This year I wanted to take some stress of the holidays off my mom and offered to make Christmas Dinner. We have a few immutable traditions that cannot be changed but dinner is something we can have fun with.

Planning

This year I decided that I wanted to do something different for Christmas Dinner and the best way to make that happen was to offer to cook it myself. With a fluid total of 8 – 10 people it would not be a large meal but I wanted to make it special while shaking up the normal dinner fare.

I landed on the idea of a “Tasting Party”. I have a great set of mini dishes that will work perfectly.

My first step was deciding on the menu. I wrote a list of everything that I wanted to make and then broke them down into categories. You can see my notes and the final menu below.

I settled on 5 courses at first but Pinterest lulled me into adding a 6th course.

Course #1 – Danish Christmas Rice. This is a tradition that cannot be changed. I would not live through Christmas Eve if I tried.

Course #2 – Seafood Course

                Shrimp Cocktails

                Smoked Salmon Roses

                Shrimp Rosemary Skewers

                Smoked Oyster Crostini

Course #3 – Cheese and Pasta

                Mini Baked Brie Bites with Crackers

                Crescent Pizza Rolls

                Mac n Cheese Bites

                Caprese Pasta Shells

                Baked Ravioli Bites

Course #4 – Meat and Veggies

                Pork Chop Bites with Red Cabbage

                Pork Chop Bite with Calvados Apples

                Mini Beef Wellingtons with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

                Baked Veggie Medley

Course #5 – Asian Flare

                Eggrolls

                Potstickers

                Asian Meatball with Rice

                Seaweed Salad

Course #6 – Taste of the South

                Chicken and Waffles

                Cornbread and Chili

                Pretzel Bites and Queso

                Chicken Wings with Two Dipping Sauces

This was ambitious but I knew that I was only making 8 – 10 of everything and I believed could pull it off. I knew I needed more time between courses and something to amuse the other dinners while I prepped the next course (because I want to eat at the table as well). I settled on putting together some games and prizes that people could play in between. This idea was scrapped when it became only 8 people.

Notes and My Ambitious Plan