Every Christmas, I go all out when it comes to food:

• multiple grocery trips because I always forget something (or many things), even when I have a list
• start prepping meals days before + eat way too much sampling food while I cook
• burn myself when I forget to put on oven gloves and grab a hot pan
• watch the family devour food in less than 10 minutes and cry thinking about all the hours and days it took me to prepare everything
• vow to never drive myself crazy again and just get take out for next year

Sigh.

Do you make the same things every holiday season or do you change it up every year. OR do you go to someone else’s house and have them stress about it (you’re so smart)?

Here’s what we’re eating + the recipes I’ve relied on …

Christmas Eve

Lumpia – Filipino spring rolls. This takes time to make, but thankfully, the kids help me and thee process is faster than just doing it by myself. I don’t use a recipe since I make this often and basically follow how my mom makes it, but here’s a great basic lumpia recipe that’s easy to follow.

*Note: I try to make 100 pieces of lumpia. For 100+ pieces, I use:

• five pounds of ground pork
• 3/4 of a whole head of cabbage, sliced thin
• 3 carrots
• 1 cup bean sprouts – it makes such a difference in the filling
• about 1/4 cup soy sauce – you may want to use less/more depending on how salty you want your filling
• and my super, super secret ingredient: 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce. Don’t leave this out!

Christmas Day

Prime rib with red wine jus- I always get a bigger roast than I need for days of leftovers. Figure on 1 rib for every two people. So a 3 rib roast is good for 6 people. I make the red wine jus a few days before to really get a concentrated flavor. Beef ox tails, shins, soup bones may not be available at your local grocery store – don’t worry! Use any beef bone you can find. This year I’m using beef marrow bones and beef neck bones since it was all I could find. Prime rib recipe

Horseradish cream – you can’t have prime rib without this. Horseradish cream recipe

Mashed potatoes – again I don’t use a recipe, but here’s a recipe that uses similar ingredients that I use.

Italian sausage + bread stuffing – I cannot quit this recipe + yes, I can eat this every day

Rolls – some years I make these rolls + some years, I get too lazy. I’m not sure about this year yet. Yeasted rolls recipe

Cranberry sauce – in my Filipino household growing up, I never had cranberry sauce. It wasn’t until Carl and I got married that I tried cranberry sauce… out of a can. I was horrified. Never again. Cranberry sauce recipe

It’s still a toss up for dessert: maybe this raspberry trifle that is so easy to put together, an gooey butter cake that will absolutely put everyone in a sugar coma, or this cider caramel apple pie, although my pie making skills suck. Can I just serve a package of Oreo cookies? Probably.

Merry Christmas, friends!!