What's For Lunch?

I dont think I am all that bad about making the same dinners over and over again, but when it comes to lunch I do repeat the same pattern over and over again. Leftovers from the night before or a sandwich/salad. I don't actually mind it all that much, but I am not only cooking for myself so I try really hard to make sure my husband does no get the same packed lunch with him to work every day.

And I bet I am not the only one that have difficulty having to come up with something new for both dinner and lunch so will share a few of the greatest hits I have made lately.

What about You out there? What do You prefer for lunch and what criteria does a nice lunch have to live up to?

For me, it has to store well. 

At the moment I have the luxury to be able to make my husbands lunch box in the morning, so everything just have to get through the morning, but once I get back to school/work I will have to do things that will store well over night.

Second it has to be filling but no heavy. Don't you know that feeling after lunch where you just want to take a nap if you had a stew or a greasy burger? I rarely get that feeling if I eat a salad...

I think these 3 options checks both boxes as well as being tasty.

White Bean Cheese Muffin, Fried Egg and Curry Fried Chickpea Salad

White Bean Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

200 gram ready to eat white beans (quite sure most beans will work here)

1 big carrot - grated

1 Egg

1-3 Tbsp Whole Wheat Flour

Salt, pepper and a herb (Rosmary, Thyme or Sage works well)

Oil for the muffin pan

Topping:

Cherry tomatoes

Cheese (I used good quality Mozzarella Cheese)

Heat the oven to 175C.

Blitz all the ingredients together and adjust the consistency with the flour. You are looking for a thick porridge consistency.

If it is to dry you can add milk or water.

Grease the muffin pan with oil - even if you use the "easy slip"  kind I would grease it because the isn't any fat in the "dough".

Top every muffin with cheese and tomato and perhaps some of the herbs and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until firm and golden on top.

These muffins freeze really well but I would reheat them after freezing them. They do keep well in the fridge.

Curried Chickpea Salad

Ingredients

Ready to eat Chickpeas

Carrots, cut into chucks

Onion, sliced

Spinach, washed and spinned

Oil

Curry, Salt and Pepper

Heat up the oil in a pan and fry the curry for 1 minutes or so. Curry always taste best if it is fried in fat since that realizes the fat soluble flavors.

Add the onions, carrots and chickpeas and fry until the onions are clear.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the spinach in a bowl, add the slightly cooled ingredients from the pan and toss.  

I choose to serve this up with a fried egg - sunny side up - but it would taste great on its own. 

I have packed fried eggs in lunches before but if you think it is to messy opt for a soft boiled egg instead.

Baked Sweet Potato With Mexicans Inspired Kale, Corn, Black Beans And Beef Stir Fry

I felt so great and healthy eating this. The flavors were balanced and the colors just made me happy - don't you agree?

If you are serving this as a lunch I would definitely make it the day after I had served baked sweet potatoes since that is the part that will take you the longest.

My husband got this for lunch and apparently could not cope with the long line in front of the micro wave and reported that it tastes really well cold - very  nice to know when talking about lunches.

Ingredients

1 baked sweet potato (one big one was enough for me and hubby to share)

Ready to eat black beans

Kale, washed and sliced however you like it

Freash or tinned tomates, chopped

Onions, sliced

Corn (I perfer fresh of the cob but frozen and canned will do fine here)

Cumin, Cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, sugar and fresh coriander

Minced beef (can easily be left out)

To serve - Fresh coriander, lime and/or greek yoghurt

The baked sweet potato

Just in case you have not baked a sweet potato before, it is basically the same as baking a regular potato.

Rince the spud and wrap in tin foil - I like to add a bit of oil, salt and pepper an well.

Bake in a 200 C hot oven for a least 1 hour, sometimes more, depending of the size of the potato.

I like my baked sweet potatoes to be fairly soft, but if you like it any other way go with your instinct.

The stir fry

Fry the onion and the minced beef in a little oil. I used some already cooked leftover mince from the night before and actually very little of it. 

It gives a very nice beefy flavor, but the vegetables are the stars here and you already get proteins from the beans so it is optional.

Add the kale, corn and black beans and fry until the kale has has wilted.

Add the tomatoes and season. I like this one to have a bit of a kick, but you might not agree. 

I only add a pinch of sugar to bring out the tomato flavor. You do not want it sweet, especially because the sweet potato is sweet enough.

If you have any other vegetables in the fridge - by all means - add to the stir fry. Bell peppers would work well, so would carrots and zucchini.

Kale Salad With Carrots, Oven Roasted Chicken And Crispy Parma Ham - Hummus And Vegetables - Baked Berrie And Bread Pudding - Greek Yoghurt with Berries And Ceriel - Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich

Now you are probably thinking - what the heck kind of a head line is that?

Well - this is what my husband would eat during a day at work. People who knows my husband will have noticed that he eats ALL THE TIME. Not a lot at a time, but little meals very often.

I do the same - but since I eat alone most of the time, people just don't notice.

This works really well for me. It rearely get too hungry and make poor food choices and I don't have huge up's and down's during the day due to blood sugar spikes.

If you feel this is something you tend to do, you should give it a go.

You might look at the headline or the picture and think "that take way to much time to prepare" but with good routines and a bit of planning its not that much work.

Kale Salad With Carrots, Oven Roasted Chicken And Crispy Parma Ham

Ingredients:

Kale, washed and spinned dry

Vinaigrette of salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice

4-5 slices of oven roasted chicken

Carrots in small chances

Crispy Parma Ham

First add the kale to a roomy bowl and add the dressing. Massage the dressing into the kale for as long ad you have time to - at least for 1 minute.

This brakes down the though texture of the kale and makes it smooth. 

The hard texture is also one of the reasons why kale is a good choice for a salad you need to make the day before - it will hold up with our getting soggy even after adding the dressing.

Once your kale is smooth and silky top with the other ingredients.

Berrie And Bread Pudding

This is kind of a mix of french toast and bread and butter pudding.

I think I made it as a late night snack or a breakfast and just decided to send the rest with my husband to work as a treat.

Ingredients

Slices of whole grain bread (stale is best)

Eggs

Milk

Vanilla extract

Honey

Berries (fresh or frozen)

Butter

In an oven safe dish add some berries. If you got a sweet tooth or just some very sour berries add some sugar.

Make a mixture of milk, honey, vanilla extract and eggs. 

Rip the bread into big chucks and place them on top of the berries and poor over the milk/egg mixture.

You want to make sure that the bread can soak up most of the milk/egg mixture so you might want to mix it up or push the bread down.

Put a few dots of butter on top (and perhaps some sugar) and set aside for as long as you got time for - preferably 20-30 minutes but I have let it sit as little as 5 minutes.

Then bake it all in a 175C hot oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

It keeps well a few days in the fridge.

This treat tastes really really good with apples and raisins as well.

Hummus

Ingredients

Ready to eat chickpeas

Greek yoghurt

Olive oil

Garlic

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Blitz the chickpeas in a blender and add olive oil and greek yoghurt until you get a smooth texture. Add the rest of the ingredients to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top and a dash of smoky paprika and eat with sticks of vegetables.

It is really easy to prepare beans and chickpeas your self and they all freeze really well. I really recommend you to take the time once in a while to soak the beans over night and cook them in salty water for 1-2 hours instead of buying the tinned versions.

It is cheaper and you get less sodium.

But if this step is what is holding you back from using beans in your cooking go ahead and buy them tinned.

They are filled with fibers and are a good source of protein - really good reasons to include them in your diet.

The snacks are kind of self explanatory so I wont tell you how to make them, but a good idea is to take a day in your week to prepare them so they are easy to grab on the go.

Here are some of the things I would recommend to have on hand.

Vegetables sticks. If you for some reason don't use them as snacks you can always use them in your cooking and cut down on the prep time.

Ready made bags with a mix of nuts, dark chocolate or dried fruits. I try to keep one of these in my car/handbag at all times so I am not tempted to buy something I shouldn't just because I am on the go.

Hummus and other bean mousses. They last a week in the fridge easy and you can flavor them in different ways so you don't get bored. I like roasted pepper hummus!

Greek yoghurt (or regular yoghurt/Skyr in Denmark. The small tubs make an easy "on the go" snack if you have a bag of cereal with you. And at home I would eat it with honey and almonds, fresh fruit/berries or flavor it with peanut butter or vanilla.

I always keep peanut butter on hand. It is great in smoothies and dressing, but most of all it is such an easy snack. Try it the traditional way in a sandwich with jam (I prefer fresh berries or banana instead) or use it as a dip for apples or vegetable sticks. My all time favorite is peanut butter with chunks of 70% dark chocolate to dunk my apples in.

Salmon Burger With Rice Vinegar Marinated Vegetables And Salad

Ok - this one is not really anything amazing or complicated but some days you just can't handle anything else and this was kind of a "what can I whip up with what I have" day.

And it checks a lot of the boxes. Protein - check (and checked one of the "fish 3 days a week" box as well). 

Whole Grain - check. 

Vegetables - check. 

Sometimes that is enough.

Salmon burger

Ingredients

Salmon fillet

Spring onion

Salt, pepper and lemon juice

Blitz the ingredients together in a blender and for into patties.

If you can't get them to hold together - try adding an egg.

Cook on a skillet - not to much heat and not to long. If you are starting to get that white stuff coming out of the fish (you probably know what I am talking about) it is a sign that the fish has gotten to much heat to fast - As you might be able to see on the picture that happened to me.

So don't overdo it!

Marinate thinly sliced vegetables(I used radishes and carrots, but cucumber and zucchini would also work well)in rice wine vinegar with a bit of salt, sugar and pepper for at least 10 minutes.

Serve it as a side to the salmon patty in a whole wheat bun with some salad.

The sour moist vegetables was enough for me this day, but avocado or mayo would really put the "dot over the i" here.

Christmas, New Years and healthy January food

Totally opposite of the title I am going to start with the healthy January food and move back in time.

Many of us think of January as the month to start living healthy and it is such an obvious project for the cold and uninspiring winter months when the holidays and the sugar rush is over.

But dieting is just not for me anymore and I don’t want to live with a constant "NO" hanging over my head. But to be able to say no to dieting, it does mean saying no to temptations most days and getting active almost daily, but that is the way for me.

Therefore the following recipes are not all low calorie, but they are nutritious and tastes good.

And I try to use as much seasonal food as possible since the nutritional value and taste is highest there.

So what is at its best this time of year? Kale, cabbage and root vegs – so of course they play the main role at the dinner table as the moment.

I haven’t been able to get all that much variety with root vegs at my local super market so if anyone, by pure chance, comes by this sites and lives in the Enfield area of CT, give me a shout-out if you know the place to go for this.

Many of this rounds recipes are from/inspired by old and new editions of the Danish food magazine “Mad & Venner”.

So without further delay here is what we have been eating the last few weeks.

Meatballs in curry sauce with brown rice and cabbage and apple

This first recipe is a stable in most Danish homes and the Danish name is “Boller i Karry”. 

First prepare the rice according to the instructions on the package. I normally go with one cup rice to two cups of water and a good amount of salt.

Once you got that going – start with the meet balls.

Meatballs:

1 pound of minced meat (I used veil)

1 small onion – finely cut

salt and pepper

1 egg

½ a cup of milk

4 tbsp of flour/oats/bread crumbs

Mix all the ingredients together and keep beating/stirring for at least 10 minutes. I can only recommend using a food mixer with a stand so you don’t have do it your self.

Mixing for so long helps the texture get perfect meatballs.

In the meantime boil a bi pot of salted water.

Once the 10 minutes is up and the water I boiling, you use a spoon and you hand to form small meatballs and drop a few at a time into the water – give them about 5 minutes.

If sometimes makes the process easier if you dip the spoon into some water in between each meatball shaping.

Reserve some of the water once you are don.

Curry sauce:

1-2 carrots in small cubes

1 onion in small cubes

1 stalk of celery

Ginger to taste

Oil

Salt and pepper

2 or more tbsp curry powder

1-2 garlic cloves

A splash of cream or coconut milk

Even though you should try to reduce the amount of oil you cook in, this is not the time to be too stingy. The oil will help release all the nuances of taste in the curry.

Heat up a good glob of oil in a pan and fry the onion, garlic and the curry powder for a few minutes and keep stirring to it won’t burn.

Then add the rest of the ingredients and sauteu. Once you are happy with the color, add some of the cooking water until you have the amont of sauce you find fitting and let it cook for a little while.

After adding cream/coconut milk you can either leave the sauce like this, thinkening it with a solutions of corn flour and cold water or blitzing it in your blender.

No matter your choice, you fishish with heating it all up again – this time with the meatballs in the sauce.

Serve with the rice, thinly slices apples and cabbage, coriander/parsley and perhabs a chutney.

 Baked tarragon leeks

This not an extremely healthy dish but you get your veggies and it is comforting on a cold winters day.

Recipe for 2 persons

2 leeks – the white part only

8 slices of really good quality ham

2 cups of milk – maybe more.

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

Salt, pepper, tarragon and nutmeg to taste

1 lemon – peel and juice

bread crumbs or old lump of bread

Oil

Set the oven for 350F/175C.

Divide the leeks in two lengthwise and clean them out thoroughly.

Wrap them ham around the leeks and put them in an oven-proof dish.

Melt the butter in a pot – without it taking color. Then add the flour, mix well and let it fry for a minute to loose some of the floury taste.

The ad milk a little at a time – making sure there are no lumps left between each time you add more milk. You should end up with a slightly thick sauce.

Once it is all absorbed and you feel confident that there is enough to cover the leeks, add some lemon juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg and tarragon to taste and turn off the heat.

Put the lemon peel, a bit of oil and bread crumbs in a blender and blitz to make an even mixture.

Pour the milk sauce over the leeks and top with the bread crumbs.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes and serve with bread and a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

Vietnamese spring rools

This is one of my favorite easy dinners when I have some leftover meat.

Ingredients

Rice paper sheets

Leftover meat in fine slices– shrimp, chicken, pork what ever

Lettuce – spring mix

3 handfuls of speed peel vegetables (cucumber, carrots, spring onions and so on)

Cooked rice noodles

Herbs – mint, holy basil, coriander

A big plate with lukewarm water

Perhabs 8 big lettuce leafes.

Dipping sauce

1 part fish sauce

1 part sugar

1 part lime juice

2 parts water

Finly minced chili, carrot and garlic

Mix all the ingredients up – easily don in an old jam jar, lid on and shake.

I also use a ready to use sweet chili sauce as a dipping for this dish.

When you are ready to serve simply to everything on the table (see picture) and let people make their own spring rolls.

Take a rice paper sheet and dunk it in the hot water for about 5 seconds and put it on your plate.

Fill it with all the goodies like you would a tortilla and fold I together.

The rice paper gets pretty sticky and some might prefer to roll a lettuce leaf around it before you dip in the sauce and eat it with your finger.

Red cabbage salad with marinated red onions 

Big portions for 2 people

Marinated onions:

2 red onions

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Peel the onions and cut them in 6-8 but try to keep them “whole” so they will stay in shape.

Blanch them in boiling water for 3-4 minutes and let them drip dry.

Mix the rest of the ingredients and let the onions cool in the dressing.

Salad

8 oz of finely sliced red cabbage

2 oz of pickled beets in small cubes

1 ripe pear in small cubes

1 oz dried cranberries/cherries/blueberries

The marinated red onions

Dressing

The remaining marinade from the onions

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp mustard

1 tsp honey

Salt and pepper

Mix the salad and just before serving add the dressing. Top with some (homemade) croutons, nuts and blue cheese.

I served this salad with a big juicy steak.

Spanish salad with tuna

Really easy and lovely salad for a light dinner or lunch.

10 oz ready to eat butterbeans

10 oz cabbage

(pointed cabbage would work really well, but haven’t found any so used regular cabbage)

A handful of chopped parsley

1 red onion

4-5 oz cherry tomatoes

Vinaigrette dressing

Limejuice

Salt and pepper

2 cans good quality canned tuna

Mix the vegetables and beans together. 

When you a ready to serve add the remaining ingredients and serve with some nice bread.

  

Baked fish with leek vinaigrette

Ingredients

2 pieces of white fish of your choice

4 leeks – all the white and a bit of the green

2  tsp mustard

2 tsp vinegar/lemon juice

1 tbsp capers

2 boiled eggs in cubes

2 tsp cubed onions

1 handful of parsley

Salt and pepper

Cut the leeks in two and clean them thoroughly. Boil a pot of salted water and steam/boil the leeks for about 10 minutes and let them drip dry and cool slightly.

Bake the fish with a little olive oil and salt and pepper in a 350F/175C oven for about 8 minutes.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together and serve it all together with some fresh bread or potatoes.

If you want to do something special but still really healthy the following to recipes goes really well together as a starter and a main.

Fennel salad with boozy flambéed prawns

  

Ingredients 

4 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp honey

3 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 small bunch of radishes

1 small fennel

ice cubes

4-5 prawns per person

1-2 oz Pernod/tequila

1 garlic clove in fine slices

Mix the lemon juice, oli and honey to a dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste

Finely slice the vegetables on a mandolin or with a speed peeler and put them straight into a bowl of ice water for at least 15 minutes.

This will make them crunchy and glass like.

Heat a bit of oil in a pan and fry the garlic until golden. Then add the prawns and fry them shortly.

Add the booze (original recipe called for Pernod but I only had tequila and it worked well, but Pernod would be best) and set fire to the pan. Cook until the fire goes out by it self.

Drain the vegetables well and mix them with the dressing.

Arrange on a platter with the prawns on top and perhaps a few drizzles of the garlic/booze/oil mix from the pan.

Endive with Parma ham and honey 

(1 person)

1 endive

2-4 pieces of Parma ham

Butter for the pan

Time

Lemon peel and juice

A drizzle of honey

Salt and pepper

Cut the endive in 2 lengthwise and wrap them ham around it.

Fry the endive in the butter until golden. Add some lemon juice and peel, time, honey and perhaps a bit of water. Make sure that it is glazed all over.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve it with some bread and perhaps some fried fish.

I am sure mackerel would be perfect but trout was the best pick a the fishmonger that day.

Italian lintel salad with chicken

For all of you people out there that are trying to get more protein in you diet – did you know that lentils have as much protein oz per as chicken? And it is healthy, full of fiber and there is no soaking involved.

5 oz of green lintils

5 oz of Brussels sprouts in very fine slices

1 red onion in fine slices

Sliced oven baked/sundried tomatoes in olive oil

Spinach

1-2 oz nuts or seeds, toasted on a pan

1 chicken breast per person

Oregano, salt and pepper

Oil for the pan

2-3 tbsp capers

Balsamic vinaigrette

Boil the lentils after the instructions on the pack. Once they are done, drained and slightly cooled, mix them with the other ingredients.

Pan-fry the chicken breast in a bit of oil with the spices. Once cooked, slice them into bite size pieces.

Fry the capers on the after heat of the pan for a couple of minutes.

Now mix the salad with the chicken, capers and the dressing and serve it with some fresh bread.

 Fried chicken and coleslaw in a lighter version

Coleslaw

I never liked coleslaw before I came to the states and now I absolutely love it. Especially the versions with the buttermilk dressings that makes them less heavy.

½ a cabbage, finely sliced

2 oranges, peeled and cubed

1 big apple, cubed or finely sliced

2-3 big carrots, finely sliced

4 spring onions, finely sliced

2 handfuls of chopped parsley

Dressing

Olive oil/mayonnaise

Buttermilk

1 minced garlic clove

Apple cider vinegar

Salt, pepper and sugar

Mix everything together and let the slaw sit on the counter for 30 minutes.

Oven fried chicken

Bread crumbs

A lille olive oil

Lemon peel

Salt and pepper

Cayenne pepper

Time

Buttermilk

A fitting number of chicken pieces – with or with out skin

Put the chicken in a plastic bag with enough buttermilk to just cover them up.

Mix the spices, lemon peel, oil and bread crumbs together in another plastic bag and ad 1-2 pieces of chicken at a time and shake until covered.

Arrange on baking paper and bake in the oven 350F/175C until golden and cooked through.

I went for the version with the skin on and it tasted great. I know that there is quite a bit of fat in the skin but it just tastes better that way.

New years eve in the big apple

The husband and I have lunch and dinner plans at his great auntie's place for new Years eve and she lives on Manhatten.

She had arranged a table for us at Aamanns Copenhagen NY who had a special set lunch menu and because it is a Danish restaurant, they had arranged so all us Danish guests could watch the Danish queens new years speech while they served champagne and “Kransekage” – a traditional mazipan cake that is used at weddings and every new years eve.

They had a bit of teniqual problem so we ended up seeing the speech after the lunch but that was really a minor detail.

The food was really great.

We started out with raw oysters with vinaigrette – always a favorite of mine.

Then came in a huge plate of all the wonders of the sea for the 3 of us to share.

Smoke king prawns, mussels and scallops with the most amassing celeriac-brown butter pure.

There were also bread and champagne ad libitum so we left there full and in high spirits.

All 3 of us had just returned from Christmas in Europe and after a long walk around china town and back up to Greenwich Village, we all need a nap.

We had big planes about seeing the night seen on new years eve on Manhattan but we quickly realized that, that wasn’t going to happen.

So I fixed us a nice dinner instead.

The menu was new interpretations on Danish favorites from the 80’es and 90’es.

Prawn cocktail

Prawn Oil

12 oz prawns (shells on)

3-4 oz oil

1 onion, sliced

A pinch of chili

1 tsp tomato pure

Fresh herbs (celery tops, dill or parsley)

Separate the prawns from it shells. Set the prawns aside and put the shells in a small pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients and sauté it over low heat for 5 minutes.

Strain and cool it.

2 pastorized egg yokes

Salt

Lemon juice

Mix the yokes, juice and salt and slowly whisk in the prawn’s oil until you have a mayonnaise.

Only a few drops at a time if you never done it before!

Crisp vegetables

1 fennel

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

Ice cubes

Speed peel or use a mandolin to make paper thing slices of vegetables.

Add them to ice water and let them sit for 15 minutes until crisp and glass like.

Drain and dry just before serving.

Soft vegetables

Boiled broccoli pured with butter, salt and pepper.

Prawns

Pan fry the prawns in a bit of oil and season them.

Arrange all the parts on a plate and serve immediately.

Boeuf Béarnaise in a new form

This is not really a Béarnaise, but I haven’t found a good new name for the sauce.

Maybe vegetable tarragon sauce? Anyhow, it has much less butter and is much much easier to make than the real deal.

I still like a really buttery Béarnaise but save that sauce for when you have company and make this one on those Friday nights when you feel like a good steak.

Vegetable tarragon sauce

4 oz of mixed vegetables (squash, onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip)

Tarragon

2 oz of butter

Lemon juice/good white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Boil all the vegetables with the tarragon until tender.

Add them and the rest of the ingredients to a blender and pure. I also added 1 pastorized egg yoke, but that’s just me.

Pan fry a good steak – porterhouse would be nice – in butter with some garlic and time in the pan to add flavor.

Serve it up with you favorite sides.

I served it with fresh potatoes and steamed vegetables.

It all tasted really good and after a cup of coffee and some ice cream, we all went to bed around 10 PM and slept into the new year.

So much for our big night out planes! Ohh well – maybe next year.

Christmas

Christmas is one of my absolute favorite times of the year! We were so lucky that we could spend Christmas with the whole family at the in-laws house back home in Denmark. Only one missing was my sister who was home sick but luckily I spend my birthday with her a few days later.

I didn’t take any pictures of the Christmas food because I didn’t make it but I will give you a fast list of what Danes normally eat on Christmas Eve.

In the olden days families would normally start out with porridge to make people full before the expensive meat came on the table and even though the crisis is taking its tole in Danish homes as well, I don’t think we are anywhere near starting this tradition again.

There are slight varieties on what people eat for Christmas in Denmark when it comes to meat, but the sides are normally all the same.

For meat you would either have duck or pork back with the skin and fat still attached, but cut into thin strips. This way they will become what we know as pork cracklings, but still attached to every slice of juicy pork.

Many people have both meats and some even add “Medisterpølse” which is a thick long Danish sausage and “Frikadeller” which are Danish meatballs.

So as you can tell – total meat fest!

The sides are: white boiled potatoes, a perfect sauce made from the juices of the pork and the duck (very important part of the Christmas meal), braised red cabbage with cinnamon, berry jam and vinegar and caramelized peeled potatoes.

For dessert we have “Ris a la Mande” which is rice pudding made lighter in texture by adding whipped cream and chopped almonds and served with a hot cherry sauce. It is served in a big bowl and somewhere in the dessert, there is one whole blanched almond.

The one that gets the whole almond, gets a present – The almond present!

As you can imagine, many families play games when it comes to the dessert. Everybody takes a big portion so that his or her chance of getting the almond is higher.

Sometimes someone gets the almond in the first portion and if they are very cheeky they will hide it, so everyone else take seconds and thirds until they are about to explode!

I don’t really like this kind of force eating so I never take part – but everyone else seem to enjoy it – especially the men.

After dinner, everyone goes to the family room and all the live candled are ligh on the Christmas three. Then traditionally you all take hands to make a big circle and walk/dance around the three and sing carols. Some even dance around the whole house singing.

This years christmas three

It is actually great fun, but in our family we don’t really do it any more because it is more fun when there are small kinds in the family and the youngest generation (being me, amongst many other) haven’t gotten there own kids yet.

Then coffee, cookies and homemade Christmas candy are served in the living room and we all open presents. On present at a time so everyone can see who got what from whom. In a big family like mine there are around 150 presents so it takes about 2-3 hours!

And then everyone tumbles into bed – full and happy.

What does Americans do? I talked to a few people and everyone seam to have different traditions?

Only unanimous thing I found is that you all open your presents on Christmas morning – like the Brites do.