Food: A Nice Christmas Dinner

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A Nice Christmas Dinner
Thursday, December 29, 2005

My husband and I went to my in-laws' house for Thanksgiving. We had many of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner foods, including the turkey and mashed potatoes. My mother-in-law makes some foods, though, that are...odd, such as pickled asparagus and other veggies. I skip out on those dishes, polite or not. Still, we end up with our share of the traditional Thanksgiving fare. We will be going to my parents for Christmas, and we will have ham and the fixins' on Christmas Eve there and at my grandparents' house on Christmas Day.

Hubby and I are having our Christmas dinner with our infant son on December 21, winter solstice, because we will be leaving the next day. When we were talking about the menu, I decided that I would be tired of the traditional food by the end of the holiday season. Instead we opted to try something new - something that we hope will become a tradition for our family. We are having a seafood Christmas.

While we have not bought the food yet because we want the best available seafood, we went to the store and looked around to pick out what we want. It is odd how a simple change in menu can make something that seems otherwise mundane feel like a new experience.

The first dish we will have will be pieces of snow crab. We will buy shelled crab pieces at our seafood counter and serve them in melted butter as the appetizer to our Christmas meal. While other people prefer to cook their crab in seasoning, I love the natural taste of crab, so melted butter only works for me.

Our main course will consist of shrimp scampi, rice pilaf, and asparagus. I have never made shrimp scampi, but I am excited about it. Our dish calls for only adding onion, garlic, green pepper, and a couple of other spices. The dish is simple and takes little time, making it ideal for our Wednesday evening dinner. We experimented with the rice pilaf this past week, and we are confident that it will work out. We cook the rice in chicken broth and add in chopped onion, a little bell pepper, and some Parmesan seasoning. Next comes the asparagus. I cannot for the life of me understand where asparagus got such a bad rep. This vegetable is delicious! I love it by itself, steamed or boiled, or with some variety of seasoning. For Christmas, we likely will have fresh asparagus lightly steamed.

Then I will be making fresh bread. While we will not have it with dinner, I will bake some fresh bread, which will give the house a wonderful aroma and will last through the night, and we will have it out with dipping sauces, butter, and preserves. We can munch on the bread during the rest of the evening. Freshly baked bread is a treat few Americans experience often. Instead we are happy with processed, standardized loaves that are a good shape for sandwiches. Fresh bread, though, is a different experience. It makes the house smell great and warms the tummy.

Our plans for this Christmas dinner are inexpensive, despite the seafood menu, and simple to make. We will be spending no more than $20 on the entire meal, which is not bad for a special meal. In addition, prepping and cooking the food should not take more than an hour. Once hubby gets home from work, we will begin dinner and by 7 o'clock, we will be engrossed in our own holiday fare. There will be little clean up and little chance for leftovers.

Tradition is important to me and to my husband. Because we live hours away from both families, we are afraid that we will end up traveling to someone else's house every Christmas and Thanksgiving. While we certainly enjoy spending time with our families, we want to make sure that we have our own traditions. We want our son to have something to look forward to when he thinks about Christmas every year. While there will be presents and singing and videotaping, the dinner should be special, too. There is something wonderful about treating yourself to a delicious meal to celebrate a wonderful holiday. Food really does soothe the soul.

By Julia Mercer

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