I used to think that Christmas vacation was one of those times. It really should be. The children are out of school. The professor husband is out of school. It is even one of the few times during the year that sports coaches (mostly) respect family time, and the calendar settles down to what should be day after day of doing only what one pleases to do. A few years ago, though, our local congregation decided to have an extra Christmas activity-- a live nativity, singing, and refreshments--to be held in our neighborhood just a few days before Christmas. It was a lovely idea, even though we had already had one Christmas party at the church a few weeks earlier. And then I discovered the little asterisk--the youth had been asked to handle all of the preparations, which actually meant that the mothers of the youth would be handling the preparation. (Because apparently simply going to the ladies' auxiliary directly to spread out the work amongst all of the women in the congregation was not possible. Sigh.) We had four children in the youth program, and each was expected to bring two dozen cookies. My scoutmaster husband was in charge of a massive amount of cocoa, and three of our teens were in the nativity itself. I spent an entire day prepping for the evening activity, and found myself too tired, cross, and mildly resentful to even go and enjoy the program. I sent my family out the door with eight dozen cookies, two giant jugs of cocoa, and three costumes layered underneath with thermals and vowed that the next year would be different.
The next year was different. We warned our children ahead of time that the two weeks of Christmas break were a stay-cation, therefore we would not be participating in any scheduled activities of any sort. This worked well, up to a point. That point was where our children decided that they should be playing with friends who were also home for the holidays during any period longer than an hour when we didn't have something specifically scheduled at home or out with the family. Saying "no" to friends on some days only resulted in pitched battles. I longed to be one of those families with relatives close enough or budgets big enough to go somewhere at Christmas time so that for just a couple of weeks a year it would just be... family.
So last year, facing the same dilemma, I decided to schedule two weeks worth of festivities, reasoning that if there was something scheduled every single day, our kids would spend time together--cheerfully, even. As part of those festivities, I decided to have a special dinner every single evening. We have ancestors from thirteen different countries (okay... close ancestors. If you go back further, it's even more, but it's hard to get as excited about your 15th great-grandfather from Russia as it is your grandfather from Syria). I planned out a feast for each of those countries celebrating with their unique traditions and hoped that it would keep my children around the table as well as giving them a taste of their heritage. I rounded up recipes from family, friends, and research. I planned menus, prepared as much as I could ahead of time, and then plowed forward.
For the most part, it was a success. Our children played together, worked in the kitchen together, and ate together. We went out each day somewhere different and then came home to a big dinner. I finally had the family Christmas that we hadn't had since the children were little.
However....
Two reasons that I decided not to do it that way again:
1. That many big meals in a two week period, even with half of each meal pre-prepared and refrigerated or frozen, was still a whole lot of work.
2. Leftovers. We incorporated what we could into lunches and other dinners (for example, the ham from German Christmas became part of the Julbord when we celebrated Sweden), but we still had far too much leftover food for far too many weeks.
So this year, I decided to reschedule each of the dinners for a holiday on or around Christmas time to spread them out a little. The work load each week has been much less and leftovers can be the next day's meal, giving me a break from cooking on some days. Scotland's Christmas feast this year was scheduled for St. Andrew's Day on November 30th.
The Menu
Cullen Skink (Soup)
Beef & Mushroom Pie
Chips (Steak Fries)
Brussels' Sprouts
Scotch Eggs
Dundee Cake
Conclusions: This really is too much food for anyone but teenage/young adult boys, of which we have three. I'd leave off either the soup or the eggs in the future, though the leftover eggs made a great lunch the next day. I will be leaving the eggs off the menu next year, though I am glad that we tried them once. The next few posts will include the recipes for Dundee Cake, Scotch Eggs, Beef & Mushroom Pie, and Cullen Sink. For the "Chips" or steak fries, just follow the directions on the back of the package of frozen steak fries. The Brussels' sprouts were just boiled as per package directions and then tossed with plenty of butter and salt.
First--one day or up to one week ahead, make the cake. This is the traditional Scottish Christmas Cake. It is considerably lighter than its English counterpart, while still having some of the same flavor. If you make it ahead of time, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap after cooling thoroughly.
Dundee Cake -- Yield: 1 cake or about a dozen slices.
1 cup sultanas (golden raisins) or raisins
1 cup dried currants
1/3 cup diced mixed candied fruit peel
1/3 cup red candied cherries
2 tsp grated orange zest (from about 1 large orange)
1/3 cup flour
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 oz. ground almonds (about 1/2 cup pulverized in a nut chopper)
1/2 cup whole almonds (for decoration)
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
Combine raisins, currants, mixed peel, cherries, and orange rind and dredge with 1/3 cup flour. In a separate bowl, cream butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Combine 1 2/3 cups flour, baking powder, and ground almonds; fold into batter mixture. Mix in fruit. Spread in foil lined 8-9" round pan. If using a different size pan fill 3/4 full. Bake at 325F for about 1 1/2 hours or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Using the foil, remove the cake from the pan. Meanwhile, toast almonds in 350F oven until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Heat corn syrup, and brush over top surface of hot cake. Press almonds in whatever design you like over the top of the cake (pressing them in far more than in the above picture), and then give the syrup about 1 hour to cool and set.
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