What should I bring?

[darkemeralds]

Gah! It sneaks up on me every year. I need ideas.

As a single person with no kids living in a very small house, I ignore the damn thing as much as possible. I've never hosted a holiday meal, I have mutual-no-present pacts with all of my friends and family.

So when people around me start mentioning "Christmas" and "next week" in the same sentence, I'm invariably surprised.

But still, I do have friends and family, and they do like to sit down and eat together on festive occasions, and this year (next week...gah!) we're going to my mom's. I was going to volunteer a big pot of my fabulous-if-I-do-say-so-myself boeuf bourguingon, but my older sis was before me and trumped me with an offer of prime rib.

Younger sis then whumped me in the dessert category.

This leaves me holding the bag on some kind of potatoey, starchy side dish offering. Any ideas?

Comments

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Bubble and Squeak. Boil some potatoes until they're almost falling apart, drain, part mash them. Add some cooked cabbage, a knob of butter, maybe some cream or cheese, salt and pepper, fry the whole mess in a frying pan until golden brown.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord, bubble and squeak! I haven't had that since I lived in England, in, you know, the Victorian era. I used to LOVE that stuff, and hadn't thought of it ages.

The cabbage would make it a non-starter for several family members, but THANK YOU FOR THE REMINDER because I'm going to make some for myself! Yay!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

*g* Bubble and Squeak is a kind of miracle food, in that I hate cabbage normally, but I could live on bubble and squeak forever :)

I can definitely recommend roasted sweet potatoes too. I make that myself, though with chilli, chopped onion and garlic instead of the lime and paprika, and it's really easy to do!

This is a great thread! I'm going to try the layery thing with the tomatoes tomorrow.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

If you do, please report back! I'd love to hear how it goes.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I sort of did it :) I tweaked the recipe to fit what I had in my cupboards. So I did a layer of potatoes, a layer of raw onion sliced in rings, a thin layer of potatoes (just to cover it) on top and then a can of peeled plum tomatoes on top of that and red Leicester cheese on that. I used mixed herbs and stirred a spoonful of chilli pesto into the tomatoes. And then baked it for about an hour.
It was really nice! I was worried the onions might not have cooked, and they were still crunchy, but they tasted sweet, so that was excellent. And there was enough flavour from everything else that the potatoes themselves didn't feel like too much blandness. I will definitely be doing that again :)

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I don't think I know Leicester cheese, but I've looked it up and I'm guessing that a Cheddar would do...?

I'm thinking I might sauté the onions--maybe even brown/carmelize them a little--before putting them in.

You and kispexi2 have convinced me that a combination of potato, tomato, onion and cheese will win the day. Thank you!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Red Leicester was a bit too bland for the purpose. That's just what I had on hand because my children don't like cheese which is too strong. A mature Cheddar would be very good instead.

For me the crunchy-but-sweet onions really added a touch of wow factor to the dish, because I'd never had onions like that before. But caramelised would probably be safer :)