Family Christmas Came Early!
This year, I wanted to host Christmas. I had never hosted Christmas for my whole family, so this was something I was keen on giving a go. But a few months after I put the feelers out, Mr covid 19 decided he was going to take down the globe and slowly shut everything down. Here in Queensland our borders were shut to most of the other states which meant that, unfortunately, my give it a go Christmas, was becoming less and less possible. But then the announcement came that we were going to be letting NSW back in. This was very exciting news. It had been many months without seeing any of our family. With very short notice, we were able to pull together an early Christmas with not all, but some of my loved ones. Maybe I'll try again next year for the whole family. Call this my practice run, give it a ago Christmas, lol. It was truly a beautiful day and evening. Our hearts were full and so were our belly's. So let's get to the good part, shall we. What was on the menu.
We had a Christmas dinner menu which really went well with the down pour of rain we have been having. This had a selection of different items on it. I'll break them down in to sections. Let's start with protein.
Baked Honey Mustard Ham
Salmon
Prawns
My honey mustard ham, I do every year for my little family. It's always well enjoyed. I bake my ham for 2 hours and baste it every 15/20 mins with the remaining glaze. It just caramelizes and it really melts in your mouth, all that good kind of stuff. This year we also added Salmon. We did this in foil with lemon juice, sea salt and pepper, and I can say I'll happily be adding that to my Christmas menu again. The prawns, well, is it really Christmas with out them?
Side dishes. I always tend to over think when I am planning side dishes. Always thinking, what really goes well with that protein. What will bring that extra kick to the dish. This time around I went with a classic couple of sides and some new ones, that will be coming to the blog soon.
Roast vegetables Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Roast Potato
Potato Salad
Pumpkin feta and pine nut Salad
Sweet Chill Thai Noodled Salad
Dinner Rolls
Roast vegetables. Now who doesn't love them? I love a good crunchy potato. The salads. They all went well. They are all light and have their own special flavors. But I had been working on a new salad and decided to pull it out for the family. The Sweet chill noodle salad. It was a real delight and loved by all so I'll be bring that to you guys very soon.
Dessert now. We didn't leave dessert out. Normally I would go with the classic pavlova, but I am still currently living with the trauma from the last pavlova incident. Lets just say after not turning the fan force on the first time around, to the dog getting inside and eating my second pavlova, I am little scared of the Pavlova party that could take place again, lol.. So I went with a good old Trifle. I have added a few little bits to mine to give that little crunch factor. I use meringues and I also use all lactose free Custards and creams. Best part is, until my family reads this they never new that anything was lactose free and they ate it all and loved it, lol. They'll probably never trust my cooking again, sorry guys .
On the blog next week, you'll be able to find all my homemade Christmas gifts.
Xo Tieana
