It seems cooking has become a major theme of our Christmas holidays anymore, which is fine with me and much welcomed by my family. We told our boys that once your parens get to a certain age, it seems we just don't need anything anymore. If we do need something, we buy it when we need it and because traveling has become our major pastime, we are usually saving for the next adventure. So, with that said, when our children asked us what would be on our Christmas list, we answered, "food." Our eldest jumped on that opportunity and ended up purchasing all the necessary groceries for Christmas dinner. I left the meat choice up to him and so he bought flank steak from our local butcher. It was fun to welcome him home for the holidays as he brought the cardboard box of food supplies in the door. It felt rather old-fashioned, something that would have been the ultimate gift decades ago. Once arrived, I started making a late breakfast of buckwheat crepes and warm pears which we all enjoyed together as we began our holiday.
The bottle of Roederer champagne Jay brought couldn't wait for Christmas Day dinner, however. That was mainly due to the fact that I had prepared lobster lasagna with a creamy artichoke sauce for Christmas Eve which just screamed for a glass of champagne alongside. Besides, I had an Italian Chianti and a bottle of Cantiga Zinfandel for our beef dinner. After an afternooon walk up near the pits and a day of just lounging, the champagne was uncorked and we toasted the evening along with a classic Ceasar salad to start our dining extravaganza. Once the salad course was consumed and the champagne just about exhausted, we cracked open a bottle of Dry Creek fume blanc and dug into the lobster lasagna. It was delicious and a bit over the top as far as richness was concerned, but because I kept the variety of Christmas Eve food to a manageable selection, we were able to enjoy it's fullness without being stuffed. Earlier, we had been nibbling on a cream cheese cracker spread I had put together after smoking a piece of salmon in the stove-top smoker and mixed with some white cheddar and chipotle seasoning. You could say our Christmas got off to a rather fishy start - but a delicious start at that. Small mincemeat and vanilla ice cream pies ended our food evening and we broke out the Mexican train dominos. Eric ended up the big winner in a surprise finish after thinking we would all go down miserably to Jay's first couple of winning rounds. As I sat having fun, watching my family, and doing something as simple as amusing ourselves with a game, I wondered how many other families were doing the very same thing. What fun.
Christmas morning got off to a late start which it usually does at our house. Bob and I were up earlier than the boys and began the morning sitting in our viewing chairs near the backyard window with our coffee and tea as we watched the birds begin the day feasting on all the seed we had thrown around the ground after filling the numerous bird feeders we have. Once the boys woke up, we had toast and opened gifts. Everyone agreed that we would have an early afternoon dinner so none of use ended up having breakfast. We finished up the salmon spread as we snacked on crackers to get us to the dinner bell. Jay got an RSVP ricer for me for my birthday so he let me open it up early to try out on the mashed potatoes I was preparing. I love it - the potatoes were so light and fluffy. I didn't even put any butter in them, just milk and chopped fresh chives for flavor. I roasted yams and mixed those together with some candied ginger, cinnamon, cloves and just a bit of heavy cream to smooth them out. I crumbled some crushed sage leaves I had crisped in butter over the yams. After purusing my Cook's Illustrated magazines several days ago, I had decided on roasted carrots and parmesan green beans as our vegetables and we began our meal with a wonderful, warm, wilted spinach salad sprinkled with pancetta and feta cheese, sautéed red onions and balsamic vinegar along with the bottle of Chianti. It was nice to sit and talk while leisurely eating our salad and enjoying the Chianti. Once we were done, I exited the table and finished the vegetables for plating, put the hot gravy made from the drippings from the two rolled flank steaks I had coated with a cherry balsamic marinade while cookiing, and took the potatoes and yams out of the warming oven. The Cantiga Zinfandel had been opened earlier to let it breath a bit before dinner. I must say, we all enjoyed the food immensely as there were periods of complete silence between sighs of contentment. We didn't have dessert until 6pm, as we had to recover from dinner first. Once the panna cotta, drizzled with warm berry compote was served, we were all, once again, back into the sighs of contentment phase. After that, we ended up in the living room talking and watching a bit of TV until it was time to say goodnight. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I finally rested this old body on the couch. I feel like I could have slept right there. Needless to say, I fell right asleep once we got to bed and only got up once in the night.
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