Make-Ahead Christmas Brunch

Twas' the Night Before Christmas

My husband, Kane, and I have always enjoyed a fireside brunch on Christmas Eve morning while listening to A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on National Public Radio. This menu is mostly make-ahead―so like us, you can relax and enjoy the beginning of the holiday.

Make-Ahead Timeline

Up to two months ahead:

• Bake Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread Muffins, but leave them unglazed. Freeze in a zip-top plastic freezer bag.

Day before:

• Make Candied Kumquat Slices for muffins. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature.
• Make Gruyère Cheese Sauce for Gentlemen’s Casserole. Cover and chill.
• Make Winter Fruit Compote, and chill.
• Bake puff pastry shells for Gentlemen’s Casserole. Store at room temperature in a zip-top plastic freezer bag.

Day of:

• Make Kane’s Peppery Bloody Mary.
• Make Orange-Cream Cheese Glaze.
• Thaw muffins at room temperature; top with glaze and kumquat slices.
• Reheat puff pastry shells on a baking sheet at 350° for 5 minutes.
• Microwave Gruyère Cheese Sauce.
• Scramble eggs, and fold in Cheese Sauce.

Take a Casual Approach

You don’t have to sit at the dining room table to break out your best. Take a casual approach, and serve Gentlemen’s Casserole and Winter Fruit Compote fireside using your special china and silver.

Recipe Links:

• Gentlemen’s Casserole
• Chicken-and-White Cheddar Casserole
• Gruyère Cheese Sauce
• Cheddar Cheese Sauce
• Winter Fruit Compote
• White Grape Winter Fruit Compote

Festive Treats

Bake a batch of Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread Muffins, and take extras to your neighbors with a teatime gift.

Recipe Links:

• Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread Muffins
• Orange-Cream Cheese Glaze
• Candied Kumquat Slices

Kane's Peppery Bloody Mary

Pickled okra, rather than celery, makes a tangy stir stick for Kane’s Peppery Bloody Mary. The key ingredient is lemon juice, and lots of it.

• Recipe: Kane’s Peppery Bloody Mary

Pass It Down

As our family grows, so do our traditions. Old ones become new again when they are passed to the next generation. Here are a few traditions that my family treasures; yours may enjoy them also.

• Start a themed ornament collection for your children. Each year my father gave me a silver ornament. Last year I began my daughter’s collection.
• Serve a signature dish at each holiday. My mother is famous for her scalloped oysters. One year oysters were sold out at the grocery, and my brother complained that it just didn’t feel like Christmas without that dish on the table.
• Celebrate each addition to the family with personalized stockings. This is the perfect way to mark the birth of a child or make a new daughter-in-law feel like a member of the family. All of our stockings are hand-knitted and have our names on them.
• Use your holiday china for the entire season, not just one day. Mom always used her Christmas china the entire month of December. This was our first clue that Santa was on his way.

"Christmas Eve Fun" is from the November 2008 issue of Southern Living.