I know a lot of people outside the US seem to think that the food portion sizes over here are out of control. While I don't disagree with you, there are a few tricks you can learn that helps to make it a little more manageable. First, you can share an entree with your partner, that's a good way to diminish the returns on a large meal. The other way is to just eat part of the entree and take the rest home for another meal. Splitting that days worth of calories across multiple meals makes it just a bit better than the alternative.
But this post isn't about either of those things...
I think we can all agree the holidays are a time when many of us indulge and over-indulge in some of our favorite foods. Many times those foods only come around once a year, so you need to take advantage of them while they are available.
@mrsbozz's family has many traditions for the holidays that we have done our best to continue through the years. It often becomes difficult when we have to split our time between my family and her family, but we do our best.
Things generally kick off on Christmas Eve morning when the "men" of the family head out for breakfast. We have been doing this for close to ten years now. We had a place that we would regularly visit, but it sadly shut down a while ago. We bounced around to several places for a bit, but the last couple of years we have established one of the Leo's Coney Island locations in Mid-Michigan as our go-to for Christmas Eve breakfast.
As my nephews have gotten older, they have started coming as well.
If you have never had breakfast at an American diner, I would have to say that they are the epitome of those large portions that everyone expects from the US. Half a plate of potatoes, half a plate covered with a three egg omelette, toast, and who knows what else.
My big breakfast of choice is usually some form of omelette. Trust me, I know the photo above looks like a steaming pile of poo on my eggs, but trust me when I say, it was delicious. This year I went with the coney omelette (no rabbit to be found).
It was basically a three egg omelette with onions and cheese in it, then they topped it with their signature beef based coney sauce. If you want to learn more about this delicious yet visually un-appealing substance, you can find more info here. Typically they put this on a hot dog or frankfurter, but it worked really well on my omelette.
Lunch is usually skipped all together on Christmas Eve as our stomachs are still full from breakfast, and we need to leave room for the grand spread that takes place in the evening. It's basically just a whole bunch of appetizers laid out for everyone to enjoy. Each person has one or two things they are well known for making and it would be a travesty if one of them didn't make it to the counter.
Besides the brisket I made this year, my usual "dish to pass" are these sausage cheese balls.
I cut back from a full batch to a half batch several years ago and it still seems to be enough for everyone. Basically, you just take a tube of breakfast sausage, a package of sharp cheddar cheese, some celery, onion, garlic powder, and bisquick biscuit mix and you mix it all together.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and you get these rich delicious molten balls of savory goodness.
It's actually a really retro recipe that I picked up from an ex's family a long time ago, but I'll be danged if people don't just love them. I always get rave remarks about them whenever I make them. I honestly hate making them because the mixture sticks to your hands so bad when you are making the balls, but the end result is always worth it.
In addition to the sausage cheese balls and the brisket, we also had a cold bean dip that @mrsbozz made, several other savory dips that you see in the photo above, shrimp cocktail, and fried chicken wings.
We used to get the fried wings from a local restaurant, but we found that another local grocery store chain called Kroger makes them even better for a cheaper price. We generally get 50 to 75 wings and between the 18 or so people in the family, they are usually all gone by the next day.
My sister in law makes a veggie pizza that is really good which you see in the photo above. One of my favorite things that my mother in law makes are called "baco-nuts". It's basically just a water chestnut wrapped in bacon and then slathered with a ketchup based sauce and baked in the oven. They are sweet and savory, crunchy, and delicous.
We also have "onion puffs", which are basically just toasted bread with a mayonnaise and onion mixture broiled on top of them. Trust me, they are delicious. Over the years we have tried to cut back on our food items, but we still always end up having way more than we need.
Christmas morning we turn around and do it all over again. This time with a big breakfast cooked mostly by my father in law. He makes a large thing of scrambled eggs with bacon, hash browns, breakfast sausage, polish sausage, and toast.
In addition to that, my mother in law makes coffee cakes that are put out on each table for people to enjoy. Not everyone in the family comes back for breakfast on Christmas morning, but those who can make it are always welcome. This year @robrigo showed up for breakfast and I got to chat with him a little bit. It was great to reconnect with my wife's cousin who got me started on HIVE.
Lunch on Christmas Day is basically just left overs from the night before, but for dinner, we have started a new tradition. The past couple of years we have travelled across town to my brother in laws house where he cooks up hibachi on his Blackstone griddle. Chicken, steak, shrimp (the only time I eat shrimp) and fried rice that my mother in law makes all toasted up just right on the griddle.
It's absolutely delicious!
Next thing you know, it's the new year and the detox begins!
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