Mix up eggs, a little salt, milk, flour, and dump it into the pan with hot beef drippings from your Prime Rib and bake...either you love it or hate it. 
Wikipedia will give you the info on how the English love their puddings and this isn't REALLY a Yorkshire pudding unless it is 4 inches tall.  But I've enjoyed it although I didn't know any of that!  At some point our parents started making this with Prime Rib and that became the meal to have. (I think Mom just couldn't take one more turkey.)

In any case, the Yorkshire Pudding, Prime Rib, Twice Baked Potatoes, Caser Salad, Creamed Spinach and buttered Peas are our special meal.  As with many of us the anticipation of the meal is easily as enjoyable as the meal itself.  Having said that - we're all pretty stuffed afterward and fall asleep on the couch watching The Christmas Carol afterward - yet, another tradition! 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Along with the Twice Baked Potatoes you've got to have Prime Rib.  I always bake it for Christmas but rotisserie it the rest of the year with a delicious rub that would tempt the most devout vegetarian.

In my opinion overcooking this roast should be a felony with some serious hand-slapping type of punishment accompanied by a lecture.  I've only done it once when my friend and I started having cocktails a bit too early and Bill wasn't home to help with the timing.  Yikes!  It was a giant, meat basketball!  We managed to choke it down but what a disappointment.

Our dogs smell it cooking and you can see them signaling to one another "It's Prime Rib Night! It's Prime Rib Night!"  Kind of funny as I could swear I see the kids doing that too. In any case it is truly a feast and another element of our Christmas Eve Dinner tradition.  What are some of yours?

We have some long-standing traditions in our household and many of them involve cooking. This is how it was for me growing up. My love of spending hours in the kitchen engrossed in chopping, roasting, and baking with my own family is a big part of our lives.

Our Christmas Eve dinner is no exception.  We must have Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, Creamed Spinach, Caesar Salad and...drum roll...the Twice Baked Potatoes. 

My children truly love the entire meal but the potatoes are coveted.  They are fluffy yet tangy, simply addicting.  After Christmas dinner they eat the remainders for breakfast, lunch and for snacks until the supply has been depleted.  The good part about that is the girls will wash potatoes, wash dishes - ANYTHING to allow me uninterrupted time so that those potatoes are perfect.  There are comments when the baking potatoes aroma fills the air, an empty skin or two ends up with some sour cream, salt and pepper and is an afternoon snack.

"It's only potatoes!" you say.  No, it isn't. It is being home again. It is the anticipation for that warm feeling of your family being around the table with everything as you remember it.  It is love and security and the feeling of simple happiness. 

So what have I been up to?  I picked up my daughter in Fort Lauderdale and headed down to the Keys. I was there to give a talk about Kodiak Sportsman's Lodge and was greeted by 60 lovely fishing ladies!  We all attended the Ladies Let's Go Fishing seminar in November headed up Betty Bauman.  I was so impressed with the quality of the break-out sessions and knowledge of the experts as were the other participants.                                                            

I always enjoy having the time to talk to people and find out what makes them tick. If you actually listen you hear about that person's loves, and hates and passions in life.  I spoke with a lovely lady who came from Grand Cayman, then lived in the Bahamas and now resides in Miami.  Her life was so interesting.  Discussing Grand Cayman and the Bahamas was interesting as well with her perspective and life stories attached.  I was blessed to meet her.

We had a great meal at the Green Turtle Inn the last night we were in town.  We didn't have a reservation and sat at the bar for dinner.  It was fun and the service and food was fantastic.  The selection was interesting and had great presentation.  We sat next to a man that I SWEAR was Jimmy Johnson's brother!  However, he had moved there from Evergreen, Colorado but it is hard to swallow when someone is such a look-alike!