Christmas dinner recap

Kouki,

Your menu looks great. We had a family party at my DIL's parents' house in San Diego and dinner was a family effort.

Appetizers:
Salami, dried tomatoes, assortment of cheeses (including my spiced cheese), crackers. Various cocktails (I mixed).

Firsts:
Salad of mixed baby greens (supermarket mix), goat cheese, tear drop tomatoes, other cheeses, other greens, dried tomatoes, mystery dressing.
French onion soup.

Mains:
Roast cornish hen
Baked ham
Maple, pepper crusted salmon, smoked over pecan with horseradish sauce (me)

Sides:
Mac and cheese
Gratin of potatoes

Sweets:
Fresh applie pie
Brownie cheesecake

Drinks:
Some sort of sweetish bubbly (ugh)
Sparkling cider
Sherbert punch

Overall:

The sparkling wine was a disaster. I'm so glad I didn't buy it. Unfortunately, we meant to bring a couple of bottles of champagne, but I forgot them among the several bottles of this and that I actually did bring.


I refrained from giving advice to Max (my son) or Nicole (DIL) -- which was a huge success on my part. A shut mouth tastes no foot. Who knew?

Maybe every dish wasn't perfect. But most of were darn good or better. Our hostess A.J., Nicole's mother, is a very good home cook of the Arkansas soul food persuasion when she sets her mind to it. She loves to entertain, and when she does her mind is well set. Love set the tone for Christmas dinner.

Ellie, the grand-daughter, had a great time, was incredibly cute, well behaved, etc., etc.

Burp,
BDL

My family voted for a Thanksgiving lite. Small turkey, mashed potatoes w/gravy, stuffing, broccoli.

Nothing particularly fancy.

So that's what I made. And they were happy.

Phil

Happy Holidays everyone!!

I had quite a menu planned...

Breakfast
-Fresh homemade Egg Nog
-Holiday Spice coffee (by melita)
-Sweet cheese filled crepes with raspberry fruit coulis and creme anglaise

Apps/First course
-Cheese board. Sharp cheedar, Merlot cheese ball covered in nuts, Brie, one of the creamiest chevre's Ive ever had and a very tangy danish blue(not my first choice, but it worked well)
-Pizza Rolls. My sister made these, breadsticks with mozzarella rolled inside, with marinara for dipping, quite tasty.
-I also put out a french and a whole grain baguette, some brioche and assorted crackers.
-We had some cool dips, spreads and pestos to go with the cheese and bread. I put together a quick lemon herb butter spread as well.
-And of course, Mini Hotdogs with sweet mustard dip. Its a famiily tradition.

-We served a Pink Prosecco Raboso, and a Spanish Tempranillo with that course.

...Then it was into the kitchen...

Dinner-
-Beef wellingtons. I was able to find a beautiful prime tenderloin, which I broke down myself and sliced into filets. I also dry aged it in my fridge for 3 days(I saw alton brown do and thought id try it out, I thought it came out great) We used Parma Ham instead of a foie gras pate, but still used a duxelles. They were awesome.

-Lighty sauteed asparagus with shallots and rendered proscuitto.
-"Tuscan cauliflower"- cauliflower baked with cream, lots of parm cheese and breadcrumbs.
-Baked acorn squash,with white wine, chicken stock and molasses, then mashed with, butter, craisins and toasted pecans.
-Baked sweet potatoe and banana mash, then baked with a brown sugar and walnut stuesal on top.
-Cold broccolini Salad.-blanched and chilled, tossed with lemon, salt and garlic.

I served a merlot type gravy with the wellingtons. Using the same pan I seared the filets in, I threw in some garlic and shallots, deglazed with a pat of butter and a healthy splash of merlot, some chicken and beef stocks, salt and pepper, let it cook down for a while, very slowly, then thickened with a little cornstarch slurry.

We served my favorite Pinot Noir, "Etude", with this course, which went awesomely with it.

Then it was time for dessert...

Spiced sherry poached pear, fanned out and served over creme anglaise, and a drizzle of the reduced sherry. MMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! This was awesome, We served some more homemade eggnog with this.

By this time, we were all stuffed and completly dead. I was in the kitchen with my father for about ten hours. But to be honest, I loved every minute of it, and had so much fun. Everyone had a great day, and we all loved the food.

All in all, probably one of my favorite christmas' to date. Good food, Good wine, Good times. Thats all you need.

Happy holidays everyone!!:D

This year my son was in town and since we are Jewish idid Hanukah dinner with my son, my parents, my fiancé and her sisters family. We had 10 ppl so we had..

Spnach and artichoke dip
Assorted veggie salads

Brisket
Latkes
Candied carrots
Noodle kugel


Flourless chocolate cake
Fig and almond strudel

Nice dinners guys.
For us, Christmas was a fairly simple dinner, ravioli, roast beef and potatoes, and three fairly substantial vegetable sides (for the vegetarians present)

But my big christmas dinner is my party, a stand-up buffet done the sunday before, for about fifty people- all rigorously home made (ok, i cheat and use frozen puff pastry, just because i have so much to cook)

appetizers:
brie in puff pastry with caramelized onion and cranberries
chicken liver mousse with apples - crackers (whole wheat melba toast)
raw carrots, celery and fennel sticks with dips:
fresh cheese and yoghurt dip with fresh herbs, cracked pepper and garlic
fresh cheese and bleu cheese and gorgonzola dip
dried tomato and fresh origano and garlic pesto
hummus
cyr (champagne with creme de cassis)
vin brulee

first courses
polenta impasticciata with tomato and mozzarella
polenta impasticciata with butter and cheese

main course
Turkey stuffed with chicken liver, celery, onion, potato and dried bread stuffing

side dishes
roast potatoes
gratin of spinach and celeriac with heavy cream
string bean "pudding" with shallot bechamel and parmigiano
savory pumpkin turnovers with onion, pine nut, raisins and olive oil crust
beet and rucola salad with fresh dill and other herbs dressing
purple cole slaw with shaved carrots and boiled sweet-and-sour dressing
home made cranberry sauce
spinach and ricotta gratin
home made bread

deserts
buche de noel with ganache filling
fruitcake with fondant frosting decorated with a bouquet of laurel and baby's breath
nut squares
white chocolate raspberry cookies
chocolate crackles
hermits
pistachio and white chocolate topped butter cookies
butter cookies sandwiched with raspberry and covered in glaze

wines: whatever people bring (i couldn't care less about wine (ok, don;t kill me - just never was very interested in it - but some nice soul brought a local unfiltered beer that was wonderful) )

wow, i had to print this post. all those great dishes being mentioned, I will have to make them this coming year.

Yes, though my body is still recovering, I do have the energy to type again! :lol:

My mother always does the brunt of the cooking for christmas, but this year she handed the wooden spoon over to me.

Appitizers were minimal, a friend brought two quiche and my wife and niece made a cabbage ball poked with toothpicks w/swiss, cheddar and salami (very old school, last time I saw one was in the late seventy's)

For dinner I made my first prime rib (we usually do turkey) and a lasagna (made my own pasta, ricotta and meat sauce). Even tho Mom said she would never cook christmas dinner again, she made Brazilian fejoada and a sausage/sourkraut cassarole (yes, a strange combination, but both were *special* requests from disheartend family members who weren't ready for a new cook in the kitchen. oh, the prime rib was a huge hit.:bounce:

For dessert I made a cheesecake with almond crust (thanks BDL, for an old post you did re: baking cheesecake, I followed yer advice) , a leche flan (flan fillipino style) and a million cookies (well maybe not quite that many, but it sure felt like it) Wifey made a novel hit with her homemade marshmellos, some people didnt know they could be made outside some sort of factory :lol::lol::lol:

family members brought grocery store pies, a tiramiso, a "millionaire" pie (don't quite know what that was). There was none of my made from scratch left :D:D

I was sore for days! thank god for excedrin! :bounce:

Siduri,

Forgive me dear friend. It's a very small thing. But a white wine and creme de cassis cocktail isn't cyr, it's Kir (named after Felix Kir, postwar mayor of Dijon); and when the white is replaced with champagne it's called a Kir Royale.

And a happy new year!
BDL

mmmmmm......kir royale......actually, chambord and champagne work really well for me.

Yesterday all three of my sons were around my dinner table for an impromtu lunch....there was time between my niece's wedding and reception, so we drove across town and put out a spread.....thank goodness I was channeling jewish motherdom (pretty funny having a brisket at the ready, just in case)....there was a 8 hour slow cooked brisket in the fridge, good bagette in the freezer, market lettuces/arugula from last Sat. farmer's market, veg from the platter's I'd made that morning as well as the blue cheese/fig jam/pecan tartletts that were readily assembled with shtuff from a party platter that AM.....brownies, caramels, rugelach, etc....goof ball sons' favorites were the pretzel rods with white chocolate and jimmies/candy canes......

You can make labor intensive shtuff but they gravitate toward the shtuff you made with them when they were toddlers.

Great afternoon, best time I've had in an awfully long time.

Thanks for the note bdl! I have been going around calling it all sorts of things i think.

What a confused line of reasoning brought me to call it cyr - i think i confused several words together, from several different languages, the c being possibly either hard or soft, it could be pronounced seer (sir or cyr, cheese in serbian i think - from way back in the 70s when i went for two weeks to kosovo and learned a total of ten words, of which only about four remain) and st cyr, which is a recipe from julia child's mastering the art of french cooking which, if i remember it right, is the best chocolate ice cream to make in your home freezer, and a french colleague of my husband who ordered the kir in a bar once and had me try it - about ten years ago. It jumbled all in my head. There is also a deRuta jar in my mother in law's house that i see every time i go there, with "cyr" written on it.
I believe i actually never saw the drink spelled anywhere, only heard it, and switched the hard K to a c, and then thought of it soft, like the cheese.
That's how my mind works. If it furthers the explanation, i read and write backwards as easily asw forwards and can read the menu of the person opposite me without problem, but reverse numbers all the time, and always forget names, of people, but also of things. So this is nothing!
anyway, i'll try to remember next time i tell my guests. (no one had ever heard of it anyway, so no loss)

Yesterday ended big meal holidays for us.

It started with a Great Celebration, my daughter's college graduation party, a week before Christmas.

Daughters Grad Party, was difficult because all the foods were cooked at home then transported to a hotel.

We served buffet style, 25+
Veggie platter
Green Leaf Salad
Seafood Salad
Orzo w/Portabella Mushrooms
Clam Chowder
BBQ-Smoked Baby Back Rips

Everything was great except the chowder, I let the wrong person stir at home, as I had to go spritz the ribs in the smoker, and flour was burned at bottom of huge pot. It was still eatable but rich flavor was killed.

Christmas Dinner for immediate family and couple friends, was on my wife, I BBQ-smoked some chicken wings for appetizer.

Assorted munchies to snack on.
Wifes famous deviled eggs.
Salad
Dinner Rolls
Cranberry Mold Salad
Roasted Turkey w/ Grammies Spinach Dressing
Mashed Potatoes & Turkey Gravy
Fresh Peas w/ mushrooms

Desert - Cherry & Apple Pie

Final Big Meal:
After Christmas either on Saturday or Sunday, my sister her family and Mom and select friends get together for a Big Special Meal.
Yesterday was that day, we started doing this several years ago. Normally all of our big family meals have been served family style, all food cooked and place on table at once. However my sister's and my kids are all now in their twenties, and family style dinner last about as fast as the younger ones can wolf down their food and get back to drinking and either xbox or football. SO, our year end big meal is served in courses, the dinner lasts over an hour, and the discussion is fun and lively.

Meal I cooked last night, for 16, fortunately my sis has a huge dinner table.

* I tried to do the Chowder late the night before. 1.5 gals of Fresh Clams chowder ended up on the floor and bottom of fridge. It took me an hour to clean-up. I could have cried.

Starter Course
- BBQ Lemon-Cilantro Skewered Shrimp w/ Pineapple chunks
2nd Course
- New England Clam Chowder
Wine served - White Zinfandel.
3rd Course
- Wedge Salad with Normal Toppings & Bay Shrimps
Main Course
- New York Strip Loin - oven Roasted
with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce
- Roasted Mushrooms in juice
- Small Red Potatoes with Truffle Oil
- Steamed Broccoli - Cauliflower - Carrots in Lemon Mint Butter sauce.
Wine Served: merlot, and Pinot Grigio

At first I wasn't going to do the shrimp skewers because it would take me out of the kitchen to BBQ, but I knew this flavorful starter would set up for a great meal. For those who weren't big meat eaters this was the highlight with the chowder.

Appetizer;

Beetroot & Salmon fishcake served with mixed baby leaves and an orange and balsamic vinaigrette.

Main;

Roast Crown of Turkey with Giblet Gravy, Sage & Onion Stuffing, Glazed Carrots, Brussel Sprouts with Chestnuts & Pancetta, Roast Potatoes, Maple Roasted Parsnips & Bread Sauce.

Dessert;

Christmas Pudding (which I made in October), with a choice of fresh cream, Brandy cream or hot custard.

Drinks;

Kir Royale with appetizers, Kim Crawford NZ Sauvignon Blanc with mains and coffee with desserts.
And very nice it was too!:)