Christmas Dinner

I'm better at food than I am at computers. This is saved on my desktop right-side-up, but blogspot likes it this way. Sideways or no, this was a great Christmas dinner! I marinated the pork rib roast overnight in citrus juice and zest, garlic cloves speared with clove cloves, fennel seeds, a lot of bay leaves, and some gin (the recipe called for juniper berries but we couldn't find those at the store), and Mom seared it and roasted it. The salad is Mom's favorite, greens with avocado, grapefruit, and balsamic vinaigrette. Valerie made a delicious brussels sprouts gratin, and Bob and Nancy brought wonderful cheesy scalloped potatoes and a caprese salad. It was all so delicious.
Aside from marinating the meat, my contribution was to bake a whiskey chocolate bundt cake (not pictured), from the NYTimes. I did my best to screw it up but it was still moist and flavorful.
Also not pictured is the pre-dinner cheese course. Craig and I paid to check a bag for the express purpose of bringing 4 cheeses (well, OK, we also brought Dad a six-pack of Southern Tier's Old Man Winter), a goat gouda, Great Hill blue, morbier, and a wonderfully stinky aged fontina from the Valle d'Aosta. We washed those down with a Wisconsin beer, Central Waters' Bourbon Barrel Stout, not a bargain but well worth the price if you can get it!

The Brunch!

Bob turned 80 this month, and his kids decided to celebrate by throwing a surprise brunch. He was truly surprised and really seemed to have a good time. I helped out with the food. Above are the cinnamon rolls right out of the oven. The recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and I've been looking for an excuse to try them out for some time. They were really good, although the decision not to frost them, while practical, did mean they weren't quite as sweet and delicious as cinnamon rolls are supposed to be.

This is the brunch table, ready to go. Clockwise from left: frittatas, both salami and provolone and arugula and fontina; two pans of cheesy scalloped potatoes (Epicurious); grapes; dinner rolls from Seven Stars Bakery; Chris' wonderful delicious Belgian waffles, cinnamon rolls, mixed greens with roasted pears, blue cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette; the delicious balsamic cherry sauce for the duck; the duck itself (legs were braised, breasts seared and sliced); and more frittata, three cheese. The frittatas were overdone, but I may have been the only one to notice, and everything else turned out well. I skipped cake so I could have more waffle.

Smoked Pork Chop!

Dad sent us bacon and smoked pork chops from Nueske's, and on Wednesday night we got out two of the chops.  Those things are soooo good!  We had pan-seared brussels sprouts and mustard seed rice pilaf alongside, and topped the chops with the cherry balsamic duck sauce.  Thanks Dad!

Vegetable Ragout, Pork Chops, and Turkey Thighs

Last Friday Craig made this delicious vegetable ragout over cheesy polenta with a roasted red pepper cream sauce. It was really good--I particularly liked the nicoise olives in the ragout. I'm responsible for the sloppy basil chiffonade. Everything else was ready and I was hungry and could not be bothered.

On Saturday we had Erika, Jen, and Tom over for our annual Nouveau release dinner. Last year I hurt my back, so I lay on the floor and directed Craig--he's right, risotto really is better when someone else cooks it--so this year I was looking forward to being in top form for cooking. Then we planned a big birthday brunch for Craig's dad for Sunday, and I had to scale back. I made my favorite easy company meal, pork chops stuffed with spinach, pine nuts, and fontina, with oven potatoes (last of the CSA), acorn squash (CSA but still not the last--we got sooo much this year), and pan roasted brussels sprouts. Quick and easy but very delicious.





I'm still waiting for the food pictures from Sunday to be emailed to me, but one of the things I made was a crazy good balsamic cherry sauce (Emeril), and I wanted to use some of the leftover on Wednesday. I was seduced by boneless turkey thighs at WF, even though I had no idea how to cook them. I ended up searing them, then braising them in the cherry sauce while I sauteed broccoli rabe and cooked Italian (via Wegman's) egg noodles. The thighs were OK, way too much for one person to eat. Maybe they'd be better stewed for a really long time. The noodles were awesome though, just the right amount of bite, and I topped them with the last of the truffle butter we got in Italy and some truffle salt.
Stay tuned for news of the brunch!

Chicken Soup

I make a lot of soup in the winter. I like how you don't have to be too exact and it makes the house smell so good. On Sunday I made a really good chicken soup, and we had the leftovers last night. I used celeriac when I made the broth, which I think is one reason this one turned out so well. I also pulled the meat when it was done but threw the bones back in for a while, which gave it a fuller flavor, while the chicken didn't get overcooked. In there are carrots, more celeriac, turnip, parsnip, parsley, brussels sprouts, and onion. The hippie bread, on the other hand, was nothing to brag about, and I'm blaming Hollie. Burned on the outside and raw on the inside. But the part in between the burn and the dough was pretty good, and we ate that.