Christmas Eve and Day

     I didn't have pizza night on Thursday, because I had Friday off of work.  Jennifer and Grace and I drove up to Nisswa to our parents house Thursday after I got off work.  Pam was already there with Jonah, and Jeff would join us Saturday night after he got off work.
     The Freese tradition has been to eat no meals on Christmas Eve, just to make and eat appetizers all day.  It is one of my favorite days of the year.  We always make much too many snacks and end up eating them all again after breakfast on Christmas Day.  This year was no different.
     Pam and Jonah started preparations Wednesday night.  They made beautiful Christmas tree cookies.

They also made some almond puff-pastry pinwheels, which were lovely.  They were flaky and almondy and creamy all at once, with a nice snap of crispy almond on top.  They also made some churro-type cookie that Pam said were a mistake, but they weren't bad,m and Gracie loved them.  Another cookie they made was an almond wafer that was going to have some french silk concoction on top of it and dipped in chocolate. 
     Pam decided to finish those cookies on Saturday morning.  Of course there were a few wafers short, since dad discovered them and decided they were pretty good by themselves.  Unfortunately, the chocolate she melted for dipping the silk covered cookies into had seized up and wasn't cooperating with the plan.  It still tasted good, so we forged forward.

     Pam also had brought a recipe that she had gotten on a recent trip to Alabama for a hot bacon cheese dip that is cooked and served in a bread bowl.  Mayonnaise, bacon, and cheddar piled into a hollowed loaf of sourdough and heated in the oven.  What's not to like?

     I made Chex Mix.

CHEX MIX

                                         6 cups Corn Chex
                                         3 cups Rice Chex
                                         1 cup Peanuts
                                         1 cup Everything Bagel Pretzels
                                         1 cup Cheezits
                                         12 tablespoons Butter
                                         4 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
                                         3 teaspoons Harley's Seasoning Salt
                                         1½ teaspoons Garlic Powder
                                         1 teaspoon Onion Powder
                                         ¼ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
                                         ½ teaspoon Cumin

     Mix the first five ingredients together in a large bowl.  Melt the butter and mix it with the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.  Drizzle the butter mixture over the cereal mixture and toss to coat.  Put the coated cereal mixture into a roasting pan and cook at 250º for two hours, stirring every 15 minutes.


       Jennifer made an encore performance of the blue cheese quiches she made for Thanksgiving, along with some premade frozen quiches (bacon and cheese quiches and spinach and cheese quiches).  Mom made her traditional cocktail ryes (little rye toasts with a mayonnaise, cheddar, onion, and olive mixture spread on top and baked in the oven).  We had veggies and dip, meatballs in barbecue sauce, and caramel corn that one of Mom's friends made. 

     Dad made his traditional "roll mops".  These are fun little appetizers that we learned of from our neighbors, the Swansons.  Mr. Swanson used to make these.  He would spread cream cheese on salami or really thin roast beef and wrap it around a green onion. I always thought he was calling them "roll mops", and I learned years later that he was calling them "roll-m-ups".  I liked my interpretation better, but these are addicting little morsels.
     I had decided that, since we missed pizza night, that I would go ahead and make the next pizza in line for one of my contributions to appetizer day - especially since the next recipe in one of the books was appetizer-esque.

     Unfortunately, I hadn't even thought to bring or get mozzarella.  Since I keep a large stock of it in my freezer, it didn't even cross my mind that Mom wouldn't have mozzarella.  I had asked Pam to get pepperoni for me, which she reassigned to Mom.  Mom had asked me while she was shopping whether I needed anything else, and it still didn't occur to me.  Well, Mom had an overabundance of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar, so I substituted, and it was delicious. 

     The other tried and true Freese Family tradition is to have Eggs Benedict after we open the presents.

     Mom has done this for years.  We (girls) have tried to help along the way. Sometimes, I don't know if we are a help or a hindrance, and we always fight over who gets to lick the pan once the sauce is done.  She starts with poaching the eggs.

     Then, she makes the sauce, and I think she uses a different recipe every year, but the gist of it is: you melt a bunch of butter and add egg yolks and lemon juice or wine to it and stir over a very low heat until it becomes this thick, silky, heart-stopping sauce.

  This is the pièce de résistance of Christmas food for me.  It is buttery and tangy and creamy.  It gets poured over an English muffin that is topped with Canadian bacon and a poached egg, and when you break into that soft yolk, and it runs out into the plate, making a creek through the sauce, it makes me quiver. It just adds to the richness of the sauce.  It is a warm, earthy flavor in a sea of buttery goodness.  A sprinkle of cayenne over the top and a salty black olive turn the entire dish into a masterpiece.