Christmas Eve brings a certain zing to the usual Schutte home commotion. The day is often spent running errands, finalizing Mass outfits, and scrubbing floors. It’s a happy bustle, usually set to alternating strains of Advent hymns and Christmas carols. Of course, we’re mainly in the kitchen today because, as my wise mother has discovered, the more you prepare food ahead of time, the less grunt work is required on the day of the celebration. With ten people expected for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day breakfast, and 13 total for Christmas Day dinner, you can imagine the amount of food that needs preparing. And not just any food. No, we Schuttes are (like many people) particular about our Christmas food traditions. We may poo-poo the traditional Thanksgiving turkey, but meddlers be warned if something interferes with our Yuletide staples.
Christmas morning allows for slight variations in side dishes, but the main event, egg bowls, never changes. Inspired by a dish from Ohio restaurant Bob Evans, it really is what it sounds like: a bowl filled with — in this order — scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage gravy, and cheese. Most of us are not purists and, alas for my mom’s homemade sausage gravy, will add in ketchup or hot sauce with reckless abandon. To fill in the cracks after that hearty dish, we often have a form of cheese Danish, homemade of course, fresh from the oven.
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