Oxtail soup, asparagus soup, turkey with croquettes, fondue … Tired of all these classic recipes? Why not put some humor into your Christmas dinner? Appetizers in a Christmas jacket, soup with a nod to Christmas, a starter with a Christmas tree or other Christmas theme, main course in style and for dessert an assortment of Christmas cupcakes or ice cream on a beautifully decorated plate. Children will love it and adults will see the humor in it. Moreover, the whole family can help with the preparation.
Admit it, Christmas dinner is a bit boring every year, isn’t it? Every year the same soup, the same snacks and the same main course. This year, give it a nod to Christmas. It doesn’t change the taste, but it will make your guests smile. In addition, the children can help you with the preparation and are therefore sweet all afternoon!
The snacks
Get started with cookie cutters
We are going to make the snacks with the help of cookie cutters in the theme of Christmas. Christmas trees, angels, baubles, stars. With these molds you cut out bread, meat products, cheese, tomato, pickle, cucumber, beetroot, carrots, apple slices, etc. After you have cut everything out, you can put the layers on top of each other to form a mimi Christmas sandwich. To vary in color even more, you can buy different types of bread. White bread, brown bread, but also pumpernickel for almost black creations.
Soft ingredients
Of course you have to make sure that what you stick out is quite hard, otherwise it will fall apart. For example, an egg will crumble when you try to take out a figure. Of course you can always make a salad with things that are too soft.
Egg salad, for example, or pear with soft cheese. You can then spread these mixtures between two layers of bread. See that it does not run out! Possibly put the cutter over your creation again to remove any protrusions!
Sweet for the leash
Prefer something lighter? Can also. Just leave out the bread and serve the carved vegetables with tasty dipping sauces.
The soup
Draw with Maggi or cream
Make a red or green soup. Tomato, bell pepper, lobster soup, chervil, mixed vegetables, zucchini, broccoli, …. Plenty of choice. After all, the trick is not with the soup itself, but with the finishing touch. Once the soup has been poured into the plates, we will make a drawing with cream or possibly Maggi. In green soups this can be a Christmas tree, in red soups a Christmas ball. You can also vary and make white or yellow soup. Asparagus, parsnip, carrot or bell pepper, for example. In this you can make stars as a shape with Maggi. Do you want to make the kids (and some adults) happy? Just put a few jars of cream or bottles of Maggi on the table and let everyone get creative in their own plate! It also immediately breaks the ice, because everyone looks into their neighbor’s or wife’s plate and comments. You can finish with mozzarella balls, finely chopped parsley, etc. Someone who doesn’t like Maggi? The same effect can be obtained with cream.
Sparklers from bread or pasta
You can buy little pasta stars in the shop. At the end, cook for a while and you have, for example, a chervil soup with yellow stars. Can’t find stars? No worries. Cut small stars out of bread and fry them briefly in the pan with a lot of herbs. Yummy! In addition, it gives an extra flavor to some soups with zucchini or carrot.
The appetizer
Grapefruit crab
Decorate a plate with lettuce leaves. Peel grapefruit and cut into slices about one centimeter thick. Place these on the plate. In a bowl, make a mixture of tiny pieces of crab, tiny pieces of grapefruit, tiny pieces of cucumber and chopped parsley. Add a little cream and season with salt and pepper. Take a cookie cutter with a Christmas figure (Christmas tree, star, reindeer, etc.). Place the mold on the grapefruit slice and fill with the mixture. Carefully remove the cutter. Ready!
Main dish
Christmas-style vegetables
To present a main course in Christmas style, you mainly work your vegetables. Here too, the cutters come in handy. You can cut firm vegetables into beautiful shapes after preparation with the help of the cutters. Red beets in Christmas bauble shape, carrots in star shape, ramen as angels, cucumber as Christmas trees, courgette in reindeer shape, etc. You can serve princess beans in the shape of a larger Christmas tree by simply arranging them in this shape. Broccoli and cauliflower can be processed into puree and use it to fill the molds again. That way you can also make Christmas trees and stars again.
Potatoes with a plus
You can also cut out the slices of potato in molds before frying them in the pan. Beautiful, deliciously seasoned homemade star or Christmas tree potatoes. For this you have to use large potatoes, of course, so that you have nice large discs.
Fondue or gourmet
You can also apply all these ideas when serving a fondue or gourmet. You put all the cut vegetables on separate plates or bowls per color and you get a beautiful whole.
Dessert
cupcakes
Cupcakes. A simple dessert, delicious with a cup of tea or coffee. And the nice thing about this is that you can keep your children busy for an afternoon. Let’s face it, what could be more fun than decorating a cupcake with fondant or marzipan, let your creativity run free and dabble with dozens of jars of edible glitter, stars, Christmas trees and gems?
Christmas pie
No kids in the house or don’t feel like decorating twenty small cupcakes? Then just bake or buy a large cake and cover it with white fondant or marzipan. You can then make a winter scene with penguins, polar bears, ponds, Christmas trees, etc. Flat or in 3D, according to your choice. Or a winter village à la Dickens with houses full of snow, street lamps, people singing, etc. Not so handy? Simply decorating your cake with stars is also beautiful and ready in no time.
Plate of ice cream with chocolate star rim
Not in the mood for a cake or pastry after all that food? You can also serve a scoop of ice cream nicely by decorating your plate. To do this, take a sheet of white paper and cut stars from it, the size of the edge of the plate. Place the stars nicely on the edge of the plate and now sprinkle with cocoa powder for a white plate or with icing sugar for a black plate. Carefully remove the stars and you have a nice border. The same but the other way around is also possible, but slightly more difficult. Cut your asterisk out of the paper. Now put your mold on the edge of your plate and sprinkle with cocoa powder or icing sugar. Carefully remove the template and you have a star. Now move your mold a bit further and start over. Lots of patience and don’t blow it!
The small snacks and the decorated Christmas cupcakes are also fun at children’s parties, school parties and at Christmas markets. It does involve some tinkering, but the result looks beautiful!