Christmas, finally

Christmas: it happened.  It was busy.  It was mostly fun.  I cooked a lot and I drove around a lot.

For the past two years, my dad and I have cooked Christmas eve dinner together.  He takes on the main, meaty course, and I do an accompaniment.  The side dish is always meat-free because my step-mother is vegetarian.  Although I spent a portion of my 20s vegetarian (and one tragic week of veganism), I'm not used to veggie recipes.  Most of the recipes I'm attracted to contain meat, be it a hunk of beef or chicken stock.  So this year when my dad announced he'd be making a ribeye roast, I immediately thought of my favorite butternut squash risotto...which contains copious amounts of bacon fat and chicken broth.  Up for a challenge, I purchased the best veggie stock I could find (Pacifica brand), and substituted several pieces of bacon and bacon grease with more butter.  Let me tell you, butter really does make everything better!  The risotto came out great and I really didn't miss the meat at all.  The original recipe is from Ina Garten and can be found here.  My dad rounded out the meal with roasted baby potatoes, carrots, and turnips and my step-mother made a delicious salad with diced avocado, orange, nuts, and other tasty crunchy things.

After dinner we exchanged gifts, then sat down in front of the wood stove and had coffee, tea, peppermint chocolate truffles, and Eton Mess.  I made both of the desserts.  The truffles were a new recipe that caught my eye because of their simplicity and peppermint-chocolate flavor combo (which is one of my favorites!).  I think I let the truffles chill too long before the step where they are rolled in the crushed candy canes.  None of the peppermint pieces adhered to the truffles, so they didn't have the festive appearance I had hoped for.  They did taste very good, however, due to the peppermint extract in the chocolate mixture.  I'll be darned if I know where the recipe went, but if I find it I will post it here.  Eton Mess is a dessert I've made several times (and may have actually blogged about already, come to think of it).  In any case, it's a very simple trifle-like dessert consisting of layers of freshly whipped cream mixed with crushed meringues and fresh fruit.  My grandmother, who was with us for Christmas eve dinner, can't tolerate seeds, so instead of using berries I chopped up ripe pears and apples.  The combination of unsweetened whipped cream and super-sweet, crunchy meringues is heavenly!

On Christmas day I met up with the other side of the family for a big, boisterous mid-day meal.  I brought a key lime pie and a pecan pie.  Both were made using Cook's Illustrated The New Best Recipe Cookbook, which is my go-to cookbook when I'm looking for the absolute best, tastiest, and prettiest results (i.e. - when I'm cooking for others).  The key lime pie was effing fantastic; hats off to the editors at Cook's Illustrated.  Making the graham cracker crust was easy with the aid of my food processor.  Juicing the key limes was a tedious, time-consuming task, but it was really my own fault because I purchased them before reading the cookbook's suggestion that regular limes be used--they said the taste-testers couldn't even tell the difference.  The pecan pie also came out well, although a bit denser and drier than the only other pecan pie I've made.  I don't know if that's a result of the recipe or if I did something in the process of making it.  My hosting aunt made roast pork with applesauce, and other relatives supplied everything from stuffed shells to lemon tartlets to huge homemade truffles.

Other than the tasty food, there was a very memorable Yankee Swap, where my mother's friend, a vegetarian, ended up with a jar of Baconnaise and a generic Snuggie.  I got a framed photo my cousin took in Arizona, where he lives for the moment.  It's a beautiful shot of palm trees (and a tiny Uhaul sign in the distance, as my other cousin pointed out).  I felt a bit of guilt making out with such a nice gift after seeing my mom's friend holding the Baconnaise, trying hard not to look disgusted.  By the time I returned home late Christmas night, bearing overloaded bags of gifts and leftovers, I was so totally ready for a few quiet days alone!  And I mean that in the best of ways.