Christmas Dinner Menu

Here is something I posted on our MyFamily.com website:

OK, all of this talk about food brings me to our Christmas Dinner menu. It may make Ollie shudder, but remember - she will be in Maryland! As we were talking about the biblical meaning of Christmas one evening, I pointed out that feasting indeed had a biblical basis and asked the kids what they would like for our Christmas dinner. Here is what we have come up with so far:

Ham (my choice)
Cranberry sauce (an overall fave)
Hashbrown Casserole (requested by Kathryn and Zhenya)
Green Beans (Shawn)
Oriental Salad (Irina is making this)
Hot and Sour Soup (Kathryn)
Kim Chi (Naomi and Bob)
Rolls (Me)

Dessert -
Russian pancakes (Jennifer is making these)
MS Mud Cake (Bob)
Pumpkin Pie (Tessa)
Other suggestions that we may or may not take - Angel food cake with Strawberries (Shawn), NY Cheesecake (Kathryn) and Oreo Cookie Dessert (Trey)

There is a bit of a story behind the Kim Chi. It is made locally and sold at an Asian Market by a Korean woman who speaks limited English. I was there earlier this week looking for the Thai peppers Naomi needed for spring rolls and I bought some of her Kim Chi. She kept pointing to one jar and saying something like, "Squee," over and over. I thought she was saying "squid" but that just didn't seem to make sense to me. So, I acted like I knew what I was doing and made the purchase.

Today I returned to buy our Christmas Kim Chi. I asked her the difference between the two kinds and she started saying the same thing. Thankfully, another customer knew what she was saying, though, and told me that the large jar was made with fish sauce. Apparently that Kim Chi did indeed have squid in it, along with oysters and other fishy foods. I bought the gallon jar of that and the smaller jar of vegetarian Kim Chi for Nikki. It goes fast around here - the last batch was gone in only a couple of days!

Ahhhh, culinary diversity....