Christmas Cooking

We are having Christmas Eve and Christmas Dinner at our house this year. It sounds like a tremendous amount of work, but we all share the cooking, so it isn’t really too much.

We go to Christmas Eve service, then come to our house for chili and skillet cornbread. I am honestly not a very good cook, but I do make good chili and a great grilled cheese sandwich, but that really isn’t exactly cooking.

At least I know I have no talent for it. It is worse when someone THINKS they are a gifted cook, but are dreadful. It’s not like if someone thinks they are a good, I don’t know, parallel parker, and then they aren’t. So what, you have to take a few steps to the curb. But, to have to force down a disgraceful Chicken with Capers Sauce is just unforgivable. I just try to have a few things I can make well.

On Christmas Day we have ham and everyone brings a dish or two. Here are some recipes that I make almost every year. I didn’t realize it until I pulled these out to copy them, I have named them either after the person who gave me the recipe or the person who loves that recipe the most.

You’ll have to click on the picture to enlarge it if you would like to actually see it–no way I could get around it.

This one my friend Robin, who is an excellent cook, gave me 20 years ago. As the caption says, my Mom ate almost an entire bowl of this over the sink one Dec 26th. It is that good!

My late Sister-In-Law used to make this dip. Now, one of us makes it. For some reason it makes us miss her a little less.

I used to make this for my old roommate, Joel, for his birthday. If you are cooking for someone who loves sweet potatoes, this is a great dish. It does take an enormous amount of time, but is very delicious.

This could be called a “Cheese Bomb” instead of a “Cheese Ball.” Larry loves it.

I plan on wearing my new apron Jana and Jill got me for my Birthday. It is from Heavely Hostess.