eep.

spiral ham... got tons of left overs ... see ham salad in my future

broccoli cassarole

savery sweet potato ..

blue berry pie ...

Linguine With Clam Sauce
Baked Cod w/ tarter sauce
tossed salad
Czech Nut Bread
Xmas Cookies

Bacon wrapped green bean bundles with a soy and shallot glaze…twice baked potatoes and sautéed shiitake mushrooms. For dessert, we’ll have a shortbread cookies that I made yesterday and a scoop of cardamom ice cream.

Potato salad, egg rolls, little Asian appetizers, etc. Pumpjin pie, cheesecase, apple pie, cupcakes, & choc cake for dessert.

Grandson's friend's wife is a caterer & she went bonkers for Christmas & sent him home with a ton of great food.

Woo hoo!

Happy Holidays, All!

I'm not hungry, but may eat a bowl of chili later just to warm myself up.

Husband is a tired of the chili, so I offered to make him Morningstar Farms chik'n nuggets in peanut sauce over rice noodles with cucumber and onions in sweetened vinaigrette. He decided he just wanted the nuggets with bleu cheese dressing on the side, tater tots and brussels sprouts.

Have had more mocha than I needed today just because it was something hot to ingest, along with less water than I should have.

There are still molasses cookies for something sweet later.

I'll have to pick some of those up when I teleport to OK to rob you of some anise pizelles. I am just going to walk in your house and take them because I am too lazy to make them in NJ.

You won't be able to stop me with your sword because you will be wrapped up in an electric blanket and who can stage a duel with an electric cord flapping around their house slippers?

Then after I steal your molasses cookies and pizzelles I will teleport back to NJ and have them with a glass of milk while I watch "Three Pines" on Amazon Prime.

getting by Tippy the wonderdog!

Even though I'm not at all a Christian. However, the entire world seems to shut down, so it seems a good time to hunker down, not go anywhere (there's nowhere to go) and just have a good meal.

Between vacation, regular unscheduled days and holidays, I was gifted with 5 days in a row. So I got an obscenely expensive rib roast and had it with popovers and wilted red cabbage salad. Hazelnut tart for dessert. Swedish tea bread for breakfast and chopped liver (for me) and Maytag Blue cheese (for dh) during the day.

Nearly everything could have some or all prep work done ahead. I spent Xmas Eve night up late listening to Jethro Tull, waiting for dough to rise, drinking Belgian beer and working on The Dog Sweater That Would Not Die. (I hope to finish the sweater tomorrow - finally.) By today, I mostly had hours of free time between things that needed to be done. Got some much-needed naps in.

The only thing that almost didn't go great was the roast. I got sidetracked into a project by dh and by the time I temped it, I thought it was going to be medium well done. I kept muttering "Never complain, never explain", but I kept obsessing that I've literally never spent this much money on a piece of meat in my life. (Stop sniggering, you know perfectly well what I mean.) I thought I'd ruined it.

In fact, it was almost rare. I don't know what's wrong with my thermometer or my technique, but I'm just glad it was still usable and will make great leftovers. Sandwiches, steak and mushroom pie...

Anyway, I do love this kind of break. Mostly, my week consists of Saturday shop, Sunday make a multi-meal thing, and plan for the rest of the week things that can be served hot 20 minutes after I walk in the door. The luxury of time...

Awww, that actually sounds like a terrific holiday. I laughed over the Dog Sweater that Would Not Die.

Menu sounds outrageously good and did you ever luck out on the rib roast. Yum, hazelnut tart. What great things you can make with the rest of the roast, like the steak and mushroom pie.

I got sidetracked on a project, too, but I had to pay the consequences. You lucked out; not all of us did!

Can you believe I am doing Christmas cards tonight? They will be late, but I am sure they will still be welcome when they get to their destination.

We don't celebrate any holidays (by choice, not by edict.) We ditched the family get togethers for them eons ago, even pre-pandemic and have never enjoyed this time of year more.

I'm so glad your roast turned out okay. The one year I decided to spring for a rib roast, which I'd never cooked before, I sadly messed up and it was over done.

The nice thing about a rare-in-the-middle roast is that slicing from the outside towards the middle, you get plenty of mid-rare, medium, and mid-well as you go.

My son and I, back in the day when we would make the not-so-often visit to a restaurant, both ordered beef and burgers the same way: "slap the ass and take off the horns." LOL

sweet potatoes, and broccolini.

AND GRAVY + MORE GRAVY.

Yes, in 12 degree weather, she had the roast on the grill.

She seasoned it very well (she told me what she used, but I don't remember what she told me... "cowboy seasoning," or something like that) and she had smoke boxes in the grill, so there was a lovely flavor of smoke.

So...

grilled Angus Prime Rib
Mashed potatoes w/ beef/onion gravy (I made that... not easy with no drippings)
steamed broccoli and carrots
crescent rolls


I made a Dutch apple pie (served w/ caramel swirl ice cream) and a streusel/sour cream coffee cake for dessert.


The roast was a work of art (visually and to the palate). The pie didn't look great, but the flavor and the texture were spot-on.

So, I seared and sautéed two 8 oz. filets in butter and olive oil, adding thinly-sliced onions and shitake mushrooms to the skillet for the last few minutes. I put two nice Idaho potatoes in a 400 degree oven for an hour, to get a nice crispy skin. Then, I steamed some nice asparagus and made a dijonnaise sauce to toss them in. Just butter on the baked potato with some chives as a garnish. We paired that with a Petit Syrah from our old CA Central Coast area.

Lovely!.