Christmas Eve - the main course

And, we are finally at Christmas Eve dinner!  My niece's kids stole the show.  They're absolutely wonderful kids and are SO much fun to be around!  

Now, here's a sampler plate of most of the food served:

And, here's the menu:

Beef tenderloin
Blender Bearnaise sauce
Creamed spinach
Carrots with orange
Roasted cauliflower
Potato gratin
Yorkshire pudding
Oatmeal bread
Cranberry Sauce
Persimmon pudding

So, let's dig in with a couple of new recipes:

Creamed Spinach

I'd have sworn that I actually blogged about this.  Truth be told there are probably 100 unfinished blogs and it's undoubtedly in that mell of a hess.  This is one that I don't measure but it's so forgiving that that doesn't matter!  BTW - the persimmon pudding is behind the spinach in the photo

Ingredients:

two packages of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 T olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
4 oz cream cheese
couple of grates of nutmeg
handful of grated cheese (I used gruyere but swiss would work just fine)
cream

Directions:

Saute the onion in the olive oil.  Add in the spinach and the cream cheese.  Stir until the cheese has melted in.  Add the grated cheese and stir it in.  Pour in cream and stir until it's reached a consistency that you like.  This is easy to make ahead and reheat.  

Roasted Cauliflower

Another dinner party staple for us.  Super easy to pop in the oven and ignore until you're ready to serve it.  Here's the link:  roasted cauliflower

Carrots with Orange

I used a David Rosengarten recipe.  It was very good but didn't beat others we've made so I'm not going to post the recipe. 


Blender Bearnaise Sauce

If you've never made hollandaise or Bearnaise because your'e worried about how fussy it is to make, you're missing out  The blender version isn't quite as fabulous but it's one heckuva lot better than a mix or a jar!  Here's a link to my mom's:  blender Hollandaise.

Oatmeal Bread

Here, I used a Better Homes and Gardens recipe for my bread machine.  Again, it was good but not as good as other breads we've made so I'll not post the recipe.

Cranberry Sauce

I used a Bon Appetit recipe here.  And, I do believe I'll be going back to my old faithful cranberry sauce recipe.  Which I see I've not yet blogged about.  Ok, I need to rectify that since it is incredible! 


Yorkshire Pudding

This was a failure on my part.  I used a Tyler Florence recipe.  They were like hockey pucks.  Well, maybe not that dense but they certainly didn't rise.  Next time I'll work on figuring out where I went wrong...

Potato Gratin

This, in our opinion, was the star of the sides.  I read about a dozen recipes and narrowed my focus down to a Fine Cooking and a Bon Appetit recipe.  Then, I smooshed the two together and wound up with a recipe I'll make again and again.

Ingredients:

4 large russet potatoes
salt
lemon peel - a couple of strips
4 peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T thyme
bay leaf
1 1/2 c cream
2 T butter
1 large shallot, minced
two big handfuls finely grated Gruyere 


Directions:

Mix all the ingredients except for the potatoes, salt and cheese in the cream.  Bring it to boil in a small saucepan.  Remove it from the heat and set it aside for 30 minutes.  

Saute the shallot in the butter and set it aside. 

Peel and slice the potatoes about 1/8" thick.  Put the slices in lemon water for about 15 minutes.  Dry then before using.  I liberally salted them when I had them out on the towel

Shingle the potatoes into a baking dish.  See the photo.  This assures every serving gets some nice, crispy edges.

Fish the bay leaf out of the cream.  Combine the shallots, butter and cream in a blender and blend until the mixture is relatively smooth.  Pour the cream over the potatoes.  Top with the cheese.  Bake them for about 60-70 minutes at 350.

Persimmon Pudding

Last but not least.  This is truly an heirloom recipe.  From my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my mother and now on to me.  It's made to be made with Indiana persimmons.  Here's the link:  
persimmon pudding

Persimmon Pudding

The Invasion of the Grunions

The Grunions is the name that Connie has for the grandkids.  Connie called David to remind him that the Avatar exhibit at the Children’s museum would be closing in the third week of September.  He happened to be on vacation so suggested that they come over that Friday.  Bradley (aka The Kraken) is in kindergarten now, so they didn’t get to Indianapolis until 2:30, but they had plenty of time to go the museum.  The museum opened a new area called Playscape for pre-schoolers.  It was only opened to members on this day, but since David is a member, no problem.  The Avatar exhibit was cool, but nothing compared to Playscape.  The kids would have probably stayed there for hours on end.  There is a water area, music, climbing, sandbox, art, and an area that has building blocks, a “Reaction Contraption”, and a “Whirly Twirly Tower” and lots more.  Wicked cool!

After the museum it was back to the house for a run through the sprinkler.  Then, of course, Bradley needed his mojitos.  Connie has taught Bradley how to make mojitos (virgin, of course) and Bradley never forgets to ask.  He knows where the muddler is kept and is always ready to help pick, sort and wash the mint leaves.  He is also a discerning character.  After they made the mojitos, Connie asked Bradley how they tasted.  Bradley looks at him and says, “I think they need more sugar water (simple syrup).  Good grief, another food critic!  So back in the cocktail mixer they go, more simple syrup is added and the concoction is re-poured.  “Much better”, declares Bradley.  The best part of the story is that Connie accidently used the hummingbird food which has LESS sugar than our normal simple syrup.  Bradley noticed.  Connie didn't. 

We picked peppers for inclusion in the slaw we made for dinner.  We picked and ate golden raspberries right off the canes.  We picked tomatoes for the burgers for dinner.  Rosie, who normally does not eat tomatoes, walked around the garden munching on a large yellow tomato that she picked herself.  Bradley spent an hour climbing in a swamp honeysuckle. 

However, the highlight of the evening was preparing dessert.  I've got a persimmon pudding recipe that was originally my great-grandmother's.  The woman I was named after.  We took persimmons out of the freezer.  These were persimmons that we had harvested last year from the tree in our front yard.  After thawing for a little bit, Rosie and Connie stood at the bar and pressed the persimmons through a colander to extract the pulp from the seeds and other detritus.  Rosie did this for a half an hour.  Her commitment to the process was amazing.  Bradley wanted to help also, but when presented with his turn, he couldn’t bring himself to stick his hands into the gooey mess, so Rosie jumped back in. 

Pressing persimmons through a colander to make persimmon pudding is one of my fondest memories from my childhood about my grandmother.  Rosie used the same colander I used when my grandmother put me on a stepstool in her kitchen and let me smoosh away.   I think we may have passed the enjoyment of smooshing the persimmons on to another generation.  Rosie had a ball!  And by the way, the resultant pudding was inhaled by everyone.  It certainly is fun seeing the wee ones getting involved with cooking and preparing food.  Bradley loves making his mojitos and Rosie for the second time in as many visits, has stepped up and been involved with preparing the food.

After dinner some of us were just plain tuckered out :-)

 

David left after 9pm and got home at midnight.  Connie called in the morning to thank him for coming over and was told that when the kids got up in the morning the conversation went like this.  “Can we go back over to Grammy and Grampy’s today?”  “No”  “Why not?”  “Because the Buckeyes are playing today.”  “Can we go after the Buckeyes game is over?”  “No.”  “Why not?”  “Because it will be too late.”  “Can we go over tomorrow?”  “No.”  “Why not?”  “Because Momma will be home and I am playing golf with Poppa (their maternal grandfather).”  “Well, that makes no sense.”

Grammie's Persimmon Pudding

I'm doing something a bit different here... I'm copying the actual recipe card I have.  What you do is smoosh the persimmons thru a colander then mix them with the other ingredients.  Then, you pour the whole deal into a greased baking dish (I use about a 9x9 ceramic heat-proof dish) and pop it into the oven.  Serve with whipped cream.  Or we've found the new Cool Whip is so much like whipped cream that most folks can't tell the difference.