Served 9 people total. Positive reviews on everything, both for presentation, elegance, and taste.
Dinner served at 6:00 pm on December 23.
Breakfast served at 9:30 am on December 24.
Breakfast
Started morning prep at 7:30 am, with 1 – 2 helpers at all times. Very manageable. Frozen potatoes and frozen ham set out the evening before in the 60° garage. Dough for rolls was made the afternoon before, allowed to rise, punched down in the evening, and put in the refrigerator overnight. Dressing for fruit salad and cranberry filling for rolls made the day before and refrigerated.
Fruit Salad
Used pineapple, red grapes, kiwi, oranges.
Pomegranate seeds and toasted slivered almonds on the side.
Honey lime dressing from Christmas Cookbook, served on the side.
Sliced ham
Leftover from Thanksgiving … cut into serving pieces, then heated in covered casserole in warming oven. Had to drain it before serving, but very good and tender.
Cranberry rolls
Recipe in Christmas Cookbook. Made 1 1/2 recipes (18 rolls). Do not bake more than 2 pans at a time (6 rolls per pan). It may have been the timing of cooking them, but only a dozen were eaten.
Cheesy Potatoes
A combination of sauce from my Macaroni and Cheese recipe, with basics from the Potato Casserole in the Christmas Cookbook. I used 6 cups of milk, 9 tablespoons each butter and flour, and three bags of frozen O’Brien potatoes, plus a bunch of scallions (sliced thin), and about a pound of cheese total.
Only half was eaten. Use two bags of potatoes next time. I liked having less cheese than the macaroni and cheese recipe, but keep the parmesan and fontina combination. Make sure to mix the potatoes and cheese sauce thoroughly before baking. Add bread crumbs as in the Macaroni and Cheese recipe.
Coffee, orange juice
In 12-cup coffee maker, use as many beans as fit in electric coffee grinder. I used about 1 2/3 grinder full and the coffee was much too strong! Yikes.
Dinner
Roast beef
We had a 7 pound boneless prime rib roast. Our beginning recipe is here:
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/12/perfect-prime-rib-with-red-wine-jus-recipe.html
We did not make the bone broth or sauce. Here are Grandmother’s notes about what she did:
24 hours before putting it into the oven, unwrap, salt and pepper generously on all sides, put on a rack that allows for drying on all sides. This roast was kept refrigerated until 2 or 3 hours prior to roasting, then allowed to come to room temperature.
Using a roasting pan with a rack on which the meat is placed, put into a preheated 250 F. oven, in lower middle shelf. Recipes estimate 30 minutes per pound of meat at 250°. Temperature goal was 130F for medium rare. After 3 1/2 hours, it measured 134F. I took it out of the oven, “tented” it loosely with foil, and it “rested” on counter for 1 1/2 hours, because we needed the oven for other things. This was too long allowing the meat to cool down in the center. During the rest, the tempurature rose to 140F. Searing the roast for 15 minutes did not warm it up much, if any, on the inside. Rev up the oven temp to 500F, which is the hottest our oven goes. (Otherwise use 550F.) Put roast into the very hot oven for 15 minutes. It will get beautifully browned on all sides. Remove from oven, rest 10 minutes or so, carve. The roast was pink but not bloody. Probably truly roasted to the rare stage. This group liked it very much; one person requested end cut to get a more-done piece. I would like to roast it to 140F, and see if it is slightly more done, but not lose a pink color. I like the reverse sear method very much.
Corn casserole
Recipe is on page 61 of The Best of America’s Test Kitchen, 2017. I made 1.5 recipes. It was about 1/3 too much, but the rationale was that we have a version without pepper and cayenne. Both were poured into different ends of the same pan. The spice eaters wanted it spicier, but all agreed that it was delicious.
Salad with brussels sprouts and lemon dressing
See the recipe here. The recipe I began with can be found here. I used about 30 Brussels sprouts and half a large head of romaine. It was a perfect amount, all but 1 cup was eaten. The dressing needs a bit more something. Salt perhaps? There were a few complaints that the salad was difficult to eat, as the pieces were challenging to pick up with a fork.
Biscuits with butter and plum/lemon jam
Quick and Easy Cream Biscuit recipe in Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook on page 560. These are truly easy and very good. I used 100% whole wheat pastry flour with good success. They require a bit more liquid, but I just guessed and didn’t measure. I made three recipes, cut into 9 pieces each; two would be sufficient.
The jam recipe is here, and was made with Italian Prune Plums (frozen) and the juice and peel of one lemon.
Lemon tart with whipped cream
Used the recipe in Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook on page 732. I made 1.5 recipes for an 11″ tart pan. Using the recipe as is in a 9″ pan would have been sufficient. I baked the tart a few minutes too long and the edges boiled. It marred the appearance a bit but did not seem to affect the consistency or taste. We think we would prefer it chilled rather than at room temperature.
The Classic Tart Dough recipe on page 730 is very good. 1 1/3 recipes would fit the 11″ tart pan well. When gathering the dough together I did fraisage it as in Julia Child’s pie dough recipe. It produced a very smooth dough that was easy to work with. This is like a cookie crust and is perfect for the tart lemon filling. I baked the scraps of dough, rolled out and cut into shapes, with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top. I baked them at 300° for about 15 minutes, and they were delicious … not too sweet, and crisp and tender at the same time.
Baklava
Made one day ahead. Used the main recipe in Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook on page 767. Baklava was cut not quite through to the bottom to prevent it from getting soggy in the pan, as per recipe reviews. In making baklava again, try a more spiced up version. The pieces should be cut smaller. The length of a 9×13 pan was cut into four columns, and six would be much better. This was very good, but very mild. Less than half was eaten.
Fruitcake
Used about 1/3 of one loaf of Mom’s Fruitcake (made October 2017).
Breakfast Photos
Dinner Photos
