I stopped cooking on Christmas Day a number of years ago...I told DH I wanted to enjoy the day like everyone else.
We have items that come & go all day long. It seems like yours will be much more formal than ours is though. My focus was to stay out of the kitchen except to get the food out of the 'frig & serve it.
Our typical buffet also includes:
breakfast casserole
orange muffins or coffee cake muffins
fresh fruit - pineapple, clementines, strawberries
WL Strawberry Banana Bread
cold shrimp
smoked cheeses & crackers
ring bologna (don't know if you can get that in NE...it's kind of a PA Dutch thing I think)
veggies & spinach dip in a bread bowl
Christmas cookies
Chex mix
mini cream puffs (I buy them frozen in a tub)
One thing I don't do for Christmas but have on other occasions is to make a turkey ahead of time. Cook it long enough that you can shred it...like pulled pork. Store it in the broth from the roasting pan. (I often add water to the bones & simmer several hours so I have enough.) It can even be frozen like this without drying out the meat. Defrost, toss in the crock & sit it on the buffet table with some kind of roll (we like hard ones so the broth doesn't make them too soggy to hold) & horseradish sauce. Very tasty! When I do this I season the turkey with a homemade rub & slip orange or lemon slices under the skin. I'll add the "recipe" for this at the end of the post.
Oh - and something else I've done is to make crab rangoon & keep them warm in a crockpot on the table.
If you're looking for a good recipe for meatballs, I really like this one:
Company Sausage & Meatballs
2 lb hamburger
½ c Parmesan cheese
¼ c bread crumbs
½ tsp garlic powder
dash pepper
1 c oatmeal
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp oregano
30 Jimmy Dean links, skinless
32 oz catsup
¼ c brown sugar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp mustard
¾ c BBQ sauce
½ c cider vinegar
1½ tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
garlic, minced (opt)
onion, chopped (opt)
Combine hamburger, cheese, crumbs, garlic powder, pepper, oatmeal, eggs, salt & ½ tsp oregano to make meatballs. Use a melon baller to make meatballs. Microwave meatballs on HIGH ~ 20 at a time – cover with wax paper. Repeat with sausages ~10 at a time. Combine remaining ingredients & simmer with sausage & meatballs 6 hours. Serve with noodles, rice or good bread. Yield: 60+ meatballs & 30 sausages
Shredded Turkey
Kosher salt
½ - ¾ tsp lemon pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground celery seed
½ tsp lemon zest (I use dried)
¾ tsp orange rind (I use dried)
2 – 3 oranges or lemons
½ c orange juice or
¼ c lemon juice
Cut 1 orange (or lemon) in half & squeeze juice over outside of bird. Set the squished pieces aside to toss into the cavity after rubbing with spices.
Rub inside & out with Kosher salt.
Combine spices & rub this mixture inside & out.
Toss squished halves into cavity.
Slice 2 oranges (~¼” slices) & slip under the skin on breast & legs.
Squeeze any remaining orange slices into the cavity (to remove juice) & then toss the squished slices in there - including the end pieces.
Add juice to the cavity. (For lemon, I use the frozen Minute Maid lemon juice.)
Cover roaster & roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 & roasted a couple hours – until it is falling off the bones.
I leave the roaster on top of the stove (turned off) while I pull the meat off of what was left of the carcass. It starts to fall apart when you remove the meat. I put the meat in a container & refrigerate it. Then I poured a couple quarts of water in the roaster, positioned it over 2 burners & turned it on medium low for a couple hours. I left the skin & oranges in with the bones. The longer it cooks the better - I like to do it at least 4 hours if I have time.
The meat can be shredded as soon as it's cool enough - or the next day. Once the broth is "done" I wait until it's cool enough to touch the bones when I pull them out. I end up straining the broth to get out all of the disintegrating bones - but there's usually still some meat in there that I pull out & keep. I'm too cheap to just toss it with the bones, skin & stuff.
I usually store the meat IN the broth and I skim off the fat once it had cooled & separated.
