Who's cooking / baking for the holidays?

[wtg]

Christmas dinner at @bernard 's!! All the goodies look fabulous, in particular the Christmas cake.

We're having our Lithuanian Kūčios (Christmas Eve dinner) tonight. Various types of herring, beet and bean salad, Salad Olivier, šližikai, (poppy seed biscuits with poppy seed milk), and kisielius (cranberry kissel). Tomorow is a bit up in the air.

Lithuanian Christmas traditions:

https://www.lithaz.org/arts/xmas.html

[Axtremus]

I bought a few semi-prepared prepackaged dishes from the price club. I will be using the conventional oven's "bake" function to cook these dishes to edible temperatures. Does that count?

[AdagioM]

My sister is smoking 18 lbs of prime rib on her Traeger tomorrow. The family is pot lucking the rest; I’m hosting at my house. I’m only responsible for roasted brussels sprouts (with Chinese sausage!) and a flourless chocolate torte. A friend is bringing mashed potatoes, another sister is bringing sweet potato gratin and mini oreo cheesecakes. My brother always brings a shrimp ring for before…

But we’ll also have our kids over for brunch first! Bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers…scrambled eggs, mimosas, presents.

[AdagioM]

@Bernard It all looks fabulous. Really 14.5 pounds of boozy cake? That’s almost like a packed box of salmon roe from my cannery days! (20 lbs, but hey)

[Bernard]

@AdagioM said in Who's cooking / baking for the holidays?:

Really 14.5 pounds of boozy cake?

Yeah, out of curiosity I weighed it. It's full of fruit, armagnac, sherry, and marsala.

It sounds like you are having quite a feast!

[Steve Miller]

@wtg Salad Olivier is a new one on me.

Looks great!

[wtg]

@Steve-Miller

This recipe is pretty close to ours, though uur version skips the ham, at least for Christmas Eve.

https://valentinascorner.com/olivier-salad-recipe-russian-potato-salad/

We used to call it Babos Salad, named after an elderly Lithuanian/Russian lady who was an integral part of the Lithuanian community I grew up in. "Baba" is "grandma" in Russian; that's what we all called her. She used to use crab meat on top as a garnish. Great addition!

We use red potatoes, skins on. I dice the raw potatoes and steam them. Much easier than trying to dice them after they're cooked. Same for the carrots, dice and then either steam or zap in the microwave for a minute or two.

No cukes in ours; they tend to release too much liquid as the salad sits in the frig to chill.

I had never heard of pickles with oak leaves (agurkai su ąžuolų lapais), but this particular brand of them has become our favorites. Kėdainių Konservai products are quite available at international markets.

https://tasteitmarket.com/products/kedainiu-pickles-with-oak-leave

[Steve Miller]

The family saved their bones for me!

https://share.icloud.com/photos/095ZtiNnSrctUy0QvmSPeLUxQ

Ham is (was?) a Honeybaked and there was lots of meat left on the bone. My experience with Honeybaked has been hit and miss but the meat on this particular ham is outstanding! Very fine grain, not quite deli ham but close. Not as sweet as others I’ve had, which I view as good.

Rib bones are from last night and also have a lot of meat on them. Seems this family doesn’t fight over the bones and gnaw on them like animals as was the custom in the Miller household.

[Steve Miller]

Honeybaked must have their hams butchered to order. I have never seen a ham bone shaped like this one.

[wtg]

@Steve-Miller said in Who's cooking / baking for the holidays?:

Rib bones are from last night and also have a lot of meat on them.

I'm drooling....

[Jodi]

Sourdough cinnamon rolls.