My Christmas Eve Feast

One of the things I look forward to every Christmas is our Christmas family meal. Usually I share this task with my Mum, each of us preparing some of the dishes for the spread for the whole family. This year, for the first time ever, my parents were on holiday over the Christmas break. I couldn't imagine not having Chirstmas dinner at home, so I decided that I was going to cook the whole meal instead. And I invited my Aunt and my in-laws to join us and my siblings, so including my Mum's and my helper, that was 11 mouths I was going to need to feed!

Good thing I absolutely love cooking for parties. I love researching for new recipes, piecing a meal together, and having a whole bunch of people come over and eat. This year, as with all things it seems, Martha Stewart was my guru. These were the recipes I decided on:

1. Marmalade Glazed Ham
2. Roast Beef with Caramelized Shallots
3. Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
4. Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Bacon
5. Green Beans with Dried Cranberries
6. Jamie Oliver's Real Mushroom Soup

And this was the result.

My SIL brought the Salad (which was so good that even my salad-hating husband asked for more) and my sister and BIL brought the durian ice-cream log cake, which was quite a change from the usual thing!

I was so glad that everything turned out well, and on schedule too! DD scared me into starting in the morning, but as a result, I spent a lot of time waiting in between because a lot of the dishes had to be done just before everyone came anyway.

My biggest concerns were the meats. It was my first time glazing a whole 5 kg leg of ham -- one that I had painstakingly lugged  back from Sydney -- and it was a lot of meat to waste. As for the beef, I had splurged on some Angus beef this year and with a new oven, I was a bit worried about getting it right. Rare meat or worse, overcooked beef would have been a disaster. Fortunately that didn't happen. I held my breath as the 2 men got down to work and heaved a sigh of relief when my BIL assured me that the beef was good. DD even told me that it was better than usual. That I credit to the searing on high heat before roasting, as suggested by the recipe. Definitely doing that again the next time.

Men hard at work dishing up dinner. Zack got some training from DD later. It'll be his turn next year.

With Meips and Noey providing the entertainment, I think fun was had by all. Meips impressed everyone by sitting in her highchair throughout dinner, munching on pieces of bread. All of us at the table were all too familiar with how that never happened when Noey was the same age! She also tried to join in the conversation occasionally with her loud "Ahh!"s, much to the everyone's amusement.

After dinner, we allowed the kids to open the gifts given by all present, much to Noey's delight. And there was plenty of good stuff -- lots of books, toys, and clothing, the latter for Meips in particular. They are very blessed.

Everyone hung around till it was way past the kids' bedtime and we had to call it a night.

It was a lovely way to usher in Christmas, surrounded by family, just the way it should be.