Merry Christmas blogger world! Today was a quiet Christmas for me and my dearest. It was just the two of us, but do not let that make you think we didn't pull out the stops for a great meal!
Last night the preparations began. I figured that some of that silverware that is tarnished and hardly ever used should be broken out, polished and used! So I broke out the Reed & Barton Tara and went to work polishing it.
This morning began with the opening of gifts. My husband received 14 books (pictured right) along with some other items, but books are definitely his favorite and his joy was overflowing. I received a toaster convection oven along with books. **Please note that if anyone has bookshelves they want to give away...we are ALWAYS in need! :-)
After opening gifts, I started on Operation Christmas Dinner
Menu:
Orange Walnut Salad with Sweet and Sour dressing
Roast with carrots and onions
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese
Sauteed Mushrooms for the husband!
Caramel Chocolate Pie
The pie was the most intensive part of the meal and required refrigeration between steps, so I thought I should start on that first. The crust was made out of pecan toffee cookies. Well, my first crust was a big FAIL! Ok, so I didn't notice that fine print that instructed me to omit sugar and cut the butter in half if I was using cookies instead of graham cracker crumbs. I noticed immediately that the crust did not seem to have the right texture, but I thought I would put it in the oven to see what happened. Well, it definitely was not going to work. Thankfully, I had purchased extra pecan toffee cookies, so I quickly ground up some more and started again. The second time was a charm, but the first failure was a nerve racking way to begin the Christmas cooking! Crust done and cooling.
Now onto the roast. I seared the beef in a little olive oil and set it aside, Then I added chopped leeks, garlic cloves, and pearl onions to the pan, sauteed them a little, put the beef back in added some celery, carrots, a bay leaf, onion soup mix, red wine and beef broth (not quite enough liquid to cover), put on the lid and stuck it in the oven. I planned to cook it for 2.5 hours basting the beef every thirty minutes.
Now onto the second step of my pie...melted caramels. I melted 30 caramels with 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of water then poured them into the crust and sprinkled them with 1/2 c of chopped pecans. I put into the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour. At this point, I took a break, cleaned the kitchen and relaxed a little while putting my husband on basting duty!
After an hour had past, it was time for the second layer of pie--cream cheese whipped with 1/3 c of powdered sugar. After it became creamy I spread it on top of the caramel/pecan layer, and back into the frige it went.
At this point it was about time to start concerning myself with other aspects of the meal. First point of business, get the husband involved by peeling potatoes. Meanwhile I started making the sweet and sour dressing and sautéing the walnuts for the salad. The dressing was fairly simple: Combine 1/2 vegetable oil (I used 1/2 c olive oil instead), 1/4c white vinegar, 1/4c sugar (or less), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp grated onion. Blend until smooth. Then add 1/2 tsp celery seed. Walnuts were sauteed in 2 tsp of butter on the stove. After they were done, they were set aside to cool.
Back to the pie. I started melting 4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate on the stove with 3 tbsp of hot water. Stirring constantly until it was completely melted. After melted, I set it aside and allowed it to cool to room temp. When cooled I added 1/2 tsp vanilla and stirred. I also had to start whipping the cream for the pie. While the chocolate was cooling, I poured 2 cups of heavy cream in a bowl and started whipping. I added 1/3 c powdered sugar to the cream in the process. Once my cream was fairly stiff, I separated 1.5 c of whipped cream out and folded the rest of the cream with the cooled chocolate sauce, pulled the pie back out and spread the chocolate cream layer. The other 1.5 c of whipped cream was spread on top of the chocolate cream, and back into the fridge it went to chill until it was served.
Pie was done, potatoes were peeled, and water was boiling on the stove waiting for the potatoes. They started cooking while I got out the asparagus. I washed it, trimmed the stems, lined a cookie sheet with foil and layered the asparagus on the sheet. I drizzled olive oil on it and rolled the asparagus just enough to ensure all of them had a thin coat of oil. I added a little salt and pepper, took the beef out of the oven, turned it up to 450 and added the asparagus for 10 minutes. Just enough time to throw the spinach and bibb lettuce in the salad spinner. I got the greens in a bowl, added chilled mandarin oranges to the salad along with a little swiss and parmesan cheeses, and the walnuts.
Potatoes were now done and being drained. I put the potatoes in a mixer along with some butter. Meanwhile, I start sautéing the mushrooms in a little butter and beef broth. I also started the gravy. Ahhh...the smells! It was almost time for dinner. I added some cream to the potatoes, continued to stir some of the broth from the roast into the gravy. Meanwhile, my dear husband started filling the dish washer with dirty dishes. Finally, I removed the asparagus from the oven, topped it with some parmesan cheese, tossed the salad with dressing, put the potatoes in a bowl, got it all on the table, poured the wine, and wah-lah....Christmas Dinner 2010 was ready for consumption! And consumed we did! It was a change from our normal turkey dinner on Christmas, but we loved it!
And of course, we saved the best for last!
Kudos to Betty Crocker for the pie recipe and Southern Living for the Mandarin Walnut Salad!
