The Pork Boys Do Christmas, 2010

Your Head Trucker's report on Christmas in Texas this year.


Sunday night, the ex-roommate and I had our Christmas dinner at his place.  He had a big Christmas day with his ex-wife and grown kids and spouses the day before, stirring up a huge pot of gumbo and other Cajun delights, which would have wore me slap out.  But nothing daunted, he was still raring to go to work on our dinner the next day, and did a truly fabulous job - and here's some pics to prove it, though I wish I could figure a way to post the smells and tastes for you fellas, too.  It was some kinda good.  I tell you what.

Couple weeks back, he got busy on the outside lights, and the house looked right purty as you can see here.

The front door snowflake he made just by cutting out paper in an intricate pattern, and adding some tiny battery-powered lightbulbs.  Pretty clever, I think.

As usual, he did his house up real nice inside too, had homemade snowflakes and angels hanging from the ceilings on fishing line, so it looked like they were all just floating in the air.  Here's some before he got them hung up, all made by hand just from paper and glue, except for the doll heads:

Hung pommanders - oranges stuck with cloves and wrapped in glittery ribbons - over all the main doorways too.  Didn't get a pic of those, but here's his Christmas tree, very pretty as you might expect; looks like a storybook tree, don't it?  The lights are blue and white snowflakes.

The dinner table was right in front of the tree, and set very prettily with his Christmas dishes and more handmade decorations:

Now before we got to sitting down to dinner, first we had hors d'oeuvres, which he had a whole big side table full of. All kinds of Xmas cookies and candies, including a plate of homemade fudge he made - two kinds, chocolate and also white peppermint - cut in squares and arranged in a checkerboard pattern, which I wish I'd thought to take a pic of. Also a plate of what he calls "tartlets": sorta like big raviolis made of crescent roll dough, filled with cooked mushrooms, onions, cheese, and hardboiled egg, all chopped fine. Major yum.

Your Head Trucker is no piker though, nossir, I brought some orr-durvey stuff too. Like a pop-top can of smoked oysters and a slab of Monterey Jack. Okay, so maybe it didn't look too pretty next to all the fancy stuff, but it tasted good just the same. But hey gimme some points, guys, for at least remembering to bring some rainbow-colored toothpicks to spear them little oysters with.

Also, I did bring the booze - you expected that, right boys? A 12-pack of beer, a big bottle of White Zin, and a jug of rum to go in the eggnog, natch. So that got us off to a good start with plenty of Christmas cheer, and by the time dinner was ready to set on the table we were in a pretty good mood. We started off with a totally scrumptious steak-and-oyster pie, aka "Lovers' Pie," which was definitely something to write home about, take my word for it.

Then the main course, which was Cornish game hens simmered in broth then baked and stuffed with bread crumbs and green onions - you never tasted anything so tender and so damn good, fellas.  I tell you what.

For sides, he made fruit salad, and snow peas, and glazed carrots, and broccoli-rice en casserole topped with cheese and breadcrumbs. And hot rolls and butter. Oh, but the pictures don't do the meal justice, guys - it was just larrupping good from start to finish, and that's a fact.

Dessert, when we got around to it a couple hours later, was fresh hot gingerbread cake topped with Cool Whip: simple, sweet, and good. The perfect end of a great meal. Also some "Yule spice" coffee the ex-roommate made with vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, orange peel, and I don't know what all else. Didn't get a pic of dessert but you can see a piece of the gingerbread on the plate he sent me home with here, along with all the other goodies he loaded me up with:

In the freezer bag is a hunk of home-cured, home-smoked Chistmas ham he made a while back.  He also sewed them purty little glittery net and ribbon bags full of cookies and fudge. 

When I came home in the wee hours, I left him the remainder of the beer and wine, and I brought home the rum and eggnog, which seemed like a fair trade. Can't wait to taste the homemade French onion soup he gave me a quart of. Now the fact of the matter is, I really don't like soup - but I love his soups.  He hasn't made any yet that isn't out of this world good, amazing but true.

So we had a very merry Christmas, and a leisurely, civilized dinner with old favorite holiday tunes on the radio, good food on the table, and cigarettes and wine and plenty of good conversation and a lot of laughs. You can't ask for more than that for a Christmas dinner, can you?

I hope all you boys had as good a time wherever you had yours this year.