Non-traditional Christmas Dinner

My wife is a Cuban born and raised, so Christmas dinner is...different. But quite tasty. Pork roast, moros (black beans and rice mixed), maduros (soft fried plantains-like candy), yuca (casava root cooked like potatoes but in mojo), along with flan for dessert, among other savory stuff.

13 hour pork roast...yum!!



I'm not gonna eat for a week.

 

I had ham, mashed potatoes, spicy green beans, and homemade jiaozi (pork and shrimp dumplings).
Nice mixing two cultures for dinner.

 

I feel ya. My wife is of Costa Rican decent and my father in law married a Cuban. Throw in my Salvadorean family... Our family dinners are a gastric feast. Not to mention a drink fest.

 

You guys are killing me... I lived on Puerto Rican, Cuban, Colombian, Peruvian, Dominican, and Haitian food in Florida! And probably a few more! I miss that... But it's probably also the reason I weighed as much as a Toyota.

And I had a friend who used to bring me Costa Rican coffee in a paper bag from his family's crops. You guys are killing me! In a good way...

 

Give me a burger and call it good. Not an adventurous eater.

 

Tamales, Home-made lasagne and a baked ham; Mexican mom, Mexican/Italian dad and Texan in-laws. It was a U.N. x-mas!

 

Had Chinese take out. We just watched this two days ago, so felt right.

 

Me too!

 

Many moons ago when I was early teens our family lived in New Orleans. The holiday feast was crawfish boil (crawdads, sausage, corn and potatos). Lay some newspaper over the table and dump the boil contents in the middle and it was a free for all. Easy clean up too. Come to think of it, seems all the holidays down there had a crawfish boil as the feast.

 

I had leftover pizza from the other night.

 

Pot roast for us... And the wife and kids made cookies and peppermint bark to tempt me. I'm weak.

 

Last year my brother in law tried a Turducken and etouffee. Was different but not my thing. This year we had a traditional dinner.

 

Pan seared steak and Mac n cheese. High and low brow .... All in one. Ever since I started searing my steak, no more bbq. You lose too much moisture imho. When I want to use the bbq now, I just take my steak grilling pan and put it on the bbq. (Burgers too). Sacrilege!!!

 

My new stove has a restaurant-grade steel griddle in the middle. I'm using it for steaks, burgers, chicken fajitas, you name it. I agree - more tasty than a BBQ grill if done right.

Oh and Christmas dinner? Whatever my hosts are making!!!! We live in a small house and have never hosted a holiday meal due to limited space.

 

That's quality photography right there - featuring the Champagne of Beers!

 

The thread states Non-Traditional but mine kinda applies. This is the first year I had to buy my prime rib from the supermarket (thanks divorce ). I generally got it from Pacific Ranch Market near Wise Guys. It would cost me $80-90 for a three rib roast. This year I purchased it from Stater Bros for $30. Yeah, there was a big difference! I hate being poor!!...LOL

It was accompanied with Yorkshire Pudding and Green Beans w Shallots and roasted almonds. I made a "made from scratch" Chocolate Cake.

 

Ever since we got a Foreman Grill, my Steak have neve touched a BBQ since. Talk about perfection!

 

I prefer pan seared steak too. Read a couple articles on the best "how to" and now hooked. Of course, you need to start with a good quality steak!

And a Joe Forman grill..received one as a gift maybe 20 yrs ago, it has moved from house to house many times, but has yet to be used.....

 

Our family is ½ Puerto Rican, so we have that non-traditional meal kind of regularly.
We'll have it on New Year eve, although I'm partial to the tostones over the maduros. We have the rice with gandules instead of the black beans.
@ridinrox - we had a Costco choice prime rib in August that was excellent, and a pretty good price.

I made caterpillar (roasted double pork loin) with garlic/thyme/cinnamon/salt/sugar rub, roasted potatoes with pan gravy, stuffing, sugar snap peas with pearl onions, spinach/strawberry salad with red onion and toasted almonds. Too full for dessert.

 

Is there anywhere around to get good Puerto Rican food? My wife has travelled back to Florida a few times on business, and she actually shipped me about 30 pounds of food on dry ice a couple times: roast pork, arroz con gandules, abichuelas (sp?), plantains, and even some of the coffee I used to love...

 

there is a Cuban place in Orange that I've never been to, and there is a Senor Big Ed's in Cypress that is owned by Puerto Ricans.
At Ed's they do the regular Mexican, and then have a Puerto Rican menu. We've been there often, and they have all the standards.
Truthfully, it's a little hit and miss. When it's on, it is very good, but sometimes it can fall a little short of the mark.

 

Thanks!

 

The place in Orange is called Felix Cafe, on the traffic circle. Excellent spot; typical hole in the wall, very small, usually crowded but it's been there forever. I've been there several times with the wife and never disappointed.

 

I had to look those up. The etouffee looks yummy

 

It looks good but it is an acquired taste.

 

Trying to talk the wife into an authentic paella for New Years...but dang it's expensive. We usually end up $120 into it by the time the paella is cooked. But it's worth it.

 

Official IMTB New Year's Eve Party is now planned!

 

This time of year crawfish and crabs are hard to find but OYSTERS are plentiful.
Christmas Eve we made traditional rice and oyster dressing - it's taken me/us decades to finally get it right.
(not sure if it's a Cajun, Creole or just southern dish - I just know Greg's family has been making it for generations)

 

Did that dish one year for Christmas Eve - alotta money, alotta work and alotta taste but I won't be doing it anytime soon....