Our traditional Christmas meal has almost always featured either ham or turkey. This year we had something different, chipotle-lime salmon, and was it ever good. In the past I have tried to “plank” grill salmon and this time I succeeded. The water soaked thin cedar board charred adding a slight smokey touch to the perfectly grilled salmon. Clockwise from the salmon is a cucumber dill sauce, peas and mushrooms, a fresh cranberry salad and finally sweet potatoes mashed with butter and topped with a sprinkling of brown sugar.

We had a leftover frozen pie crust from Thanksgiving, so not wanting it to go to waste we made another pumpkin pie just like at Thanksgiving. Stevia was substituted for the sugar and we used nonfat evaporated milk, but it tasted just as awesome as always. Christmas means family time and because we are still feeling the effects of Covid, we didn’t fly across country to be with our daughters and grandchildren. Still we had a touch of family with this meal. The paring knife at the top of the photo Linda used to cut our pie was the one her mother had used. Christmas is truly a special time in the year.