Christmas in Luxembourg

Being the first time in my life to spend the holidays away from home, family and friends, it would be an understatement to say that it didn't feel like Christmas. Between Christmas Eve at New World UMC (and Sandra Wheat's house) and Christmas Day at Mom and Dad's house (with gifts from Santa and a lazy afternoon spent looking for things to keep us all entertained), there was a lot to miss.

Enter my new co-workers/friends. As a few of us were staying in town over the holidays, one of my co-workers and his wife decided to invite me and another couple over for dinner on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There was plenty of food and wine, and they have a Wii that kept us pretty entertained. We also broke out the Scrabble on Christmas night, though I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't win. I was pretty dominant in Wii tennis and Mario Kart, however.

My contribution to the meal(s) was the strawberry-pretzel salad that has become a staple of our Hankins family Christmas dinner. Everyone else thought it was a dessert, but I insisted it be left on the table so I could enjoy it as part of my dinner (though I can certainly see their point). It was a bit of an adventure to make the salad as I had more trouble finding strawberry gelatin than I expected and, there being no Cool Whip here, I had to learn how to make real whipped cream. And when I was convinced that my original batch of gelatin was not going to set, I made a mad dash back to the store to buy more and try again. It was worth the effort as the final product tasted damn good (and I ended up with a bunch of extra strawberry gelatin when the original batch finally set).

The other dish I wanted to attempt was the sausage-cheese grits casserole that we usually eat on Christmas morning. As you might imagine, I got a lot of blank stares when I asked people whether or not they sold "grits" around here. The only thing I could find was a package labeled "polenta," which I was fairly nervous about using. That is, until I did some research. I stumbled upon a "Good Eats" segment where Alton Brown proved that polenta and grits were essentially the same thing, just prepared differently. Still, I didn't have "quick-cooking grits" and decided to tweak the recipe to compensate. The final product tasted much like Mom's, but definitely had more of a "polenta" consistency to it. I forgot to get the picture before digging in...

Though I didn't have a Christmas tree surrounded by presents, Mom and Dad did send a gift box/care package (on behalf of Santa, of course) which was full of Texas-style foodstuffs and a few other surprises (that's my Christmas tree in the back right of the photo).

After I hung my stocking with care...

No, it was not the same as a Christmas at home, but it was a pretty good substitute.