Being a big holiday and whatnot and knowing that many people here are foodies / home chefs I thought it might be fun to discuss what we’ve all had for dinner this Christmas!
This year I got ambitious thanks to all of my viewings of Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef, I went for one of Gordon Ramsay’s favorite dishes, the Beef Wellington!
I messed up a bit as I misunderstood the cling film instructions (I should have watched his video) and my crepes weren’t round as such, and obviously I should have trimmed off more puff pastry but it got rave reviews!
It was brave and admirable and generous of you to do that. If I didn’t adore my family I would invite myself to your place for Xmas next year. It looks beyond delicious. And I’d bring homemade tamales for Boxing Day or Xmas Eve or whatever.
Regarding my alleged logic:
My logic is actual logic, not alleged logic. The real deal, the good stuff, ya know?
PS: my logic neither seems flawed nor is flawed. Not even to a nicety of a singularity. It is exact and perfect. You have met all the necessary and sufficient conditions to be ordained as Goat of January 2017.
[I understand that stress may have overthrown your ability to reason, and I forgive your pitiful assertion as you struggle to misdirect, confound,and wriggle free. <Hint: Not Working!> (Aren’t I generous and wonderful?)]
This wonderful meal clearly indicates your Goatiness.
We grilled cauliflower to a light tinge of brown then sprinkled with a dusting of paprika and some chopped banana peppers; made a delicious 7 pound roast beast as it’s called at our house. Complete with, butter rolls, scalloped potatoes …And ice cold water with cucumbers and orange slices…Yum!!!
Best part, the cherry and Boston cream pies, and that the grandsons did the dishes and cleaned the table.
@Aznatural1 Wow, very similar dinner here. Beef brisket, scalloped potatoes, cauliflower. My teenage sons request the cauliflower - I saute on the stove until it gets nice color and add garlic and parmesan cheese. I cooked two large heads and had no leftovers.
Centerpieces of the Christmas Eve dinner we prepared were a seafood stuffed chicken (bought from a cajun market, not homemade) I cooked sous vide then browned in the oven and a nice big Instant Pot full of chicken and andouille jambalaya (first time in the IP, took longer than expected but turned out great!), along with turkey salad sandwiches, meatballs and cocktail weenies, and what seemed like twenty different kinds of dips and other snacky things.
Tonight at my aunt’s house there were fried turkeys, ham, chicken and dumplings, chicken and dressing, homemade rolls, deviled eggs, apple mini Bundt cakes, and pumpkin pie my sister made from a pumpkin my nephews grew in the back yard. I shouldn’t eat again for a week.
I kept it simple since I knew I’d be the only one cooking. Ham, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, and a pumpkin pie. I made buttermilk waffles for breakfast. On Christmas Eve I made deviled eggs for the party I went to.
My guests were pleased, and that’s all that mattered.
about 20 folks, so i do the buffet thing. i do a mix match of stuff to try to please all different ages and tastes. i made, nacho cheese dip, spinach artichoke dip, smokey weiner rolls, chicken wings, glazed ham, corned beef, scalloped potatoes, fresh green beans and mushroom stuff, RUTABAGA , baked beans w bacon, french bread, fruit tray, super chocolate brownies, pumpkin spice bars with dried cherries, other add on’s too… i have tried in the past to do more veggie type stuff… they won’t eat it. i don’t mind doing all the cooking. i do wish, more folks would help clean up though…
hope everyone had a pretty good Merry Christmas!!!
Tell them next year that anyone over the age of 10 who eats and who is not 100% disabled gets to participate fully in cleaning up until the cleaning up is completed.
@mick Assign tasks. I find that more people are happy to help when they have clearly assigned tasks. Joe, please scrape all the plates into the trash and stack them in the sink. Max, when he’s done please take out the trash and put in a new trash bag. Sam, please take the rest of the turkey off the bones and put it in this container, make sure Max gets the skeleton in the bag to take to the trash. Mary, please put the leftovers into this stack of containers, I’ll put them in the fridge when I’m done washing dishes. Jess and Kevin, please take the extra chairs back to the garage, we’ll have dessert in the living room. Etc. This method works great with my friends. I always wash the dishes and put the food away myself as I am particular about how it’s done. Once the debris from the meal is cleared everyone gets dessert.
And after cleanup is done and after dessert is mostly done and then after dessert cleanup is done except for people still eating and after coffee-tea-water-sodas-alcohol-whatever is served to whomever wants it:
Then and only then:
Kids get to open the afternoon (extended family) presents. And during or after that adults get to open extended family presents also.
Then kid-excess-energy-time-running-wild-time and outdoor-touch-football-time and grownups-wanna-take-a-nap-time.
These are my first holidays alone. For Thanksgiving I made a singles version of the traditional meal. Then I remembered I don’t like that sort of food, I always cooked it for the holidays because others liked it. So for Christmas dinner I prepared my favorite meal, Thai Green Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice. Extra coconut milk and ginger, and I added some pineapple tidbits to the usual veggies for that tropical flavor. I didn’t take a picture last night but I’ll be eating this for a couple of days so I’ll take one this evening. For dessert I had half a cupcake sized mini lemon bundt cake with cream cheese frosting I got as a birthday gift from a local bakery.
@moondrake
Am kinda inclined to hope that next time you to drive a few hours if needed and hang out w someone you can tolerate.
Do you like doing it the way you did this time? Ok with it, prefer it, or wistful? Given that we can’t bring back those who are gone, if you had your druthers … ?
@f00l Unfortunately I lost my better half at the same time that my friends are pulling away into their own family lives, getting engaged, having kids, etc. Still disappointed that none of them who’ve broken bread at my table over the years when they had no one to spend the holidays with thought to make sure I wasn’t alone after the staggering losses I’ve had this year. The only person I could ever really count on is gone. Sorry to harsh your holiday buzz. I’m just trying to swim for the light right now.
@cinoclav Well the food was good. I’d rather have had someone to share it with than a week’s worth of leftovers, but you make the best of what you’ve got.
@f00l Nope, pretty much all my friends are the gaming friends. I have some friends from art classes and from my old job, but they are lunch friends, not spend the holidays together friends. I think my New Years resolution is going to be to try and expand my social circle to people with some kind of social skills. Really, I don’t want to drag down the happy holiday talk with my sad sack problems. It’s just therapeutic to talk turkey once in a while (see me getting back to the holiday foods topic?).
@moondrake Do you know about mug cakes aka 3-2-1 cakes? They’re good for very small celebrations, they take one minute, and they can be dressed up as desired. Put two miniature chocolate bars in before cooking, instant chocolate lava cake. The mix stays in a ziplock bag until you need it. https://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/cakes/Patti40/3-2-1-microwave-cake/
@moondrake About those leftovers: I talked myself into a vacuum sealing system, because even one chickenzilla breast is about four meals for one person. Now I have a small but growing stash of ready-to-thaw portions. Add fresh veg or salad, and maybe a quick sauce or gravy. Done.
@OldCatLady Nice. My problem is that I have the world’s tiniest kitchen, accompanied by a tiny fridge and stove. My kitchen is 6’ x6’, with the appliances there’s only a few feet of floor space. The biggest fridge I can fit is 9cf. Lol. Plus I tend to pack it full of sauces and jellies and pickles that take forever to use, leaving little space for actual food. I am standing a couple of feet outside the door to take this picture.
@moondrake I’ll try to never complain about the size of my kitchen again.
I’m sorry that no one invited you over. I completely understand the feeling. When me and my ex split, it was just a few weeks before my birthday. My “friends” asked me if I had any plans for my birthday and I told them no. Then the day after they asked me if I did anything. I said no… That I just sat at home by myself. They apologized that I was alone, but they had already knew I was going to be alone, so why did they bother to apologize. I was pretty bummed. It just made me realize I needed better friends.
@f00l I have a carriage house at the back of the property (house was built in 1912), but I wouldn’t trust the electricity, it’s run on a wire from the house which has broken a couple of times and I don’t know what kind of demand it can handle. No utility room, and outdoor fridges and freezers cost a fortune in our 100+ degree summers. I do have a pair of dorm fridges left over from when Bob and I retired and cleared out our offices in the game room in the semi basement but they are primarily for sodas. I don’t trust their thermostats with perishables. Seriously, even this tiny fridge should be enough for a single person, I just hoard food like I think the apocalypse is coming. Right now its jammed full of dairy products that were on great holiday sales; cheese, half and half, cream and butter, along with my usual assortment of sauces, jellies and leftovers. I need to cook as much as I shop so I don’t develop such a backlog of fridge stuff. I’m a sucker for a sale.
@moondrake I blame my storage problem on my mother and grandmother. They went through the Depression and passed the impact on to me. Then Publix has BOGOs every week, and sometimes I get loose in Big Lots where I buy things I’ve never even heard of.
Tried my first sous vide beef rib roast. This was a single rib, finished in a hot oven to brown it. Need to work on the crust, but inside is perfect, juicy and tender.
Here we go, a photo of my curry from Christmas dinner. Green Thai curry, chicken, veggies, pineapple, ginger, and coconut milk with jasmine rice. Just as delicious tonight as last night.
@jbartus “Curry” is sort of a catch-all for a vast variety of seasoning blends. The most common curries are yellow and red (both found in Chinese and Indian cuisine), and green (Thai). That’s just a thumbnail, curry is much more diverse and widespread than that. Thai is my favorite cuisine, many of the dishes have some combination of coconut, ginger, and lime, three of my favorite foods. If you are not a fire eater, make sure to order your curry mild, as it can be very spicy.
Due to not being able to get out of the house (heavy snow meant I got stuck in the alley behind my garage and took more than 40 minutes of shoveling to get the work van 2 feet back into the garage):
Traditional christmas day for us is a homemade (and gluten free) lasagna
This year was (meh bought) crockpot chili and cornbread.
It was disappointing but tasty.
This year I got ambitious thanks to all of my viewings of Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef, I went for one of Gordon Ramsay’s favorite dishes, the Beef Wellington!
I messed up a bit as I misunderstood the cling film instructions (I should have watched his video) and my crepes weren’t round as such, and obviously I should have trimmed off more puff pastry but it got rave reviews!
@jbartus Looks yummy. Got any leftovers?
@jbartus looks yummy… you did a beautiful job cooking the beef!!!
@jbartus
I am terribly impressed. That looks amazing.
Obviously you deserve to be Goat.
@heartny 5 portions.
@mick thanks.
@f00l your logic feels flawed.
@jbartus Awesome!
@jbartus Also, brave to tackle something so challenging for the first time for a holiday meal.
@jbartus Geez, that’s rare!
@jbartus
It was brave and admirable and generous of you to do that. If I didn’t adore my family I would invite myself to your place for Xmas next year. It looks beyond delicious. And I’d bring homemade tamales for Boxing Day or Xmas Eve or whatever.
Regarding my alleged logic:
My logic is actual logic, not alleged logic. The real deal, the good stuff, ya know?
PS: my logic neither seems flawed nor is flawed. Not even to a nicety of a singularity. It is exact and perfect. You have met all the necessary and sufficient conditions to be ordained as Goat of January 2017.
[I understand that stress may have overthrown your ability to reason, and I forgive your pitiful assertion as you struggle to misdirect, confound,and wriggle free. <Hint: Not Working!> (Aren’t I generous and wonderful?)]
This wonderful meal clearly indicates your Goatiness.
I admire and salute you.
@jbartus OMG, that looks delicious. Well done.
@moondrake thanks
@lisaviolet it’s not quite as rare as the pictures make it look!
@mfladd thanks
@jbartus I’ll take 1 or 2 portions, please.
Plans changed at the last minute due to illness, so I made Cheesesteaks and French fries
.
We grilled cauliflower to a light tinge of brown then sprinkled with a dusting of paprika and some chopped banana peppers; made a delicious 7 pound roast beast as it’s called at our house. Complete with, butter rolls, scalloped potatoes …And ice cold water with cucumbers and orange slices…Yum!!!
Best part, the cherry and Boston cream pies, and that the grandsons did the dishes and cleaned the table.
@Aznatural1 Wow, very similar dinner here. Beef brisket, scalloped potatoes, cauliflower. My teenage sons request the cauliflower - I saute on the stove until it gets nice color and add garlic and parmesan cheese. I cooked two large heads and had no leftovers.
@Aznatural1
@pitamuffin
I am one of those who prefers perfectly cooked cauliflower to so many other foods. Both of yours sound amazing.
Centerpieces of the Christmas Eve dinner we prepared were a seafood stuffed chicken (bought from a cajun market, not homemade) I cooked sous vide then browned in the oven and a nice big Instant Pot full of chicken and andouille jambalaya (first time in the IP, took longer than expected but turned out great!), along with turkey salad sandwiches, meatballs and cocktail weenies, and what seemed like twenty different kinds of dips and other snacky things.
Tonight at my aunt’s house there were fried turkeys, ham, chicken and dumplings, chicken and dressing, homemade rolls, deviled eggs, apple mini Bundt cakes, and pumpkin pie my sister made from a pumpkin my nephews grew in the back yard. I shouldn’t eat again for a week.
I kept it simple since I knew I’d be the only one cooking. Ham, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, and a pumpkin pie. I made buttermilk waffles for breakfast. On Christmas Eve I made deviled eggs for the party I went to.
My guests were pleased, and that’s all that mattered.
about 20 folks, so i do the buffet thing. i do a mix match of stuff to try to please all different ages and tastes. i made, nacho cheese dip, spinach artichoke dip, smokey weiner rolls, chicken wings, glazed ham, corned beef, scalloped potatoes, fresh green beans and mushroom stuff, RUTABAGA , baked beans w bacon, french bread, fruit tray, super chocolate brownies, pumpkin spice bars with dried cherries, other add on’s too… i have tried in the past to do more veggie type stuff… they won’t eat it. i don’t mind doing all the cooking. i do wish, more folks would help clean up though…
hope everyone had a pretty good Merry Christmas!!!
@mick
Tell them next year that anyone over the age of 10 who eats and who is not 100% disabled gets to participate fully in cleaning up until the cleaning up is completed.
@mick Assign tasks. I find that more people are happy to help when they have clearly assigned tasks. Joe, please scrape all the plates into the trash and stack them in the sink. Max, when he’s done please take out the trash and put in a new trash bag. Sam, please take the rest of the turkey off the bones and put it in this container, make sure Max gets the skeleton in the bag to take to the trash. Mary, please put the leftovers into this stack of containers, I’ll put them in the fridge when I’m done washing dishes. Jess and Kevin, please take the extra chairs back to the garage, we’ll have dessert in the living room. Etc. This method works great with my friends. I always wash the dishes and put the food away myself as I am particular about how it’s done. Once the debris from the meal is cleared everyone gets dessert.
@moondrake
@mick
And after cleanup is done and after dessert is mostly done and then after dessert cleanup is done except for people still eating and after coffee-tea-water-sodas-alcohol-whatever is served to whomever wants it:
Then and only then:
Kids get to open the afternoon (extended family) presents. And during or after that adults get to open extended family presents also.
Then kid-excess-energy-time-running-wild-time and outdoor-touch-football-time and grownups-wanna-take-a-nap-time.
After a lot of research, watching cooking shows, studying alternatives, I decided to let others cook for me all day.
Was excellent.
Am available for hire.
@f00l This video is for you:
@dashcloud
She is my hero!
☀️
These are my first holidays alone. For Thanksgiving I made a singles version of the traditional meal. Then I remembered I don’t like that sort of food, I always cooked it for the holidays because others liked it. So for Christmas dinner I prepared my favorite meal, Thai Green Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice. Extra coconut milk and ginger, and I added some pineapple tidbits to the usual veggies for that tropical flavor. I didn’t take a picture last night but I’ll be eating this for a couple of days so I’ll take one this evening. For dessert I had half a cupcake sized mini lemon bundt cake with cream cheese frosting I got as a birthday gift from a local bakery.
@moondrake I’m really not sure if I’m sad or envious.
@moondrake
Am kinda inclined to hope that next time you to drive a few hours if needed and hang out w someone you can tolerate.
Do you like doing it the way you did this time? Ok with it, prefer it, or wistful? Given that we can’t bring back those who are gone, if you had your druthers … ?
@f00l Unfortunately I lost my better half at the same time that my friends are pulling away into their own family lives, getting engaged, having kids, etc. Still disappointed that none of them who’ve broken bread at my table over the years when they had no one to spend the holidays with thought to make sure I wasn’t alone after the staggering losses I’ve had this year. The only person I could ever really count on is gone. Sorry to harsh your holiday buzz. I’m just trying to swim for the light right now.
@cinoclav Well the food was good. I’d rather have had someone to share it with than a week’s worth of leftovers, but you make the best of what you’ve got.
@moondrake
Well doggone it.
Not even your local gaming friends?
I am very sorry it worked out that way.
Why don’t you yell here in advance if it looks to be the same in 2017.
In the meantime don’t be a afraid to drop a few hints to people who should have thought of you locally.
@moondrake
Not the way to spend the holidays. We’re here for you, even if we couldn’t break bread in person!
@f00l Nope, pretty much all my friends are the gaming friends. I have some friends from art classes and from my old job, but they are lunch friends, not spend the holidays together friends. I think my New Years resolution is going to be to try and expand my social circle to people with some kind of social skills. Really, I don’t want to drag down the happy holiday talk with my sad sack problems. It’s just therapeutic to talk turkey once in a while (see me getting back to the holiday foods topic?).
@moondrake Do you know about mug cakes aka 3-2-1 cakes? They’re good for very small celebrations, they take one minute, and they can be dressed up as desired. Put two miniature chocolate bars in before cooking, instant chocolate lava cake. The mix stays in a ziplock bag until you need it. https://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/cakes/Patti40/3-2-1-microwave-cake/
@moondrake About those leftovers: I talked myself into a vacuum sealing system, because even one chickenzilla breast is about four meals for one person. Now I have a small but growing stash of ready-to-thaw portions. Add fresh veg or salad, and maybe a quick sauce or gravy. Done.
@OldCatLady Nice. My problem is that I have the world’s tiniest kitchen, accompanied by a tiny fridge and stove. My kitchen is 6’ x6’, with the appliances there’s only a few feet of floor space. The biggest fridge I can fit is 9cf. Lol. Plus I tend to pack it full of sauces and jellies and pickles that take forever to use, leaving little space for actual food. I am standing a couple of feet outside the door to take this picture.
@moondrake
Can you get a second fridge or freezer for the garage or utility room or back porch?
Or is is not worth all that?
@moondrake I’ll try to never complain about the size of my kitchen again.
I’m sorry that no one invited you over. I completely understand the feeling. When me and my ex split, it was just a few weeks before my birthday. My “friends” asked me if I had any plans for my birthday and I told them no. Then the day after they asked me if I did anything. I said no… That I just sat at home by myself. They apologized that I was alone, but they had already knew I was going to be alone, so why did they bother to apologize. I was pretty bummed. It just made me realize I needed better friends.
@f00l I have a carriage house at the back of the property (house was built in 1912), but I wouldn’t trust the electricity, it’s run on a wire from the house which has broken a couple of times and I don’t know what kind of demand it can handle. No utility room, and outdoor fridges and freezers cost a fortune in our 100+ degree summers. I do have a pair of dorm fridges left over from when Bob and I retired and cleared out our offices in the game room in the semi basement but they are primarily for sodas. I don’t trust their thermostats with perishables. Seriously, even this tiny fridge should be enough for a single person, I just hoard food like I think the apocalypse is coming. Right now its jammed full of dairy products that were on great holiday sales; cheese, half and half, cream and butter, along with my usual assortment of sauces, jellies and leftovers. I need to cook as much as I shop so I don’t develop such a backlog of fridge stuff. I’m a sucker for a sale.
@moondrake I blame my storage problem on my mother and grandmother. They went through the Depression and passed the impact on to me. Then Publix has BOGOs every week, and sometimes I get loose in Big Lots where I buy things I’ve never even heard of.
https://goo.gl/photos/y6VVLLgUZ6PemBnV6
Brined for 24 hours, then Deep fried a 20 lb turkey. It was the best turkey I’ve ever had. Traditional sides made by spouse.
Fried up some Deli-Mex rolled tacos and mashed up guacamole to dip them in.
@lisaviolet
You’re talkin’ to that part of me that doesn’t want a trad Xmas feast here.
My capacity to imagine food goodness is listenin’.
Spiral cut ham and braised veggies, and the kids wanted mac and cheese so homemade that.
Tried my first sous vide beef rib roast. This was a single rib, finished in a hot oven to brown it. Need to work on the crust, but inside is perfect, juicy and tender.
Here we go, a photo of my curry from Christmas dinner. Green Thai curry, chicken, veggies, pineapple, ginger, and coconut milk with jasmine rice. Just as delicious tonight as last night.
@moondrake Curries are better the second day, and jasmine rice is good any time. Good portion planning.
@moondrake looks interesting! I’ve never had curry.
@jbartus “Curry” is sort of a catch-all for a vast variety of seasoning blends. The most common curries are yellow and red (both found in Chinese and Indian cuisine), and green (Thai). That’s just a thumbnail, curry is much more diverse and widespread than that. Thai is my favorite cuisine, many of the dishes have some combination of coconut, ginger, and lime, three of my favorite foods. If you are not a fire eater, make sure to order your curry mild, as it can be very spicy.
@OldCatLady I still have two more servings of curry, lol. As you pointed out previously, one chicken breast is four servings.
@moondrake I know most of that, I’ve just never had any! I am not a fire eater but I don’t mind a bit of zesty heat to my meals!
@jbartus
By Indian and Thai spicy-food standards, that’s an “extremely incredibly mild” or a “no hot spices at all” request.
Do not underestimate. Curry is not like Tex-Mex.
Due to not being able to get out of the house (heavy snow meant I got stuck in the alley behind my garage and took more than 40 minutes of shoveling to get the work van 2 feet back into the garage):
Traditional christmas day for us is a homemade (and gluten free) lasagna
This year was (meh bought) crockpot chili and cornbread.
It was disappointing but tasty.