Christmas Dinner!

Holiday dinner in my household is nothing traditional. We have never been ham, turkey and sides kinda people. Each year we try something a little different. This year, my mom decided on having Italian food for Christmas. She said when I was a little girl, she would make lasagna because it could be cooked and reheated whenever we wanted to eat. We took that idea and ran with it.

A week before Christmas, we were able to finally able to finalize the menu. My mom makes the best lasagna. I would never try to duplicate it because it's perfect. I also wanted to make a chicken dish, but something that was covered in tomato sauce or had to be served with pasta. I went to Pinterest and found a recipe on a breaded chicken cutlet covered with a lemon butter wine sauce called Chicken Francaise. We also had butter Parmesan garlic broken noddles, sauteed Brussels sprouts and spinach strawberry pecan salad with poppyseed dressing. For dessert, my mom found a cool light dessert called Lemon Lush that has lemon pudding, whipped cream over a walnut crust. I also made sweet and salty brittle.

I honestly believe this was one of our best meals because we weren't chained to the kitchen for hours. We prepped the lasagna, seasoned the chicken and made the desserts the day before. We hit the kitchen around 2:30pm and within a few hours and not standing over a hot stove, dinner was ready.

My dad always comes to celebrate Christmas with us and stays for dinner. My little brother's girlfriend, as well as, one of my favorite cousin and her boyfriend stopped in. We all ate and were merry. Music was playing in the background and we were all laughing and enjoying each other. I also made wassail, which is a spiced apple cider filled with orange, cranberry and pineapple juices and tons of spices. Another successful holiday dinner is in the books. I wonder what we will come up with next year...maybe Asian!!!