Christmas Dinner

So, I've heard that when it comes to food, Thanksgiving is the bigger day in the US than Christmas, but is there anything special you guys do for Christmas Dinner?

First off, Merry Christmas guys. I hope y'all are enjoying your day and spending it with friends and family.

We do a turducken every Christmas. It is a south Louisiana thing. We take a boneless turkey, shove a boneless duck inside, then shove a boneless chicken inside that. Afterward we stuff all that with either quail or seafood stuffing.

I heard they are doing one better now. Don't know what they call it, but they shove all of that into a pig and cook it in a cajun microwave.

Marconius wrote:First off, Merry Christmas guys. I hope y'all are enjoying your day and spending it with friends and family.

Spent it with my family, was the first year my wife has xmas away from her own family (I was there last year) and she's never really gotten on with my mother, so my best-case expectations for christmas this year was "not too many arguments, no-one storming off in a huff, and me not having to play referee". Luckily, we managed that - Christmas next year will be in our new house :-)

We do a turducken every Christmas. It is a south Louisiana thing. We take a boneless turkey, shove a boneless duck inside, then shove a boneless chicken inside that. Afterward we stuff all that with either quail or seafood stuffing.

Always wanted to try one of those, but the only place I've ever seen them is pre-prepared in a local supermarket chain and to be honest I'd never really trust their meat.... What we had here was the standard: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts (am not sure why as no-one really likes them, but they're tradition), followed by christmas cake and pudding lashed with brandy butter.

In my in-laws place just before xmas we had a local specialty: spiced beef. This is a joint of beef which has been marinated in spices and saltpetre for about a month, and is then on the day is boiled for about 2-3hrs (some ppl boil it in guinness). Gorgeous!

cook it in a cajun microwave.

OK, I'll bite on this obviously leading statement: what is a "Cajun Microwave"?

Miles, use this internet thingy and look for a place here in south Louisiana to send you a turducken. They are about 100 bucks before shipping.

A cajun microwave is just a box to put your game into. You then surround the box with coals and cook the game slowly. It really works well on hog. We used to put them in the ground, but companies now make nice, standup models.

Beef marinated in saltpetre.....kinda takes the fun outta Christmas night eh.

We had a severe storm roll through our area. Somewhere around a dozen tornadoes were spawned. It was supposed to hit at about 1300, but we got lucky. After about 10 min of heavy downpour, the sky cleared to blue and cloudless. No bad weather hit my town, but just north and south of us got hammered.

I feel for you Miles. I'm overjoyed at the purchase of your house, but now you gonna have to put up with holidays at your place. Thanksgiving was at my house this year, so Christmas was at my bro-in-laws. I always prefer it somewhere else other than my house. When I'm tired of the crowd, I can leave. Just wait, you'll see what I mean.

Miles1 wrote:So, I've heard that when it comes to food, Thanksgiving is the bigger day in the US than Christmas, but is there anything special you guys do for Christmas Dinner?

It varies for us. This year I cooked a ham and also a turkey breast. IT was far too much for the two of us but we can make sandwiches for a long time afterward. Also cornbread dressing (not stuffing), string beans, sweet potato casserol, gravy for the dressing and turkey. Lots of cakes and cookies throughout the season. (I gained weright....*sigh*). And we had iced tea.

Some holidays a few of our relatives will deep fry turkeys but I'm not crazy about fried food anymore. Occasionally I'll make smoked turkeys and hams.

Miles, tell me about the pudding lashed with brandy butter. I dont think I've tried that.

Marconius wrote:Beef marinated in saltpetre.....kinda takes the fun outta Christmas night eh.

Is OK so long as everyone is eating it together... :-P

We had a severe storm roll through our area. Somewhere around a dozen tornadoes were spawned. It was supposed to hit at about 1300, but we got lucky. After about 10 min of heavy downpour, the sky cleared to blue and cloudless. No bad weather hit my town, but just north and south of us got hammered.

An eventful xmas then! Glad to hear you dodged the worst of it.

I feel for you Miles. I'm overjoyed at the purchase of your house, but now you gonna have to put up with holidays at your place. Thanksgiving was at my house this year, so Christmas was at my bro-in-laws. I always prefer it somewhere else other than my house. When I'm tired of the crowd, I can leave. Just wait, you'll see what I mean.

Well, next year if I don't change my job I'll be working for christmas day, so I can put that bit off for another year :-)

Dennis324 wrote: (I gained weright....*sigh*).

If you don't gain some weight over xmas, then you're doing xmas wrong!

Some holidays a few of our relatives will deep fry turkeys but I'm not crazy about fried food anymore. Occasionally I'll make smoked turkeys and hams.

Miles, tell me about the pudding lashed with brandy butter. I dont think I've tried that.

Deep fry a turkey? As in. a whole turkey? Damn......

Christmas Pudding and Brandy Butter are the tradition over here. Am not sure what goes into the pudding bar fruit and and lots of alcohol, but it tastes fabulous. And the brandy butter as far as I know is made from brandy, butter and icing sugar (not sure of the proportions - prob plenty of recipes on the web). The way you eat it is you serve the pudding hot (some ppl cover it in brandy and set fire to it, for dramatic effect), and then you put on a dollop of the brandy butter and leave it melt into the pudding.

Miles1 wrote:

Well, next year if I don't change my job I'll be working for christmas day, so I can put that bit off for another year :-)

Ya know Miles, I still don't know what it is you do. I know you work in an office......feel for you on that one buddy. I am much happier out of an office as compared to when I was in one......but I have no idea what industry you work in. Pretty crappy that you may have to work on Christmas. The oil field never shuts down, yet I never have to work holidays . The beauty of being a contractor is that the oil companies never want to pay that exorbitant holiday pay rate!!!!

Miles1 wrote:

Dennis324 wrote: (I gained weright....*sigh*).

If you don't gain some weight over xmas, then you're doing xmas wrong!

Some holidays a few of our relatives will deep fry turkeys but I'm not crazy about fried food anymore. Occasionally I'll make smoked turkeys and hams.

Miles, tell me about the pudding lashed with brandy butter. I dont think I've tried that.

Deep fry a turkey? As in. a whole turkey? Damn......

Christmas Pudding and Brandy Butter are the tradition over here. Am not sure what goes into the pudding bar fruit and and lots of alcohol, but it tastes fabulous. And the brandy butter as far as I know is made from brandy, butter and icing sugar (not sure of the proportions - prob plenty of recipes on the web). The way you eat it is you serve the pudding hot (some ppl cover it in brandy and set fire to it, for dramatic effect), and then you put on a dollop of the brandy butter and leave it melt into the pudding.

Sounds great!

Yeah, deep fry a turkey! Check it out on youTube. Funny as heck! We crazy Southerners will deep fry anything!

Dennis324 wrote:

We crazy Southerners will deep fry anything!

Anything?





Have had the deep fried mars bars, they're...... interesting.

Yeah that's about right. Lol! I've never heard about frying butter, but I've heard of frying 'Twinkies'. And I've been to Mexican restaurants where I ate fried ice cream...very good!

Marconius wrote:
Ya know Miles, I still don't know what it is you do. I know you work in an office......feel for you on that one buddy. I am much happier out of an office as compared to when I was in one......but I have no idea what industry you work in. Pretty crappy that you may have to work on Christmas. The oil field never shuts down, yet I never have to work holidays . The beauty of being a contractor is that the oil companies never want to pay that exorbitant holiday pay rate!!!!

Yeah, I'm an office nerd, I work for a US games company as part of the tech support team (internal tech support really - we're the ones who look after all the databases, web servers etc). We do 24/7 work and I'm the "night shift" for the Seattle office, so I work 10pm to 8am Pacific time (6am to 4pm here). The way the shifts work is that if you're scheduled to work a particular day (my days are weds to sat), you work that day whether it's a public holiday or not. So, as xmas is on a weds next year, I'll be working for it.

Miles1 wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:

We crazy Southerners will deep fry anything!

Anything?





Have had the deep fried mars bars, they're...... interesting.

Fried turkey isn't breaded though. Deep fried turkey is yet another gift to y'all from the great state of Cajunland.

Miles1 wrote:
Yeah, I'm an office nerd, I work for a US games company as part of the tech support team (internal tech support really - we're the ones who look after all the databases, web servers etc). We do 24/7 work and I'm the "night shift" for the Seattle office, so I work 10pm to 8am Pacific time (6am to 4pm here). The way the shifts work is that if you're scheduled to work a particular day (my days are weds to sat), you work that day whether it's a public holiday or not. So, as xmas is on a weds next year, I'll be working for it.

OMG, you are a WOW server tech!!! Priceless!!!

Marconius wrote:
OMG, you are a WOW server tech!!! Priceless!!!

Not quite, I work for these guys... :-P

Marconius wrote:

Miles1 wrote:
Yeah, I'm an office nerd, I work for a US games company as part of the tech support team (internal tech support really - we're the ones who look after all the databases, web servers etc). We do 24/7 work and I'm the "night shift" for the Seattle office, so I work 10pm to 8am Pacific time (6am to 4pm here). The way the shifts work is that if you're scheduled to work a particular day (my days are weds to sat), you work that day whether it's a public holiday or not. So, as xmas is on a weds next year, I'll be working for it.

OMG, you are a WOW server tech!!! Priceless!!!

I tellya a game I have just flat-out fallen in luv with. Its The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I had been playing their game 'Morrowind' on an ancient xbox I had. (Terrible graphics). But I'm playing Oblivon on my PS3 and the graphics are incredible! Open ended game too and so much fun.