Christmas Preview

Warning: No pictures yet. Sorry friends.

We’ve got four different food-oriented events this Christmas! While it’s been busy and bustling and schedule-crammed, it’s been so fun menu planning and preparing for these little feasts. Even thought I might not be organized enough right now to put together a traditional post, I wanted to share anyway.

Our first little Christmas gathering was with my immediate family, my mom, dad & youngest sister Emily. We made chicken pot pie, and took lots of pictures. I hope to post them as soon as I get organized and have some spare time.

A couple of days later, we had Josh’s family over to our house – his mom & dad, grandparents, little sister Amy & brother Brian & Brian’s fiancee Lauren. On the menu that night were roasted game hens, au gratin potatoes, honey roasted brussel sprouts and for dessert, vanilla bean roasted pears. Everything turned out perfect. And I didn’t take any pictures of anything! I know! What’s my problem? My problem is the dinner was on a weeknight and I was too busy cooking to reach for my camera every thirty seconds. But trust me, it was beautiful and delicious. Josh even took the day off to get the house all ready and get a head start of preparing the food. He did a fabulous job; the game hens turned out beautifully, and he did it all!

Tonight, Christmas Eve, we’ll head over to my Aunt Katy & Uncle Brad’s house to visit with my extended family as well as my brother Jon and my other sister, Rachel & her boyfriend Phil. Grandparents, cousins, relatives we really only get to see once a year, I so look forward to this gathering. We’re just having a spread of appetizers and sweets, and we’re bringing some of our favorites; seared prosciutto-wrapped figs and homemade panettone. I hope I remember to take a few shots of tonight!

Tomorrow, glorious Christmas Day, we get to spend relaxing all by ourselves. After the busyness of the last two weeks, we’re so excited to be at home and just nest and love on each other. I’ve always been the “kid” who’s brought something to both Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner at the grown-up’s house, and I’m so biting at the bit to prepare our own meal for the holiday in our own home. I told Josh I just need to braise something. Give me a big hunk of meat and let me figure out what to do with it. Honestly, my comfort zone is in curries, coconut-milk soups and throwing together sauteed veggies and pasta. I don’t think I’ve braised or roasted a hunk of meat in my life, unless you count the rare whole chicken. This year I wanted a challenge.

We went to Central Market (one of my favorite places for Josh to date me), and perused the meat section. We landed on duck. A whole, glorious duck. We considered a goose, but as it was three times the price, my desire to go Charles Dickens settled on the duck. My friend Jamie reminded me of the Christmas Story and the Chinese restaurant; my duck comes without the head!

So after lots of research on how to properly prepare this guy, we’ll also roast some root vegetables (carrots, turnips & rutabaga) as well as spaghetti squash. A very wintry meal. Again, I’m planning to take some photos and post them later on.

Merry Christmas!

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This entry was posted on December 24th, 2009 and is filed under Events, Thoughts on Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.