What's For Dinner #113 - the Holiday Cookie Frenzy Edition - December 2024

[Kazhound]

I made a feast of the 7 fishes meal!

started with cornmeal crusted calamari, which I forgot to take a picture as we nibbled on it while cooking

Then moved on to crab cakes, these were very good using the sally’s baking addiction recipe with minimal filler

Then my bread freshly baked (sourdough with just a little rye and semolina) with the salt cod brandade using the recipe mentioned in an earlier one of these threads - thank you, this recipe was way better than the last one I tried! And I was happy to use up the last of the salt cod that has been hanging out in my fridge for like forever.

And then kind of the main meal with lobster tails in tomato sauce, grilled garlic shrimp, grilled scallops (both grilled by PIC) and clams in white wine sauce, They’re supposedly cockles, but they seemed awfully big for that but no complaints, they were so sweet and delicious. Everyone served themselves what they wanted to have with the philips machine pasta. Sorry for the lack of plating, it was a delightful frenzy with all of the food!

Overall this was one of my best attempts at this kind of meal and everything came together with decent timing. None of the seafood was overcooked and the flavors were just really what I wanted. What luck!

And then…

[honkman]

For Germans 12/24 is always the big celebration day for x-mas and today we cooked a mix of German (braised red cabbage and mashed potatoes) and middle eastern (shawarma meatloaf with caramelized onions from Ottolenghi’s “Comfort”) - the meatloaf is made with ground beef, onions, garlic, eggs, bulgur, grated zucchini, cumin, paprika, allspice, turmeric, cayenne and fresh mint and cilantro. It gets also topped for some time in the oven with caramelized onions which are made with pomegranate molasses, cinnamon and allspice. It’s served with a dipping sauce from greek yogurt and pomegranate molasses.
The braised red cabbage is made in an old-fashioned way with cloves, granny smith apple, red wine vinegar and black currant jam (normally red currant but that wasn’t available)

[Amandarama (Amanda)]

Thank you!

[MunchkinRedux]

@Kazhound

I made a feast of the 7 fishes meal!

Kudos! It all looks delicious.

I’ve always wanted to try a 7 Fishes meal as a project. I’m inspired by yours!

[MsBean]

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your injury. I suggest having another glass of wine!

[ottawaoperadiva]

@paryzer

Mrs. P made an awesome dinner that I would have appreciated a lot more if I didn’t just blow out my knee.

That sounds extremely painful. I hope you get to see a doctor soon and wish you a speedy recovery.

[ChristinaM (Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))]

Got it covered!

[ChristinaM (Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))]

Sorry you’re hobbled, Eli! Hope you can get medical attention soon.

[tomatotomato (Denise)]

Ouuuch, that injured knee. Take good care of yourself until you can get to the doctor.

The Xmas Eve feast prepared by Mrs. P. looks absolutely stunning, though!

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Where’d you get Talluto’s ravs?

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Spectacular.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

I spent most of the day yesterday gathering the final xmas eve ingredients – ciabatta for the cheeses, ketchup for the cocktail sauce, a few local products for my Secret Santee in our Facebook WFD group so I can send them off Thursday, then food production started: my PIC made the coquito

and pistachio ice cream, I sliced up the gravlax & made the mustard sauce I hadn’t planned on, but then thought what the hey,

and roasted the big-ass black tiger shrimp following @amandarama’s suggestion.

They came out really well & got raves from our guests. I may never go back to poaching

Talked briefly to my sister around 9pm their time when they had just finished their fondue and evidently more red wine than what my dear sis is accustomed to, but everyone was talking at her & ready to open the presents, so we postponed our convo to another, more convenient, more sober time

Our doors opened at 6pm with bublé for everyone. Our hosts for today brought Crab Maison (not Crab Louis I kept falsely referring to), which seemed to be very different from the last time they made it & I loved it, i.e. instead of dippy it was soupy & heavy on the vinegar.

They’re known for pre-gaming, so perhaps this was a case of CUI — who knows

In any event, we had plenty of food & drink & merry.

Ooops. Almost forgot the plate of xmas cookies from Isgro’s. They’re better fresh, IMNHO.

Merriness continues at their place later this afternoon with a soup bar — ginger-carrot, spicy corn chowder, and potato-leek. Our HK bud is contributing a Cantonese duck, I’m bringing the leftover gravlax, half of which was destroyed last night, plus a nice big green salad for HEALTH. My PIC is bringing his aMAZing pistachio ice cream & flourless orange cake.

Merry, Merry, HO-HO-HOs!

[tomatotomato (Denise)]

Non-traditional Christmas Eve dinner for us with a nod to tradition (we’ll get to that in a moment): delicata squash pizza with roasted delicata, caramelized leeks, baby sage. Slivers of coppa ham left over from a charcuterie meal were a bonus topping.

My husband requested pizza as major riff on a Christmas Eve tradition from my heritage, which makes a point of feeding animals first that evening. (The story goes that the barn animals welcomed the Holy Family when humans would not give them shelter on their journey. No room at the inn.) “Pizza bones”—aka crusts— are one of our pup’s favorite foods. He wanted ours to enjoy on Xmas Eve. Tradition adapted!

Happy holidays all!

[paryzer (Eli Paryzer)]

@MsBean

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your injury. I suggest having another glass of wine!

Thank you @MsBean and everyone else for your well wishes
The wine therapy definitely helped last night Unfortunately it wore off this morning.
I’ll try and go to Urgent Care Thursday, but am not confident that they have the type of specialist that can help me.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Knees are the divas of joints. So dramatic, so very painful.

Hope you find relief, stat. More wine?

[BeefeaterRocks]

Quiet, blame it on the Bublés.
Happy Holidays Hos!

[paryzer (Eli Paryzer)]

@linguafood

Knees are the divas of joints. So dramatic, so very painful.

Hope you find relief, stat. More wine?

Thanks!
Yes, this knee is a regular Soprano
Unfortunately, I’m just going to have an espresso martini tonight. I had wine Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. I don’t want to stay in a drunken stupor (no matter how painless that might feel)

[MsBean]

Hopefully even if urgent care can’t fix your knee they’ll be able to offer pain management.

[paryzer (Eli Paryzer)]

Like drink more wine ( )?

[LindaWhit]

Dinner was later than the 3pm expected time (not served until 3:45), so I didn’t get out of there until 4:45. Still not crazy about driving in the dark, but I did OK.

Dinner was prime rib, mashed potatoes, roasted multi-colored carrots, Brussels sprouts gratin (I didn’t have), rolls.

Desserts were plentiful, but I didn’t stay for them.

Glad to be in the quiet of my own home. Three kids under 9 are loud. The dog was adorable and quiet, a rescue blue heeler.