We do Christmas right at my mom’s house. Our family came over from England and we still have a lot of family over there, so we tend to use their traditions on Christmas eve. We cook a big old roast beef, still bloody in the middle…
We also make Yorkshire pudding… which I can’t explain to you if you don’t know what it is, but my English followers will get a kick out of this picture…
Trust me, it tastes better than it looks. We also make a plum pudding. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn’t come out because it was dark… because you soak a plum pudding in brandy at the last-minute and light it on fire. Then you eat it with hard sauce, which is like powdered sugar and butter mixed with more brandy. Plumb pudding has an interesting history, and to make it you need suet… which is a special fat from around the kidneys of cows or something, and is so pure that it keeps food from spoiling. Oh, go ahead and Google these fine English foods. Expand your horizons. Learn about your world.
And every year the younger kids try to set the most beautiful table they can… And this is just the second go-around on Christmas day, after my brother and his kids show up…
Jessica even spray-painted little rocks gold to fill the flower vases. I should have some better pictures of the Christmas eve table when Jess gets back from her ski vacation. Her boyfriend Jason took some with his big camera to put on her blog. She is setting up to become a wedding and event planner/organizer/decorator. So I can link to her blog and credit her boyfriend with the pictures and everybody wins…
But doesn’t that look festive?
Pouring My Art Out 
Like Joe, we do our Yorkshire pudding in muffin tins – the secret being a hot, hot oven & dab of beef fat dripping in each cup or it won’t rise properly! We always had steamed carrot pudding with Supreme Sauce (whipping cream, brown sugar, vanilla). Always turkey dinner for Christmas dinner though.
Everybody has their own holiday dinner spin. We should get organized.
Spray-painting rocks gold — very creative! I’ll have to remember that decorating tip.
Christmas dinner looks so good. I love Yorkshire pudding — yum!
Thanks. Yes, the pudding is one of those things that is either loved or despised by one and all.
Ooooo! You had CRACKERS!!! How fun! We tried them once with our horde but not many of them appreciated the whole process nor the paper crowns etc so we never did them again. I, on the other hand, must have gotten a much bigger helping of the English genes than the rest as I LOVED the crackers…the puddings and beef you can keep however. Give me my turkey and stuffing! A goose would serve nicely too come to think of it!
Crackers are weird. You have to get the good ones, not the cheap ones. And I like turkey and stuffing as much a anybody, but we have a holiday for that.
That’s a massive hunk o’ beef! Never been a tradition in my family unfortunately, if it had they would have cremated it (I’m bloody minded though, only way to eat beef)
No one needs to freak about Yorkshire pudding, it’s just pancake batter basically, we do ours in individual portions, so I use a muffin tin (though I bought ready made this year).
We just call the pudding, Christmas pudding, I like it but no one else does so rarely do it.
The sides are my best bit; spiced red cabbage, honeyed carrots, mustard and maple syrup parsnips, cauliflower cheese, I also make the best roast potatoes in living memory.
I thought you might get a kick out of that post.
Brit food has a bad press, there’s a lot more to it than the myths, thanks for highlighting some
The world owes the British for many things, my friend.
Tell that to the Argentinians, it’s handbags at the moment, it’ll probably kick off again
Well, if you have to fight over something, my daughetr would argue that handbags are a good cause.
i know what yorkshire pudding is and it’s good!
Unless you make it wrong.
true that!
It is sort of an art form.
ummm…
Ha… stumped you… and I don’t even remember what we were talking about.
ha hence the umm….lol
Okay, that was funny… we are communicating now…
sure are!
But are we really?
nope really what?
say what say?
Well, you can have your plum pudding (I’ll take the brandy) and your bloody (literally) roast beef. My Christmas dinner was a medium-well prime rib (grilled in the freezing cold), Yorkshire pudding (cooked in the warm house) and peas, with red wine, of course. Good stuff!!!!
I do like that the table was laid out to give everyone plenty of room to eat, drink and be merry, which apparently you did.
We do as well as we can as mere former members of the Commonwealth… or as I like to think of it, recovering colonials.
Wow Art, looks and sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for sharing your stories and pictures. Beautiful! 🙂
Oh, there is more where that came from.
oh WOW – that does look festive and fun. Wish I could have been there! The food looks out of this world! XOXO – Bacon
There should be bacon in there somewhere, dang it.
uh oh – gently stepping out of the way – snort.
I feel so unfullfilled now…
snort ! LOL
Ha… you love pigs and you snort… that is so cool.