Driftless Appetite

Belated Happy Christmas everyone.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration and were able to see a lot of family and friends.  Keith and I ended up driving all the way to Cooperstown, NY to visit his family.  We had a wonderful time cooking, eating, drinking, and just being together.  Oh, and if you did not know already Cooperstown has the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum so it was a requirement to go.  I did not know anything about baseball and I still don’t.  I did love seeing every picture perfect corner of Cooperstown.

Christmas Dinner

Appetizer:  sausage rolls, Christmas cookies

Meats:  Rib Roast & Ham

Sides:  bacon walnut Brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes, carrots, and turnips, Yorkie pudding (popovers made with roast drippings), green bean casserole

Sauces:  gravy, horseradish cream, Coleman’s mustard

Dessert:  Christmas pudding with custard sauce

Christmas with Keith’s family is a little different affair than what I was used to growing up.  He has an American mother and a British father.  They do a couple of quirky things that I enjoy.  Before dinner everyone

has to tug open their Christmas crackers at the same time with the help of the person next to you.  Inside it there’s typically a paper crown which one has to wear for the entire dinner.  There’s also a piece of paper with a cheesy joke and then a little trinket or toy (this year I got a miniature bowling set).  The second thing is this pile of flaming…

Christmas pudding!  What did you think I was going to say?  Every year, Donna (Keith’s mom) serve him a little plate and he always refuses to eat it.  It’s not that bad especially after you pour a lot of hot custard on top but I’d say it’s definitely enough to have it only once a year.  Donna and I also made some of her Aunt Clara’s cookies (sugar cookies) which I will be writing about next.  You’ve got to wait ’til next year for a Filipino-American Christmas dinner.