What?  A first?  Yes, this is the first year I have cooked Christmas Dinner all by myself.  I picked the menu, assembled the recipes, bought the ingredients, and managed the workforce.  The end result?  Three buffet dishes for breakfast at the relatives and dinner for my brood and some friends.

BREAKFAST

Cheddar-Sausage Breakfast Quiche
Sweet Ricotta Breakfast Quiche
Baked Brie with Apples & Cranberries

DINNER

Baked Ham
Au Gratin Potatoes
Paula Deen’s Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Beans
Cranberry Orange Salad
Deviled Eggs
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Cooking is the area I am best at expressing my creativity.  It was a wonderful gift for me to be able to pour so much of myself into this simple meal.  Why, then, is the the first Christmas Dinner I’ve cooked this decade?  Simple.  My mother is usually in my kitchen for the holidays and I learned a long time ago to just let her do it her way.  If I want to change my mother’s cooking habits all I have to do is tell her how I do it and guaranteed she will do the opposite.  In the interest of family peace, I live with the same, old bland and boring holiday food every year.  (Well, except for the homemade noodles.  My mother makes exceptional noodles!)  This year she and my sisters stayed in Missouri and we stayed in Kentucky.  Really a win-win if you ask me!

I’m not going to give specific ingredient amounts for this recipe, because it’s very easily adapted to however many people you want to serve.

Basic Ingredients:

Potatoes
Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Paprika

Directions:

• Choose an oven-safe casserole dish that will accommodate the number of people you’ll be serving
• Thinly slice potatoes in a single layer in the bottom of the dish
• Sprinkle lightly with flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg – remember, the seasoning will be in each layer, so don’t be too heavy-handed
• Sprinkle a layer of shredded cheddar cheese
• Repeat layers until casserole is filled

• For every 1 1/2 quarts of casserole, make a mixture of 1/4 cup melted butter in 1 1/4 cups milk and pour it over the layers
• Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika

Bake covered at 325F for 1 1/2 hours, or until a nice golden-brown crust forms on top and potatoes are tender.

The more you make, the longer it will take to cook. For Christmas Dinner I made enough casserole to fill a 3 quart dish and I baked it for 2 hours at 350F. I had other dishes in the oven, so 350 was my only choice. :p

This recipe is adapted from Marcia Adam’ Old-Fashioned Escalloped Potatoes in Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.

Tonight is our monthly fellowship dinner at our church.  There is nothing better getting together with folks you love and EATING.  Especially when there are others to help with the clean-up.

I’m bringing:

• Nachos with Beef and Black Beans
• Pica de Gallo
• Refrigerator Pickles
• White Cake with Fruit Topping <courtesy of Princess the Baker>
• Escalloped Tomatoes

After moving to the rural south I *finally* learned what all those strange Tupperware contraptions are for!

We had a real live Sunday Dinner today. Maybe for the first time ever in our own home.

Before church this morning I put country ribs, an onion, and a jar of sauerkraut in the slow cooker with a little salt to taste. After cooking on high for four hours the meat was perfectly cooked for our 1:00 pm dinner. I quickly made some instant mashed potatoes (for some reason my family loves these ???) and steamed broccoli in the microwave. Flower Child set the table with our pretty stoneware and I made sure to use the serving bowls that matched.

And it was so easy!

The only thing missing was company.

Growing up, Sunday Dinner was the domain of my grandmother and it usually consisted of donuts bought after church and brought to her house. But it wasn’t about what we ate. It was about my parents, aunt, cousins, and siblings talking, laughing, arguing… just being together.

We’ve lived most of our lives away from our parents, so my children have never had Sunday Dinner on a regular basis. Until recently our Sunday afternoons were spent at a soccer field somewhere, with all of us in a rush to get there on time as soon as church let out. Now that Rooster and Flower Child are no longer playing travel soccer we don’t have this time constraint.

And now I want to start a tradition of Sunday Dinner at our house. And I want to invite people over as often as possible. Older couples and family from our church. Friends from our community and homeschool group. Missionaries and visiting pastors. Young and old, saints and sinners, the popular and the lonely, rich and poor.

I want dinner to be ready in the slow cooker at home, ready for a spontaneous invitation!

Romans 12:10-13
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

This recipe gets the award for being beautiful to look at, simple to prepare, and incredibly tasty. It is the entire family’s new favorite on our menu.

Noodles with Broccoli and Meat (Cambodia)
Kuy Tew Cha (goi dieu chah)
Serves 4

Cook according to package directions:

• 8 oz. Chinese noodles or thin spaghetti (250 g) (I use spaghetti.)

Drain. Add 1 T. oil (15 ml) to keep noodles from sticking together, cover, and set aside.

In separate saucepan, cook or steam until tender-crisp:

• 1 1/2 c. broccoli, cut in pieces (375 ml)

Meanwhile, in separate frypan saute 8-10 minutes in 1-2 T. oil (15-30 ml):

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. pork, cut in small pieces (125 ml)
• 6-8 shrimp, shelled and deveined

Add broccoli to meat along with:

• 1-2 T. soy sauce (15-30 ml)
• 1 t. sugar (5 ml)
• 1/2 t. salt (2 ml) (optional)

Toss with noodles and serve with additional soy sauce as desired.

Note: We make substitutions for the meat frequently, with great results. We’ve used pork, chicken, beef, and frozen imitation crab each on and its own or in combination with one of the other meats. I love that I can make it with whatever I have on hand.

— from Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook by Joetta Handrich Schlabach, 1991, Herald Press.

Not only is this dish tasty, it’s very easy to make and only dirties one frying pan. Our family eats this at least once a week now!

Like other forms of human affection, cooking delivers its truest and most enduring gifts when it is savored in intimacy — prepared not by a chef but by a cook and with love.

No Chefs in My Kitchen
By MARCELLA HAZAN
Published: November 29, 2008

The food Americans eat that is made fresh at home by someone who is close to them is shrinking compared with food consumed at restaurants or prepared outside. And while eating out or taking in may save us time or bring us enjoyment, I would argue that it deprives us of something important.

I am my family’s cook. It is the food prepared and shared at home that, for more than 50 years, has provided a solid center for our lives. In the context of the values that cement human relations, the clamor of restaurants and the facelessness of takeout are no match for what the well-laid family table has to offer. A restaurant will never strengthen familial bonds.

While I love to cook I am hopelessly lazy and addicted to eating out. I can see how this pulls my own family apart. Still, it was quite shocking to see someone else write about it!

I hereby propose Eat at Home Every Day 2009 for the month of January! I’d like to see families make a pledge to eat at least one meal together every day for a month. Maybe a month is too ambitious?

We had a great family dinner tonight.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Fettuccine
Red sauce, made with homemade tomato sauce
Sliced Tomatoes
Fresh Mozzarella

The fish came from Sam’s (but it was really yum-oh!). I served the fish off the baking sheet and the pasta and sauce out of their respective pans. The mozzarella would have been in its original container if it hadn’t been dropped on the floor and broken. As I was setting the sauce pan on the table, I thought to myself that I’d become a Hidden Art Dropout.

Still, we set the table and have a tall green glass vase with a sprigs of mint sitting in the center. The sauce was homemade and the pineapple tomato came from our garden earlier today.

And everyone was together. Always a nice thing.

Maybe not a total drop-out, just on probation