Mmmm... Christmas...

I think Christmas dinner this year was one of the nicest in recent memory (even if certain key people were on another continent)... For brekky I cooked up some Eggs Baked in Spinach with Bacon Cream, which were super-tasty and hearty enough for tiding us over until dinner.

After breakfast we watched a pretty kick-ass snow storm (just when we thought we'd seen the last of it and things were starting to melt, massive hunks of snow started falling from the sky...),
spent a bunch of time in the kitchen preparing for dinner, and played a few games of Hearts. By early evening, the dinner table looked something like this:
The meal included (spiraling clockwise from the onions): Roasted Onions (which sat below the rib roast as it cooked), Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Bacon-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan, Sweet Potato Parmesan Gratin, Parmesan-Scallion Popovers, Creamy Horseradish Sauce and Madeira Sauce for the gorgeous Horseradish and Roasted Garlic Crusted Rib Roast, and (in the center, and my personal favorite) Baked Oysters with Bacon and Leeks. Here's a beauty shot of the Brussels Sprouts for any of you who may love them like I do:

Now, I'm a big fan of a traditional Turkey Dinner (and the sandwiches that follow it), but for me Christmas always follows too soon after Thanksgiving to do the turkey thing all over again, so a great big Standing Rib Roast is the centerpiece of my kind of Christmas feast... Also, as good as turkey sandwiches are, a nice French Dip made with leftover rib roast and homemade horseradish sauce (with the jus made by simmering the beef bones in beef stock and then mixing in a can of French Onion Soup... trust me, it works...) is hard to beat.

Here's hoping everyone else's Christmas (or preferred holiday, whatever it may be) was as awesome and delicious as mine...