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.