Christmas Eve 2009

I really enjoyed Christmas Eve, although it went by really fast! I got up early and made macarons. I wanted to include them with some of the Christmas treats we delivered to friends that day. I figured they would take about an hour. WRONG! Three hours later I was putting the finishing touches on two very lackluster batches of green and red macarons. BOO. But the day just got better from there. The girls got up and played with Bobby while I worked on his Christmas quilt. I took my time getting read for the day and we headed out to deliver goodies. Everyone was pretty hungry for lunch by then so we thought we'd treat the girls to lunch at McDonald's, a special treat for the girls and a major sacrifice on our part. We hate McDonald's, but of course, they're kids- they love it. After that we stopped at the Yost's to deliver treats and visited for a while. We are big fans of theirs as well as their daughter Ivy. After we left, I looked at the clock and my jaw dropped- 3:00 PM! Three in the afternoon and I hadn't made any preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner. I hadn't started the rolls or decided on a glaze for the ham. We still had about ten treats to deliver. We stopped at all the houses we could on the way home and then Bobby dropped the girls and I at home so he could go back out and I could get to work on our Christmas Eve dinner.

I will always remember 2009 as the year Franny started to take an interest in my cooking and our food traditions. It has been such a treat for me. It's very sweet. At dinner she says things like, "This is very yummy, Mom." I asked her what she thought we should have for Christmas Eve dinner and she thought hard and came up with some good ideas. She asked for a Christmas drink (my Mom's Christmas punch), chips and salsa (our appetizer), orange rolls, and sauce for the mashed potatoes (gravy, but I didn't get around to it. That one was really cute, because she doesn't like gravy.) Her only objections were the ham and the green beans, but I told her I wasn't willing to budge on either of those. Clearly, family food traditions are really important to me. I mean, if I'm feeling homesick, a big batch of rice pudding does just the trick. So Franny's excitement over my cooking and our family traditions is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

One more thing that happened was my father-in-law called pretending he was Santa Claus to ask the girls what they want for Christmas. I love that he does this! Franny was just beside herself to be getting a call from Santa. She told him she wanted an iCarly microphone (and he did not disappoint) and then she said, "well thank you, Santa." Sophie told him Dora stuff and he made good on that, too.

Before dinner, Bobby took the girls out to sprinkle "reindeer food" that Franny made at school so they would have something to munch on while Santa was here.

We're ready to eat!
Orange Rolls and plain rolls. Orange rolls per Franny's request.
"I'd like a nice slice of Christmas Pam." - The Office
This was a new ham recipe. It was tasty, but not hugely impressive, so I'll probably try something else next year. Ham just tastes good. I'm pretty sure if you sprayed it with Febreze it would taste fine. (I certainly am not recommending this.)

It tasted so delicious. I just have to have my Dad's green beans on Christmas Eve. And my mother's orange rolls.

After dinner we had dessert, some Peppermint cheesecake, and then we put milk and cookies out for Santa. Last year her got sour cream cookies decorated with frosting and sprinkles. This year he got Oreos. Sorry Santa.


An all-girl nativity scene. I'm a girl who likes her traditions. So much that I insist on Bobby as the head of our household reading from Luke 2 and the children posing for the nativity. That's how it was always done in my family. I heard my Great Uncle George read from Luke 2 until I was 19 or 20 years old when he died. After that it was Great Uncle Merlin, then it was my grandfather, then my mom's cousin Rick, etc. The patriarch of the family. Since our family has not been blessed with sons yet, our two older girls will have to take turns playing Joseph and Mary. Next year of course Claire will play baby Jesus, so the Christmas story cross-dressing will perpetuate. Hey, I guess there's one of our own Christmas traditions.

We opened pajamas and also our Christmas Eve presents, since if we were in California we would have been at Gayle's participating in the Sant family gift exchange.

This was the first year we really needed to stay up late making magic for our kids. We assembled the Barbie dream house Santa delivered and then I stayed up late late late sewing Bobby's quilt. The next morning the girls woke up at 7 AM sharp and ran in to tell us that Santa really came! And that he brought more presents! And that he filled their stockings! When we went upstairs I pointed out the cookie crumbs on the plate and the nearly finished glass of milk, as well as a thank you note from Santa. They were thrilled!

Cranberry Lime Tart

This tart and I go way back. Way back to before Franny was even born- December 2003. The company I worked for held a Christmas boutique and employees, their spouses, or associates came and sold their crafts, food items, etc. One employee's wife was selling homemade tarts and cinnamon rolls and she was handing out samples of what I believe was this tart. We loved this tart! We all stood together trying to guess what the flavors were. I remember my friend Missy's mom was there and she was able to identify almonds in the shortbread crust. We could all taste lime. A few months or years later (I'm really not sure), I took these clues and headed for the computer to search high and low for the recipe.

It led me here. Cranberry Lime Tart, Bon Appetit, 2003. So I held on to the recipe, waiting for the perfect opportunity to reunite with such delicious memories. I chose a cooking club about 3 years ago. The recipe calls for Chinese Five Spice Powder. Leave this out! It will ruin your dish. Though the tart was a hit at cooking club, I was terribly disappointed, knowing it was not what it ought to have been. Not the tart I had tasted so many years before at the Christmas boutique at MyFamily.com. I decided to go for it one more time and make it for a Christmas party that my friend Krista was throwing for the ladies at our church. I left the Chinese spices out and was much happier with the result. Definitely the same recipe and I was so happy to try it again after such a long separation!

Cranberry Lime Tart
The white chocolate cream recipe is not very impressive to me. I followed this recipe as written, however, for two reasons. #1) I was too tired to care about a preferable alternative. #2) There are so many flavors in this dessert, that I didn't think the extra effort for a better quality white chocolate cream sauce would be noticed. I think I made the right choice. I also didn't bother with the garnish. I am so lazy about garnishes and picture-taking these days. But I'm sure the white chocolate curls and lime zests would have been lovely.

Lime curd
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 1/2 teaspoons grated lime peel

Crust
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup whole almonds, toasted, cooled
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cranberry Topping
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder* (optional)- Consider yourself warned. This is a bad idea.
1 12-ounce bag (3 cups) fresh cranberries or frozen, partially thawed

White Chocolate Cream
5 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

White chocolate curls
8 thin lime twists

For lime curd:

Whisk lime juice and cornstarch in heavy medium saucepan. Whisk in sugar and yolks, then add butter. Whisk constantly over medium heat until mixture simmers and thickens, about 8 minutes. Strain into small bowl. Mix in lime peel. Cover; chill overnight.

For crust:

Finely grind flour, sugar, almonds, and salt in processor. Add butter and vanilla; cut in, using on/off turns, until mixture just forms soft moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of 11-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Using thumb, press dough up sides to extend 1/8 inch above rim of pan. Freeze crust 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake crust until golden brown, pressing with back of spoon if crust bubbles, about 25 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely.

For cranberry topping:

Whisk 1/4 cup water and cornstarch in heavy large saucepan to blend. Add sugar, honey, and five-spice powder, if desired. Stir over medium-high heat until mixture comes to boil. Add cranberries; cook until mixture boils and berries just begin to pop but still maintain shape, occasionally stirring gently, about 5 minutes. Cool completely (mixture will thicken).

For white chocolate cream:

Stir chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water; whisk in sour cream and vanilla. Cool completely.

Spread white chocolate cream into crust; freeze 15 minutes. Spoon curd over; spread evenly. Spoon cranberry topping by tablespoonfuls over, then spread carefully to cover completely. Cover and chill overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Remove pan sides; transfer tart to platter. Sprinkle chocolate curls around edge of tart. Garnish with lime twists.