Christmas Dinner!

Christmas dinner was a success! We all had a good time and ate too much. Which says good things for my cooking! The only thing that didn't turn out was the mashed potatoes. I forgot about them until very late and burned them badly. (We didn't really miss them though) The caramelized onions and sauteed porcini mushrooms from that recipe made their way into the gravy, where everyone enjoyed them anyway.

Here are your pictures. I have updated the recipes to include these too now. And I'll get the Cranberry Tart up soonest. The Fruity Bundt Cake also never made it. Good thing too. Everyone was much too stuffed. I'll save that for New Year's too.

Appetizer spread

zesty onion crostini

Bah, Humbug!

cherry peppers and mushroom/eggplant

tuna pastes

Honey Date Glazed Ham

Marinated mushrooms and acorn squash

Asparagus with Cranberries and Lemongrass

Black Walnut green beans

the stuffing

Mulled wine with Brandy

mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash

The whole table

Cranberry Tart

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everybody!

Expect pictures tomorrow. Lots of pictures.

Marinated Mushrooms and Squash

This recipe is mostly a make ahead recipe. A blessing on those crazy cooking times, like now. But it's also great as long as squash is in season.

Marinated Mushrooms and Squash

2 cups Meyer Lemon Olive Oil,
     or 1 cup Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, and 1 cup Varietal Oil
6 garlic cloves
1 lb mushrooms
2 tsp salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 acorn squash
Traditional Balsamic for drizzling

Heat your oven to 400degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush the insides with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper and score the insides in a diamond pattern. Roast in a pan for 1 hour. Make sure the pan has 1/4 inch of water in the bottom so the skin doesn't burn.

Once the squash is cool, scoop out the flesh. Toss squash, mushrooms and seasonings together in a large dish and let it marinate at least 6 hrs or overnight.

Heat your oven to 350degrees. Bring the mushroom squash mixture to room temperature before baking. Bake 5 minutes. Drizzle with Traditional Balsamic and return to the oven to bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Black Walnut Green Beans

Again, no Parmesan for the vegans!

Black Walnut Green Beans

1 1/2 lb green beans, ends trimmed
2 tbsp olive oil, varietal
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp onion flakes (or the fried onion bits)
2 tbsp Black Walnut Balsamic
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, for garnish
2-4 tbsp Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat the oven to 425degrees.

Stir all the ingredients for your sauce together in a large bowl. Add the green beans and toss to coat.

Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake, stirring once, halfway through. 12-15 minutes.

Sprinkle with the walnuts and Parmesan.

Mashed Potatoes with Porcini Mushrooms

If you need to make these vegan, like I do, there are a couple brands of vegan sour 'cream' that are really top-notch. My husband can't even tell the difference.

Mashed Potatoes with Porcini Mushrooms

5 lbs russet potatoes
1 cup parsley
1 onion, sliced thinly
5-8 cloves garlic, roasted and chopped
1 cup sour cream, or 'sour cream'
salt and pepper
4-8 Porcini mushrooms*
1/4 cup Butter Olive Oil, plus 2 tbsp
up to 1/4 cup white wine, or vegetable broth

Heat the oven to 475degrees.

Peel the potatoes and chop them into large chunks. Brush with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Chop the porcini mushrooms and saute them in the white wine or broth for 5-10 minutes over medium heat. You want them to begin lightly browning, but nowhere near crunchy.

Remove the mushrooms to a small bowl and set aside. In the same pan, add the onions and saute for 10-15 minutes. Their color should deepen to a mild amber and they should be very fragrant. Set aside with the mushrooms.

Remove the potatoes to a large bowl and mash roughly. Add in the sour cream, Olive Oil and garlic. Mash until you reach a consistency that you like. I like my potatoes a bit chunky.

Fold in the onions, mushrooms and the parsley. Serve nice and hot!

*these are available in store

Asparagus with Cranberries and Lemongrass

For some reason, it never occurred to me that cranberries and lemongrass might go well together. Its like mushrooms and pumpkin. So good.

Asparagus with Cranberries and Lemongrass

1 large bunch asparagus, trimmed
2 tbsp vegan butter
1 tbsp Cranberry Balsamic
1/4 cup cranberries, if using frozen, thaw
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp lemongrass paste*

Melt butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the cranberries and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the asparagus, lemongrass paste and Cranberry Balsamic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 10minutes.

I will probably drizzle a little more Cranberry Balsamic before serving.

*Lemongrass paste is available at most grocery stores in the produce section. I find it easier to use than whole stalks. If you have to use the stalks, thinly slice 1 and add it at the beginning with the cranberries.

Ham with Honey Date Balsamic Glaze

Definitely not vegan. There is just no way to modify this one. That's what the squash dishes are for!

Ham with Honey Date Balsamic

This all depends on what size ham you have and if it is a pre-cooked or not. I got a pretty small 6 lb ham that was full cooked. If yours is not fully cooked, please follow the cooking directions on the package.

Remove your ham from the fridge so it comes to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat your oven to 320degrees. The estimate for cooking is 15-20 minutes per pound.

For my ham, I am rubbing about 1 tbsp of dry mustard powder over the ham and brushing the Honey Date Balsamic all over it.

It takes about an hour and 30 minutes to bake, brush more Honey Date on every 15 minutes.

The last 5 minutes are very important. (If you have a bigger ham, you might want to make this the last 10 minutes) Turn the heat up to 400degrees to caramelize the Balsamic.

I am warming up some more balsamic to serve on the side.

Christmas Menu

My parents wanted to go out to eat on Christmas day. I said NO WAY!

I love the thought that someone else will clean up all the dishes for me, but I really prefer cooking my own food whenever possible. So I volunteered to cook the whole thing.

What did I get myself into?! I had a few requests for recipe reprisals from Thanksgiving. The stuffing and the cranberry chutney went over particularly well. I am also making the pumpkin pie again, but I am bumping it up with a couple extra desserts too.


The menu is going to run something like this:

Olives with Olive Oils and traditional balsamic
Toasted crostini and mushroom/pepper/eggplant appetizer
Green beans with almonds and Honey Date Balsamic
Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic chunks, porcini mushrooms, caramelized onions,
Stuffing (same from Thanksgiving)
Cranberry Chutney (also the same from Thanksgiving)
Ham w/ glaze (TBD)
Cranberry Tart
Fruity Bundt Cake
Lemon Olive Oil cake
Pumpkin Pie (same from Thanksgiving as well)
Mulled Wine and Brandy with our Mulling Spices

Am I making too much? Or do I need more vegetables? Maybe Lemon Roasted Asparagus?