Kim's Cooking and Gardening: Grandma's Christmas Party 2011

Four years ago, we started the most delightful family tradition. It’s fun, exhausting, loud and wonderful and the most highly anticipated event of the year – right up there with elk hunting. It’s Grandma’s Christmas Party. I wish I could say it was an original idea. It’s not. I borrowed it from Marjorie Pay Hinckley. I hope I can thank her for it someday, because it’s brought great joy to our family.

Here’s how it goes: it’s always the week before Christmas on a Friday night and Saturday. All the grandchildren, three years old and up (this year we have seven grandkids from three years to ten years old – we’ll have all eight next year and may call for some Navy Seals for backup), come to Grandpa and Grandma’s house. They wear their Sunday best. We have a lovely sit-down formal dinner.

Grandpa talks a bit about manners at dinner – we sit up on our chair, we don’t eat with our fingers, we say “please and “thank you” and so on. Then we get to catch up on what they have done lately. They all thank Grandma for a wonderful dinner. Then we move into the family room for a gift exchange. Each grandchild was assigned another grandchild and brings a gift for them. There’s a limit on the price of the gift - no more than $10 each (it was $5 when we started this tradition, but what with inflation and all…).

Then we practice the annual Christmas play. It’s always the same – the story of the nativity from Luke 2. Every year, someone gets a chance to be Joseph or Mary or an angel or a shepherd or a sheep. They rotate roles – the girl who was Mary last year is an angel this year, the guy who was wise man last year is a shepherd this year. Except for one of our grandsons – he loves being a sheep, so he gets to do that if he wants. Fortunately, one of our daughters has an extensive dress-up closet and sends all the appropriate angel or sheep costumes.

After practicing, the kids open the presents we give them for the party. They’re always the same and always expected – matching red Christmas jammies. And matching Christmas ornaments with their names and the year engraved on the ornament.

We put on our matching jammies (not Walt – I can’t find any in his size), then we play games or we run around the house playing Star Wars or Harry Potter or whatever is the current interest. Actually, this year, we made pine cone bird feeders and decorated gingerbread ornaments for their trees.

We watch a short DVD on the birth of the Savior.

http://lds.org/bible-videos/videos?lang=eng

Then we brush teeth. That, in and of itself, is a production. At this point, we’re trying to keep track of 7 toothbrushes, 14 dress shoes, 7 outfits, 7 suitcases or backpacks, 7 sleeping bags, 7 pillows, you get the idea. It just keeps growing exponentially.

Anyway, once we’ve brushed our teeth, they spread their sleeping bags all over the family room in front of the Christmas tree. We tell them it’s “quiet time” and they go immediately to sleep at 8 PM. Right...

Everyone brings one or two of their favorite Christmas stories and Grandpa sits in the big chair and starts reading. Technically, he’s supposed to read until everyone goes to sleep, but usually he gets sleepy first. In the meantime, I do the dishes and get some things ready for the next day.

Amazingly, they really don’t get up that early on Saturday morning. It’s usually about 5:30 or so when everyone piles onto Grandpa and Grandma’s bed. It’s getting more crowded every year. Since none of them are likely to get any smaller, it will probably continue to be more crowded each year. We take a red pajama picture, then we have pancakes for breakfast. Everyone gets a pancake in the shape of their initial. I think they come out looking like big blobs, but the kids like them. They have better imaginations than I do.

We try to get everyone dressed, and have their belongings stacked in some semblance of order. Every year, something or many things go home with someone else or with no one, but we get it all sorted out in a month or so.

Then the parents come. This is our family Christmas day. When each little family was starting out, we told them they needed to develop their own Christmas traditions. This is our way of sharing Christmas with them, and they get to be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We take turns visiting one of the families on Christmas day every year.

After the parents arrive about 9 AM, we have a cookie exchange. We do this instead of a gift exchange for the adults. Each of the daughters and I make enough cookies to feed the 101^st Airborne Division. Since all four families give cookie plates to neighbors and friends, this way we get to give a wonderful variety without having to make each one. The kitchen is covered from one end to the other in all sorts of yummy, delicious, tempting, scrumptious Christmas treats. All the adults pitch in, stocking plates, wrapping plates, testing cookies to make sure we don’t ever give someone a cookie we wouldn’t eat ourselves, etc.

Next, we have our family Christmas program. As the children get older, they are developing many musical talents – piano, violin, dance, and trumpet. So the ones that want to perform (and they all do) put on a lovely show.

After that, the kids put on their Christmas Nativity play. Oh, it’s priceless. We’ve had shy Marys, clueless Josephs, reluctant sheep, and effusive angels. Heavenly.

We have a family gift exchange. Earlier in the fall, everyone picks a family and gets presents for the children in that family. Walt and I aren’t expected to buy for our daughters or their husbands, even though I usually get them a little something. We get the grandkids one other small gift besides the party stuff. The families assign a spending limit, so it doesn’t strain anyone’s budget. The purpose isn’t to get presents – the purpose is to share and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

In the past, the menu for the formal dinner on Friday night has been:

Fruit salad

Baked ham

Funeral potatoes (do you know about funeral potatoes? The shredded kind with cornflakes on the top?)
Rolls and jam

Vegetable – usually broccoli

Ice cream

But this year, we changed things up a bit. I wanted more of a pioneer-type celebration. So our menu this year was:

Elk pot roast with potatoes and carrots

Baked beans

Biscuits

Chokecherry jelly

Homemade butter

Pumpkin pie

We love this pot roast recipe. It’s a family Sunday favorite. Put it in the oven before you go to church, and it’s ready and your house smells wonderful when you get home. Serve it with a salad, or steamed green vegetables and rolls or bread. Comfort food!

ELK, ANTELOPE, DEER, BEEF, WHATEVER POT ROAST

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Butter

Flour

Optional: a spice rub of some kind – I like a southwest seasoning rub

1 roast from some animal

3 cloves Garlic, Minced

4 cups beef stock (or 4 Cups Water + 4 Beef Bouillon Cubes)

2 cups water (additional, if needed)

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1-1/2 teaspoon sugar

Whole carrots, washed, unpeeled, cut in half, enough to serve everyone

Whole potatoes, washed, peeled if desired, enough to serve everyone

You’ll see that this is a lot like the stew recipe. Mix about ¾ c. flour with the spice mix.

Dredge the meat in the flour (save this flour for later).

Melt the butter in the olive oil in a dutch oven or roasting pan.

Brown the meat on all sides in the oil.

Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds.

Remove the meat from the pan. Mix the beef stock with Worcestershire, tomato paste, paprika, salt, pepper and sugar in the pan.

Replace the meat. Place the carrots and potatoes around the roast. Add additional water if needed to cover most of the meat.

Cover the roasting pan. Roast at 325° for 2 or 2 ½ hours, depending on how big the roast is. Remove the meat and vegetables from the pan. Let the meat sit while you make the gravy. Remember the flour you saved?

Mix it with about ½ c. cold water to make a smooth paste. Bring the pan liquid to a boil, quickly stir in enough flour paste to thicken the juices.

Slice the meat and serve with the vegetables and gravy.

To go along with our pioneer theme, we had baked beans.

Baked Beans

1 pound dried navy beans

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tbs. olive oil

1 tbs. butter

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 pound lean salt pork, diced

Rinse beans and pick over. Place in a large bowl; add water to more than cover (beans will expand) – about twice as much water. Let beans stand overnight. Drain beans. Or, if you forget to soak them the night before like I always do, you can put them in a large pot, cover with water, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Let them boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Leave the lid on and let stand at least one hour. Drain the beans. Rinse them. Drain and rinse again.

Melt the butter in the olive oil,

add the onions. Sauté about 5 minutes.

Add the beans. Add water to cover and heat to boiling.

Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until skins begin to burst when you scoop a few out in a spoon and blow on them. Drain liquid into a small bowl and reserve for sauce and for cooking.

Measure 1 cup of the bean liquid into a bowl; add molasses, mustard, brown sugar and salt; stir well.

In a 2-quart bean pot or baking dish, layer half of the salt pork and all of the beans.

Pour molasses mixture over beans; add just enough more reserved bean liquid to cover beans. Top with remaining salt pork, pressing pieces down into the liquid. Keep extra reserved liquid refrigerated for use during baking.

Bake, covered, at 300° for 4 hours, checking occasionally - if beans seem too dry, add more reserved liquid. Uncover and bake for about 1 hour longer, or until baked beans are tender. Serves 6 to 8

I’m sure some little pioneer children had biscuits for Christmas dinner. And I had buttermilk left over from making butter. (I got this from Hungry Bruno blog so the comments are hers)

Buttermilk Biscuits
by Alton Brown, makes 10-12 if you use a 2 inch cutter

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450°.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (Alton says: the faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt. I say: use a pastry cutter if you want, and make sure the bowl is cold, too.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass won't be as tall, but they'll still be biscuits, so whatever. I actually reworked my scrap scraps twice and got a single, fairly flat biscuit out of the last pass.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes. Best served hot, but reheat ok in a toaster oven.

About this time, the grandkids started arriving, so these biscuits got a little too done.

Pioneer children probably had to hand-churn any milk they had. So this isn’t entirely authentic.

HOMEMADE BUTTER

So easy.

2-4 c. heavy cream

1 food processor

Salt, optional

Put the cream in the food processor. Process until the cream gets very thick.

Scrape the sides. Keep processing. Add any salt at this point. You may have to scrape the sides again. It will suddenly turn to butter. First, it gets kind of grainy,

then it’s butter. Maybe this is magic. I dunno. Anyway. Strain the buttermilk into a clean jar and refrigerate it. Use the buttermilk for pancakes or biscuits later.

Wash the butter in ice water, but not water with ice in it. The butter likes to stick to the ice. If you need some for a recipe, measure how much you need. The butter is very easy to work with at this point. Or shape it in a serving dish. This has become one of my new favorite things to do.

Finally, the pie. I figured pioneers might have pumpkin and they might make a pie. Maybe. This is the pumpkin pie recipe I used for the Thanksgiving blog.

See that blog for more instructions. I love this pie crust!

PIE CRUST

2 ½ cups all purpose or pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon sugar (for a fruit pie. Omit sugar for a savory pie.)
¾ cup cold butter, cut into chunks
¼ cup cold leaf lard, cut into chunks (I didn’t have leaf lard. I didn’t even have lard, so I used ¼ c. Crisco)
¼ cup cold water

Mix the 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar together lightly in a mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor.

Add the butter and lard chunks and cut into the flour using a pastry cutter or by pulsing the food processor. The mixture should look like large crumbs and begin to cling together in clumps. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and mix lightly or pulse the processor two or three times.

Do not over mix this flour. It should coat the clumps.

Sprinkle the water over the dough and with hands or a wooden spoon mix in until dough holds together.

Shape the dough into two discs or one large and one small.

To form the edge, I leave about an inch over hang (keep the trimmings for a pie crust cookie!). I turn it under and push the edge to a rim. Then I crimp the edge with my fingers.

For the pie itself, all the pictures are on my blog on baking with pumpkin or Thanksgiving.

PUMPKIN PIE

2 eggs slightly beaten

2 c. pumpkin

3/4 c. sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. cloves

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2-3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 pie shell (bake at 425° for 10 minutes before adding filling. Remember the trick with the beans?)

Mix spices with sugar. Add all ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes then 350° for 30 minutes. Sprinkle on topping. Bake 15 minutes. Cool. This makes lots of filling - make in a deep dish pie plate.

Optional (although it’s not really) - top with:

¼ c. (½ stick) butter

½ c. flour

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

½ c. chopped pecans or walnuts

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients; cut in butter and vanilla. Sprinkle on pie last 15 minutes of baking.

After dinner, we have the gift exchange for the kids, and they practice the Nativity play. Then they get on their new pajamas and we do crafts. This year, we did pinecones for the birds and gingerbread ornaments.

PINECONES FOR BIRDS

Pinecones

Peanut butter

Shortening

Seeds – sunflower or a mixture

String or red ribbon

Tie a long piece on string or ribbon on the pinecone; long enough to make a loop to hang it. Spread the peanut butter or the shortening, or both on the pinecone. Roll in the seeds until thickly coated.

I thought there were a lot of steps to these. I think the point is to have your dough cold and the cookies cold enough that they don’t spread when you bake them. It helps to have it 20° outside the day you bake them so you can put the pans outside.

Gingerbread men for tree ornaments

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 c. shortening

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses

Some icing in cans or tubes

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.

Beat shortening and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. On a generously floured piece of parchment, roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Slide dough and parchment onto baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.

Cut out desired shapes. Use a straw to cut out holes for ribbon. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.

Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. If necessary, poke out the holes again. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as Ateco #0 or #1). Pipe designs on cookies. Or give the kids a couple of cans of icing and let them have at it.

Let cookies stand at room temperature until set, at least 2 hours (preferably overnight). Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers for up to 1 week.

The next morning, we have Pancakes for Breakfast. And these are great pancakes.

Pancakes

2 c. cake flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

2/3 c. oats

½ c. flax

½ teaspoons salt

3 Tablespoons baking powder

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 ½ cups Milk (or 2 ½ c. if omitting pumpkin)

2 c. pumpkin – optional

2 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla

4 Tablespoons butter

Chocolate chips – optional (why? It’s tradition)

Extra butter

Maple Or Pancake Syrup

Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl.

Mix together milk, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla in a separate bowl. (You may need a bit more milk)

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, stirring very gently until just combined.

Melt butter and add it to the batter, stirring gently to combine.

Cook on a greased skillet over medium-low heat until golden brown. Optional – before you turn the pancakes sprinkle with a few chocolate chips. This is why food always tastes better at grandma’s house.

Serve with an obscene amount of butter and warm syrup.

In the past, we’ve had a brunch. That works well at that time of day, and we can use the ham and funeral potatoes from the night before. But this year, with the Wyoming Cowboys playing in the New Mexico Bowl, we decided to have a lunch. That’s when the second party starts! We have to have our cookie exchange. The cookie recipes I made are on the cookie blog. And the musical program. And the Nativity play. And the gift exchange. And more food! And watching the Cowboys get pummeled! And more food!

Saturday menu:

Barbecue elk and antelope

Buns

Chips

Salsa

Baked beans (made by Sarah)

Carrot sticks

Veggies

Cookies (from the cookie exchange)

BARBECUE MEAT IN SLOW COOKER – this recipe was concocted by our son-in-law, James. He’s a great cook.

Large roast or several small ones

4 c. beef stock