A Celebratory Christmas Menu for Six or More

• Cocktails and Appetizers: Golden Ginger Cocktails, Nut Mix, Assorted Chocolates, Goat Cheese Christmas Tree
• Soup: Swiss Cheese and Onion Soup with Homemade Croutons
• Main: Lasanga, Wreath Salad, Hard Rolls with Soft Butter
• Dessert: Spiced Rum Sours, Chocolate Tart, Gingerbread Cookies

Weeks in Advance

Buy anything non-perishable that you might need for service: cocktail glasses, soup bowls, serving dishes, etc. Don’t underestimate this. You’re probably planning to serve more people than you usually do, and although you think that running out of soup bowls is something that never happens to you, it can when you’re serving a crowd … and you’d hate to realize it on Christmas afternoon. Think everything through. If you’re going to need something that you’re pretty sure is in a box in the basement, go and verify that you can find it. Do this now, when there’s no stress attached to the results.

Buy items with long shelf lives: liquor, chocolates, dried herbs, and lasagna noodles, for instance. My go-to for chocolates is The Fudge Pot in Old Town (Chicago), and just a few doors down is my favorite spice shop. (They both ship.)

Although I love to make rolls, I rarely do so if I have a big dinner to put together. Typically, they’re best if made same-day, and I usually feel too rushed to have to wait on rising bread dough when I’ve got so much else to juggle. My second line of roll defense is to buy frozen rolls. They’re remarkably good and so easy to heat up. I’m not the only one who knows this, so it’s important to buy them weeks in advance, or you may risk not being able to find any in the store.

Make the cocktail syrups. Keep refrigerated.

Make the cookies and freeze them. They freeze perfectly.

Days in Advance

The soup can be made a few days in advance and reheated. The tart can also be made a day or two ahead of time. I’d recommend keeping it in an airtight cake tote, in the fridge. The lasagna can be assembled the day before.

Buy items with mid-range shelf lives, like cheese, onions, olives, and cream. The crouton bread is better if it’s dried out a bit, so don’t wait on buying it.

Last-Minute Items

This menu requires some items that can’t easily be purchased too far in advance: fresh herbs, meat, fresh veg and fruits. I always feel that this puts me in competition with other shoppers – not usually, but during the Christmas season, yes. It’s best to know what stores stock what kinds of items, and have back-up plans if things don’t go your way. Of course, you can buy some of these items in advance and freeze them.

Day Of

The schedule I’m laying out assumes that you’ll have a helper throughout the day.

• 11 AM: do as much prep as you can: set the table, prep the tree appetizer and the wreath salad, set out the chocolates and nuts. Take care of last-minute touches, like decorating the tart.
• Noon: pre-heat the oven.
• 12:15 PM: put the lasagna – which you assembled in advanced and kept in the fridge overnight – in the oven. Remove the cookies from the freezer and arrange them on a plate. Place butter in a server and let it come to room temperature.
• 1:30 PM: clean yourself up and change out your sweats for something presentable.
• 2:30 PM: put the soup into an Instant Pot. Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ, less, 15 minutes. Stir constantly until the soup is hot. Be careful, because it could easily scorch. If you feel things are getting out of hand, breifly CANCEL the sauté and then reactivate it once things are back under control. Once the soup is hot, CANCEL the sauté. Screw on the lid. Activate the KEEP WARM function.
• 3:00 PM: guests arrive. Have your helper make and serve the Golden Ginger Cocktails.
• 3:30 PM: remove the foil from the lasagna. Reheat the extra sauce.
• 4:00 PM: take the lasagna out of the oven and heat the rolls. Once the rolls are ready, turn off the oven and leave the door open as you wrap the rolls in a towel and place them in a basket. Turn the oven to it’s “warm” (or lowest) setting. Put the wrapped rolls in it, return the lasagna to it, and place the extra sauce in there, too. Serve the soup. At this point, you’re home free: the main course and desserts are ready whenever you are. You can make the rum sours as you like.

Christmas Menu 2024

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