On Christmas Eve, the family gathered for dinner at the cabin. We had Swedish Meatballs and noodles, butter-sauteed brussel sprouts, Romaine salad, and fruit.
The meatballs were a traditional Swedish recipe, made easy by using a scoop to form the balls, and a warm sourcream dill sauce for gravy.
The romaine salad was supposed to have strawberries. Carrie and I made a last minute trip to local grocery stores, in a heavy snow storm, only to find one lonely basket of half-ripe berries. So we substituted some lovely raspberries, blueberries, pomagranate seeds, and feta cheese. I made the dressing according to the recipe from a Canadian friend, who had concocted it with her professional chef husband. Even though it was meant to go with strawberries in the romaine, it was luscious with the mixed fruit, and the bit of saltiness of the feta completed the whole salad with a tasty mix of contrasts.
The dressing is an equal mix of mayonnaise and sourcream, sweetened with a splash of Sugar Free Strawberry syrup (DaVinci or Torini), with a dash of poppy seeds. Thin with bit more cold water to make a not-too-thick but pourable dressing. If you can't get the syrup (which I didn't), for a mix of about 2/3 cup each mayo/sourcream, use a teaspoon strawberry flavoring, a couple tablespoons of Splenda or other sweetener (to taste), a drop of red coloring, then add cream or water, to the desired texture. It's not too sweet, and the cotton-candy pink color makes it very enticing. This was also a delectable dip for chunks of fresh pineapple, and red grapes!
Dessert was one of the easiest cheesecake concoctions I've found. Beat together two 8-ounce packages cream cheese (full or low fat, you be the judge), a 7-oz. jar of marshmallow cream, and 1/2 T. vanilla (or more; or almond, or whatever you have a taste for). Spoon into graham crust - I used the small individual ones just for fun. Makes 8 heaped desserts. Refrigerate until firm, a couple of hours. To serve, each was topped with whipped cream and garnished with red and green gumdrop pieces. Very Christmasy! And rich, I might add. Next time I would put the filling in mini-muffin pan crusts, and serve one or two to each person.
The only new recipe I did this year, was a cookie that was just a little more involved. The dough was a simple chocolate mixture, rolled thin and cut into circles and stars. The basic vanilla frosting stuck them together, then they got a chocolate ganache drizzle. These are just fancy enough to be "special", but easy enough to be worth the few minutes to assemble.
Every family has favorite festive foods - it's fun to bring out the traditional recipes, and try out a few new tastes.
The brussel sprouts were DEFINATELY the new taste this year. The punks were good sports - I told them it was a taste test to see if we wanted to include brussel sprouts in the garden next year. Apparently if they are to be grown, it will be Amanda and I doing the honors....
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