06 January 2014

Holiday Food Recap

 
Yes, it was a pink disco ball Christmas tree. Even I was shocked! But there you have it.

There was a lot of holiday cooking. There was even more holiday dish washing. I did not keep an accurate count, but I believe I washed every dish in the house at least 4 times...and I have a lot of dishes. My favorite, mismatched Le Creuset pan was often washed 4 time a day itself! I washed so many dishes, I didn't always take the requisit photos, but here goes.
There was fruitcake and...
and more fruitcake.
 
 
Beer bread and honey butter.
A turkey smoked in the Ugly Drum Smoker we built this summer.
One of my favorite gifts from last year was a subscription to Julibox. Frankly, we have had more fun with the Julibox than one can imagine. We are always finding new cool spirits to try. Of course, it takes me a while to try them as I must have the box sent to another state because, West Virginia wants to protect me from mail order booze, though I can have OxyContin sent to my door, but I digress...
One of my fave drinks was Laird's Applejack and proseco. So when I got big bottle of applejack, I planned ahead. I had a tray of apples I couldn't get around to eating or cooking, so I juiced them and made big ol' ice cubes out of them. The apple juice ice cubes made these Cocktails At The Burn Pit, cool and fruity!
There was a standing rib roast with Yorkshire Pudding. Now I love shopping at discount, dollar store kind of places. Truth is, most of the time one would be hard pressed to find anything worth a dollar, which is why one must be persistent. I popped into one looking for nothing in particular, always on the lookout for cooking gear. I looked down and saw a pair of popover pans. They listed for $28 a piece, but were marked a mere $5. Score!
 
I made a Christmas Tree Pavlova.
Tired of leftovers, I made mozzarella-stuffed meatballs and spaghetti and some bread.
My friend, Catherine, sent me a huge bag of Black Twig Apples, that went into a pie.
 
Holiday food means a trip to the big box store. I know that Chefy types will be appalled, but I love to buy a huge bag of peeled garlic cloves. Truth be told, if you are not running a restaurant, there is no need for a huge bag of peeled garlic. But here in the woods, keeping fresh garlic is often a bit hard. So I plan for a garlic rub on the rib roast, 40 clove chicken, meat sauce, and on and on. Then, I confit the remaining cloves and freeze little containers of soft, oily garlic. When I need a spread for bread, or garlic in a stew, I just pull out a little frozen cube, and I am good to go.
 
All the unused citrus was turned into Marmelade. I made a mixed citrus with lemons, limes, oranges, and three different grapefruits. I used a fine chop on the mixed peel. I had two huge pomelos that made a pomelo mamelade. The fruit was very pink and the peel was a bright green, so it made a very preppy marmelade.
 
For the pomelo, I left the peel in very long, thin strips. I think the long strips make for an elegant marmelade.

The new year meant collards,
 
black-eyed peas,
 
And a lovely pig-head cornbread.
Only 350-some days till Christmas. I'm off to the kitchen.
 
 
 
 
 

 

4 comments:

  1. I love this parade of all your holiday foods. I've never made marmalade, but it's on my list of things to try. My mom was a marmalade snob and made a yearly pilgrimage to a special store in Canada that sold nice marmalade. I made your pumpkin mousse tart for Christmas dinner. It was very nice!

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  2. A friend gave me a one month Julibox subscription and it was the best thing, ever! Now I'm determined to hunt down some Xante pear brandy for the delicious champagne cocktail in the December box.

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  3. Well, you have done yourself and dim sum! I am still in the middle—hoping it's now to the right of middle— 2 year+ kitchen/whole first floor remodel. I'm cooking in the basement on one induction burner and two toaster ovens. I've collected cookware for over 40 years, but it breaks my heart that I've had to buy teeny-tiny things. Not quite to tasty oven proportions but gaining on it. And when you have to hand wash every thing you use, you do become quite familiar with your tools!

    ps Sorry about your beloved Tide. I'm an OU alum. We know a thing or two about losing bowl games!

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  4. Gratitude for sharing these photos from this holiday bash. It looks like a super successful event and everyone had brilliant time. At garden themed party venue New York we will also be attending a grand party. Actually our mom is going to host a surprise bash for dad on his 60th birthday.

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