Christmas Dinner

As per our tradition, we had a big friends Christmas dinner on Sunday. Tara hosted and she did so much work! We had warm crab dip and baguette with brie and a walnut fig chutney to start. I had to restrain myself to save room for dinner: Turkey (25 lbs!!!) with stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas and mushrooms, salad, carrots, corn and buns! I was so excited to eat I forgot to take a picture of the plate. Dessert was also extravagant. Sarah made empire and ginger cookies (both her nana's recipes), Jeff made biscotti and they also brought pumpkin pie. If that was not enough we also had ice cream cookies made with Anna Olsen cookies. I am still full.

I made it!

I made dinner for Adam and Margaret on Saturday. We had an Italian dinner: marinara sauce with bacon, garlic bread, salad and brownies for desert (not really italian but that's all I had the ingredients for). The brownies were a bit dry so adam made some berry sauce which helped.

Jam

So Adam and I got some home-made raspberry jam for Christmas (thanks Jon!). It is fantastic and we have already eaten half the jar. Here I am eating it with some crusty bread while reading the comics. You can't hear but there are Christmas carols playing in the background. Overall, a pretty good Saturday morning!

From the Archives: Trout with Mushrooms and Grilled Tandoori Chicken

Here are a few of the pictures of meals Adam made over the past few weeks that I felt compelled to take pictures of. The top picture is Trout with a very buttery mushroom sauce. I watched him make it and vowed never to do it again because it made me realize how much butter is in the food he cooks. We also had mashed potatoes which was a treat and steamed greens. This was a special meal because Adam created the menu in his head and went out to buy groceries specifically to make it. The bottom picture is more of an everyday meal: grilled tandoori (style) chicken with boiled potatoes and coleslaw. The coleslaw was fantastic though - I think that is why I took the picture!

Braised Short Ribs with Polenta and Poached Pears

We had some people over for dinner last night so Adam made my new favorite. Braised short ribs over polenta. He simmered it for 5 hours and they were so soft they were falling off the bone. yum.
There was a bit of contention over desert. We made these sugar and almond cookies a few days earlier and I thought they would be good with berries and whip cream. Adam thought poached pears was a better choice. As you can see he won and I am glad he did. The poached pears were delicious and he even put a few slivers of candied orange peel as a garnish.

My first entry

In the spirit of my brother and sister who have created online photo albums to keep our mom up to date on our daily going ons...