Cooking traditions during this covid Christmas (478 views)

Happy holidays!
Not much going on here.....we try to find a "special" meal...ingredients we don't use a lot of during the year...to make a demarcation of sorts for the Solstice and the flurry of holiday activities and decorations that brighten a mood.
Not sure what this year will be yet...duck? or shrimp or who knows....
I don't bake a lot, mainly because I'd be tempted to eat it.
DH's ex-wife sent us a box of homemade cookies and DH has to restrain himself. Cookies aren't my trigger, so that's good!

I have a difficult relationship with my 92 year old father and Christmas visits are always extremely stressful (e.g. 2 years ago he accused my Iowa born-and-bred, ex-hippie husband, who has never been anything other than patient and kind to Dad, of being a sleeper cell fundamental Islamist).   Dad is staying put in Maine this year, and so it's the first holiday in literally decades that I am not approaching filled with stress and dread.  DH and I talked through what we wanted to change about our traditional menu and activities---still do stockings on Christmas Eve, but smaller spread of appetizers.  Still do beef tenderloin, shredded brussel sprouts, creamed spinach, braised mushrooms, rolls, but swap in potatoes of sin (British-style roast potatoes done in bacon fat) for usual risotto.  No dessert, we never get to it.  Skip the scalloped oysters on Christmas Day but maybe do a big batch of bacon to go with Bloody Marys.  And I think NYE is going to be just appetizers---I found a fabulous recipe for a gorgeous chicken liver mousse, we can do brie kisses, spinach balls, some cheeses and smoked salmon.   So Dad has a nice holiday meal, I found a place that does pre-cooked Wagyu beef shanks prepared osso buco style (one of his particular favorites)--they're being delivered Dec 23 and are boil-in-bag, so he can heat one up and have a special holiday meal for himself (actually, probably 3-4 meals, because the shanks are huge, 20-24 oz).  

I did put up all our decorations, including our tree, which is done in all glass and crystal.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to do for holiday meals this year. We usually do Christmas Eve with just the two of us and dinner is usually something simple. Christmas lunch and dinner is with my family, lunch is appetizers and the fish cakes that my Dad always made. I make the fish cakes now that he is gone. Those are made and in the freezer, so we will have them. I have packages of them ready to share with family members, but I don't know when I'll be able to share them. I visited with my mom and sisters just before Thanksgiving, but although my family is only 90 minutes away, their state has strict travel restrictions. I did a turkey dinner for the two of us for Thanksgiving and I know I don't want to do anything with a lot of separate dishes for Christmas. I need to figure out what will be special, but not overwhelming. I have some lamb racks in the freezer. I also thought of braciole. I need to decide soon because I want to shop no later than Monday morning. I go back and forth about the holiday cooking that I normally do. It's not as easy to share it this year and I don't want a lot of less healthy food around the house. I will be making is my family's traditional Christmas morning breakfast bread called French Twist. I am going to try a new recipe for a vegan chocolate-peppermint truffle to share with a few friends and our mail lady. food52.com/recipes/78403-vegan-dark-chocolate-peppermint-truffles I also plan to mail some treats and jams to a few friends, but I am going to wait until after Christmas because the post office is absolutely swamped right now.

I was totally OK with having Thanksgiving on our own, but having Christmas on our own feels harder.