I am up in the night thinking of Christmas Dinner at noon today. My brother Scott gave our family a nice ham for Christmas. I had two chickens out thawing for dinner today. And Papa says maybe we could have the ham, too. I said, "Honey, my oven is not that big." So we put the ham away for another day. Oh, men. At Christmas, they love to watch the little woman cook.
Anyway, I tried to stay in bed this morning. I mean, after all, it is 2:45 in the morning. But I went ahead and got the crock pot goin' to make sure it boils for the mashed potatoes. And I put the chicken in the oven. I will bake it tonight and then just warm it up for my company. We will have 12 for Christmas Dinner.
I put two whole chickens in the oven in a big pan. I made a marinade for them. I just took about a fourth cup of vinegar with a fourth cup of oil, added spices, and put this on the chickens. The spices were celery seed, black pepper, salt and garlic. Then I just put a bunch of paprika on it to give it a festive look. I put some onion in the cavity of the chicken to hide the the poor onion from Papa. He loves onions but he don't know it. I put the oven on about 450 and it will brown good. Then I will just turn the heat down and let it simmer until done. I want it to be a nice roasted brown. Then, after the chicken is done, I will take it out of the pan and make a gravy with homemade noodles in the pan, and then I will lay the two chickens back in the pan on the top of the noodles. I will just put the whole pan on the table.
I have some sage I dried from my garden and I will decorate with that. I bought some Amish made noodles and didn't make my own this year. Then I will make dressing {stuffing} in another pan and a vegetable, and then we will have the mashed potatoes. Mary will bring bread and my Mom made a relish tray. I have cookies made and Aunt Toot's pretty candy and some fudge. I guess no one will starve to death.
Also, this morning, I took out some grape juice to tone the Cordial down a bit. Yeeow!
Last night when Toot came over, she brought in a sack for my Christmas present. In it was about 10 cans of cat food. I tried to be polite. She loves to do this stuff. Bring Peggy Sue a present and not me! But it was a joke and she went back out to the car and got her pretty holly candy. Very funny, Aunt Toot.
Well, I deserve it for all the suffering Johnny used to put her through when he was a boy. We were always kidding Toot and putting her in embarrassing situations. Like the time she came over in a new outfit her husband had just bought her. John shot her with invisible ink. Wow, a big black spot right in the chest of a light mint green outfit. You should have seen her face. She about fainted. I thought she was gonna cry so I start yelling, "It's invisible ink -- it will become invisible." I am looking over at John and whispering, "It will become invisible, right?" John just stood there enjoying the parade, acting like maybe it wouldn't come out invisible. So I deserved cat food for Christmas this year. But never fear, the next practical joke will be my turn to perform on poor Aunt Toot. Hmmm I will think of something. I will let you know.
Well, I think maybe I can go back to bed. I will put the oven on very low and cover the chicken.
Merry Christmas.
