Christmas Dinner

My sister made this lovely pie. I love pie. And here is the second bread. A little salty. I have to work with that. But ohhh, the texture was good, and isn't it lovely. Fresh bread.


I wonder how many blogs will be written today about Christmas dinner. Hum.. Brings a smile to my heart. This is mine. A small humble dinner for my sister and me. I am shy to say that in my 60 years, I have never cooked a ham. So here it is. I didn't have a wire rack to set it on, but I did have this pot trivet made of some sort of aluminum iron or something. And it did the trick. This is the ham more than half way through its cooking. I will be placing in the cloves and the pineapple slices now.


These are the sweet potatoes which I have cooked in butter, brown sugar and orange slices in a cast iron skillet. Not exactly your calorie - counting dish. Oh - so - good.


I thought I might cook asparagus, but it was really thin, and Denise eats a lot of asparagus. So I, upon her encouragement, decided to cook green beans and huge pieces of garlic in olive oil and butter with parsley, sage and chives and a little salt. I tried not to over cook them so there would still be a little snap to them. I don't like mushy green vegetables.


The finished ham. It's a seven and a half pound ham, so there is lots left for soup, sandwiches, and just munching on. Love that.

Of course, there is rarely a cooking day without a mishap. Today it was opening the can of pineapple slices. Dole pineapple slices. It was one of those pull top types where you pull on the ring. I was struggling with it. I was almost finished when I let go. My hand got caught between the cover and the can and I got cut. A pretty sizable one too. It's 10:30 at night and it still hurts and bleeds. I'm a winner. Kids do better at these things than I do. I can be so inept in the kitchen at times. But~~~~

We had a peaceful day. The wind has been howling all day gusting to almost 40 miles an hour. But it doesn't touch us in here. The smells from the kitchen are the most comforting smells of the year. This is how to end a year. Great simple food, Champagne, my sister and a good home. I hope everyone had a great day. A loving day.