Christmas 2025 (what I cooked)

Corn maque choux (with smoked turkey instead of ham or bacon). The meat substitution occurred because more than half of our guests don’t eat pork.

Glazed carrots- a first for me! I worked from Julia Child’s recipe. Either the version I used was incorrect, or Julia preferred her glazed carrots to be subtly sweet. They had a good texture, but the glaze wasn’t as strong as my family likes. (I’m going to check other sources.)

Shrimp Creole. Haven’t made this one in years, which is saying something. I used 4lbs of 8/12 shrimp and served it over rice. And because some in the family have a problem with bell peppers, I substituted fresh poblanos. In the end, this pot got destroyed- only a couple cups of the sauce remained; the shrimp were all gone. I saved it, though, because it will be good over rice or pasta, served with the leftover turkey.

Taco Soup- always a party favorite. This year I amped it up by substituting 2lbs of Louisiana hot sausage for 2/3 of ground meat. Even though it was spicier than usual, most of it disappeared by dinner’s end.

*****
Food I made not pictured: bread pudding, 5 cup salad.

Bought or brought food not pictured: fried turkey, smoked turkey, glazed ham, mac & cheese, potato salad, banana pudding.

Christmas 2025 was a weird one. We were setting up to have a modest size dinner, but had some unexpected twists.

I was going to make my maternal aunt’s glazed ham, but my paternal aunt- who usually makes a KILLER roast beef- decided she wanted to bring a glazed ham. And by the time certain other details got cleared up, it was too late for me to get and defrost a turkey.

Certain ingredients we wanted vanished from the shelves, forcing ingredient substitutions and even menu changes. (Amusingly, certain ingredients we’ve been looking for for MONTHS appeared in abundance after we were already committed to a final menu.)

And OF COURSE, multiple guests who were bringing food (including my aforementioned aunt), came down sick and couldn’t attend, while a slew of relatives from out of town appeared at our door. (I predicted their arrival; my parents didn’t believe me.)

On top of it all, I simply ran out of time to cook everything I intended to, and forgot to serve some dishes, like my charcuterie board.

TL;DR: weird Christmas, but everyone liked what I cooked.