We had a very lovely Christmas day with many wonderful gifts. Between us Jason and I cooked most of Christmas dinner. I made asparagus with orange sauce (Jason’s request), butterhorn rolls and chocolate pomegranate torte (Daniel’s request). Jason made creamed wild mushrooms and chateaubriand, his mother roasted off some potatoes for us. I had worried the rolls were not rising well but they certainly kicked in before they were done baking and turned out beautifully.

We’re having a little early holiday activity here this weekend getting pictures for our Christmas cards and exchanging some gifts that it’s not practical to mail or take on an airplane. Chris and Sara announced their engagement adding to the festivity of the day.

My cranberry bites turned out nicely.

Sugared Cranberries

1 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Rinse cranberries and place in a small bowl. Heat syrup in a small sauce pan just until warm. Pour over cranberries when syrup is warm, not hot, or cranberries may pop. Cool, cover, and let soak in the refrigerator overnight.
Drain cranberries in a colander. Place sugar in a large bowl or baking dish. Add cranberries and roll around until lightly coated in sugar. Let dry, about 1 hour.

16 crackers
8 oz Brie cheese
cranberry jam
chopped serrano

Assemble crackers with one slice of brie, a light layer of cranberry chutney, and 4 or 5 sugared cranberries. Garnish with serrano.

Before the appetizer though, we did a quick remodel and created the blue room for Daniel in the basement.

These insulating curtains from Overstock.com created a quick and easy “wall” around his basement cave that will keep the heat in and muffle the noise if we need to fetch things from the basement. Now the boy has a bit of privacy in his chosen space. He seemed pretty pleased.

Three cooks in the kitchen can be a little tough but the meal turned out beautifully. We brine our turkey and then I put some herbs de Provence, salt and butter beneath the skin over the breasts and legs, Jason tents it with foil and it goes out on the Big Green Egg at about 375F until she’s nice and bronzed. We aim for about 170F on the thermometer and let her rest 30 minutes before carving. She does sit in this roasting pan on a rack and Jason adds water to the pan as needed during the roasting. The butter makes her self basting and the water provides a nice steam sauna. This year was the best turkey yet. I was really happy with my sweet potato rolls- love the convection setting for that!

Yesterday Chris and Jason and I went to Durkee Tree Farm to choose a Christmas tree. Decorating will have to wait until we can go out today for some new lights to replace the ones that died last year. I suppose it long past time to switch to safer LED but I was loath to send the old ones to a landfill until they had lived out their life.

First though, I have to take Gwen in to the vet for her CBC so we should hear Monday or Tuesday if this second round of antibiotics has been successful.

We watched bits of the parade, a bit of the dog show and some football and then we had a really lovely meal. Chris must have gotten up before dawn as he arrived bright and early despite a minimum 4.5 hour drive. That’s a crab cake over on Daniel’s plate, he  does not eat turkey. Today we’re planning to get our Christmas tree and then we’re off to an early showing of the latest Harry Potter movie. A full set of Thanksgiving pictures can be found on Flickr here.

Baby Back Ribs

2 racks pork ribs
2 T salt
4T sugar
2T ground cumin
2T ground black pepper
2T Ancho chili powder
2T sweet paprika
2T Hungarian half-sharp paprika

Preheat the oven to 180 F. Bring the ribs to room temperature and rub  with the spicees. Wrap in foil and bake at 180F for 3 hours. Finish on the grill at low heat 10 minutes per side.

Chocolate and peanut butter desserts always go over well in this house. For his cake I tried this recipe this year. I forgot to freeze my layers though so assembly was a bit rocky- if you make this don’t forget to freeze your layers. I also made vanilla ice cream from the recipe Mom always used which is still my absolute favorite.

Vanilla Ice Cream

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups light cream
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat eggs and milk together in a large saucepan. Add sugar (and a vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise if you like). Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Mixture should smoothly coat the spoon. Cool, strain,  then add cream and vanilla. Refrigerate overnight. Freeze as directed.