Thank you, all my kids are wonderful cooks!
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Thank you 
Mrs. P is a great cook. She was so exhausted afterwards and said this is the last time she is doing this 
There were quite a few things that she had to overcome. The 9 year old fryer crapped out on us several times. It kept shutting off. She moved it around to several outlets. Luckily the oil was just hot enough to fry the shrimp. We threw out the fryer this morning and purchased a new one. We will need it for New Year’s Eve when she makes more fried shrimp cocktail. Also, the huge double cut elk chops took a while to cook in the oven. She must have taken it out of the oven and checked the temperature 3 or 4 times before it came up to the right temp. In the end it was perfectly medium rare and juicy, with a nice sear (from the frying pan).
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Well, I ended up having a snacky plate last night of a few slices of Nueske’s smoked duck breast, a couple of slices of ciabatta with Pavé and Boursin, and a small bowl of English pea soup with mint I picked up on a whim at the farmers market Tuesday. No pics, was hungrier than anticipated after only having had a cuppa tomato soup for lunch.
What does deserve a picture, however, is my PIC’s fan-fucking-tastic pistachio ice cream, made with raw & toasted pistachios, and rivers of pistachio cream running through. Not sure I want to share any of it with our hosts this afternoon 
Merry Xmas everyone! After a brief second ER visit this AM (all clear, no worries!!) my boo is taking a well-deserved nap, and we may even be able to join our friends for an hour or so this afternoon, so I can “get rid” of some of the gravlax I made 
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Holy wow, that all looks delicious!!!
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Ice cream looks wonderful.
Best wishes to your boo…no one likes to be sick, much less carrying around a catheter at home.
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Around the world in seven fishes:
Baccalà salad with Anchovies, potatoes, celery, red bell pepper, garlic, parsley, olives. and lemon
Octopus with onions, garlic, pimentón dulce and picante, olive oil, and lemon
Grilled Eel
Fish cake with green onion, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and rice wine vinegar
Shrimp cocktail
Smoked Mackerel with chili oil
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Wow! So imaginative! So stunning!
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Beige but tasty. L/o black truffle Boursin mashed potatoes with more Boursin added were even better. Plus ham heated with pomegranate molasses and whole seed mustard and braised endive.
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It was a lovely quiet day.
Just what I wanted.
A perfectly medium-rare Angus Prime beef tenderloin from Wegmans with cognac cream sauce, a half a Hasselback Russet potato with chive butter, and roasted Brussels sprouts tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar with pomegranate arils and toasted pecans.
Wine was a very nice French chardonnay.
Dessert was Lemon Posset with a blackberry coulis, pomegranate arils, and an XL blackberry on top.
I hope everyone had the Christmas Day they were hoping for.
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It was a great day. Took my four legged baby on two very fun walks. Watched too much football. And won some money gambling on my phone. Turkey, stuffing, brussels and potatoes. Merry Christmas!
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Happy Holidays fellow HO’s, whenever or whatever you celebrate, or not.
The wind quit blowing, the rain quit falling, the sun made an appearance and my garden sparkles like it’s full of millions of little diamonds.
Duck à l’Orange. I did not roast the duck, I bought a half roasted duck from Maple Leaf Farms and just made the sauce. 'Twas very good. Rice again, this time wild blend gourmet rice, craisins and shallots; Baby butter leaf and arugula salad with celery, red Anjou pears, hazelnuts and cambozola, sherry vinegar & oo dressing. There was a Manhattan and wine with.
Peppermint ice cream for dessert. They changed my favorite, tastes the same but missing the big chunks of peppermint candy, only flakes. Bummer.
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For Christmas dinner I braised a lamb shank with zinfandel and chanterelles, and made Kenji-inspired duck fat roasted potatoes. From the pan:
And in the plate:
ETA: For dessert, a glass of old port, bought at Trader Joe’s maybe 25 years ago.
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Christmas dinner was from the pricey butcher: turkey (white and dark meat), gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies and stuffing. Paired with sparkling apple cider.
Dessert was cheesecake from the deli, oolong tea.
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Thank you. Except for the octopus and baccala, I had everything else in the house. I was one fish short until I added the anchovies to the salad.
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You knocked it out of the park with your festive feast of fishes!
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Yum. Lentil soup has to be one of the best soups in all of soupdom. Early this week, I pulled a container from the freezer when I was too busy to cook dinner. Reminded me to always make a double batch because lentil soup freezes so well.
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That is a STUNNING birdie! Wow.
I’m only on my first cuppa and already want to dive through the screen to eat all the fabulous foods y’all made! 
As for this sickly household, we actually made it over to our friends’ house for a few hours yesterday! Got there around 3:30 (we were the first to show up!), where snacklets were abundant:
the almost mandatory deviled eggs,
assorted cheeses, olives, NYT dates stuffed with blue cheese & a candied pecan (fab combo, but very rich), and my gravlax.
If I dare say so, this came out really well: luscious, rich, with a distinct note from the toasted & ground fennel seeds I added to the usual sugar/salt rub, and my Misen did a great job slicing it perfectly thin
Even though I hadn’t planned on it, I ended up whisking together the mustard sauce à la SE, albeit with dried dill seed, as all the fresh stuff had gone into the curing process. I got to take a few slices home and look forward to devouring them tonight as our app 
Two grad students we hadn’t met before were also invited — a political philosopher from Singapore who came here by way of London & CA, and a Russian from the German department. Both were excited that I’d brought cigarettes along with other smoky (vape-y?) treats 
A Korean guest brought this stunning red beet / lotus root / citrus salad,
I contributed a simple green salad with flavor bombs & walnuts in a simple sherry vinaigrette
The main was a wonderfully juicy turkey
with fabulous sides, including a delicious roasted cabbage
and roasted root veg.
The Russian student had brought 3 different cakes from the local Georgian café: honey cake, chocolate honey cake, and layer cake. All three were great — moist & not overly sweet.
I took my boo home around 7:30 and returned for a couple more hours of great conversation while our friends were cleaning up, and I scored the turkey carcass which THEY WERE GOING TO THROW OUT 
, and which I will turn into broth today for my PIC’s dinner tonight.
I had a few xmas cookies a friend dropped off, as she does every year with a glass of eggnog after my dear had gone to bed.
Merry, merry!
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Too me, the only tasty trout I’ve had has been fresh caught. That farmed stuff just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
