On the 26th we woke up to still more snow.
I thought evil thoughts about my neighbour who was welcoming his brother and family from the UK. I get that you hoped fro a white Christmas for them but all of this was just too much.
Paul went out to shovel the fresh snow.
Inside the kittens were hard at work keeping warm.
We had invited our guests for 1:00 (although for some reason mom thought it was 1:30 and even then she arrived at 2:30). Because we were doing a prime rib roast rather than the usual turkey we didn't need to have a giant hunk of meat in the oven for 5 hours like we normally did. By 10 I had everything made and we just needed to utilize the oven for a couple of hours to get it all on the table.
The roast had a crust of mustard, garlic, and herbs.
Guests who arrived on time (i.e. NOT mom) enjoyed apps in front of the fireplace. Sausage rolls (using the Jamie Oliver recipe with caramelized onions and fresh sage), cheddar sausage balls, and cheddar wrapped olives. Paul selected a cocktail from his new farm-to-table cookbook by Lynn Crawford - luckily we had just received a bottle of local, organic grape juice in our last CSA shipment!
Once mom finally we served dinner. We moved into the dining room for the main meal.
We served the prime rib, yorkshire, and potato gratin on plates and then let people help themselves to the green bean casserole (no pic), fennel gratin, gravy, and horesradish sauce. We also had fresh rolls and butter. Unfortunately because of her tardiness the yorkshire pudding that had looked so impressive when it was taken from the oven had deflated. :-( What a disappointment.
Dessert was the leftover yule log from Christmas eve, tarts, fruit cake, and our annual platter of cookies and squares.
We were finished eating by 3:30.
Our normal Christmas routine would see me racing around at this time just trying to get dinner ready. I sort of liked having it all done. We sat around, talked, opened gifts, laughed for the rest of the time until people left at 9ish.
While it had not been planned this way in the end it was one of the more enjoyable, relaxed Christmas dinners I can remember.
Perhaps it is time for a new tradition. LOL
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