Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Dinner

How did I make Christmas Dinner for 22 and not take a single picture?

The menu:

Slow-roasted Pork Shoulder
Bubble and Squeak
Apple Slaw
Manicotti (homemade for the vegetarians, who decided to eat pork, too!)
Fresh Asparagus
Rolls

I was going to make a corn pudding, but ran out of time.

In the end, the pork shoulder was too dry (I used a Nigella Lawson recipe that said there was no way the pork could be over cooked that way, but boy was she WRONG).

The apple slaw was made last minute with Granny Smiths and my new, wonderful mandolin. I julienned them and sprinkled with lemon juice, tossed in glazed walnuts, dried cranberries, and bits of blue cheese. A sprinkle of salt, a tsp of sugar, a tablespoon of cider vinegar, and a tiny bit of mayo to give it a little binding. It was pretty darn good. I'd cut the apples thicker next time though, as they got very soft, very fast.

The manicotti was from an America's Test Kitchen recipe. Bland, very bland, but their idea of using no-boil lasagna noodles and rolling up the cheese in them was a great one, and a time saver!

More later. Just waiting for pictures to load from camera.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Coporamb

I've been hearing about Turducken a lot this holiday season. Seems lots of people aren't happy with just the traditional turkey, not even the deep fried turkey. The in-thing now is Turducken: a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken--all boneless, of course.

That sounded pretty tasty to me, until I thought of what I'd like even BETTER this Christmas:

Coporamb.

A cow stuffed with a pig stuffed with a lamb. All boneless, of course.

Think of it as a pig roast, on steroids.

Who's up for the ultimate meat feast?!