Christmas Dinner, 2009: An Embarassment of Riches (with Recipes!)

This year, for the first time in my young life, no one cooked Christmas dinner.  Rather than travel to Missouri for the holidays, Mr. Luz and I stayed home in D.C., video Skyped with our loved ones, and ate leftovers--partially to recover from our Christmas Eve feast at Bistrot Lepic, and partially to mentally and physically prepare for the Christmas dinner we cooked for our friends the next day.

Yep...Mr. Luz and I cooked our very first Christmas dinner this weekend.  I'm no Julia, we were able to dig into our Favorite Flavors Repository and come up with a satisfying and kind-of-almost-healthy-ish meal to share with friends by the glow of the Christmas tree.

And for once, I didn't have even the tiniest of meltdowns. Mr. Luz and I worked together and managed to feed 12 people out of a kitchen the size of a refrigerator box without any injuries, tears, or low-blood sugar freak outs. And as everyone squeezed into our living room, and the volume got  louder and smiles got brighter throughout the evening, I felt blessed-like the richest woman in the world.  I'm really proud of our beautiful meal.  And Mr. Luz, thanks for being my calm, dedicated co-Chef this Christmas. I love you.

Christmas Dinner Menu for 12 (recipes below):

Assorted Appetizers

Smoked Turkey
Baked Acorn Squash with Butter and Cinnamon
Gremolata Greenbeans
Smoked Oyster New Orleans Style Stuffing

The Best Apple Pie In The World (recipe pending in future post)

Smoked Turkey Recipe:  See this link to a previous post

Baked Acorn Squash with Butter and Brown Sugar Recipe:
This recipe is elegant, simple, and traditional.  If you don't want to serve the squash pieces individually, simply halve the squash, and after baking spoon out the squash and mash it to a puree for serving.

3-4 large Acorn Squash, seeds and strings removed
3 Tbs. butter
6 Tbs. brown sugar
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Quarter the squash, and arrange on a rimmed baking sheet, skin side down. Add a few Tbs. of water to the baking sheet to steam squash and keep skins from burning.

Spoon pieces of butter and brown sugar into the concave part of the squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 45 min. to an hour, until the squash is soft all the way through and browned a bit on top.  Serve.

Gremolata Green beans Recipe:
This dish serves as the perfect bright, garlicky foil to a traditional rich, sweet holiday menu and it's so versatile.  Make it ahead of time and serve it at room temperature.  These green beans are so tasty, we eat them like dessert...a few bites at a time, all day long.  We acquired the recipe after a friend brought them to Thanksgiving this year, so I can't take credit, but they were too good not to pass along.

2 pounds green beans
4 Tbs. minced garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Zest of 8 lemons (yellow part only)
2 bunches Italian parsley, leaves only, chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste

Blanch the green beans in a pot of boiling salted water for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes; drain and plunge into ice water. Drain well. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Saute the garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat for 2 minutes or just until the garlic turns white. Do not let it brown. Pour over the beans and toss to combine.

Combine the lemon zest, parsley, cheese, salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the beans, and toss. Add the lemon juice, toss again, and taste. Adjust seasonings with salt, pepper and more lemon juice, to taste.

NOTE: Mr. Luz likes to throw the topping ingredients, raw garlic, cheese and all, into the food processer and then toss the blanched greenbeans, olive oil, lemon juice, and food processed topping all together before serving.  To him, flash cooking the garlic takes some of the fun out of the dish, and electronics are more fun than chopping.

Smoked Oyster French Bread Stuffing
I love a sweet, salty, umami-tasting oyster with just about everything, but especially when it adds unexpected elegance and subtlety to a holiday stuffing/dressing. I've been eating this stuff for breakfast since Saturday.

2 large loaves stale French bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups fresh oysters in their own liquor
1 1/2 cups smoked oysters, rinsed and coarse chopped
1 bunch fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 bunches green onions, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbs. bacon grease
1 cup butter
2 Tbs. of your favorite fresh savory herb(s), chopped (thyme, sage, rosemary)
Salt and red pepper to taste
2 cups chicken stock
Dry the bread cubes on a baking sheet all day, or in a 200 degree oven, until crispy.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and bacon grease over medium heat in a large pan.  Add the bell pepper, onion, celery and saute until translucent.  Add the garlic, green onion, and parsley and saute 2 more minutes.

Combine the sauteed vegetables, bread cubes, smoked and fresh oysters, with their liquor, savory herbs, salt and red pepper and chicken stock in a large bowl and mix well. Spoon the dressing into a baking dish. Dot with the remaining 1/2 cup butter.  Bake at 350 until brown and bubbly--approximately 35-45  minutes.

How to Smoke a Turkey on a Weber Kettle Grill

OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGodohmyGod, Look What I Did!! Seriously, I did that. And I maybe cried a few happy tears when I saw that bronze lacquered skin, and heard the meat thermometer beep as it reached 160 degrees.

This post should be called "The Smoked Turkey Experiment," because I essentially read a few vague web pages, threw this big boy in the Weber kettle, chugged a few glasses of wine to take the edge off my fretting, and hoped that instinct and the aforementioned meat thermometer would see me through. (The thermometer is amazing, FYI--it has a pager that goes off when the desired temp. is reached. Drunk grilling just got a whole lot easier.) Hypothesis: If you can start a charcoal grill, you can smoke a turkey. Conclusion: Affirmed.

Let the record show, I have never even roasted a turkey. I've never really roasted anything--when your parents keep your spoiled ass set up with kitchen gadgets like a countertop rotisserie, you don't roast, you rotisserize. If I can pull this off, anyone can, and should.

The smoked turkey had a beautiful, flavorful skin and the meat had a juicy texture that was tender, not chewy. Mr. Luz carved the bird, and he kept sort of giggling and mumbling "..so tender...falling off the bone..." And it was so smooth, rich, and smokey in flavor. Later, after a few bottles of wine, Mr. Luz called it 1.) the best turkey he'd ever tasted and 2.) in the top 5 best tasting meats he'd ever had. (When asked to do impressions, a wine-soaked Mr. Luz did: Mama BaCon--"I got you some tupperware, and it fits the whole universe." Papa BaCon--"The Hunley is a magnificent watercraft, simply stunning." Me: "F*** you, you f****** b****." He doesn't remember doing them, but they were pretty accurate.)

Instructions:

1. If using a brine, thaw your turkey at least 32 hours before you cook it. Once thawed, prepare the brine and soak your turkey for 24 hours plus. This Serious Eats Food Lab article is the best I've read on how and why you brine a turkey. Before smoking, thoroughly rinse your turkey in cold water. *NOTE: I didn't get the turkey in time to brine it, and it was still fantastic, but brining would take it to the next level. *

2. If not brining, thaw your turkey in the fridge for two days, or use the cold-water method just before smoking. (Soak in cold water, in the packaging, changing the water ever 30 minutes. It takes approximately 30 minutes per pound.)

3. Soak 3-4 handfuls of mesquite wood chips in water. 1 hour minimum for chips, 4+ hours for large knots of wood.

3. Once the turkey has thawed, remove giblets/neck from turkey and rinse inside and out. Pat dry. If your turkey is 16+ lbs. you might want to cut the entire turkey in half at this time. Yes, this is the cheater way to do it, but you'll avoid black turkey skin, and you won't fret/gulp wine for 8+ hours, wondering if the damned thing is even cooking.

4. Prepare 1 chimney of hot charcoal. Place a pan of liquid on the center of your bottom grate (water, wine, beer, broth, ect.) and spread the hot coals around it. Add 5-7 cold coals to the hot coals. Put the 3/4 of the soaked wood chips on top of the hot coals, open the bottom and top vents on the grill, and close the lid.

5. Cover your turkey inside and out with olive oil/melted butter and salt, pepper, dried thyme, and cayenne pepper. Put the turkey on the grill grate, breast side up, placing the turkey directly over the liquid-filled drip pan. (If you cut your turkey in half, put the meat facing up and the bones facing down.)

6. Every hour, quickly check your coals and baste your bird with more butter/olive oil. Halfway through smoking, prepare another chimney of hot coals and add it to your Weber grill, along with the last 1/4 of the wood chips. Your bird will generally need 30 minutes per pound to cook, and if you cut it in half then count the time based on the weight of 1/2 the turkey. Every time you open the lid, you increase your cooking time so do it sparingly. Trust me, it's cooking.

7. When a meat thermometer inserted in the breast but not touching the bone (ESSENTIAL) reaches 160 degrees, your bird is done and safe to eat. Carefully remove it from the grill, let it rest at least 15 minutes, carve, and serve.

Merry Christmas To All, with Snickerdoodles

Ok, really, Merry Christmas this time.

It's 1pm on Christmas Eve, and I'm just about to leave work to go watch Harry Potter, eat snickerdoodles, and sleep on my couch until Mr. Luz gets home.

After that, we will get gussied up and go eat lots of confit'ed meats and cheese at Bistrot Lepic's Christmas Eve dinner. I supremely hope that the restaurant is decorated with pine garlands, red velvet bows, and candles. I don't know...that's just how I picture a romantic, grown-up Christmas dinner, just me and my man. (In my head, I'm also wearing the most amazing mile-high purple stilettos amidst the pine garland. Just so you get a complete picture.)

Also, because I know you're wondering, here's the etymology of "gussied up": it's a fairly modern term, and "Gussy" or "Gussie" was originally applied to an effeminate or weak person. British or Australian in origin.

I'm very, very excited for our grown-up Christmas. How will you celebrate the holidays this year?



Snickerdoodle Recipe, from allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. white sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt.

Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture.

Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 minutes, or until barely set. Let cool a bit, then remove from cookie sheets to cool further.

Gingerbread Rowhouses & A Very Daring Bakers Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Joyous New Year to you, dear readers and ravenous eaters!

Mr. Luz and I are having our very first grownup Christmas, just the two of us and Foxy, this year. I'm so very excited that I'm not getting on a plane and leaving my Christmas tree behind this December! And as we're snuggling on the couch by the glow of our tree this Christmas, I will be thinking of you guys, and I'll feeling very thankful for all of the friends I've come to know or gotten closer to thanks to the blog.

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was, of course, a gingerbread house! I made a gingerbread version of our row house and our neighbors, Val and Lauren's, rowhouse. The whole process was really fun and not as difficult as I was expecting. Apparently, royal icing fixes a multitude of sins.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Anna's Recipe: Spicy Gingerbread Dough (from Good Housekeeping)

2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream
1 1/4 cups molasses
9 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. baking soda
1 Tbs. ground ginger

1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.*At this time, the dough was a little dry. I added more milk Tbs. by Tbs. until it held together.*

2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.

3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets (17-inch by 14-inch/43x36cm)

4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.) *Rolling out gingerbread dough is a Great workout, FYI*

Cutting out my template, using a book from my Feminist Theory class in undergrad so I can conceptualize my lil' rowhouses AND get some education at the same time.


5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.

8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping.

9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake.

Complete template & obligatory DB glass(es) of wine (with extra roof for 3rd rowhouse I gave up on after baking for 4 hours)

10. Remove cookie sheet from oven. While house pieces are still warm, place poster-board patterns on top and use them as guides to trim shapes to match if necessary. Cool pieces completely before attempting to assemble the house.

Assembling the House:

Decorate your pieces with piped and painted royal icing and edible decorations--Recipe Below--before assembling your house.

To "paint" your gingerbread like I did, put a moderate amount of royal icing in a small bowl, add 1 Tbs. of water and add food coloring to get the desired color. Paint on with a paintbrush.

To create caramel windows, put your gingerbread pieces with the windows cut out on a silpat or parchment paper covered with non-stick cooking spray. Mix 1 cup of sugar and 1 Tbs. of water in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring sugar mixture to medium-high heat and as sugar begins to melt, slowly stir unmelted sugar into the melted sugar. Once it's mostly incorporated, stop stirring and instead gently shake the pan to even out the heat distribution and stir the mixture. (If you stir it, you'll get little bubbles throughout your caramel mixture and your windows will be too opaque.)

When a small bit of caramel dropped into a glass of water forms a "hard ball" you're ready to pour your mixture into your window cutouts. Let the caramel cool until it's hard and easily releases from the parchment paper/silpat. *Note: If you choose to light your gingerbread house with corded vs. battery operated Christmas lights, tape them to your base to keep them from knocking your gingerbread walls around, and cut a small notch in your gingerbread piece to accommodate the wire.*

Once your decorated pieces have dried, carefully assemble them using tension and various household items to keep them standing while they dry. IF you make a dual or triple row house, be sure to include an inside wall between the rowhouses so that your roof doesn't collapse.

My house with supplies in the background. I read that the 100 calorie pack Oreo snacks made great shingles, and they did! Adorable, and a fun shape to work with.

Complete Gingerbread Rowhouses, with Happy Holidays cookie-message on top.

Royal Icing Recipe:

3 egg whites
1/2 Tbs. cream of tartar
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till fluffy. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until incorporated. Your mixture should be stiff and slightly cement-like. Use immediately and cover any unused portions with a damp cloth until you're ready to work with it.

Foxy, looking frightened of the GIANT bag of flour I had to buy for this challenge

Snowed In! Famous Barr's French Onion Soup Recipe

Famous Barr's french onion soup is renowned in St. Louis, and for good reason. My parents' generation would line up at the old department store's restaurant just to get a bowl after a day of window shopping. My generation has grown up hearing about the soup, and I was lucky enough to have a mom with the recipe and the patience to make it. Mama BaCon sent me this recipe years ago, and I love making it as much as I love eating it--your house smells so amazing as the onions simmer in pure sweet butter for 1 1/2 hours (yeeessss!!!).

My craving for Famous Barr's french onion soup was so strong this weekend that Mr. Luz went out in 17 inches of snow to pick up the necessities for the recipe. (Truth be told, we were out of beer and wine and the Saints were playing that night, so he had to go out anyway.) After he'd dug the truck out of the alley and mentally prepared to slide his way to the Safeway, Mr. Luz peeked his head in the front door and asked "What do you need for the recipe?" My reply-"Cheese, bread, 5 lbs. of onions, and 7 large cans of beef stock." This is truly the stuff of dreams, people.

I'll post the recipe exactly as it was originally published, with my tips and comments at the end (I've read that the St. Louis Post Dispatch published the recipe some time ago, but Mama BaCon got a copy when she bought these adorable Scandinavian-inspired soup crocks from the department store before it closed.)


This is what 5 lbs. of onions, peeled & sliced, looks like before the 90 minute saute in butter
This is what 5 lbs. of onions looks like after a 90 minute saute in butter. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Famous Barr's French Onion Soup Recipe:

5 lbs onions, unpeeled
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 Tbs. paprika
1 bay leaf
7 (16 oz.) cans beef broth, divided
1 cup dry white wine (optional)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour or instant flour
Caramel coloring (optional) or Kitchen Bouquet (optional)
2 tsp. salt
French baguettes (optional)
Swiss cheese (optional) or gruyere cheese (optional)

1. Peel onions and slice 1/8 inch thick, preferably in a food processor.
2. Melt butter in a 6-quart (or larger) stockpot. Add onions; cook, uncovered, over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in pepper, paprika and bay leaf; saute over low heat 10 minutes more, stirring frequently. 4. Pour in 6 cans broth and wine. Increase heat and bring to a boil.
5. Dissolve flour in remaining 1 can broth.
6. Stir into boiling soup.
7. Reduce heat and simmer slowly for 2 hours.
8. Adjust color to a rich brown with caramel coloring, season with salt. Refrigerate overnight. To serve, heat soup in microwave or on stove top.
9. If desired, pour into ovenproof crocks or bowls.
10. Top with a slice of bread and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Heat under the broiler until cheese melts and bubbles, about 5 minutes.
11. Leftover soup can be frozen.This recipe makes about 1 gallon of soup.

Tips and Tricks:

• I have to split my recipe into two pots to add the correct amount of broth. After the 2 hour simmer, I can usually put them back together.
• I increase the salt a bit, and add some cayenne pepper and extra black pepper for the tiniest bit of zip.
• Don't skip or skimp on the paprika. Besides the caramelized onions, it's what makes this recipe.
• This recipe says that the cheese and bread are optional. They are NOT optional.
• Rather than putting the whole bowl of soup under the broiler, I make cheese toast in the broiler or toaster oven to float on top. No burnt paws that way.
• I also slice the edges of the french bread pieces so that you can easily separate one bite of cheese bread with your spoon. If you don't slice the edges, you can sit there hacking away at the chewy french bread crust with an ineffectual lil' spoon forever.
• "Kitchen Bouquet"...tee hee.