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What's Cookin': Dinner menu was changed
Thursday January 8 2009
By Lori Gysel and Gerry Kentner
 
Prime rib.  
Many of you have stopped me in the last few weeks to find out the answer to the dreaded Christmas dinner question— what to serve? It seems that I am not the only one who struggles with this issue.  
Well, there were a couple of factors that swayed my decision. First of all, lots of people came up and told me their stories of switching from turkey to something new and I figured if you could be that brave, then so could I!  As I talked to the family members over the month of December, nobody seemed particularly disturbed at the idea of not having turkey. Now, whether this was their true feelings or just the bravado they put on in order to ensure that they would still have a spot at our table, I’m not sure.
Also, prime rib went on sale the week of Christmas at my grocery store of choice— that really helped with the decision. Then, here’s what I did. I cooked two turkeys on Christmas Eve— complete with stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. One for my family, because as you know, the mere thought of having to live through Boxing Day with no turkey sandwiches was horrifiying.  And the other for my sister and her kids— they travel here from Windsor for a very quick 36 hours of fun and then they are off back to work so there is no time for cooking turkeys at her house! So, I cooked one for them as a Christmas gift so they could take it back to Windsor with them. (By the way, Mom is right when she says that homemade gifts are the best kind; of all the gifts that I gave this Christmas, that was probably the most joyously received!)
In order to make my life a little easier at mealtime, I cooked up some beef bones on Christmas Eve as well and made beef gravy in advance. I also cooked all the roasted root vegetables and peeled the potatoes. So, although Christmas Day dinner was still quite busy—  at least there was some stuff prepped in advance. I also rented the glassware and accepted graciously when all my family members offered to bring the salad, cheese and dessert.  
And  I did not wash one single dish.  I looked after the food and the family did all the dishes— led of course by my sister!
So, I’m sorry that I couldn’t share all this info with you sooner, but the newspaper deadlines required me to have all my columns in for the holiday weeks well in advance, so this is the first chance I’ve had to tell you! Hope your holiday entertaining went as well as ours did.  Now, what are we going to do next year? There’s always that turduckin that we’ve talked about...
 Have fun and keep cooking!
Lori and Gerry can be reached at whatscookin@independentfreepress.com