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Thread: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

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    Default Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024







    Mrs. RW has the table set and she and my daughter have their cookie making game going on this evening…let the festivities begin.
    rw saunders
    hey, how lucky can one man get.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Looks like a good start. What's on the menu?

    My wife is working on both Christmas and New Year, so it'll be a bit low-key. Various ideas came and went, and had I known that she wouldn't be opposed to a standing rib roast, I'd have gone for that.

    Instead, looks like it'll be black forest ham, chateaubriand tenderloin (purchased from Costco), or halved ducks (again purchased from Costco). We did porchetta last year, but finishing the leftovers turned out to be a major task (the really fatty pork belly hardened to become almost inedible), alas doing something different. But so far haven't come across anything particularly good (our fav., osso buco, was made on Thanksgiving already).

    We would probably opt for Beef Wellington were she given the day off, but I know next to nothing re: making pastry shell, alas.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    It's me, Karen, Karen's mom and brother. I'm doing Swedish .meatballs on egg noodles, braised red cabbage, ginger cake and whipped cream for dessert. I'm in a Scandinavian mood. I might make a batch of cardamom buns just cause.
    Tom Ambros

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    We are invited to XMAS dinner at a friends. I've offered to do some heavy lifting and so will make a Porchetta Pork Shoulder. I've got a gorgeous hunka hunka bone in Boston Butt in the fridge which I'll butterfly and give it a 24 hr. wait in the fridge while nuzzled in a garlic/lemon zest/rosemary/salt/b.pepper.

    My plan is to roll it up nice and tight. If anyone has a fact based opinion regards internal temp. please convince me it REALY does need to hit 190F??? That is not my usual temp for pork.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Quote Originally Posted by echappist View Post
    Looks like a good start. What's on the menu? We would probably opt for Beef Wellington were she given the day off, but I know next to nothing re: making pastry shell, alas.
    I just checked with the Grand mistress and it'll be Beef Wellington, some kind of potatoes and vegetables...I'll get more specific as game time draws near. SIL is making dessert...not sure. I'm on bread, wine and beer duty and with 16 people at the house, it'll be loud and festive for sure, as the 24-30 yo's make for 9 of the 16. I can find her recipe if you want as I believe that she will be making individual pastries for the BW, and she made me post a pic of the room sans the Dyson.



    Last edited by rwsaunders; 12-22-2024 at 11:41 AM.
    rw saunders
    hey, how lucky can one man get.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    We are spending Christmas in Monument Valley at The View hotel. We're arriving Christmas Eve afternoon after having fry bread tacos in Cameron. We'll shop in Flagstaff on the way since nothing will be open on Xmas Day on the Reservation. On the 26th, we're heading east to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico (but still Navajo Rez). On the way home on the 28th, we'll stop at La Posada in Winslow for their world famous corn/bean soup, garden greens, and blue cornbread dripping with agave butter.
    Retired Sailor, Marine dad, semi-professional cyclist, fly fisherman, and Indian School STEM teacher.
    Assistant Operating Officer at Farm Soap homemade soaps. www.farmsoap.com

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Quote Originally Posted by rwsaunders View Post
    I just checked with the Grand mistress and it'll be Beef Wellington, some kind of potatoes and vegetables...I'll get more specific as game time draws near. SIL is making dessert...not sure. I'm on bread, wine and beer duty and with 16 people at the house, it'll be loud and festive for sure, as the 24-30 yo's make for 9 of the 16. I can find her recipe if you want as I believe that she will be making individual pastries for the BW, and she made me post a pic of the room sans the Dyson.
    A right proper meal. Looking forward to seeing the spread on the table. I seem to recall wonderfully decorated cookies from past editions as well?

    Is she making the pastry from scratch or buying pre-made ones? Something tells me it would be the former, which would make it all the more glorious (we'd go with the baby step of buying the pastry pre-made if we were making one).

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    A visions of sugar plums danced in their heads….

    Thanks Mr Bob, my faith in Christmas has been restored.

    Mike
    Mike Noble

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    My artist wife made these Christmas cookies for friends and family. At least 100 cookies. Basic sugar cookies with royal icing made with meringue powder instead of hassling with pasteurized egg whites. Beautiful and delicious.
    Retired Sailor, Marine dad, semi-professional cyclist, fly fisherman, and Indian School STEM teacher.
    Assistant Operating Officer at Farm Soap homemade soaps. www.farmsoap.com

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Quote Originally Posted by echappist View Post
    A right proper meal. Looking forward to seeing the spread on the table. I seem to recall wonderfully decorated cookies from past editions as well? Is she making the pastry from scratch or buying pre-made ones? Something tells me it would be the former, which would make it all the more glorious (we'd go with the baby step of buying the pastry pre-made if we were making one).
    Plenty of cookie photos to come and pre-packaged pastry dough, as she's deep into the prep involved with everything else. She said if I want to make the pastry dough....
    rw saunders
    hey, how lucky can one man get.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024









    I’m up making dough so I thought I’d post what life as a cream puff looks like in the pupae stage. Also, the Santa at the front door makes his presence known every year…he is from my wife’s late Aunt Anna and he is 60+ yo.
    rw saunders
    hey, how lucky can one man get.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Christmas Eve lunch at the Cameron Trading Post in AZ. That there is a fry bread cheeseburger. Cameron is on the Navajo Reservation and fry bread is a staple, albeit unhealthy, that came about because the U.S. Government gave the tribes flour and lard after many thousands of years eating meat, roots, and vegetables.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Retired Sailor, Marine dad, semi-professional cyclist, fly fisherman, and Indian School STEM teacher.
    Assistant Operating Officer at Farm Soap homemade soaps. www.farmsoap.com

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Not as elegant as anything else here but what they lack in appearance they make up for in flavor. Swedish cinnamon buns with cardamom seed all up in the dough.

    Kanelbullar

    No laughing or I'll post pics from the Nobel Banquet claiming I did it. The dessert, though. I took a pic. Understand they had to make about 1200 of these. Brown butter cake with impossibly thin apple slices in a rosette with that ice cream on top - plate and serve before the apples browned and the ice cream melted. The chefs got a well deserved standing ovation when they came out at the end of the night.

    Dessert
    Tom Ambros

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    I do the meat, my parents do the sides, and my sister brings dessert.

    Got a turkey and a pork shoulder in the smoker just now. Typically my remote thermometer died this morning - just used it a few weeks ago too. Thankfully I have the last few turkeys I’ve done all recorded with times and what they weighed so it should be fine. Just checked with my probe thermometer and it’s looking good and I have plenty of time left. Its just nice to be able to watch the graph and monitor the smoker temp - it’s pretty consistent though and I didn’t skimp on charcoal (a mistake I sometimes make trying to save some…)
    It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom View Post

    No laughing or I'll post pics from the Nobel Banquet claiming I did it. The dessert, though. I took a pic. Understand they had to make about 1200 of these. Brown butter cake with impossibly thin apple slices in a rosette with that ice cream on top - plate and serve before the apples browned and the ice cream melted. The chefs got a well deserved standing ovation when they came out at the end of the night.

    Wait...what? OK, I'll bite on that lure.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Good turkey this year - it was bang on the time as the previous one the same size so I'm glad I had that recorded.

    It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    I did not set this place or any of the about 1200 other ones...

    Setting

    They brought out the special dishes.

    ForOccasion

    Backstory is my older brother shared with Gary Ruvkun the 2024 Medicine or Physiology prize for discovering microRNA and it's role in controlling gene expression. I was one of his group of guests. The week was an amazing time. Cycling content: I ate breakfast with Nancy Clark one morning by chance. We came down late, tables were limited, she was there by herself and Karen asked her if she'd like to sit with us. She explained she was surprised to be invited to participate in the Nobel Dialogue on the subject of food, was a sports nutritionist. I wondered if I'd read anything by her and she asked "Do you subscribe to the Ohio Runner publication?" Karen introduced us and asked her name. My eyes widened. If I had only known she's also the nutritionist for the Red Sox too...
    Tom Ambros

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Great times by all. Neat Tom, I love gatherings with great food. That always seems to lead to more interesting conversations.

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    Default Re: Christmas/Holidays dinners 2024

    Quote Originally Posted by 9tubes View Post
    Wait...what? OK, I'll bite on that lure.

    Tom posted this in the Fridays thread on 10/7. Perhaps the best post of the year?

    “ I'll do my push ups. Oh, yes I will. But I'm going to be grinning until Friday, at least, every time I think of this.

    My older brother has always been someone who did pretty cool stuff. When he was a teenager he was fascinated by astronomy. Growing up in Vermont we had a night sky. He wanted a telescope. So he made one. He ground an eight inch mirror to the right concavity by hand and sent it away to be plated. He made the fork by constructing a sand mold, setting up a furnace out of fire bricks and a vacuum cleaner reversed to act as a blower to melt a whole bunch of scrap aluminum. He built an observatory on the hill in a back field and mounted the telescope with a clock drive so he could take photographs through the scope, which he developed himself.

    Family lore is that his college essay for MIT was one sentence. "I want to be a scientist."

    He didn't have the math chops to pursue a degree in physics but I find it amusing how much he does with computational biology looking for more significant microRNA sequences.

    This morning they announced that his work really is that significant. He's sharing the Nobel for Medicine or Physiology with David Ruvkun. They came to know something that nobody ever knew before and there could be answers to a whole bunch of problems in what they found.

    I know I'm basking in reflected glory but I've been so proud of him for a long time. He's won some pretty prestigious awards already but I have only once or twice before in my life wanted to cry with happiness.”
    Dan Fuller, local bicycle enthusiast

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