Christmas Holiday



EGGPLANT CASSEROLE



SPINACH FETA CASSEROLE





APPLE CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING



SALMON CAKES

 

Christmas to me should only come every three years. Does anyone else feel this way? I mean before you know it Christmas has come and gone and come around again and I just took down the decorations and put them away. Or so it seems this way.

My children live out of state on opposite coast lines, so dilligent coordination must happen before any semblance of a holiday materializes.  We have phone call after phone call trying to coordinate the flights,
the times, the pick ups and the schedule of who is staying where and when we are eating and shopping and
wow I'm tried all ready.

I am not saying I don't like the holidays I just wish they came around lets say as often as leap year! It seems I need that long to deliberate over the Christmas dinner and Christmas breakfast. I have one child that it
a vegetarian and one that only wants one dish, because she will eat to much of everything else and I of
course want to make a huge glorious, elegant meal that would befit Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse.

Needless to say I start planning and thinking weeks ahead of time scouring the recipes I have, looking through all the new magazines, food websites and food television shows, hoping to find the perfect recipe
for my two wonderful adult children and all their requests.  I believe this has become just a hobby or should
I say an obsession though, because the "kids" are fine with one or two things. Macaroni and cheese and
eggplant casserole. I suppose I could make this numerous times and they would not complain.
But alas I have some figment in my imagination that Christmas dinner should be full of granduer and splendour and full of awe.  Did I say that? Yes I did. Who am I kidding. Maybe if you are the Queen of
England, but in this day and age even she may be saying Bah Humbug to Holiday dinner, pass me the
fries and vinegar.
Well maybe that is a little extreme. My dinner was somewhere in between, way in between. I finally decided on a menu that would hopefully satisify my dream and my children's distinguished appetites.
My menu started with crab cakes, eggplant casserole, macaroni and cheese, spinach casserole, stuffed grape leaves. Now I know this does not sound like your traditional or even a Christmas dinner, it looks like a buffet of casseroles, but you see I had to make a vegetarian meal, and lacking in meat but big on substance.


Well needless to say I cooked for days, and loved every minute of it. This menu was what I made to please
the kids, who are not so kiddish any more, they are more kids when home and adults when away.
My idea of Christmas dinner is far from what I made to make them happy, but on we go into the world of
home cooking. It really doesn't matter what you make, it is the atmosphere in which you eat it together that
counts. So cook a christmas pizza for your kids if that is all they will eat, but make it the tradition of sitting together that they remember. Make it along with your other dishes you love and as they grow up they will
surprise you and ask you to make them for these special holidays! That is how I ended up with this crazy menu, it is all of the dishes they love and relate to the happy holiday times!