffing (only kind my son will eat) and my mom’s best stuffing ever,Honey carrots and rolls..Yum! As for Christmas eve dinner it is Swedish meatballs with rice and rolls.
@Colleen:
Sounds great! We don’t have the stuffing thing here in Holland. Care to share your Swedish meatballs recipe?:)
Swedish Meatballs
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1 egg
1/4-1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3-1/2 cup milk
1/2 package dry onion soup mix
1 package mushrooms, sliced
2 cans beef consommé or stock
2 tablespoons flour
1-tablespoon parsley, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil for frying
Mix 1st 6 ingredients.
Form into small meatballs.
Brown in pan with butter.
After cooking meatballs take out of pan and add mushrooms.
Sauté mushrooms and season with salt and pepper
Add Worcestershire sauce and beef consommé.
Bring to a boil, add meatballs back to pan and simmer 20 minutes.
Remove meatballs.
Take out some liquid and add flour to it stirring so it doesn’t make lumps.
Add to rest of gravy.
Add sour cream and parsley.
Put meatballs back in.
Pour over rice and serve with warm crusty bread.
The gravy would depend on how many meatballs you make. I also use noodles with this dish also. Hope you enjoy!
@Colleen:
Thanks for the recipe. This sounds really, really good. The only Swedish meatballs I ever ate were the ones they sell at Ikea, and they’re weren’t very good :)
I would have never thought of using a dry onion soup mix. Can’t wait to try these. Overhere they sell ‘half and half’, it’s ground beef mixed with ground pork, so I’ll use that.
We always have beef rib roast for Christmas, with Yorkshire Pudding, some veg (most often green beans and a broccoli/cauliflower dish), dinner rolls, potatoes and a dessert. This year I may do your lovely Potatoes a la Boulangère for the potatoes.
I have some fruitcake, lots of cookies, and some bread, cheese, dips and soups for Christmas Eve and the days after Christmas.
Fijne feestdagen en een gelukkig, gezond 2010.
En dank je wel voor al die lekkere recepten !!!!!
Oh! So that’s what you do with the raclette! I saw one today at MediaMarkt and was intrigued, but wasn’t sure what you did with the little pans. I think I might need to get one for next year. The idea of the little foods fits in well with what my parents and I used to do. We’d just make a bunch of small snack foods: bbq mini sausages, deviled eggs, cheeses, peaches stuffed with chicken salad, etc., and then snack on that throughout the day, rather than going through the hassle of a big dinner. I kind of miss it, since for the past few years (and this year as well), we’ll be doing my boyfriend’s Italian tradition of a variety of meats and a special pasta dish. Tasty, but I miss the variety! I think next year I’ll insist on doing the gourmetten! I keep seeing all the premade items for it at AH (but would rather make my own, of course).
Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar!
Christmas will be spent at my daughter’s house, but I will cook Christmas dinner a few days later when my other daughter comes up from Texas with 4 of her 6 children. My 3 daughters will all be here for that and I will make enought food so that we have leftovers for a day or two! A turkey, a ham, and lots of different vegetables, (some of your recipes and some of PWs) plus a few pies, a cake and lots of cookies and breads. They will be here for New Years Eve too and we will have lots of yummy snacks too!
@Alison:
You are gonna love gourmetten! I know you will.
Prettige kerstdagen, meiske!
I’ll be serving filet mignon roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, corn, peas, homemade bread and for dessert my mom’s vienna fingers, frozen chocolate torte, and of course a lemon meringue pie for DH!
I’m planning our Christmas meal and getting excited about having friends share the day with us.
Our menu is;
Baked onion soup
Field greens salad with champagne vinaigrette
baguette
venison chops is a sour cream and chive sauce
sweet potato wedges wrapped in proscuitto
green beans with pesto dressing
roasted garlic mashed potatoes
and Christmas cookies for dessert along with a selection of cheeses and some fruit
Your recipes and blog posts are amazing, AND your photo’s make me hungry!! Congratulations on your success! Keep up the teriffic work!
On the first day of Christmas I’ll be making;
Creamy mustard soup to start it all off. Seconded by snack sized gratinated mushrooms stuffed with spicy ground beef. The main course will be pork tenderloin (varkenshaas) with a crunchy herb crust, peper sauce, home made pommes duchess and caramelized carrots. Dessert will be a slice of apple crumble with cinamon icecream! :D
Have a great Kerstmis and a happy Nieuwjaar!
Yum! Raclette! I like to do that now and then! I love the social aspect of it.
Brunch will be a ham and cheese strata with fresh fruit and croissants. Then for dinner we’ll be having a standing rib roast, with Kay’s Bernaise sauce, roasted veggies (potatoes, carrots, pearl onions, etc), fresh green beans, and a rum & chocolate cake for dessert. Christmas Eve is barbecued spare ribs with baked beans and corn on the cob!
I visited your blog often this last year.
I too look forward for a clean new year. Last year has been terrible, in many many ways.
We are going to ‘gourmet’ also, on the first christmasday. Second christmasday we are going out for diner.
And then sunday I think I am going to make green pea soup!
Have a nice christmas!
Kay, there is not much cooking for me to do. We will visit our parents and oarents in law. So, most of the cooking is already planned by them. On christmas eve we will have game and sure there will be the traditional christmas goose. Tradtionally we will have Feuerzangenbowle (burnt punch) after dinner on christmas eve. Have a merry cristmas and a wonderful time.
Thorsten
We will spend the first christmas day at my parents in law and we are going to barbeque there!! (They have a large outside-kitchen – “vogelhokje”- complete with a radiator and huge grill).
About the gourmetten, I love it as well! I just bought one as a birthday present for my husband and we like it that we can ‘play’ with our food. Because I’m an Asian, we also make an “Asian-style” gourmetten: I made a asian marinade for the meat (such as your yakitori marinade), we dip the meat in the marinade and grill it. I also like to grill mushroom and spring onion. We will eat it with a good nasi goreng and sate sauce as side dishes. Yum!!
Hi Kay
Happy holidays from may family in Brasil to yours.
Your wonder potatoes gratin will be on the menu as well as Paula Deen’s scrumptious standing rib roast and Martha Stewart’s creamed spinach. A couple of appetizers will complete the meal once of which is Ree’s baked stuffed with gorgonzola mushrooms. Gosh just typing this makes me hungry.
Merry Christmas to you and your family…………….here’s hoping 2010 is spectacular!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Our traditional meal is partaken on Christmas Eve. It is super simple. Meats, cheeses, cheese ball, bread bowl, and lots of non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice. Soooo yummy. Clean up is minimal.
The highlight of it all is the scrumptious bread bowl. http://hafdozenreasons.blogspot.com/2008/12/yummm.html
Merry Christmas to you and your family Kay.
Thanks for all the yummy recipes you post.
I look forward to my Prime Rib Roast and cheese potatoes every Christmas
Please post pictures from your feast–I’m intrigued by the raclette.
Here in Texas, many of us have adopted the hispanic custom of eating tamales on Christmas Eve. I’m lucky enough to have a friend who shares the bounty of her family’s tamalada or tamale making party. We had a blizzard, however, so won’t have Christmas dinner until Sunday.
I just discovered your website when I was searching for a recipe for kruidnoten (and for speculaaskruiden!). I was thrilled to find your site and made the cookies twice around Sinterklaas. I’ve enjoyed your recipe site so much, as my husband is Dutch and I try to make him some “from home” dishes once in awhile.
I loved gourmetten so much when we lived in NL, and we do it now here in Texas (did it Christmas day and the day after this year!). Our American family here just loves it and thinks it’s very special. And yes, quite gezellig! We may be in for round three tomorrow!
Thanks so much for the wonderful work you do on your site.
Groetjes uit Texas,
Beth
Dank je voor recepten ik zal ze zeker proberen en de site is ook heel prof gemaakt.