by Ed Dugan

Created on: December 13, 2008   Last Updated: January 03, 2011

Christmas eve dinner should be easy on everyone. Those who are experienced cooks will get their workout the next day while those who can hardly boil water should not have the stress of trying to exceed their experience in the kitchen. So, the answer is to keep it simple. This is especially true if your Holiday tradition includes opening presents on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas morning. If you are expecting a killer present, anticipation will only make a Christmas Eve meal more stressful.

Christmas Eve is special but, unlike the next day, the emphasis is on being with loved ones, not sitting around a table full of wonderful food. For instance, for many years, and even today, in many families the Christmas Eve meal consisted of nothing but a big helping of buttery oyster stew. With other families, particularly if they are Hispanic, a plate of various flavored tamales is the traditional Christmas Eve meal. The oyster stew can be made in minutes and the tamales had better be made days before.

Often forgotten in the Christmas Eve scenario are the couple who are spending their first Christmas Eve together, just by themselves. If they are relatively young the chances are neither one knows how to cook very well, a regrettable sign of the times. If you grew up eating fast food, Christmas Eve dinner doesn't have to consist of take out from Mickey D's. If one of the couple, and it doesn't matter which one, can cook something really good, perhaps while sharing a beer or a bottle of wine, it makes the evening memorable.

Whether you are cooking-challenged or an experienced cook here is a no-fail meal that is easy to make and can be eaten hot, warm, or at room temperature leaving plenty of time for other things - whatever they might be. For two people you will need some cooking oil, a pound of sirloin steak, a 12 ounce jar of your favorite salsa and a pack of 10 inch flour tortillas. If you shun eating meat, substitute chicken breasts for the steak.

Cut the meat into small cubes, about the size of your thumbnail. Put a little of the oil in a skillet and brown the meat over medium high heat. Dump in the salsa and reduce the heat to very low. For the next 45 minutes wrap presents, sip wine, talk to your friends and family, just relax and, every so often, give the mixture a stir. After the 45 minutes has elapsed, wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and warm them in a 300 degree oven for 15 minutes while you relax some more.

Take one tortilla, spoon about 4-5 tablespoons of the meat mixture into the center, fold the two edges over each other and tuck in the ends - just like you see at Taco Bell. You should have a neat little pocket with the mixture trapped inside. Set aside and do some more. This process is more fun if one person does the ladling and the other the wrapping. Women are usually better at wrapping. You now have a Christmas Eve meal that can be carried around, eaten hot or warm and is really delicious. If you want a sit-down meal, open a can of re-fried beans and a packaged salad. If there are more than two of you, double or triple the recipe. Incidentally, canned re-fried beans are much better if you thin them out with about a 1/4 cup of water.

No muss, no fuss, and who knows, maybe the beginning of a Christmas Eve meal tradition!

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