Poor Mom! She moved to Dallas a year and a half ago to be close to the family there. My little sister was going to have a big get-together Christmas Eve, with all her kids and their significant others, spouses, and children, and Mom. But it snowed near Dallas and the driving was treacherous, so “Christmas was cancelled”. Mom missed out here and there.
Christmas Day there were eleven of us for what can only be called a feast. We had a big menu planned for dinner, and an even bigger dessert menu. So as we sat to eat I told everyone to save room for dessert.
Paul and Jerry used the new slicer to cut ham, turkey ham, and turkey breast. There were mashed potatoes and boiled sweet potatoes; steamed broccoli and corn; broccoli/cheese casserole and polenta/vegetables; stuffing, gravy, and rolls. We didn’t remember the fruit salad until everyone had eaten “firsts”, so they all scooped up salad with generous helpings of whipped cream. For dessert there was orange-almond torte, chocolate torte, apple pie, mini cream puffs and éclairs, and peppermint and vanilla ice creams. And there was more whipped cream to go on anything/everything.
I’ll never figure out the logistics of a meal larger than 4 people. I’m juggling so many food items that I can never get it all cooked on time, which I guess doesn’t matter because the people don’t show up on time, either! [D, J and S get extra points for being on time.] With all the leaves in our usual table plus a card table in the kitchen, there isn’t room to move around. We had to wait for everyone to fill their plates before anyone could sit! And then I had no seating arrangement: the 2 oldest grown-ups ended up eating at the “Children’s Table”.
The cats were scarce most of the day. Hannah took off early. Sydney came in during dinner and tried to make friends with everyone, and did her best to look cute when we were all gathered in the front room. (Sometimes little B took over the “cute” role.) I called the girls in and fed them at their regular dinner time, Hannah upstairs away from all the commotion. I thought I locked them in, but had forgotten that my studio door was open, so they just went right back out. When I called them later, the one I thought was Hannah wouldn’t come. I got a flashlight to go track her down and found I was looking at an opossum! No wonder it didn’t come when called! But Hannah was nearby so I carried her in. She hid under the couch the rest of the evening.
I have to tell you about the orange torte. A while back I read the series of Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz. Brother Odd had a monkish character (is he friend or foe?) who did lots of baking. One day he made a flourless orange-almond cake with chocolate frosting. This sounded so good I had to have some! I tried Dean Koontz’s web site, and was all over the web looking for a recipe. I found a nice one that I tried this week. I got to know my kitchen appliances really well, and did 2 dishwasher-loads in the process! The main ingredients are puréed poached Clementine oranges, ground blanched almonds, and eggs. I served it with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. [I shaved up a bar of my favorite Trader Joe’s 72% cacao dark chocolate for the occasion.] It was a wonderful combination of flavors and textures. Paul liked the cream puffs better, so he’ll be eating those up and I’ll finish up the torte.
It was nice to visit with family on both sides. Some we had seen recently, some we hadn’t seen in 16 months, and there was one we didn’t know at all who seemed to fit right in. All in all, it was a good day.