Thread: Xmas dinner?

Looking for some suggestions on non-traditional side dishes to serve for xmas dinner with the extended family. Can't ask the family, they just want to sit down, eat, and be impressed.

Main dish is either Magret de Canard (by popular request) or a bone in primerib roast.

Usually I serve sometype of mashed potato and green bean but hate to keep doing the same thing. My family isnt Italian but I tend to serve dishes with an Italian, or sometimes French theme.


Some thoughts:

pre dinner
blue cheese bruschetta

appetizer
lobster bisque
crispy pasta cake with red pepper salad
veggie lasagna
eggplant parmesean
roasted pumpkin stuffed w/foi gras salad

starch
risotto (lobster if I do the bisque)
turnip & pear puree
roasted fennel, anise & root veggies

veggie
sauteed spinach
spaghetti squash

dessert
pumpkin cheesecake w/bourbon sauce
warm vanilla & mint tapiocca

any input or suggestions?

For an appetizer...Crab cakes are always good...or bacon wrapped scallops.

Originally Posted by saintv90

For an appetizer...Crab cakes are always good...or bacon wrapped scallops.

forgot to mention, grandmother is catholic and I cook her a version of "7 fishes" dinner on Xmas eve which includes: shark steak, tuna steak, shrimp, crab cakes, scallops, clams and sea bass.

Go seasonal! Braised brussel sprouts in chix stock w/ crispy pancetta "breadcrumb",5-cheese lobster mac 'n cheese,baked with panko crust,shaved fennel and mixed green salad w/clementine vinaigrette,roasted butternut squash risotto,pumpkin and apple bisque

Prosciutto wrapped melon or use grissini sticks drizzled with honey or do something like lobster w/ gouda cheese quesadillas for pre-dinner. A saffron risotto, sundried tomato bisque and maybe almond crusted porktenderloin medallions for apps