Posts Tagged ‘christmas’
cranberry sorbet (merry christmas!)
Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and enjoying the day. We had a wonderful dinner and instead of doing some big rich dessert I decided to go simple and refreshing for our finish this year. Sweet and tart cranberry sorbet, a perfectly light and yet festive holiday dessert. This would be divine to also serve on New Year’s Eve, especially if you scoop a few balls and put them at the bottom of a glass, then top with champagne. Cranberry sorbet floats, anyone?
Happy Holidays!
christmas dinner 2010
Oof. I don’t know about y’all but I have a wicked food hangover. This Christmas was filled with what felt like a week of marathon eating and drinking – whether it be snacking on appetizers at home, drinks out with friends, multiple calorie-laden coffee drinks while out running errands, Christmas dinner and its leftovers, etc. It just feels like I’ve been eating non-stop since Wednesday and I am so ready for a break…. until New Year’s Eve at least.
But onto the good stuff! The great stuff. Our dinner this year went from the over-the-top 6 rib prime rib roast we’ve done the past few years to something a little easier and more economical for our 4-person dinner: strip steaks. We all love em in the family and I did em the best way: seared in a huge cast iron skillet, popped in a screaming hot oven for a few minutes, and served with lotsa butter and blue cheese crumbles. All the side dishes I made were either done far in advance (and then reheated) or done à la minute (right before serving) so I could keep my time well divided. I did about an hour of prep, an hour of prep cooking time, and then about 20 min cooking right before dinner. It was the easiest and most delicious Christmas dinner we’ve ever had. Take that, prime rib!
So here’s a (very) random collection of photos from what I ate and drank over my holiday. Apologies for the quality and randomness. I just didn’t seem to want to take the time to use my Nikon during all the fun so the iPhone did a lot of the work this year.
Our menu:
- Pan-seared strip steaks with butter and blue cheese
- Scalloped sweet potatoes with sage
- Creamy parmesan polenta
- Roasted fresh Brussels sprouts
- Wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon
- Christopher Elbow truffles (for dessert)
Pre-dinner martini.
My least favorite vegetable. The things I do for my family…
lemon glazed wreaths
Time for cookie #4 in the Christmas cookie list. No, those aren’t mini bagels. And no, they’re not mini donuts either! They’re cookies!
This is a simple cookie with a lot of frills and froufrou to dress it up. It’s a nice simple lemon cookie with lemon glaze, but it’s just so pretty. And sometimes (let’s face it), that’s what holiday baking is all about.
I strayed from Martha’s recipe a bit because my dough came out incredibly sticky when I was done, so I added a bit more flour, chilled it overnight, and did a double glaze to get that great bright white color on top. I love the little white nonpareils on top since they look like snow (and add great texture), but if you really wanted to push the wreath idea, green and red would also be super fun.
double mint chip cookies
My favorite response to these cookies was definitely when a chef friend of mine tried them and simply said, “Your cookie kung-fu is strong.”
The awesomeness of being a baking ninja aside, this batch is definitely the favorite of the holiday cookie bake-a-thon so far.
Originally I wanted to make these cookies using Nestlé’s dark chocolate and mint morsels and of course had my hopes dashed when I learned they aren’t carried within 200 miles of where I live. So I went to the store determined to find suitable replacements and did. Sort of. I ended up combining two different kinds of baking chips to achieve what I imagined the Nestlé morsels would be like – strong semi-sweet chocolate and cooling mint with a fudgey, chewy texture.
These cookies not only taste fantastic, but get bonus points for coming together super easily and freezing incredibly well. I only needed about 2 dozen when I made these, so I froze half the batch on sheet trays and then transferred them to a freezer storage bag. That way whenever I want the second batch I’ll just pop them on a sheet tray and bake. Way better than that refrigerated dough you can buy in the store (if I do say so myself)!
cocoa coffee shortbread
Time for cookie #2 in the holiday baking extravaganza! Moving on from a spin on the classic oatmeal raisin to something a little more elegant, a little more refined. Something to take delicate bites from while sipping espresso con panna.
I’ve had these cookies bookmarked for ages and wanted to make them last year for my mom’s cookie exchange but was (sadly) vetoed. Oh well! More for me, just a year later.
I’ll be honest in saying the big thing that drew me to this cookie (besides the idea of coffee-flavored shortbread) was the shape. It was dainty and cute and a simple way to make a traditional cookie a little more special. But why have a coffee-flavored shortbread cookie be a pale yellow color? Why not oomph up the color and flavor by making it cocoa-based? Plus, every good baker knows that coffee brings out chocolate flavor in anything, so it was a revision made in heaven.
I changed the recipe a bit by adding a little more sugar, replacing a bit of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder, and adding some vanilla extract. The flavor isn’t overly sweet, but pungent and almost bitter in that great coffee way. It has that perfect dissolve-on-your-tongue shortbread texture and the size is just right to sit on a saucer next to a great cup of coffee or whatever you fancy.
