Christmas Dinner #1

I am going to have multiple Christmas dinners this year, starting with yesterdays. The guys who live here saw the 17 pound bird on the counter thawing on the counter on Friday and couldn’t help noticing the price. “Where did you get that much turkey for $17?”, they asked.

“A Red Hot Deal at the Coop this week,” I answered, “and we are going to have Christmas dinner on Sunday.”

Kelvin requested turnips and sweet potatoes. And I had planned to use up that last of the 10 cabbages with an Asian coleslaw salad.

I did a fancy cut on some carrots and added potatoes, gravy and home made buns. That was the meal. I never stand at the counter and roll dough into buns without thinking of the day Billie Bates came to my house and taught me how to make perfect rolls and Nanaimo squares.

Connor passed through the kitchen and I passed the talent on to him, first demo-ing and then letting him work on some of the hand rolls. I added a lesson parker house rolls for him as well, something bakeries don’t sell anymore – too labour intensive.

Remember, those rolls Wyora would make for quilting luncheons, the ones that would break open with just the smallest bit of pressure? Well, we served them at our house yesterday.

Hard not to pull out the Italian antipasto olive mix or the garlic stuffed olives for the table in some divided dish and think of Glen saying, “Where are the dill pickles? Wyona always puts those on.”

As well we started out with Costco’s new blueberry covered feta (do buy some ... divine) as well as some boursin and jalapeno havarti with crackers on the side as appetizers.

When the hot buns were on the counter by noon, Mati was lured out of his room with the smell. “Start the dinner five hours early and have one of the mini-loaves of bread while it was hot”, I said.

“Just one,” he said. I later heard him tell the other guys, “I started the meal early. Arta said to have just one, but I couldn’t stop until I have eaten four. It is evening now and I am still not all that hungry.”

Deviled eggs is the most untraditional of items to serve for Christmas dinner. I do it for those who don’t eat meat, the vegetarians – kind of like serving them mini-chickens.

I am always having trouble figuring out if I should be saving the extra turkey I buy on special or using it up and freeing up freezer space (for deer meat, since the third one is now hanging in my garage). Hard call.

Next Sunday, I am just going to cook a turkey and salad. Just that! I don’t have to do the dinner that takes a whole day to prepare just because I know how to throw a turkey in the oven and come back 4 hours later to it being cooked.

In two weeks, I will be having to use up the turkey in turkey salad, turkey pot pie, turkey a la king, turkey sandwiches, and the turkey soup. By then the soup will be half turkey and half vegetables because we will be slowing down our great powers to eat turkey meat.

I always boil the bones, a habit from so long ago. Just getting one more meal out of the turkey. Now I know that the broth is so absolutely scrumptious that I have moved the reason for the boil from being thrifty to wanting that delicious flavour.

I have the method down to a science. While my meat cutter is taking the meat from the carcass, I have him put the bones right into my boiling pot. In less than a minute I can add 12 peppercorns, 2 carrots and 2 onions. There is nothing in the way of preparation for the soup pot than skinning the 2 onion and quartering them (as well as remembering where I put the peppercorns last. ).

I then put the pot on the back burner with a low simmer and let things go while we eat a leisurely dinner. It only took me 50 years in the kitchen to learn how to get that pot boiling early. Three hours later when the food is all put away in the fridge, and the dishwasher is going, the broth is ready to strain. If I have been really good at getting the turkey off of the bones, I don’t even go after the bits of meat that are in the pot – save time, get the bones in the garbage, that broth into the fridge and lay down for a nap – because I, too, have over-eaten, everything was so delicious.

So ... Christmas Dinner #1 is down and I am counting.

What is the holiday season for, if not for feasting in the company of friends?

Arta