I have a coworker, who, due to scheduling conflicts, had an early Christmas celebration. On Thanksgiving Thursday, they partook of turkey. On Friday they put up the tree, and on Saturday they had Christmas dinner and opened all their gifts. Now, that's efficiency. Just think, your entire Christmas season would be stress free. Just sit back, listen to the carols, and drink eggnog (or many hot toddys, in my case.)
My Christmas won't go quite that smoothly. This year Andrew and I are driving to Ohio to celebrate early with my family, then flying to England, arriving Christmas Eve morning, to spend a few weeks with his parents. This means that I have twice as much Christmas shopping to do, and all that early celebrating means everything needs to get done a bit earlier.
Still, I really love Christmas. As long as I remind myself that this is all fun, not stuff just to be checked off the list, I enjoy shopping (well, when it's online). I love sitting in the living room and soaking in the lights of the tree while I wrap gifts. And this weekend I'm decorating my house and baking several dozen cookies for the Christmas party I'm throwing next week.
Thinking ahead, I'm trying to figure out what to make for my family's Christmas dinner. Any suggestions? In the past we've had roast goose, miniature beef wellingtons (yum), and stewed rabbit (too many bones). I like to do something fancy, preferably with a type of meat or a preparation technique that you don't have every day. I was thinking of seafood, but I can't think of any impressive ways to do seafood. I appeal for help to you, my great foodie audience.
3 comments:
Well a proper boulliabase with the soup served first, and the fish (preferably whlle fish or very big pieces) coming next on a big platter with its two sauces (rouille and aioli) is very impressive. If people are too squeemish about the whole fish, go for whole lobster instead.
Or how about a fish souffle? (Julia, MTAFC #1 Page 168) Nothing more impressive than a puffy souffle.
Finally if you want to go back to meat, Julia also has a recipie for Braised Beef Tenderloin Prince Albert Style. The tenderloin is stuffed with truffles and fois gras and braised every so lightly so it is lovely rare through and through. I've made it once with (had to substitute fois gras pate for the real thing). It was wonder ful. It's on page 303.
what about a crown roast? Pretty, fun, and everyone will feel like they're in a Charles Dickens tale. Plus how often do you get to dress your food in little booties?
Or you could make your seafood gumbo and make a complete cajun christmas celebration of it.
Check out the link below for some recipes I found on the web.
http://http://www.chefrick.com/html/cajunrecipes.html
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