Weekday Dinner Ideas

With Christmas falling on Tuesday this week, this will be no ordinary post of daily fare.  Tomorrow being Christmas Eve, I'm torn between two traditions within my experience.  With connections to New Mexico, I'm tempted by the Christmas Eve tradition of serving tamales.  My understanding is that because tamales are so time-consuming to make from scratch, this serves as a very special meal.  However, they are just plain too time-consuming to me to make from scratch, especially with some fine frozen ones available at our natural food stores.  So that's a possibility, while another part of me is leaning towards fish, a nod to the Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve.  Seven's a bit much, but I think I could make my way through at least two, maybe three (smoked salmon spread from Whole Foods as an appetizer would be an easy first).

Christmas Day at my house is perhaps rather unimaginative, but it is scrumptious:  a standing beef rib roast from Whole Foods, accompanied by a horseradish sauce made with lowfat sour cream, steamed Brussels sprouts, roasted beets, and potatoes, either baked or mashed.  I keep telling myself that some year I'll do some elegant potato gratin, but that just never seems to happen.  This year I'll go so far as to fancy up the mashed potatoes by doing mashed potatoes with crispy shallots from Food and Wine magazine.  I can go so far as to add a garlic clove or two to the cooking potatoes and to fry some shallots on the side.

Then the rest of the week is easy - leftovers!  No, I won't really do that three days in a row, so something light and healthy will slip in there, probably an easy veggie stir-fry over brown rice.