Holiday Food In Review

Almost three weeks into the new year and I have yet to share the food shots from the holiday dinners. We spent Christmas Eve over at Matt's mother's house, where we all chipped in different parts of the meal. Mom supplied the ham, Aunt Mary brought salad and Matt's brother, Bob, outdid himself with the contribution of appetizers and the green bean casserole (which, I promised I would post props for and am only doing so now - Sorry, Bob!)

For Christmas, Bob gave us tickets to the Wine Fest at Mohegan Sun Casino. It's this Saturday (1/17) and we are totally excited. Just hoping the snow doesn't hinder our travel. Looking forward to many free samples and maybe a little roulette. Come on 8! I'll be sure to post all the details sometime next week.

I was responsible for the potatoes this year. Trying an improvised version of Potatoes Au Gratin, I sliced baked Yukon Gold potatoes, leaving the skin on, and layered them in a baking dish. Then I poured over a cheese sauce from a tuna casserole recipe, a blend of milk, butter, flour and Old English cheese, and sprinkled in some bacon. Then topped the whole thing with freshly grated Fontina and baked it in the oven.

Admittedly, I think it could have gone a little longer in the oven. We were trying to balance out the times and temperatures between the ham and potatoes so I think the potatoes were still a little too firm for my liking. But otherwise, it was pretty good and I'll definitely try it again with a longer baking time.

Christmas Day we were at my parents house for the traditional Roast Beast. (Insert corny laugh here.) I love trying new foods, but there's something so comforting about the holiday meal. Medium rare roast beef with gravy, vegetables and mashed potatoes. As always, my parents cooked as if an army was bursting through the door at any moment instead of just me and Matt.


Dad also made some apple strudel that had marinated in Gran Marnier before baking. And my Mom presented Matt with her present later on that evening: An entire Texas Sheet Cake. Last Christmas, I bought my mom A Cooking Light cookbook for baking and she's been tearing through the recipes one at a time. The sheet cake is one of Matt's favorites. A mildly sweet cake with chocolate icing, it's hard to believe that it could be from a light cookbook. But I guess it's not low-cal when you eat as many pieces as we tend to in one sitting.

Here's Matt cutting the ribbon on his present. Amazing the dog didn't wake up and help herself to a taste.


With the sketchy weather this New Year's Eve, Matt and I found ourselves staying in and making dinner at home. Dinner isn't even worth mentioning, but for dessert we made ourselves some crepes that we filled with all kinds of different things from strawberry jam to peanut butter. Crepes are a cousin of the Hungarian version that Matt's family makes known as Palacsinta. We both agreed that his Dad was probably looking down on us, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Crepes would not be good enough to live in the same category as Palacsinta and Les would make them filled with cottage cheese, golden raisins and orange peel. Not really my cup of tea. In the end, I was just happy to get this neat shot of our dessert: a nice way to round out the year.