Christmas Eve Dinner for the Family

Christmas Eve is a very special time for my family. This is the only holiday that I get with my children except for this year. Each year we have a choice of 2 soups for our dinner. The family decided to go with soups because they are lighter on the tummy than a full coarse meal. Everyone would be eating heavy the next day. Our group always has a basic Oyster Soup. Always have to have them oysters for some reason. We laugh about this every year, none of us can decide if we do this cause we all like oyster soup or we just can't seem to come up with something different. And the grandchildren have become acustomed to oyster soup as well.

While we eat our choice of soup we visit and catch up on what we have missed since we last seen each other. After we have talked about all the events we then move to the packages. Oh! my the grandbabies love this part. One person plays the santa role and hands out the gifts from under the tree. Well that is how it used to happen the family has gotten big enough now that everyone takes a spot and the santa person throws the packages to the perspective recipient. It is great fun, and so far we haven't managed to break anything. The little ones are around the base of the tree close so their packages can be placed in front of them. Oh! and then they get mixed up, there are 5 of the little angels sitting in a small area. It becomes a referee match figuring out what belongs to who. Almost have let the Santa secret out of the bag a few times cause of this. All in all it sounds chaotic but it is a blast. I wish I could be home this Christmas Eve, but we are going to have to do ours a little latter in the year this year.

That being said and to keep from boring everyone with my memories I will move onto the recipes. I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful holiday Season.

OYSTER SOUP

1 medium onion

2 cans of blue diamond oysters

1 cube of margarine or butter

1 gallon of milk

salt to taste

Take the medium onion and dice up half of it. You can use more if you like. Place the cube of margarine in the bottom of a 5 quart pan. On medium heat cook the onions in the butter. Drain the liquid off the 2 cans of oysters and place them in with the margarine and onions. Cook till the onions appear done. This is the hardest part of the soup. Once the onions are cooked threw, pour in the milk. Milk level should be about an inch or so from the top edge of the pan. At this point you are basically done. All you do now is let the soup warm through thoroughly and stir from time to time. Once the milk is hot you can serve with oyster crackers or just plain soup crackers. We use both.

My family makes another soup I would like to share with you. It is another easy soup and really nothing fancy but the family loves it.

Clam Chowder

5 to 7 potatoes ( I usually dice about half the pan full)

Minced Onions

Milk

2 cans clams drained

margarine

cornstarch for thickening

Dice up potatoes and put in a heavy 5 quart pan. Add just enough water to cover the potatoes and set them on a medium heat to cook. For this soup instead of using fresh onion I use the dried diced onion pieces you can buy. I add about a tablespoon of them to cook with the tators. While the tators are cooking I melt a half a stick of margarine in a cast iron skillet and place 2 cans of drained clams in with the margarine. Once the tators are cooked drain all the water off. Sit back on the fire and add enough milk to fill the pan to about 3/4 full. I then add my margarine and clams to the milk and tators and let it heat through. When the soup gets good and hot I then thicken it a bit with cornstarch water.

Hope you enjoy these recipes if you try them. We have over the years. Thanks for letting me share them with you.

HAPPY HOLIDAY'S TO EVERYONE.