Our tradition for many years has been to have a cold seafood salad with good bread and champagne for Christmas Eve dinner. When our children were young, we would go to the children’s Mass on Christmas eve and would eat dinner after Mass. A cold salad which could be prepared in advance and taken out of the refrigerator after Mass was very practical. This year, we had 5 adults and two small children for Christmas Eve dinner. Our salad was made with shrimp, lobster, scallops, and squid, all of which were dried on paper towels and then sautéed in batches in olive oil and coarsely chopped garlic until barely cooked.

For the bread, we had Pain a l’Ancienne in a Fourneau Oven , and we also had some pate and brie.