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Holiday menus


Wilfrid

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I don’t want to cook a multi-course dinner for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Thinking of small plates/buffet.

I know I can do smoked salmon canapés plus other seafood. I am thinking of a crustless quiche cut into bite-size pieces. Hot, I can make small rabbit tacos (I have leftover rabbit saddles in the freezer).

Any other ideas? Maybe something involving a vegetable? Or avocado, allegedly a fruit?

Cheese goes without saying.

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Yotam Ottolenghi's ham recipe from last week's NY Times Magazine, plus roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts, maybe mulled wine to drink.  We'll probably start the day with stollen, and there's bourbon-ginger Christmas pudding and Walker's Strathspey fruitcake (which has been marinating in Scotch for the last couple of weeks) for dessert after the main Christmas lunch.  So, lots of sweets that day.

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We ended up on holiday eve with:

- Little pastry canapé cups filled with either oysters or smoked salmon (latter with sour cream), both topped with salmon eggs.

- A crustless quiche with bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes.

- Blistered Brussels sprouts cooked with the fat trimmed from the above bacon.

- Deep fried lobster balls from Chinatown, soy sauce.

- Tacos with red wine-braised, sliced boneless rabbit saddles, fresh cilantro and sour cream.

- Warm mince pies from Myers of Keswick. 

- L’Abondance, Valencay Affines.

Deliberately there is stuff bought there and easy stuff because I just didn’t want to cook another multi-course dinner from scratch for everyone. Sorry.
 

 

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  • 11 months later...

i decided to make coq au vin for my birthday/xmas dinner and coquilles st. jacques so hubby picked up some essential ingredients.

in other news, i finally got a u.s. passport after procrastinating for the past several years. so now we just have to think where we want to go next year. i’ve never been to europe

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17 hours ago, StephanieL said:

Congratulations, @Diancecht!  Don't forget that starting next year, most countries in Europe will require US citizens to get a sort-of visa.

It would be really nice if we knew exactly when this stuff was starting; and the UK actually has a variation on this coming into effect as well (the UK's will start immediately in the new year, I believe).

https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-opens-pre-travel-requirement-to-non-europeans

 

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thanks folks 

xmas/birthday dinner for four

 
sauteed scallops and braised endive
coq au vin
roasted potatoes
green salad
sachertorte
chocolates
 
dessert wine, tea and coffee
 
the chicken was marinated in red wine with onion and garlic for 3 days.
 
chicken broth - chicken wings, chicken back, onion, leek, carrot, celery, black peppercorns, thyme, parsley, cloves, water
 
after the three days, i browned the chicken in unsalted butter and bacon drippings, then browned the garlic and onion in the same fat, then returned the chicken to the pot along with the bacon. added some cognac and flambéed everything. then added the wine the chicken was marinated in and the broth. i added some dried porcini and braised the chicken for 1 hour. added some pearl onions and sliced champignon mushrooms i had sautéed in butter halfway through the braise. then reduced the sauce.
 
 

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Our Christmas dinner was last night, Christmas Eve.    Son and 3 sprogs came over mid-afternoon to construct the annual croquembouche.    Excellent tower resulted.    My back was screaming all day, so I cut courses and dishes from the menu in order to avoid disaster.   As it were, the standing rib was undercooked, the Yorkshire stuck to the bottom of the baking dish and the peas I reached for in the freezer turned out to be edamame.    But everyone refrained from comment and a loving time had by all, of course made possible by the Hoovered-up croquembouche.   Thank God it's over and today has been more or less one extended albeit segmented nap.

Son is returning with dim sum this evening.   Thank God for good kids!

Ho, ho, ho to all!    May your roast be cooked to your liking!

 

 

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Seared foie with capers and raisins fried in olive oil. I am obsessed with the caper/raisin combo which seems to garnish anything.

Elk, sauce au poivre, roast vegetables.

Pont L'Eveque, Asturian queso azul, Crostina di Pane.

Contino Gran Reserva 1996. Nervous when the cork is a soft sponge but I managed to extract it piece by piece without crumbs in the wine. And the wine is fine, still opening up.

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Squished eleven people into my living room and stuffed them full of brunch.

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Bagels from Davidovitch; whitefish, herring, lox & smoked trout from Acme; Ben's cream cheese; pickles from Pickle Guys; tomato and onion from the guy outside the Citibank.

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Avocado cream and crudite.

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Celery salad with parm, parsley and walnuts; winter greens salad; deviled egg salad with ikura.

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Cheese from Formaggio Essex and Valley Shepherd; Asian pear and fuyu persimmon.

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Bloody Mary's, OBVIOUSLY.

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Christmas dinner for 3 people:

  • Ham with a gingersnap-mustard crust
  • Roast chicken with oranges and sausage stuffing
  • Potatoes roasted in duck fat
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots
  • For dessert: packaged Christmas pudding with Bird's custard and a not-bad mulled wine I picked up in Pennsylvania

Leftovers tonight, and at some point over the weekend N will make a holiday leftovers pie (maybe the Hairy Bikers' version, if she can find kumquats).

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