So...whats for dinner?

carolehalston

Minus, I will be happy to share, maybe later today. The purchases from the podiatrist are still in a small paper bag in another room.

The food at last night's Christmas party was very good, particularly a beef cubes with brown gravy dish and a shrimp, wild rice and artichoke heart baked dish. The home-made desserts were awesome, especially a coconut cake and a lemon souffle cake. I ate too much. This morning I bypassed the scale.

A number of people liked my cheese log with crackers appetizer but only half of it was eaten. And I couldn't manage to give the rest of it away. One golf friend asked for the recipe. It's not a large group and all of us are older folks. I should have halved the recipe.

DH really enjoyed the soup, a creamy crab and crawfish concoction. Our hostess always puts out the soup in a large tureen with little paper cups for people to serve themselves before dinner is served. One reason the appetizers weren't eaten.

Tonight may be another turkey, bean, corn chili. I have the ingredients on hand and the weather is right for chili.

ChiSandy

Ilona, see the drinking thread for my NOLA recommendations. A Creole Christmas sounds marvelous.

Tues. night I went to a pop-up dinner held at a local CBD/vape shop by Table Four Twenty, a caterer which specializes in CDB-infused cooking. Was disappointed by the portion sizes (appetizers, served at a buffet because of insufficient room for formal plated service) because the price was steep; but there was no limit on how many to take and they were delicious. There were deviled eggs (infused mayo), infused hummus with crudités, mini-Caprese skewers with balsamic infused with CBD simple syrup, grilled shrimp dusted with smoked paprika over diced mango in a CBD vinaigrette, CBD-syrup-marinated dates wrapped in bacon. Dessert, which I ate the next morning, was a "cannabun:" Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips mixed with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (!) held together with marshmallow Fluff and topped with a CBD-infused icing (better than it sounds). Unlimited wine and cocktails too. There was a DJ (good, though I'm not into hip-hop) and a septuagenarian male singer-guitarist who was on the shady side of mediocre, but he was fun. (I will be entertaining at the next one). It was a pleasant, relaxed, sociable and enlightening evening, with samples to try and a goody-bag of products (easily the price of the dinner) to take home. The shop was dedicated almost exclusively to CBD (no kratom), with a little bit of nicotine vape stuff for tobacco smokers. But for the nicotine, clear storefront windows and taking credit cards, it was as clean and modern as my dispensary, with helpful and knowledgeable staff.

When I got home i was greeted by Filipino food made by Bob's medical partner: marinated grilled chicken skewers, lumpia (tiny deep-fried spring rolls), and pansit (clear noodles with veggies and chicken). That was lunch yesterday too. For dinner, I made pan-seared sockeye salmon and sauteed snap peas with sesame seeds. No tartar sauce or pickle relish in the house, so I faked it with a little Whole Foods remoulade, mayo and chopped capers. But my first course celebrated the return of romaine to the grocery store: a Caesar salad with homemade croutons, heirloom yellow tomato and a creamy bottled (365) dressing to which I added olive oil and anchovy paste.

Made French toast this morning with raisin challah. Tonight, not sure. Have to pick up the wines I ordered at last week's Cellars tasting, so I might have their seared ahi app for dinner.

Lacey, have you heard from Susan (01234, I think?) lately? Hope she's okay and her absence is due to being too busy running her AirBnB, and not suffering from treatments.

queenmomcat

Boring roast chicken and "bachelor chow" (pot roast, potatoes, carrots in the slow cooker) here, but I do have a straight up question: how is air frying different from roasting?

carolehalston

Queenmomcat, the air fryer is a small convection oven with strong fan circulation and cooks faster than a conventional oven. It's advantage during hot weather is that it does not heat up the kitchen like an oven would do. It's handy for someone like my younger sister who is busy all day and doesn't care to spend much time planning a meal or cooking it. She loves her air fryer because it delivers a healthier version of fried food. Fried chicken, pork chops, French fries. Then there are people like me who buy whatever kitchen stuff comes along!

I did make the fast and easy Turkey, Black Bean, Corn Chili yesterday afternoon and we had it for dinner last night along with warmed up corn bread.

queenmomcat

Ah, not heating up the kitchen makes sense. And the healthier version of frying as well.

carolehalston

I received two packages today from Amazon. More presents to myself. A set of Joseph Joseph plastic cutting boards, the ones that fold for easy tranfer of diced material to pot. A few years ago I bought one for myself and my sister at a nearby upscale kitchen store but it stopped carrying them. I bought the set of three in graduated sizes from Amazon for about the same price as the one large version from the store. Still I would have given the store my business if the products I wanted were available there.

The other package was a set of small silicone brushes.

Tonight's dinner will be jump ups from the refrigerator along with a lettuce salad with additions.

I was in the middle of calling restaurants to see if I could get a reservation for four for New Year's Eve when dh intervened to say he thought we should have the dinner at our house. This morning I told him I would agree as long he took 50 percent of the responsibility for the meal. The planning the menu and the preparation. He plans to order a prime standing rib roast from a supermarket that actually has a butcher.

KatyK

Wow, getting hungry reading the last posts - sounds like some really good food! The CBD dinner sounded very intriguing. Won’t happen in Idaho any time soon. My husband and I like to celebrate a little private Christmas before Christmas, so we are doing that tonight. I make dinner ahead of time so we can really relax. I made a beef stew in the Dutc Oven - it’s a recipe that uses some cider and apples along with other veggies. It is served over a potato/parsnip mash. Got a nice Cotes du Rhône to go with it. Happy Solstice! Check out the full moon - it was spectacular here this morning!

ChiSandy

We're losing 4 of our party of 12 for NYE--my godson & his wife won't be coming from Seattle after all, and one of our friends who just had a prostatectomy will be spending the evening at his GF's (aka Bob's medical partner's) house a few blocks from his own, along with his son who's in from L.A. to help care for him.

I have a fridge full of leftovers. Bob brought home half his trout dinner (with roast spuds & sprouts) plus mac & cheese last night after gift-shopping in Oak Brook en route from his hospitals (I went to Old Orchard, which is closer to home). FInished off the FIlipino leftovers for breakfast. Still have half the mac & cheese, and Bob's leftover linguine primavera from lunch (enough for two dinners). At this rate, no actual from-scratch food till at least Sunday. (Bob hinted he got me the smaller InstantPot for Christmas).

"Christmas Eve Eve Eve" tomorrow night after we get back from a party and Gordy gets back from the holiday comedy show he's been directing--we'll exchange presents and Gordy will sleep over (to avoid having to wrestle his suitcase into his building's mini-elevator) and then fly to Austin Sun. morning. (Leslie already left via car last night--we'll give her her present, a paella kit from Williams-Sonoma, NYE). We got Gordy an Apple Store gift card so he can replace his dying 2014 MacBookPro with the 'puter of his choice, configured the way he wants it. The salesperson at the Old Orchard Apple Store suggested he use the card while in TX, whose sales tax is half ours, and either bring the new laptop home or have it overnighted so he can transfer the data himself or have a local AppleStore do it.

MinusTwo

Carole - I have the Joseph Joseph "Stretch expandable heat resistant pot stand" and I love it.

auntienance

Carole, I like the Joseph Joseph silicone spatulas that have the little ridge on the side to prop it up off the surface.

Eric, how did we miss your birthday? Hope it was fabulous!

Guests have come and gone. A successful visit with lots of good food - brisket cooked to perfection in the pc, the cacciatore not so much. Cooked a little too long so meat was falling off the bone and sauce didn't cook down enough for my taste. I'll probably go back to the Dutch oven stovetop method for that dish. Sides for the brisket were roasted asparagus and fennel with orange vinaigrette and roasted smashed baby potatoes.

DSIL and I devoured a pound of delicious red shrimp that I picked up Friday and poached. Lucky us, neither DH is a shrimp fan. A friend gifted us a delicious Finnish coffee bread, delicately flavored with cardamom and orange (thought of you Minus) that we had for breakfast with bacon cheddar scones and harvest bread. Desserts were assorted cookies and sour cherry slab pie.

For you folks looking for instant pot recipes and cookbooks, Bob Warden puts out some popular ones. I have one of his. I've previously posted my favorites. Serious Eats has a nice collection on their web site.

Tonight is more casual Friday night fare - pioneer woman's sloppy Joes and oven fries.

illimae

Homemade chicken quesadilla and pinto beans for me tonight, not sure what DH is having. It’s fend for yourself Friday.

MinusTwo

Illimae - Happy Anniversary. I think you need to do some of the tourist stuff your first time to NOLA. Drink a Hurricane for me. Or maybe just a sip. Have a wonderful mini holiday.

illimae

Thanks minus! I’m going for it, no sipping, all in! Warning: Obnoxious food pics ahead 😀

Beaverntx

Busy time at our house with one family of five visiting and another of seven coming tomorrow! Tonight was skillet chili (same ingredients as chili soup but thick, not soupy), baked potatoes and green salad. Too tired to make corn bread and didn't even think of corn chips.

ChiSandy

Leftover mac & cheese and oil-&-vinegar slaw with sliced almonds. (Linguine primavera with chicken breast for lunch). One of Bob's patients just gifted us 1/2 gallon of raw honey from his backyard hives! (Enough there to probably bequeath the remainder to Gordy). The psychiatric group to whom Bob refers patients just sent us our annual tray of 48 asst'd Middle Eastern pastries (variations on baklava). Already got 2 lbs. ea. of Swiss Colony baby Swiss and medium cheddar, and 1 lb. of extra-sharp from the neurology group.

carolehalston

Yum on all the delicious food described, especially the brisket. I do love brisket and usually order it when we eat at a barbecue restaurant, which is seldom.

Funny scale story. I haven't weighed the last few days and decided to bite the bullet this morning. I cleaned the bathroom yesterday so the scale had been picked up and then replaced. My weight was alarming. So I repositioned the scale and weighed several times until the weight was less alarming. Behavior of a 75 year old woman! I'm off to the gym this morning and I always weigh on the scale there.

Tonight's dinner menu yet to be decided.

ChiSandy

Had a scare. Thurs., I put on my dark-wash skinny jeans (size 18) and noticed (happily) they were on the loose side. Fri. morning I put them on again and panicked: they were quite tight across my belly. I thought at first they'd been washed too soon, then wracked my brain trying to remember what I'd eaten that'd cause me to gain so much weight in 24 hrs. Then yesterday I saw a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans still hanging on the rod--the ones I'd worn Thurs. Sure enough, those were still loose. Took off the ones that freaked me out, and looked at their label: Target "Denim Leggings," size 16.

Leftover linguine last night--cut in some yellow tomato, cremini mushroom, asparagus & broccolini, then grated Parm-Reg. and drizzled truffle oil over the top. Trying a new restaurant, Onward, tonight--about 3/4 mi. n. of us over the "neighborhood line" in Rogers Park. We'll either drive (chancing street parking or paying $7 at w garage a block a way, which may be free tonight) or take a rideshare. It's one train stop away--but 3 blocks' walk to our station and 3 blocks from the next stop to the place. We'd take the bus, but it doesn't go all the way there--have to change at Devon Ave. for the Sheridan Rd. bus, both of which bus lines end there. The cuisine is supposed to be "New American," and it's gotten 30 great reviews on OpenTable just in the 3 wks. since it opened.

Tomorrow night we're going to a trad. Creole "reveillon dinner" (well, semi-trad, as "reveillon" is supposed to be after Midnight Mass to break the pre-Communion fast) at Big Jones tomorrow night. There'll be all manner of stuff like goose gumbo, duck breast tamales, shrimp & grits, salads and cakes. Will report back.

carolehalston

"Not sure what we'll have for dinner tonight," I said to dh this morning. Without much of a pause, he suggested we cook some pasta and have it with the left over chili in the refrigerator. "Great idea!" I agreed. It will be our version of Cincinnati chili.

I made the shrimp mold for Christmas today. And the two pork butt roasts are thawing. I'll stuff them Cajun style and cook them tomorrow and make the pork gravy. Christmas morning I'll warm up the sliced pork and gravy in the oven. And make the creamed spinach dish that my younger sister likes so much. The family dinner will be at her house. She is cooking a turkey and making massive amounts of mashed potatoes. Other family members will be making dressing, salad and bringing dessert. I will make yeast rolls. Haven't decided which recipe yet.

My youngest brother and his wife, who are in town for Christmas, will pick up my mother at the nursing home. This frees up my Christmas morning.

This afternoon we'll be watching the Saints play the Steelers.

SpecialK

I am so behind on this thread - I have read, but have not been posting because we have been doing things like eating sandwiches rather than actual dinner, which is boring!

carole - I too watched the Saints/Steelers, awesome game!

My son will not be home for Christmas, he started his new firefighter/paramedic job on an Army base and will be working. He is 48 on and 72 off, so there is not enough time for him to fly down for a visit before he needs to be back and work again, and because he is so new he has no vacation time built up. This is the first time in 31 years I will not have seen him for some part of Christmas/New Year's - it seems weird. Having been a military family we are used to not being able to see family for the holidays but our children were always with us, so I am feeling a bit subdued. I usually do a standing rib roast, but DD is not a beef fan, so we have decided that lasagna it is! Quite the departure, but it will be fun anyway! I will make sticky buns for Christmas morning like I always do. I had a cookie making evening with friends this weekend - we made almond crescents, Christmas Crack, pecan pie cookies, caramel corn, iced pumpkin cookies, fudge, dipped pretzels, decorated sugar cookies, and Mexican wedding cookies. Big surprise - we ate sandwiches too, lol! And, my kitchen floor needs a serious scrubbing - powdered sugar and caramel.... I will do that tomorrow in daylight and also finish wrapping gifts.

Happy holidays to all - love you guys!

GreenHarbor

SpecialK, I have also been eating a lot of sandwiches and scrambled eggs, and have been living vicariously though everyone else’s descriptions.

ChiSandy, your pants panic story made me smile. I can always count on you for descriptions of wonderful food, whether it’s at home or in a restaurant.

Christmas Eve will be quiet- just the two of us. We’re making a roasted red pepper sauce and serving it over tortellini. Not fancy, but a favorite recipe. I have a little more wrapping to do, and I need to make dessert for tomorrow (peppermint chocolate ice box cake). Tomorrow we will be at my sister’s. Roast chicken, mac and cheese and green beans. My niece is 3, and is just starting to grasp the joy and excitement of Christmas. I don’t have kids, but I LOVE being an auntie!

My mother in law is giving me an Instant Pot for Christmas. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

My diagnosis and treatment have made this a year to remember for sure. Thanks to all of you for being so welcoming to a newbie. The people on these boards have a special place in my heart. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday, and a new year of happiness, good health and peace of mind.

auntienance

Busy day today with people coming and going to graze. Lots of carryout for us this week. Too tired to cook for ourselves! Tonight is rib roast with the usual sides. Tomorrow night we're invited to friends for a beef tenderloin. Lots of beef here but at least I get the night off lol.

Merry Christmas my foodie friends. Wish I could toast you and share a bite in person. Xoxo

carolehalston

Tonight is our next-door neighbor's Christmas Eve open house. We always walk over there. There will be a couple of large pots of chicken sausage gumbo on the stove and a bowl of white rice on the island, plus a couple of fancy little Victorian dishes with gumbo file and chopped green onions. The house is a two-storied pink Victorian, which the neighbors built on three acres that we sold them almost 20 years ago. They are/have been great neighbors. Their four boys have been our summer grass mowers, one after the other. Now the youngest is in college.

There will be some finger food on one table and an assortment of dainty sweet treats on another table. A choice of beer, soft drinks, large bottle white and red wine out on a covered porch. Everything is "help yourself."

The Saints/Steelers game was not fun to watch. The Saints won but it was a squeaker and nothing to brag about. The Saints are not looking like Super Bowl material to dh and me.

Today will be a day of cooking.

I hope all my friends here have a good Christmas day tomorrow. I look forward to your posts in 2019.

Moonflwr912

Hello all. Christnas Eve today will be small, but fun. My daughtet Becki, the pregnant one, LOL, her husband and 4 year old grand child will be her for dinner. Im making a stuffed pork loin roast with potatoes and cartots baked with, so one pot meal. Hopefylly it works out. Just put it in the oven, should be out by 4:30. Oh well, I have cream cheese with homemade jelly for crackers, and a liver spread (aka-"the brown stuff, according to my kids) in case it takes longer.

Happy Belated Birthday Eric. Specialk, sorry your son couldnt make it. With 3rd shifters, and hispotal workers, we have to try really hard to get together. Our big family gift exchange and ham dinner will be next saturday. And the 3rd shifter got his hours changed, so he cant make it. This is DGD1, and DD2(preggers) husband. DD1, and DGD2 will be here, but not her husband. Hes new You at the lab, and is on call. Still it will be fun.

After Christmas gift exchanges are actually great. You can get great deals, but, sometimes, theres nothing left. Its a crapshoot! LOL

My side abd boob, still hurt. I really pulled a muscle, i think. Its getting better, but if I over do, it hurts. On the other hand, my DD2 is feeling much better.

Merry Christmas to All.

Much love

ChiSandy

Last night was Festivus. No grievances to air at each other, too old for feats of strength, no pole (no pole-dancing either). So we went to dinner at Onward, a new restaurant that opened in the hotel across from the Loyola campus. (It's independent of the hotel, though). On-street parking was plentiful, as Loyola is off until after New Year's. Service was slow, and so was the kitchen (but great food takes time). Sparkiing water was free (nice touch). We were seated by the window--which featured an enclosed mini-fireplace. (Passerby kept touching it to see if it was warm). Food was great! Started with house-baked breads (pretzel, multigrain sourdough, olive) and cultured Norwegian-style butter from a local WI creamery. Next were crawfish arancini (Sicilian-style stuffed breaded & deep-fried risotto balls); then a silky chicken liver mousse with ghost-pepper jam. Salad was field greens with pears, walnuts, gorgonzola and a maple vinaigrette. For entrees, Bob had cioppino (clams, shrimp, mussels, fluke) and I had an exquisitely-pan-seared NZ Ora king salmon filet (melted in my mouth) over baby golden chioggia beets and romesco cauliflower in Israeli couscous, with a lemon-dill sauce. Dessert? No room!

Bob just left for Mass, so he'll be good & hungry for the "reveillon" dinner at Big Jones (we'll take a rideshare so we can avail ourselves of the beverage pairings) tonight. I just finished my leftover salmon from last night. Yum....

MinusTwo

Late lunch yesterday was with a couple & their grown children & their children's friends & one daughter's 17 year old son and the other daughter's partner's Mother - who spoke no English. Most of us had the Prime Rib French dip. Absolutely delicious. I'd done this before so I opted out of the appetizer soup, even though their clam chowder is good. The French Dip was almost 12" long and 5-6" tall. I ate half and all the lovely crispy fries and brought half home. One person at the table had seared Ahi Tuna steak w/Miso & Oyster sauce. Another had fried shrimp & oysters. Needless to say I didn't eat again.

Today I tried to reproduce the creamed curried eggs that a friend of my Mothers used to make if a big 10x12 casserole dish for New Years Brunch in the 1950s. I loved these but of course we were raised that you only took a small serving at any buffet and didn't go back for seconds. Even though I have two recipes from relatives that might be what my taste buds remembered, both of them called for making deviled eggs first instead of just hard boiled eggs cut in half. Then pouring the white sauce/cheese sauce over all so the eggs are swimming in sauce & baking 10-20 minutes. I don't remember tasting the stuffing the eggs first. It was hard to find something comparable on line to my childhood memory, so I tried it with just two HB eggs w/a salad for dinner. The dish was OK but not what my taste buds remembered. After all - that was more than 50 years ago so I'll try again.

My son sent me six (yup - 6) loaves of Boudin's San Francisco Sourdough Bread long loafs. I took a loaf to my next door neighbors & one to the couple I ate with earlier this week. The loaves are par-baked (half way baked). I'll be throwing away things in the freezer tomorrow to make room for the rest of the loaves.

Because of the fresh bread that is shipped 2nd day air, I will be making ham hock & beans for sure on Christmas Day.

Wishing all of you a happy holiday and a peaceful New Year.

illimae

Tonight was dinner at Orleans Grapevine Bistro in celebration of our 18th wedding anniversary and it was absolutely delicious! It began with the Bacon Happy Hour, then appetizers of crab cakes, baked bris with garlic butter, strawberry vinaigrette and wild honey & pecan sauces, mussels and bbq shrimp. DH had the lamb chops and I had the gulf fish almandine, the fresh catch was sheepshead, similar to tuna, which I love. I left with two full boxes of leftovers to enjoy later or tomorrow.

eric95us

Today I used some of my sourdough starter discard to make a pizza dough....It was a simple sauce, onion, bell pepper, cheese, pepperoni affair that turned out pretty well.

Tomorrow the starter will be part of the "grand plan"...dinner rolls....

We'll also be doing a New York Strip roast, mashed potatoes, salad, cranberry, squash, stuffing,sourdough rolls, pumpkin pie, green beans, glazed carrots, onion gravy and https://veganhuggs.com/stuffed-acorn-squash/

Tomorrow morning I'll be carrying on the Cinnamon Kuchen (zimtkuchen) tradition.

The pumpkin pie is cooling, the onion gravy is done, the cranberry is done and I'll have the stuffed acorn squash dish ready to put together and heat tomorrow. So, it should be an easy cooking day tomorrow.

This time I decided to set a formal table using the crystal, sterling, bone china and table that came from my parents'. The table is all set and the chairs are all pushed in tight to the table. When the table isn't being used, it's covered by a felt covered piece of wood.cut to match the shape and size of the table. I normally leave a covered chair pulled out a bit so that Jessiecat can jump to the covered table via the chair and sun himself (he's almost 19 years old) while watching the world go by. HE IS ANNOYED about the chairs being pushed in to the table!!!!

We had a TempurPedic mattress that we didn't need anymore, so I cut it up into pieces that would fit into the dog bed covers (we have three of them)...so the pets have 6 inch thick TempurPedic beds. He's laying on one of them, so he's not getting much sympathy from me. :-)

Here's to a good day tomorrow for everyone.

I just saw your posting, Illimae. Happy Anniversary!!!!!

Eric

ChiSandy

Happy anniversary, Ilona! That dinner looks wonderful, and I hope you are having a blast in NOLA and get to enjoy some great music too. (I assume you meant to type baked brie--baked "bris"* is a picture I don't want to envision since once I do I'll never be able to unsee it. Anyone on here who is a "member of my tribe" knows what I mean).

So here's my food porn from the Creole Reveillon at Big Jones tonight:

We started with a "Battery Punch" (brandy, rum, gin, white wine, house-made loquat cordial), which I drank before remembering to take a picture. First course was Gullah Oyster Rice (risotto made with Carolina Gold rice, Gulf oysters and Sea Island benne seeds):

Next up was a salad of hominy, bacon, pickled peppers & frisee (served with a flute of cava):

Bread service---"Turkey Red" whole wheat black walnut sourdough, sorghum butter, preserved spiced quince:

Entree--Heritage American Buff Goose gumbo with chaurice meatballs (served with a glass of Nebbiolo 2010, from the Piemonte region of Italy):

Dessert--rum/nutmeg bread pudding with caramelized toasted oat streusel and orange-cardamom ice cream:

After-dinner drink: Freetown punch (house-made Damson plum cordial, bourbon, cognac):

Discretion being the better part of valor, we took a Lyft both ways (could have taken the bus and then walked the 3 long blocks downhill to our house; but it was cold, we had leftovers to juggle and we were a bit too wasted). We opened presents (felt weird & sad w/o Gordy, though two years ago just the two of us went to NYC for Christmas, opening presents on New Year's Day). I got Bob a vaping starter kit as he requested, to wean him off cigarettes and let him "feed the demon" indoors on frigid inclement nights (plus a little bottle of CBD vape oil for him to try for relaxation); he got me an Instant Pot Duo Mini (3L), just the right size for the two of us.

Sat. night Gordy exchanged gifts with us before leaving for Austin & Houston: we got him an Apple gift card so he could choose and configure a new Mac laptop (the store clerk advised us to have him to do so in Texas where the sales tax is half that of ours, and then have it shipped to Chicago and bring it to an Apple Store to transfer the data from his current terminally-injured MacBookPro). He surprised us by finding and framing keepsakes & photos: baby pictures with Bob, grandparents and me; ticket stubs from important games he & Bob attended together (World Cup 1994, Bears vs. Packers 2007, Bulls playoffs 1997, the first year of the second "three-peat" NBA championship); and the biggest surprise of all: the stub from his very first rock concert, Springsteen & the E St. Band at Rosemont Horizon in June 1984. He wasn't born till Oct., so he was 4-1/2 months in utero at the time! I asked him how he found it, and he replied it was in Bob's dresser drawer. Say what? He explained that he needed an old stethoscope to use as a prop for one of his shows, which Bob told him where to find...and lying next to it was the ticket.

Headed to our BFFs tomorrow for dinner--they're BBQing a brisket and I'm bringing a Caesar salad with pecorino instead of Parm-Regg. (for a last-minute vegetarian dinner guest who can't have cow's milk cheese but can have sheep's or goat's milk), and asstd. baklavas. Gotta nuke the egg yolks so they're safe to put in the dressing, to which I am shamelessly adding anchovies--it's not a Caesar without 'em. Already made a bag of croutons, using olive oil instead of butter.

Merry Christmas! (I'd be asleep by now, but for waiting for the TUMS to kick in after all that food & alcohol).

M0mmyof3

Christmas dinner was Ham, my maternal Grandmother's Cranberry Relish, steamed veggies, rolls, cheesy hash brown potato casserole, my step-grandmother's Jello Salad and olives. Now having a slice of apple pie for dessert.

illimae

Tonight was going to be brisket, bacon and onion braised Brussels sprouts and smashed potatoes at Tujague's, however, they were completely booked. So, pizza it is. Heading home tomorrow and will cook the annual family dish adopted from my bff.