A Danish American Christmas

We hosted Christmas Yesterday with my in-laws for the first time, at our apartment. There were several wonderful things about that; I love to entertain/cook, and I don't have to leave my home and get on the road for the first holiday ever.

When I started my meal planning, I was going to do a completely Danish Christmas menu, but then thought there might be items on the menu that not all American's would appreciate. The dessert was the biggest shift from Danish to American, I was going to make a traditional rice pudding with a hidden almond, but made a tiramisu instead. The menu I ended up with was about 50% Danish and 50% American.

The Menu

Appetizers
 Caramelized leek and goat cheese dip with crudite
Assorted cheeses with bread
Goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon

Dinner
Molasses, oatmeal rolls with salted butter
Brussel sprouts in bacon, shallots and sherry
Mashed Potatoes (from my mother in law)
Braised wintery red cabbage
Roasted baby potatoes with herbs to provence
Pork roasted with rosemary, thyme and garlic
Red currant jelly gravy

Dessert
Tiramisu

Below are a couple of snapshots from my phone, I didnt take enough of the food while making it, but oh well.

Scoring the pork and filling it with delicious herbs

My first roast pork ready for the oven

The table set, before anyone has arrived

Set and ready to go

The finished pork

A simple centerpiece

Glædelig Jul/ Merry Christmas from my little reindeer and I

Simple Decorations

After a great Thanksgiving weekend, we are now fully into the Christmas season. We picked up our tree and a wreath on Sunday and put them up last night. I remembered a few weeks ago, that when I was little my mom would stick whole cloves in oranges and hang them during the month of December. The smell that comes out of the orange is heavenly and it's an easy holiday decoration.

On Sunday night when we got home from New Hampshire we lit our Kubus 4 candle holder, it works as the perfect advent. Below are a few very simple decorations we have in our home to make it feel festive. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Our simple wreath on the door

A Small table arrangement

Our little Reindeer

A Citrus fruit stuck with whole cloves and hanging from kitchen twine