Christmas Day at my house is a very leisurely, long day. Guests begin arriving around 2:00 p.m., and we spend a relaxing afternoon visiting. Other guests will arrive closer to dinnertime which will be around 7:00 p.m.
The dining room table is all set. For Christmas, I do a Victorian motif, using colors of burgundy, pink and gold. My tablecloth has a gold background, with a cherub design and burgundy going through it. In the past, I have used a pink tablecloth with an ecru lace overlay. Once the cloths are on the table, I take wired burgundy ribbon and pin it around the edge of the table. This truly looks lovely. But this year we are using the gold. For my centerpiece, I have taken a stemmed bowl and filled it with a Christmas potpourri, that contains burgundy and gold colors. In the center of the bowl, atop the potpourri, I place a sparkle burgundy flower. Also in the bowl, are pink pearls, which I thread around and make sure they hang over the sides. I also place a few tiny lady apples around the flower. My candles are 12” burgundy tapers with gold beads. These are in brass candlestick holders. I obtained beaded napkin rings, which are burgundy and gold. The napkins are burgundy linen trimmed with gold. At each place will be a 2 inch vase with a floral arrangement. They will contain some pine, pink carnations, baby’s breath and a burgundy leaf. Now that you’ve seen the dining room, lets go back into the living room. Because the day is so long, I’ll be bringing out a variety of hors d'ouvres, during the coarse of the day. We don’t want our guests to fill up…but we don’t want them to faint, either. :o) I usually serve up cheese with crackers, crudite with dip, mousse canard pate and perhaps some chicken wings. Good enough to carry everyone over through dinner. And lets see what we’re having for dinner!

Menu Boneless Loin of Pork Sweet & Saur Kraut Sausage and Pear Dressing Mashed Potatoes Peas Mashed Turnips Gravy Pies & Christmas Cookies

Roast Loin of Pork

1 pork loin boned and rolled( 6 lbs. cooking weight)

GLAZE

1 jar Sorrell Ridge Orange Marmalade

1/2 c. teriyaki sauce

1/4 tsp. Garlic powder

1/4 tsp. Powdered Ginger

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, combine all ingredients for the glaze. Place pork in a roasting pan, cook for 1 hour, and then glaze. Cook for another hour.

Sausage and Pear Dressing

2 pkgs. of breakfast sausage meat

2 red pears (diced)

4 stalks celery (chopped)

1 large yellow onion (chopped)

24 slices of white bread

Fry sausage meat in a pan and crumble. When sausage is browned, remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pan, sauté the pears, celery and onion, until lightly brown. In a deep roasting pan, combine the pear mixture and the sausage and tear the bread slices into the mixture. Mix well. Bake at 375 for ½ hour, covered with aluminum foil and then uncovered for 15 minutes.

Sweet & Saur Kraut

3 strips of bacon ( 1 T. margarine may be substituted for the bacon)

1 red Delicious apple (diced)

1 medium yellow onion (chopped)

1 pkg. Sweet & Low

1 tsp. Caraway seeds

2lb. Bag of saurkraut (half drained)

In a saucepan slowly fry the bacon, so as not to get too crisp. When bacon is cooked, cut up in pieces. In the bacon grease, sauté the apple and onion. Add the saurkraut, sweetenter and caraway seeds and simmer on a low flame, for an hour, stirring occasionally. After my meat is cooked, I remove the meat from the pan to cool, along with 3 T. of drippings for the gravy. I then place the saurkraut in the pan and mix and place in the oven for 15 minutes before serving.

Peas

1 strip of bacon

1/2 medium yellow onion (diced)

2 cans peas (drained)

This is a nice way to jazz up your peas. Save up your fat grams for this meal!
In a saucepan fry bacon to render fat, do not allow to get too crisp. Add onions and lightly brown. Add drained peas and simmer on low flame, for about 20 minutes.

After dinner, we retire into the living room where we will exchange our presents...the best part of the day! :o)

For dessert, I'm planning to serve an apple crisp pie and a cranberry pear pie, along with Christmas Cookies. Guests are likely to bring sweets, too, so everything will go out on the table. Remember to be thankful for all we have, and pray for those less fortunate. I'll see you all on New Year's Eve at my sister Gerry's house!

<---New Year's Party through here

To The Entertainment Center

To The Wine Cellar