The pea soup is cooking. I make it very easy using a crock pot. I put in a whole onion, a couple of carrots, peeled and cut in half, a ham hock, the split green peas, seasonings and water. In a couple hours it will be thick and absolutely delicious.
I am going to make some Swedish Potato Sausage patties. I found several recipes and one thing they had in common that I have never done is to partially cook the potatoes first. So I am going to try that. Then add the ground pork, ground beef, onion, allspice and a bit of liquid. I'll form that into patties and refrigerate until I cook them for dinner. Some recipes call for cooking in oil and others cooking in water! I'll probably try using water rather than oil.
The only thing I miss from the Christmas Eve dinners I had when growing up is lutefisk. It's an acquired case but I love it and miss having it. When I worked in Washington D.C., a few of the larger grocery stores would have lutefisk available for Scandinavian folks who worked at the embassies and I could always get some for our dinner.
I did find some at a Swedish store in Brooklyn when living in NYC until they went out of business. Since then, no lutefisk!
Rice pudding is the last item I am making today. It's easy and I make it in the oven rather than on the stove. As long as I remember to stir it every 30 minutes for the first hour and a half, then every ten minutes until done, it works well. I used to make it in a double boiler stirring constantly. It always took a lot longer than the recipe suggested.
That's if for cooking. Tomorrow all I need to do is make the candied yams and green bean casserole. A lot less work than today.
Believe it or not, there are still some Christmas Decorations missing. They are probably in a box in the storage trailer still. Here are a few pictures of the decorations in the lower level...
Well, I hope all of you who celebrate either Christmas or Chanukah are ready for the celebrations tomorrow. Remember the celebrations come ready or not, so don't fuss if things aren't perfect, just enjoy them as things are. If you are with family and/or friends, focus on your time with them because, quite frankly, that's more important than all the decorations, food or even gifts.
I will not be posting anymore this week so I wish you all the joy and peace that this season brings.
Talk with you next week...