Christmas Dinner: Lentil Loaf, Veggies, Cornbread Stuffing & Gravy

Day 67: Christmas Eve. I honestly did not even eat supper...picked at a bit of food here and there...

Day 68: Christmas Day

I didn't save a lot of time for blogging, but here is a pic of Christmas supper and a list of the dishes contained therein.

Christmas Dinner

Mom's Christmas Dinner

I had my first Christmas dinner at Mom's house at 2 pm, and it was fantastic! She had a hot turkey dinner with lots of vegetables so there were plenty of choices. Mom and Dad are both good cooks. Naturally, I stuffed myself and then had dessert because it's Christmas, a day of indulgence. :) I wish I had taken a pic of my plate. I did get a pic of Lily going with dessert!

Lily with blueberry cake & brown sauce

Laura's Christmas Dinner

Then, Laura made us a fabulous meal for supper with a lot of the same things, but a couple differences. A lentil loaf was our meat replacement and our gravy was mushroom-based. And she made little Yorkshire puddings, which were so good!

Christmas Dinner

From left to right:

• Cranberry sauce
• Lentil loaf with cranberry glaze
• Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy
• Buttercup squash
• Carrots
• Cranberry-cornbread stuffing
• Turnips

Center:

• Yorkshire pudding

Lentil Loaf

The lentil loaf was so good. If you are interested in the recipe, it was posted in a previous blog, Glazed Lentil Loaf, back in November.

Chopped & grated veggies for the lentil loaf

Cranberry glazed lentil loaf

We used a different, glaze for this one; something more festive.

Orange-Cranberry Glaze

• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Put cranberries in dry frying pan and heat until they're poppable. Mash the cranberries and add a teaspoon of sugar. Add maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, and caramelize. Pour over lentil loaf.

Mushroom Gravy

• 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 box vegetable broth
• Sea salt
• Gravy Master

Sauté mushrooms with some salt. Add one tablespoon of butter when liquid is cooked out of them and let them brown a bit. Remove mushrooms from pan and set aside. Melt two more tablespoons butter, stir in the flour and cook about a minute on medium-low. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer until thickened. Add Gravy Master until desired color is achieved. Add mushrooms.

Yorkshire Pudding

Actual recipe here

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup water
• 16 tsp butter (in place of beef drippings)

Laura basically followed the recipe above. This required 2 muffin pans for the amount of batter, since it made 8 or 9 puddings. The recipe called for beef drippings, but we used 2 teaspoons of butter in each muffin cup instead. Served with gravy (pictured below).

Yorkshire pudding in front

Cranberry Sauce

We used to buy canned cranberries, but now we just buy a bag of cranberries and make our own sauce. It's super easy and all you really need is sugar, although we also add orange zest and juice when we have an orange on hand. And, if we don't have an orange on hand we go get one.

• 1 bag cranberries
• Juice of 1 orange, then add water to make 1 cup
• 1 tbsp minced orange zest
• 1 cup sugar

Cranberry sauce ingredients

In a small saucepan, add all ingredients, bring to a simmer until berries pop (takes about 2 minutes), and continue to simmer about 3 or 4 more minutes. It will already be thickening. This is seriously so easy and quick it's not much more work than opening that can used to be. You could also just use a cup of OJ in place of juicing and zesting an orange. Or, a lemon, if you don't have an orange or any OJ. Some people like to add cinnamon too. You can make it however you like, but it's just a matter of cooking everything for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a pretty serving dish and cool.

Cranberry sauce

Cornbread Stuffing

Laura spent Christmas Eve making cornbread and white bread to use in the stuffing. Then she left them out to dry out overnight.

• 1 batch of corn bread, crumbled
• 1 loaf white bread, cubed
• 1 tsp thyme  (dried)
• 1 tsp rosemary  (dried)
• 1/4 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 1 large onion
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 - 1 box of vegetable broth

Mix the crumbled batch of corn bread and loaf of cubed white bread together with the craisins.

Cornbread crumbs and breadcrumbs

Sauté an onion in tbsp butter. Stir in the thyme and rosemary. Toss into the crumb mixture and add vegetable broth and eggs until well-moistened. Press into baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven.

The Veggies

Turnips

Potatoes

Boiled, mashed and whipped with cream, butter, salt and pepper.

Turnips

Boiled, and mashed with a tablespoon of butter.

Squash

Roasted, and mashed with a tablespoon of butter.

Carrots

Boiled, tablespoon of butter melted over them.

The aftermath

Inexpressibly Good

I couldn't finish everything but I gave it my best try. Lots of leftovers, thankfully! Ten from both of us.