Christmas!
I never thought I'd say this, but I am glad to be out of the kitchen for awhile. I counted it all up, and between our holiday party two weekends ago and then hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our house, I've logged quite a few hours in the kitchen. However, seeing as a lot of it involved cooking with family, friends, wine and hot cider, I really can't complain, right?
For anyone who is keeping track, or really wants to know, here is a breakdown of everything I made these past two weeks (who am I kidding, I just wanted to type it out for myself so I can show off how much I actually did...I'm not ashamed to admit that).
The Christmas Party Menu
Pate de Campagne, served with pickles, dijon, and a baguette
Pork tenderloin with rosemary and garlic
Assorted cheese, sausage, and crackers
Hot Buttered Cider (from this article, but the recipe is not available online...if you want it, let me know...I patted myself on the back after deciding to make this, because everyone loved it)
Christmas Eve Dinner Menu
Cranberry, Walnut, and Bleu Cheese Spinach Salad
Baguette
Christmas Dinner Menu
Rib Roast
Sauteed Asparagus
Mushrooms in Butter and Garlic
Carmelized Onions
Mark Bittman's Apple Raisin Bread Pudding
The monumental list of cookies that I decided to make for the holiday events
Candy Cane Cookies (second recipe down)
Homemade Gifts
Loaves of honey-wheat sandwich bread
We also served homemade breakfasts on both days, consisting of buttermilk waffles, bacon, and a sweet roll pastry that my husband's family calls "stollen". This recipe confused me (while making the pastry, and also while eating it Christmas morning), because I knew it wasn't stollen...so after some internet sleuthing, I've figured that it's actually a recipe for Beigli. This is the closest recipe I could find online; it says it's a Polish recipe, but other sites I found say it's Hungarian (which my husband's family is, so that makes sense). Here are some other similar recipes that I found (a few of these use sour cream in the dough, so I'm interested in maybe trying those next year, as this year's roll turned out a bit dry...)
So.... whew! That's how our holidays went down. We were tired and exhausted after all of it, but loved every minute. Hope yours was just as wonderful and that you got everything that you wished for.
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