It's just food, food, food all day! For breakfast, we always have an egg and sausage casserole, a jazzed up hashbrown casserole, ham biscuits and garlic cheese grits (with jalapenos -- Yum!) Fruit will be something very simple like cantaloupe wedges or fresh pineapple. I may or may not get around to making muffins or French toast fingers since sweets aren't a high priority with my crew, particularly early in the day. As some leave to go to 'the other' family's house, and others wander in for the first time, we sort of gradually segue into the brunch phase. I'll add their favorite Cajun crab spread with toasted garlic rounds and a dip or two to the buffet. Once the biscuits are gone, we'll bake some rolls for the ham. I make a super-spicy mustard sauce that my children adore and an herb-flavored mayonnaise so everybody can put together mini-sandwiches. There's always some sort of seafood -- usually poached shrimp with cocktail sauce since it's so easy to do ahead -- and a couple of salads (broccoli and pasta are the faves). Oh, and Bloody Marys to help the cook forget how bad her feet are hurting at this point... By the time everybody who had to leave has returned and we've all worked up a little bit of an appetite again, it's usually 7:30 or so. Our dinner menu varies a little, but this year we'll have Boston Clam Chowder as a starter. (Gift from a dear friend who feels sooo sorry for her poor, deprived Southern pal who didn't grow up eating this. lol) Spinach salad with poppy seed dressing. Beef tenderloin, if I can afford it. If many extras are going to turn up, it will be prime rib instead. A green vegetable TBD, and a potato gratin. Dessert will be Italian cheesecake with a strawberry/Grand Marnier topping -- not that anybody will have room for it, but you have to have one, right?

We ended up with only 33--one DS's family didn't get up from NC & one of the SSs was in Fld, 2nt son & DIL had to work as did one SIL & 2 GDs ,1 DIl had the flu as did a 4 yo GD so only 3 GGDs were here but the rest of us enjoyed ourselves & wonder of wonders only 1 cell phone conversation & that was from the SIL that was working to wish us all Merry Christmas & sorry he was missing the get together. We had enough snow for a nice white Christmas but it was a bit bittersweet as most of the grandkids are grown enough not to be out sledding in the yard. Had the usual buffet style as no way all 33 of us would fit around 1 table. Doc & I prepared a high heat dry rubbed ( minced garlic, rosemary,coarse ground pepper, sea salt, smoked paprika, olive oil )10 # boneless prime rib and roasted fresh Polish sausage, shrimp cocktail & antipasta platter with 2 types of salami, thin sliced hot ham, home marinated fresh motz , kalamari & lrg garlic stuffed green olives, Chase's dills, Linda Lou's sweet chunks & tiny homecanned pickled beets & onions. I also put out a cheese tray with blocks of swiss, extra sharp cheddar,a honeyed goat cheese log and 3 kinds of grapes-& a salad of baby spinach, pear slices , pomagranate seeds & spiced candied walnuts with carafes of a simple white balsalmic vinegatte & a bottled creamy blue cheese. Ann brought her always delicious cheese souffle-- DIL Deb brought deviled eggs, DD Deb brought a veggie & a pepperoni pizza--DD Judy did swedish meatballs & a veggie pasta salad. There was also veggie fried rice and a big bowl of wok stir fried chinese vegs-- Roasted garlic in melted Brie , chips & homemade onion dip, hot spiced peanuts, chocolate caramel tossed kettle corn & a cheesy chex mix. Kimelwick rolls & sliced provalone for beef sandwiches , garlic knots . Dessert was Cranberry Layer Cake from Taste of Home site (source Sandy Burkett) I did as cupcakes, a zillion Christmas cookie & rum raisin ice cream. The gals in the crowd each also brought 2 dz Christmas cookies for the cookie exchange we've been doing as a new tradition we started 3 yrs ago.-- so every family went home with cookies ( mixed) of 11 different kinds-- cause I contribute 3 differt kinds.-- and Jessie's fudge , my tiger bark, and cranberry nouget & Baileys truffles that someboby brought. A few local wines, Irish Coffee, soda for the kids, grape & apple juice for the real little ones-- and lots of love & laughter for all. Here is a link that might be useful: Cranbery Layer Cake

Christmas Eve is our big family gathering, we include a dinner for 20. We serve buffet style, but sit at dining tables. (I discovered that 20 is the perfect number: 10 at the DR, 10 in the sunroom at two folding banquet tables) We went with a simple dinner menu this year: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes (two trays from costco, they were great, and pretty in my new red-orange Dansk pan) and a simple Chistmas salad my aunt made. Elegant! Appetizers were made/brought by others: just shrimp w/sauce, an artichoke dip with crackers, and my kids always make the classic Lipton soup dip. Dessert was the most complicated: DH made his mom's Walnut glory cake which calls for 9 count'em 9 separated eggs. But it's not called "glory" for nothing! Our Scandinavian tradition calls for rice pudding which, for the first time, came from my kitchen. It was a tad soupy, but delicious. And folks brought cookies and candy. Christmas morning DH made our traditional "Eggs McDH" and mimosas. We forgot to make the fruit medley, but that's okay. Then we went to my folks' and my brothers met us up there, for baked French toast (made with Challah, best French toast ever!) and bacon. Christmas night is our quiet intimate dinner at home of leftovers, at the dining room table with the party dinnerware. Me, I felt like the Very Hungry Caterpillar: I ate "one nice green leaf and felt much better". Literally, I had the salad with no dressing lol! Ahhh.

Beef bourguignon. Or, better yet, pot roast done in the style of beef bourguignon. It really has to be done ahead and reheats to finish for serving quickly and easily. Rather than cutting up the chuck as you would for traditional bourguignon, I leave it whole and just call the result pot roast. Trust me. This is a really honking good pot roast. Brown the whole piece (or pieces for a crowd) of salt and peppered chuck in some olive oil in a dutch oven. Remove and set aside on a plate. Saute the mirepoix in the same pot until it starts to brown a bit and becomes aromatic. The mirepoix I use is carrots, onions and celery as well as some bulb fennel (a good use for the stems since they have plenty of flavor and the cooking veg will be discarded anyway). Add several whole cloves of garlic and several stems of fresh thyme (no need to remove the leaves - again, you're going to strain the sauce anyway) and a bay leaf. Pour in half a bottle of decent hearty red wine and reduce by at least 1/2 to 3/4. Pour the rest of the bottle in and reduce by half. Put the meat back in the pot. Add low fat, low salt chicken stock to cover as for a braise. Cover the pot and cook in a low oven until the meat is tender, usually about 3 hours. Remove the meat from the pot, strain the juices and discard the cooking vegetables. Refrigerate the meat and juices separately as it is easier to skim the fat from the cooled cooking liquid if it's cooled separately. Recombine after the juices are defatted. This keeps very well cooked a day or two ahead of time. The day of serving, saute a big pile of fresh mushrooms (and, if you like pearl onions - just get the frozen ones and saute) - I use a couple of pounds for even one piece of chuck - in some butter/olive oil. Season the mushrooms as they cook. Spoon the sauteed mushrooms over the beef and cooking juices and put the whole works in the oven to reheat. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with a salad and crusty bread or potatoes or noodles or polenta or whatever you like to serve this kind of food with. Basically, you can have it on the table within an hour of the scofflaws showing up for dinner.