Christmas cooking !

[Anna]

Whew, I'm about to drop. I've been dropping in here off and on all day, but usually when things are
baking. Any of you guys here help do the cooking ? If you do you are a very sweet man.
I got my dad to peel the potatoes , but my jerk brothers sit on their bu++s and yell at me to bring
them a beer   


I think I'm going to spill the next one in their lap, do you think that would get their attention ?
Ok I know , Anna get into the spirit and just be nice. But their lazy wives are not much better .
I think I will let the dog spit in the turkey. 

[Old Syko]

The wife and I split kitchen detail about 50/50 including clean up.  Always have.  Sometimes I do it all and sometimes she does it all but more and more we just each handle our own specialties. 


Around here anyone not willing to help out or even serve themselves will learn a hard lesson really quick.      Doesn't matter if they are male or female either.

[Conan The Librarian]

We don't do it that way anymore. Now we have a spiral cut ham instead of turkey. Costs about the same, everybody likes it, and prep is mostly warming it up and carving it. Everybody brings something, like salad, vegies, or dessert. This gives us a chance to visit and chat and not work much while we are together.



(by the way, your brothers are amateur slobs. If they were pros, they'd be telling you to make them sandwiches too.)     

[Ranger99]

made two pans of cornbread dressing, a ham
on the grille yesterday basted w/ pineapple
juice & brown sugar with pineapple slices,
a quart of salsa, two pies ( took them out of the
freezer!) two quarts of 2 different bbq sauces,
sister made turkey, pea salad, green bean cas.,
mashed taters, macaroni & cheese, broccoli,
tamales from down the street, rolls, etc. etc.


whew!   way too much

[Anna]

I'm not offended, they are slobs ! When we were growing up they used to pay me , little sis.
To clean up their rooms before mom ever saw them. But hay, I cooked pecan pies, mince meat pies,
dressing with oysters in it , and lots of other stuff. And I did tell them to get their own beer or to
get their FA wives to do it !  There I guess I told them, but I still let the dog spit in the game hens.
I'm so much fun around Christmas time, but I'm not going to stand for being the family maid.
Bravo to you guys that help, I wish you were here so you could spit in the hens also.

Because me and dad only eat the ham, its the others that like getting the bird!    Now I did make
a lot of sweets, chocolate covered cherry's , divinity , pineapple upside down cake , and lots of
cookies. But if my brothers all pitched in and got me the earrings I wanted, I'm going to feel pretty
bad about the spit thing. Oh well !!!    Merry Christmas guys !


P.S. I'm only kidding about the spit thing. But don't tell them any different I want to see them freak out a little first. Anna Banana. 
 

[Ranger99]

i'd gladly trade you a big hunk of
store-bought pecan pie with a
coupla scoops of bluebell homemade
vanilla on top for a couple of pieces
of divinity. ain't tasted that in a
long time 

[Anna]

i'd gladly trade you a big hunk of
store-bought pecan pie with a
coupla scoops of bluebell homemade
vanilla on top for a couple of pieces
of divinity. ain't tasted that in a
long time 

Careful, I can make that very well. I don't eat it because of the calories, but everyone else does.
Ranger, store bought pie ? Don't tell me your spending Christmas alone ! Good grief Cowboy what's
that all about ? You got no family around to be with ?
I'm pretty perceptive so don't try and worm your way out of this.

[Ranger99]

been at sister's house for noontime meal.
that's where the turkey and sides and
such came in.
had to drive that uncomfortable hour back
home after way too much food and foggy
childhood reminiscing about granny's pies
and cookies and such.
then got to dwelling on the pie and bluebell
ice cream and had to log off and go get a
bit. cain't fit more than a bit after today.
still. . . . if it wasn't for the miles, i'd do
the pie / divinity swap and call it fair.


ho! ho! ho! merry christmas amigos and amigettes

[Ranger99]

( And i can bake a pie-crust and all- but weigh
the cost of a sack of pecans, sugar, syrup, eggs,
etc., and time cooking, washing up everything,
(the dishwashing fairy never learned my adress)
vs. snagging one up at the grocery store. . . . .
well. . . .you see where i'm at )

[hunt-m-up]

If they want to eat around here they pretty much know who to come to. My wife gets in the way when I'm cooking, her Mom never let her in the kitchen and it shows!   Baking is not for me though, I like to be able to control the process and change things to taste.
Merry Christmas to all!

[Old Fart]

I cook a lot around here. But I learned a long time ago not to cook for the holidays. The women folk in our family don't want any competition for compliments at our get togethers.     

[boomerralph]

I am not going to help with the cooking today! But...just got in from the kitchen at the battered womens shelter here.  we cooked 300 turkeys  in about 9 hours (9 fryers...1 turkey cooked every 2 to 3 minutes)  They will feed around 700 people plus provide Christmas dinner for many more.  Been cooking since 18:00 last night.  I'm done in.
 Merry Christmas to all.

[gypsyman]

Since I was a bachlor for so long, and, cooking class and a restaurant job in high school, I usually do 95% of all cooking, all year. My wife never really learned how, and screwed up several times trying. She has gotten alot better, and I'll give her an A for trying. This afternoon though, will be my job!! Lake Erie perch,french fries, cole slaw. Just got through cooking pancakes,bacon and eggs. gypsyman

[AtlLaw]

Any of you guys here help do the cooking ?

Help with the cooking?     Help!?     I do it all!   
 
My wife's a wonderful woman but a disaster in the kitchen...    So I have always done all the cooking.
 
Christmas Eve. has evolved into a big family event/dinner at our place.  I spend a couple of days getting everything ready; no one is allowed in my kitchen when I'm cooking.
 
After we eat the wimmins have to clean the kitchen and drink champagne while the men folk go to my man cave for brandy and cigars.  We get one hour, once a year, to be free from interruption or interference from wimmins or kids!  This year that hour lasted about 30 minutes. 

[oldandslow]

Anna, it's nice of you to take care of your brothers but you really should make sure that they have beer without having to holler at you to bring it. 

Do I help with the cooking? No! I prefer for my food to taste good. I stick to what I'm good at, drying dishes, taking out trash, vacuuming floors, and getting my own beer.

[Anna]

We always invite single people that are far from home and family. This year we got a couple of Airmen
from Holloman to come eat with us. Thier family's were from out East and they got stuck with
a duty rouster that didn't allow them to go home. One of them brought his girlfriend who was in the
AF also and she ended up helping me a lot. Kids mostly, and they said the chow hall was offering a
Christmas dinner but the company and the atmosphere there wasnt the same.

Dads real big on doing this, before he meet mom he still remembers what it was like. He remembers
once as a young soldier, it was a Navy CPO that asked him if he wanted to come have Christmas
with them. He says he never forgot how kind he thought that was of them. After a cold Christmas Eve
in a guard shack, his Christmas day was like being at home. These kids in uniform will never forget
things like that, and as they grow older it becomes like a tradition to do the same thing for someone
else. Their family's back home sure do appreciate that and we still get Christmas cards from all over
the world from those family's .   

[Anna]

Anna, it's nice of you to take care of your brothers but you really should make sure that they have beer without having to holler at you to bring it. 

Do I help with the cooking? No! I prefer for my food to taste good. I stick to what I'm good at, drying dishes, taking out trash, vacuuming floors, and getting my own beer.

Oh I do love them, but I always get the feeling that I have become the shadow of my mom.
I may look just like she did, but my tolerance is no where near what hers was. Generation thing I guess, where she came from it was customary for the woman or wife to do all these things for her
men. She used to get onto me about my attitude, and said I picked that up in Europe and not from
anything she had taught me. Mom didn't work, it was a wife's responsibility to take care of the house
and family. Same thing with any female offspring, especially if the wife was no longer around.

In her culture it is a huge blessing to have a baby girl, not like it is in other cultures. Sons are great,
but daughters are born with a lot of responsibilitys. The females are usually the matriarchs, they
hold the family together no matter what. I try, and they do listen to me. But usually after I throw a
fit and put my foot down. Mom never had to do that, sometimes i wish I knew how she did it without them taking advantage of it.

[Cuts Crooked]

I kill it.  She cooks it. Seems like a fair distribution of effort!

Actually, me and the boys pitch in! One of them makes a wicked green bean cassarole, another is a wizard at makin' our favorite scalloped oysters, and I ain't half bad at skinnin' 'n boilin' taters.

Which leave momma with fixin' the bird and the stuffin', deer liver (a tradition at our house if I have done my job right) and pies.

Helps that we have a huge kitchen!

[PowPow]

Never heard of anything with oysters at Christmas. Is it a regional thing?
We are near the Gulf, and eat oysters on days that end in "y", but never thought of having them at Christmas.

[mechanic]

My wife is a wonderful cook, and I know how to say "yes Ma'am".  So I help to the extent I follow directions.  I did a great job putting a turkey breast in the crock pot, adding the ingredients she told me and turning it on high.
 
If she is not home, I usually "cook" some vegetable soup and cornbread...or maybe just the bread with some buttermilk and an onion.
 
I do a mean job of putting dish's in the washer as well.....
 
And best of all, I can eat with the best of them!
 
Anna, next  time just hand them a package of weiners and tell them to fire up the grill.  I know you love them, but it takes two parties to be "put upon"....nip it in the bud.
 
Ben

[Cuts Crooked]

Never heard of anything with oysters at Christmas. Is it a regional thing?
We are near the Gulf, and eat oysters on days that end in "y", but never thought of having them at Christmas.

As far as I know it's just a thing my family does, like the fried deer liver. My granny made scalloped oysters, so my wife learned to make em, and she passed that skill on to my sons 

[boomerralph]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas dinner.
 
Merry Christmas to all

[Anna]

Oysters in dressing is about the only way I can stand that stuff. So I made one without and one with.
Like red beets, who in the world ever thought that contraption up?
Turkey is ok but let's get real, it does not taste like chicken ! Anything with coconut or cherry's in it is
good. Cranberries are ok if someone else is eating them. Gingerbread ? Barf !
Fruit cake, double Barf.  Pumpkin pie with whipped cream, yum .

And boomerralph, merry Christmas to you too ! Oh by the way I did get my earrings, they are
gorgeous !!! 

[victorcharlie]

I try, but my wife is so irresistible that I wind up patting her on the behind and then she tells me to get out of her kitchen.

[PowPow]

Oysters in dressing is about the only way I can stand that stuff. So I made one without and one with...
...red beets....
...Fruit cake...

So what bread is the basis of oyster dressing? Our traditional dressing is mostly cornbread with celery and onions in it. Not really stuffing, as its cooked in a separate pan, so it can get really dried out and soak up gravy.


+1, or should it be -1, on beets. need to find away to connect those with global warming or teen pregnancy, and outlaw them once and for all.


My theory is that there has not been a new fruitcake manufactured in about 40 years. The fruitcakes you see today are the same fruitcakes that have been re-gifted over and over since the 70's.