Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas everyone!

I thought I'd do a quick post on my Christmas Eve dinner, since I like hearing what others are making and hopefully, you guys are interested in what I'm making. I've never actually had a real Christmas dinner in my adult life, so I'm really looking forward to it. Honestly, I look forward to any excuse to cook a nice dinner and have people over (it forces me to clean my house, heheh.)

I'm not having a big to-do; it's just me, the husband, his mom and my mom (the other PIP sister, Rose, is way up in the Great Frozen North a.k.a Northern Michigan). We're actually supposed to have a white Christmas here in Nashville for the first time in 17 years! Although I don't miss four-ish months of snow like I grew up with in Michigan, I do miss having SOME snow! I hope we get snowed in on Christmas day- it makes being lazy and watching movies and episodes of Mad Men all day seem more justifiable.


So, here's the dinner rundown- I've decided to go kind of traditional English with the main course and dessert.

Starter: pressed walnut-prune rounds (a new item that Trader Joe's just got in) with manchego cheese (my favorite:-) and freshly roasted chestnuts

Salad: mixed greens with walnuts, dried cranberries, sliced fennel bulb, goat chevre and citrus vinaigrette

Main course: roast beef with roasted root veggies (carrots, onions and fingerling potatoes) and Primal Yorkshire Pudding

Dessert: plum puddings with vanilla sauce



My English Christmas soundtrack will be the very English Cambridge Singers. You can't not be in a holiday mood when the Cambridge singers are singing. On Christmas morning, I'm going to make another cherry clafoutis. It smells amazing when it's baking. I think it might become a Christmas tradition for me:)

Hubby and I are going to do Christmas dinner with just us two and he's making a lamb roast and I splurged on a couple of quinces. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I was inspired by some baked quinces with nuts and whipped cream that I recently had at a Turkish restaurant. Wow, were they good (and not too sweet- the perfect kind of dessert for my diminished sweet tooth!)
I'm not going to cheat and have any gluten free grain-based goodies like I did at Thanksgiving. My health always seems to take a dip if I do that, so it's just not worth it (and gluten is absolutely out of the question, as I'm intolerant). I'm more than content with using almond flour or making fruit desserts and keeping the sugars fairly minimal.

Once January comes, it's Whole30 time for me (which I'll be blogging about for the duration of the month). Who wants to join me??


I hope you all have a very happy (and a very yummy) Christmas! I'd love to hear what you're having;)
-Erin