That’s what my son said!  He always likes the food I cook, but he said this Christmas dinner was maybe the best meal I’d ever prepared.  Maybe he was just extra hungry, but he wasn’t the only one that enjoyed the dinner.  We all thought it was delicious, AND, it was all Real Food.

Christmas dinner this year was thyme roasted chicken, baked nitrite-free ham, cornbread dressing, cream gravy, and lots of fresh veggies, followed by gingerbread with cream cheese topping.

Oh how good real food tastes!

To save cooking time on Christmas day, I made two of the dishes the day before–the cornbread dressing (ready to put in the oven) and the gingerbread.

Preparation:

First thing Christmas day, the chicken went into the oven with organic golden potatoes surrounding it in the baking pan.  When the chicken was an hour from being done, I put the cornbread dressing in the oven.  The recipe for the dressing, made with gluten-free sprouted corn flour, is in a separate post.

While the dressing and chicken were cooking, we prepared the veggies.

I washed the cabbage–fresh and tender from the Nassau Bay Farmers Market–and shredded it with a knife.  By the way, when cooking fresh, local cabbage, use the whole head and don’t throw away the lovely, dark-green outer leaves.  Those leaves are full of nutrition and flavor.  About 20 minutes before the chicken and dressing were done, I cooked the shredded cabbage in a skillet with lots of butter, probably at least 3 to 4 tablespoons.  We love butter.  I seasoned the cabbage with a little sea salt (I use Celtic Sea Salt) and freshly ground black pepper.

The broccoli, also from a local farmer at the Nassau Bay Farmers Market, was washed and separated into flowerets.  The stem was peeled and sliced and added to the pot.  The broccoli was cooked about 5 minutes in simmering filtered water, then drained and seasoned with butter and sea salt.

The squash–mixed pattypan, zucchini, and yellow squash–were washed and cut into chunks.  Two chopped onions were added to the pot.  Only the pattypan, the last of the season, was from the farmers market.  The zucchini and yellow squash were organic but not local.  The squash were simmered in filtered water about 10 minutes, then well-drained and seasoned with lots of butter and sea salt.

Since the ham was precooked, we just heated some slices for a few minutes in our toaster oven.  Our one big oven was full of chicken and dressing.

To go with the meat, dressing, and veggies, I made a cream gravy with goose fat, einkorn flour, raw cream, and homemade broth.  The gravy is also featured in a separate post.

The fermented cranberry-orange relish was made for our Thanksgiving dinner and was still tangy and delicious.

As a finish to our holiday meal, we had real gingerbread with a cream cheese and raw honey topping.

Note:  I posted some of these recipes separately to make it easier to search and find them later.