Thursday, December 24, 2009

Season's Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday; whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or whatever holiday you are celebrating!

Holidays are a time for family, friends and good food. Always good food :-) At our house Bob and I do the cooking for Christmas Eve and my sister, Elaine and her husband Tom do the cooking for Christmas day. This arrangement works great for us. Christmas is Elaine’s birthday so we celebrate two birthdays on Christmas Evening!

This year we are blessed to have Jenny and her family join us. For those of you who might not know, Jenny is my oldest and dearest friend. OH! She’s not my oldest friend; she’s only a year and three days older (but she is older). Certainly what I meant to say is that Jenny and I have been friends since I was 6 months old! And this is the first year her family will be with us for Christmas Eve. We are very excited!

For us this year Christmas Eve will be all about being together, hanging out…and eating! No gifts. So the food had better be good. I hope our menu will measure up!

We plan to start with a small assortment of appetizers. I’ve made homemade French Onion Dip (Martha’s recipe http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sweet-onion-dip?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/dips-and-spreads#slide_6) to go with crudités, cheese straws and a surprise appetizer (perk those ears up, Elaine) of lobster claws with drawn butter. The main course will be served with a green salad, fresh steamed green beans, and organic roasted garlic bread. The entrées include Ina Garten’s Five Cheese Penne Pasta (from our Padova dinner in September http://dishingitup-columbus.blogspot.com/2009/10/padova-dinner.html), grilled beef tenderloin, and smoked turkey breast (provided by David Miller, owner of Werner’s Fine Sausages and Jenny’s big brother http://www.wernerswurst.com/). For dessert we have Graeter’s vanilla ice cream with brandied cherries and cookies and cupcakes from Ganache Dessert Kitchen http://www.ganachedessertkitchen.com/index2.php.

So I’d better get in that kitchen and start cooking! I’d love to know what you are having for dinner. Leave me a comment and tell me the good things coming out of your kitchen.

Wishing you a most blessed holiday,
Jean Bugs

3 comments:

  1. Sounds yummy Jean. Too bad we live so far away! Tonight, I'm making some homemade chicken meatball soup (my own creation) which is quite tasty, I must say. I'm going to keep it warm in the crockpot as we're going to walk through the park near our neighborhood to see the light show. We'll be hungry after a 2.5 mile walk in the cold!

    Tomorrow, we're having a pork roast (probably wrapped in sage leaves and prosciutto), some spiced apples, broccoli, and a new dessert for us -- Gingerbread Cake with Root-beer Poached Pears. It's from the Dec. issue of Fine Cooking. If it's a hit, I'll post the recipe.

    Happy Holidays everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds absolutely awesome! Any chance we can get the recipe for the soup, too?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete