Easy Beer Bread - December 24 - Christmas Eve

There is a long history in the Church of fasting before major feast days. In fact, until 1983, the Christmas Eve fast was still binding, which meant that on Christmas Eve Catholics would eat one regular meal, and two small meals (technically called collations), all meat-free. It’s no longer binding, but we’ve found it works for us to have a collation breakfast and lunch and then a festive, memorable, meat-free dinner. Our tradition is to have a very international soup and salad. The Mexican ensalada de Nochebuena (in English “Christmas Eve salad”) is a festive mishmash of lettuces and fruits and veggies and seeds and nuts. And the German spaetzle kartoffelsuppe is a lovely potato, onion, and flour dumpling soup from a recipe passed down by my great-great-grandparents. With a simple loaf of quick bread, it’s a way to observe the traditional Christmas Eve fasting and abstinence without guests even noticing! It doesn’t get any easier than this.