I’m home and in comfy clothes. Dinner was beef tenderloin with cognac sauce, roasted baby potatoes, and steamed green beans with toasted almonds - simple, tasty, and just what Mom wanted. And that makes it perfect for me.
My libation was a couple of glasses of Ecco Domani Merlot - one of the bottles I ended up with from the Yankee Swap at work.
A nice quiet day with good food and good company. Love ya, Mom.
And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, or non-celebration day.
Last night’s dinner: seared foie gras on a blackberry balsamic reduction & big-ass wild shrimp, poached and served with extra spicy cocktail sauce (tomato paste, ketchup, lemon, horseradish, salt, ass reaper hot sauce).
Afterwards we went to a local pub where my keyboarder was playing & I sat in for a few tunes. Ordered a dozen wings b/c we’re pigs 
Came home and snuck in a few crumbs of Stichelton & some Delice de Bourgogne. Pigs we are.
Tonight we’re having our pescatarian buddy over for more shrimp cocktail (a less crazy sauce for him), crab salad with red & orange bell peppers on fanned avocado, gigantes in tomato sauce & dolmades (both courtesy of TJ’s), Stichelton and Durrus cheeses with wonderful baguette from DiBruno’s.
Dessert is courtesy of my man: black bottom chocolate pie. God forbid we don’t have enough food…
We’ll probably watch some xmas horror movie and also Comfort & Joy, one of my man’s favorite movies.
Merry, merry & happy, happy.
Christmas Eve: Starter- Coquille St Jacques Gratinée. Main- Prime Rib aux jus, Horseradish whipped cream, Jacket Roast Yukon Gold Potatoes, shaved Brussels sprouts in sage butter, sauteed button mushrooms with applewood uncured bacon and pearl onions, Dessert- Mince pies anglaise with vanilla sauce.
Christmas. Starter- Swedish herrings. Main- Roast Pekin Long Island Duckling, sauce, masht turnips and potatoes, apple red cabbage, haricots vertes. Dessert- Swedish Risgrynsgröt (Short grain rice cooked with heavy cream) and Drottningssylt (Queens Jam with mixed forest berries).
It was a 2015 and quite fantastic, we had a bottle tonight with christmas apps too 
We’ve come over all southern European for the Boxing Day dinner.
A tapa to nibble on with drinks - anchovy wrapped round an olive.
To start - tortillitas de camarones. A recipe from the Moro cookbook. A batter made from soda water, chickpea flour & pimenton - into which you stir brown shrimps ( you know brown shrimps - they’re the ones the colour blind French call grey) and make very thin pancakes. Squeeze of lemon is all you need.
To continue - a beef stew, recipe taken from Colman Andrews “Catalan Cuisine”. And a recipe which he doesnt claim to actually be Catalan and, with its inclusion of oranage peel and black olives, it’s pretty much a French boeuf en daube. I made this a couple of weeks ago, so it could claim to be a brown gloop from the freezer meal. New potatoes as the carb.
To conclude - Compota de Nochebuena. A recipe from Maria Jose Sevilla’s “Spain on a Plate”. 'Tis a lovely mix of fresh & dried fruit and chestnuts in a flavoured sugar syrup.
I became a fan of tortillitas de camarones after seeing an article from Mark Bittman in the NYT on the subject. I don’t make them as often as I should and they are so easy to make and so tasty. Guess what’s for lunch?
For the celebratory vegetarian dish you asked in the other thread, was it a success?
Haha, I agree that they can be strange, but hey, when alive, the shrimps are really grey in colour.
Tortillitas de camarones - I love that, actually, most preparation with egg and seafood, including the Chinese oyster pancake.
In the event , things changed and we didnt need it. But there were lots of ideas on that thread and I’m sure I’ll pick something in the future.
Christmas eve dinner was quiet, just myself and the parents. I told dad if he bought the (local dungeness) crab and picked it (i can’t deal) then i would make crab cakes. He took me up on the offer so mom and dad had crab cakes and some of the big a$$ salad i made with sugar snap peas, radishes, scallions, jicama, pumpkin seeds, bell pepper and a dijon vinegrette. I made myself a couple of zucchini patties with white beans.
Last night was at my sister’s house with my nephew, her boyfriend, and his family plus my parents (brunch at my parents house earlier was with our relatives, just a group of eight).
For dinner my sister asked me to be veggie master but to keep in mind the not adventurous dinner guests. I made a huge batch of those crash hot potatoes with thyme and roasted garlic, then made roasted cauliflower “steaks” with an herb chimmichuri on the side, and a bunch of simple brussel sprouts that i tossed in a mix of trader joe’s smoked olive oil and regular along with some rosemary, salt and generous black pepper.
I was the only veggie so the veggies were basically my dinner, the omnis had cooked up Mary’s Little Lamb as their main (kidding. Kind of. ) and there were some fluffy bakery rolls making the rounds as well.
Lots of lovely wine before and during. I didn’t have to drive 
Dessert was a gorgeous french chocolate layered sponge cake and mousse that my mother made- no photos since this was a crowd who would have thought that was really weird to do…
The shrimp, it’s brown with brown specks. It’s also known as North Sea shrimp (most commonly called in Germany). In NL/Netherlands it’s “Dutch shrimp” (haw haw… I think because NL consumes the most of the catch in the whole of Europe!). In BE/Belgium it’s grey shrimp. Hah! In the UK it’s Morecambe bay shrimp. In Ireland it’s something else. There you have it.
For the rest of us: latin name is Crangon Crangon. Dutch producers ship it to Morocco to be peeled and then it gets shipped back to NL. Even then it’s cheaper. I eat a lot of it but mostly unpeeled. Like the crunchiness. Besides, during breeding season there’s loads of roe to be enjoyed.
My foie gras days are over. Seared the last chunk today. The lamb comes with a thick layer of fat. Nothing here gets sold if it doesn’t. It’s Hungarian lamb, very mild. This is the tenderloin and costs eur.16. There are 2 chunks, identical in size. Shown in photo is 1 of them.
Hungarian sparkling wine made in the tradional way, methode Champagnoise. Texts on wine label are silver. I tried a toy filter to bring out the texts but it’s still crap.
Finally, the sun came out today. First time in my 10 days here. Took this opportunity to do some sightseeing on foot.
Number 1 attraction in Budapest. It’s a tremendous structure. Directly opposite a metro station near my lodging.
Chain Bridge, also near my lodging. Full of tourists on it at any time of day or night.
I am so envious of your frequent travels and explorations of local foods.
You seem to be positioned in an area that has such a variety of options!
Thanks for letting us vicariously tag along.
Most of the shrimps we get in the UK supermarkets are from the Netherlands. My local Morecambe Bay shrimps tend to get turned into potted shrimp.
Not a lot of cooking of interest at my house. The holiday retail season pretty much began the beginning of November and was fast and furious. By the time Christmas arrived I really had no desire to be around hoards of people so declined several invites.
I did assist my elderly neighbor in her food preparation. We went over her menu and recipes a few weeks ago and I made out her shopping list. I walked over Sunday morning and we got to work. By early afternoon she was worn out so I watched the pots so she could take a nap and then shower and dress before her family arrived. Then I went home. Her family is wonderful but I just was craving a bit of solitude. I went back in the evening to make sure things were cleaned up and brought a plate home. Her daughter in law made an odd dish - a baked pineapple casserole (pineapple chunks, shredded cheddar, bread crumbs) which was much tastier than I would have thought. The rest was homey and nice.
I had thought I might cook a small prime rib but was just too tired. Think I’ll save it for New Years Eve!
Hope everyone’s festivities were exactly what you desired!
Thanks! I enjoy sharing it with you all.
Every year it’s different depending on the destinations and our schedules. This year 3 holidays are so close to each other it’s really hard on the body (not to mention the wallet). We have nothing valuable in the house because it all goes into eating, drinking and holidays. If burglars broke into my house I would laugh and help them find stuff!
The mussels as well? NL is the biggest mussel producers in Europe.
Belgium also gets brown shrimps and mussels from NL. Even France gets some of it.
Damn. This is a dinner I would have loved to have seen pictures of, weird or not! Sounds like a great Christmas dinner, Ttrock.
What a wonderful gift you gave, @meatn3!
A relaxing day. Sleeping in this morning, cuddles with the cats as they climbed into my lap as I watched the entire Season 3 of “Mozart in the Jungle” on Amazon Prime.
Dinner tonight was a bit of a use-up, as I had to get rid of some cremini mushrooms that were close to getting icky. Pappardelle tossed with mushrooms that were sauteed in a good bit of butter, some fresh thyme, dry sherry, and heavy cream.
Alongside was a sauteed chicken tender - salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic-herb blend. Also sauteed some sugar snap peas in butter and olive oil, with salt, pepper and some ground sumac at the end.
A glass of Sancerre for the libation, and probably some Cranberry-Swirl Cheesecake for dessert.
Patagonian bay scallops with roasted and cut corn, garlic over fresh linguine. Topped with chiffonade of basil
Christmas Eve was at my sisters (our kitchen is still a work in progress). She bought a dozen New York strip steaks and asked me to grill. It was cold out but DH and I had a good time. I had to juggle orders from rare to well done and did a pretty good job getting everyone what they wanted. There were topping for the steaks, including carmalized onions, mushrooms sautéed in butter with thyme and red wine, and blue cheese. Sides were potato/sweet potato gratin, garlic bread, and a huge green salad. Dessert was a profiterole pie from our local Italian bakery. It was a loud, fun, crazy night.
Christmas is usually reserved for our friends and us, but this year everyone was a bit scattered. So, back up to my sisters for lasagna, salad, and a few more gifts.
Today has been quite. Our new hood got delivered (the first one was damaged) and that was it. PJ’s for the rest of the day. We grilled some chicken for lunch and tonight is pizza on the grill.
