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| Christmas Menu |
Having successfully put together a Thanksgiving meal, I endeavored to repeat the feat for Christmas. This time around, I did not try out any of the recipes ahead of time. Even roasting a duck full was new to me. It was a calculated risk worth taking.
Knowing that roasting the duck would take the longest, I made the cranberry pie first thin in the morning. It teased us the rest of the day. I prepped all the ingredients for the soup, salad, and side dishes ahead of time. I even got to have all four burners going while the majority of the cooking took place.
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| Spaghetti and Pea Soup |
I chose a light soup to start the meal with. It was also very simple: onions, peas, spaghetti, chicken stock with salt and pepper for added seasoning. After the first bite, the Guinea Pig declared that we are going to be making this soup again...soon! I guess I'll take that as a very successful starter to the meal.
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| Chopped Kale Salad |
Next up was the salad. Once again, wishing to keep things light and simple it had few ingredients: kale, pine nuts, golden raisins, Parmesan cheese with a lemon juice and olive oil dressing. I think there may have been a bit too much dressing, but that would be my only negative comment about the dish. All the flavors really came together well.
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| Oven Roasted Duck |
Then came the star of the meal. As the duck was cooking, it seemed that it was more melting away than roasting. Having never roasted a duck before and knowing how fatty the breast is, I wanted to see if scoring it would have any effect. I scored one side and left the other as is. I was surprised to see that the scored side ended up with more fat under the skin and the other side seemed to have had more of the fat cook off.
I chose a sampling of both light and dark meats to be able to fully evaluate the success of the duck. I was a bit afraid that having been in the oven for over four hours, the breast meat would be tough. No such thing happened! Both types of meat were wonderfully moist.
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| Toasted Quinoa with Mushrooms |
As a side to the duck, I made toasted quinoa with mushrooms. Mushrooms are always good. A pound of assorted mushrooms is even better. Add to that quinoa toasted with garlic in sesame seed oil and cooked with vegetable stock and you got yourself one delicious combination. While the quinoa was cooking in one pot, I was busy sauteing the mushrooms in a large pan. It always amazes me how much mushrooms cook down.
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| Cranberry Pie |
Both Guinea Pig and I were being careful not to get too full. We did not want to miss out on the dessert. When the time finally came to devour the pie that's been filling the house with delicious smells for the better part of the day, we were not disappointed. We warmed it up a bit, being careful not to dry it out. It was a perfect way to end the meal.
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| Pomegranate Cranberry Sangria |
All throughout the meal, and for the better part of the day, the Guinea Pig and I got to enjoy a yummy beverage. My first sangria came out pretty good. I made the decision to keep ginger ale out of the mix and add it to order so as not to let all the carbonation out. I even enjoyed the fruit.
This Christmas meal was another success. A delicious side effect of making a lot of food for just two people is that we now have enough food to last us the rest of the year.
