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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Dec 25, 2016 9:16:42 GMT -5
Alterations to my previous entry in this thread. Today's brunch: Panettone French toast with homemade cinnamon apples; sausage links; bacon; mango bellinis. Today's dinner: Grilled lobster tails with black truffle butter; homemade Maryland crab cakes (using crab meat we picked over the summer); Italian bread; roasted asparagus; Beaujolais wine. I'm about to start cooking brunch in a few minutes!
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Dec 27, 2016 9:32:26 GMT -5
I pretty much nailed it. Adoration all around, even from my wife's uncle who never says anything to anyone.
I kept super-trad with the extra dishes: green bean casserole with Campbell's cream of mushroom (though I did add some sauteed creminis) and niblet corn in butter sauce.
Both of my parents got sick and couldn't come, and my sister and BIL decided to go to his family instead kind of last minute, so there was a TON of leftover food, esp. prime rib.
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Post by pairesta on Dec 28, 2016 11:50:05 GMT -5
Christmas Eve was a comedy of errors, including spoiled lobster stock I found in the freezer that I had wanted to use to amp up this year's stock, over-reduced octopus, a burned hand from frying something in oil, plastic bags that melted against the inside of a hot pot, and lobsters that WOULD. NOT. DIE. Freezing them didn't knock them out. I finally got to the point where I was so frustrated with everything else going on that stabbing something in the head actually sounded appealing, so I did it then, and that only pissed the bastards off. One of them flailed and kicked almost right up until when it turned red in the steaming liquid. My plantar fasciitis came back with a vengeance, and I was hobbling around all day as a result. I'm still sore from it all four days later. It was at once gratifying but a little disheartening to see hours and hours of effort disappear in minutes, with not one scrap leftover to enjoy later. I loved the meal, but I need to think of a way to cook or prep ahead somehow to take off the pressure of cooking for six hours straight the day of.
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Post by pairesta on Dec 28, 2016 11:51:28 GMT -5
Christmas Day was the same boat. A great meal, but a lot of prep involving three people cooking. My poor mom's nerves were frayed from a houseful of kids for several days, and she got fed up with all the prep involved. Again, I think if we did some ahead somehow, it'd go a lot more smoothly.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Dec 28, 2016 13:20:21 GMT -5
Christmas Day was the same boat. A great meal, but a lot of prep involving three people cooking. My poor mom's nerves were frayed from a houseful of kids for several days, and she got fed up with all the prep involved. Again, I think if we did some ahead somehow, it'd go a lot more smoothly. One of my favorite things about now hosting Christmas Day is that I have to cook all day. Nobody expects me to talk or be friendly or anything. Just let's me be in my zone in the kitchen (and because it's Christmas, usually with enough beer to get nice and toasty along the way). I still do plenty of prep ahead of time, and in fact I could probably deliver the dinner much more quickly if I tried. Like an employee who's running low on tasks, but not on hours, I make it take the whole time.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Dec 28, 2016 17:27:50 GMT -5
For Christmas eve (when my family celebrates), I made mussel chowder (NE Clam Chowder, but with mussels), seriously decadent mashed potatoes, and chipotle mac and cheese. For the potatoes, I boiled them in milk instead of water, and once that was properly cooked, pushed through a ricer, then added a stick and a half of butter. I didn't do equal parts butter and potatoes, as I didn't want to kill anyone. But they still came out delicious. Also, as a food gift to some people, my fiance (fancy) and I made a pear and apple chutney, and lavender caramels. We ran into an issue with the caramels. The recipe we were following said to stop cooking at 245F, but that it should cook for 30 minutes. After 5 minutes on heat, it was reading 242 (and the color was still very light). I wanted to stop it, but my fancy said we should keep it another 5 minutes to see what happens. 3 minutes later, it was reading over 250, so I pulled it from heat. Once it cooled down, it became werthers' originals style hard candies. They're delicious, but we needed a hammer to break them up.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Dec 30, 2016 10:40:24 GMT -5
Everything was going really well for Christmas dinner until my parents' oven decided that half an hour before dinner was the perfect time for the control panel to go on the fritz...
(luckily, I just left my lamb in a little longer and it was still fine. We didn't get to do the spoon rolls, though).
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heroboy
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Post by heroboy on Dec 30, 2016 12:49:15 GMT -5
For Christmas dinner, we didn't really have anything setup since we had already had plans to go to my brother-in-law's place and between him, his wife, and their two grown sons who both like to cook and bake, they pretty much took care of everything (standardish ham, prime rib, vegetables, potatoes, etc.).
But on Christmas Eve morning, the wife and I decided to schlep over to Costco to pick up some supplies for the extended weekend, and they just happened to have a pile of fresh turkeys just put out, so we decided to pick one up since it would be fun for the daughters to help cook a giant chicken (in their words).
And it turned out pretty good that we did so since later in the day, my sister-in-law called to let us know my wife's niece just arrived back in town and they wanted to come by to drop off some gifts for our daughters and visit for the evening. So while the Turkey roasted, I rushed around the house for most of the afternoon to put together some side dishes and doing some baking since we weren't prepared for a full Christmas meal. Turned out pretty darned swell for something we hadn't planned for at all.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jan 3, 2017 9:47:39 GMT -5
I never updated post-holiday, it was a hectic week last week... my mashed potatoes went splendidly, we also did ham and turkey and stuffing and the usual stuff.
My breakfast turned out well, although my cinnamon rolls were sort of weird looking. But they tasted good and the cream cheese icing (which I made WAY too much of - should've used half a brick) was a good complement. Got lots of praise for it.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 3, 2017 9:54:06 GMT -5
...seriously decadent mashed potatoes ... For the potatoes, I boiled them in milk instead of water, and once that was properly cooked, pushed through a ricer, then added a stick and a half of butter. I didn't do equal parts butter and potatoes, as I didn't want to kill anyone. But they still came out delicious. This describes my holidays potatoes almost to a T, up to and including cooking them in milk, ricing them and the irresponsible amount of butter. I usually do add one flavoring. Sometimes herbs, sometimes cheese. I've done fenugreek several times, and that's my personal favorite. It has a "what is that?!" quality that tends to wow people.
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