Looks interesting. apart from lumpia, I don’t have much experience with Filipino foods. I have liked everything I have tried. There are some interesting Filipino breakfasts.
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Party was last night. All my clothes smell like lamb, but it was worth it. The pasta choices were well-received!
I’ll post a recap with the recipes linked again, but for now I’m satisfied with both the lamb and the spicy ragus. I had quite a bit of leftover, which is painful considering the price of lamb and the fact that I cannot take any of it home , but others will enjoy it for sure 
The whipped ricotta topping was extremely delicious. I’ll post that too.
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Anxiously awaiting. It all looks delicious, and this especially caught my eye.
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I found a reprint of the ricotta recipe online. There are several flavor variants in the book - I made the basil one , which is this exact same recipe, just adding two cups of fresh basil leaves to the food processor along with the ricotta.
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It looks fabulous!!
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Thank you! It looks delicious, and I’m inspired. Bonus points for helping with a new idea for using up a tub of ricotta, which is always a challenge for me (I know…I know…I should be making my own).
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There’s a preserved lemon variant that I can’t wait to try.
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My friend brings her husband’s family’s recipe for these lemon ricotta cookies to our Xmas cookie swap.
That said, I usually use up my ricotta in a riff on baked ziti or lasagna. There are also some lemon and ricotta pasta recipes out there. I ordered one last week at lunch.
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That would be great with lamb!
Exaaaaaaactly
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Have you made your own preserved lemons? ATK has a simple recipe.
I haven’t made them myself, but I do have a jar of them I bought.
I’ve gotten better and better at cooking turkey. Yesterday the turkey went into the oven, breast side down for the first hour, 425° then temp was lowered to 325°, turkey uprighted and pan rotated. (Went into oven at 1:30 pm)
Every ½ hour I rotated pan and basted. When I thought it was done, I used my digital thermometer and had to put turkey back in the oven.
I kept doing this but some parts of the turkey still read in lower 150’s and I wanted 165°.
It wasn’t done until 7 pm, 14 lb Fresh Butterball. So, after resting and carving, we didn’t eat dinner until a bit after
8 pm.
Surprisingly, it was my best turkey yet, A+, white meat perfectly moist.
I have no idea why it took so long.
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As tasty as a rib roast may be served just roasted and rested, served as leftovers in hot roast beef sandwiches or as cold roast beef sandwiches with buttered sourdough and piccalilli, today is my favorite part, onion soup from the bones! As long as I am cooking a LOT of onions, I plan to make extra for some red onion jam.
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Zowie! That looks like a great dinner! Wish I could still eat the way I used to at 30!
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Our fridge is so full!
While I was cooking the goose, I strained rendered goose fat into 3 small Bernardin jars, which I will give to friends who want it. I ended up discarding the last cup or so of fat and drippings, that I had browned a little longer, which I considered using for a better gravy, as I was finishing rinsing the dishes around 11:30 pm, I decided enough is enough. I barely talked to anyone yesterday, I was cooking from 11 am to 8:30 pm.
How did you celebrate yesterday?
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We finally had our xmas meal. Well, my PIC only had a deviled egg, some of my gravlax, and mashed, given his … sitch.
Gravlax, deviled eggs, Crab Louie, a wonderful beet / citrus / lotus root salad for apps
Fabulous roasted cabbage & roasted root veg, mixed salad w/walnuts and sherry vinaigrette as sides.
Juicy turkey.
Wonderful honey cakes from the Georgian bakery.
Nobody went home hungry, and I scored the turkey carcass our hosts were about to discard 
If I had known they would do that, I’d have asked for the legs & wings as well. Damn.
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Had my late sister’s husband over to lunch, which had to be simplified at the last minute to minimize effort. Lunch was roasted Cornish hens, veggies, and mashed potatoes; abandoned the idea of wild mushroom cream sauce. Simple but tasty, even without the sauce.
Dessert was crème caramel. I’ve made it lots of times before, but this one was an eye-opener. I’ve always used Triple Sec for the booze part, instead of the more expensive Grand Marnier, thinking the difference was minimal in so much liquid (2 cups milk, eggs). This time I used the dregs (1/4 cup) of a bottle of an upscale GM I splurged on years ago. So much tastier!
Dinner was a non-event!
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Your Christmas lunch sounds perfect . I hope you are enjoying your Boxing Day.
I used Triple Sec in place of Metaxa Greek brandy in my Kourabiedes (Greek Almond Shortbread) last week, and some Marcona almonds in place of regular almonds, since I forgot my almonds at another household. That batch only made 40 cookies so I was giving friends small baggies of 3 or 5 cookies this week.
