Yes, I am a little late posting about a Christmas Day meal but I had a food hangover(lol...)and have been a bit busy getting stuff done around the house while on my holiday vacation from work.
I started off the Christmas Day cooking late Monday afternoon to get a jump on all the cooking to be done. I started with getting the turtle soup going but only after opening a nice beer. A Banana Bread Beer which really does smell and taste a bit like banana bread. Pretty good!
While the turtle soup was simmering I made the dressings. Cornbread Dressing, a Crawfish & Andouille cornbread dressing which I used to stuff(actually overstuffed
)a pork loin. Two others which were Shrimp & Mirliton and a Artichoke dressing. No pictures of those as I forgot.
After that was all done I decided to have a little egg nog. A pre mixed(with liquor)version, Pennsylvania Dutch. Pretty good stuff but I did have a little more with a little extra Maker's Mark.
Now it was time to make some cookies. Fruit Cake Cookies. I had put the fruit and pecans to maserate in some sherry the night before and they smelled fantastic. After mixing all the ingredients and forming into tubes they needed to chill so I left that in the fridge until the next morning.
Christmas morning I awakened early, had some coffee and it was time to get the cookies in the oven.
Before baking and I didn't get a shot of them after being busy with other stuff.
These came out really good everybody loved them but I did overbake them just a bit too long.
Later Christmas morning my daughter, son-in-law and grandaughter came over to open presents.
This was going to be a long day. By the time we finished with gifts it had already felt like I was up twelve hours.
Even the puppy was worn out. I felt like crawling under there with her for a nap myself.
No pictures of plated food as things started getting hectic when others began arriving and finishing up the other food.
The turtle soup warmed and completed. This was some delicious soup. Those that eat turtle soup raved over it and there were a couple that wouldn't eat it. Oh well more for me. It really is some delicious stuff!
The turkey right before I took it off the grill.
It too came out fantastic! Tender, juicy and crisp skin. This was so good I'm going to do another one on Sunday to have breast for that day and some meat and the carcass to make a gumbo on New Year's Day.
Finally the Crawfish dressin overstuffed pork loin on the other grill.
It's funny that it's like everyone must congregate around when it's time to carve the meats. I almost have to fight them off as they watch with anticipation of which meat they will want to put on their plate first. Of course someone's always got to sneak and grab a piece of the crisp turkey skin or the almost charred small bits of pork loin that falls from the slices.
It was a great Christmas and as many always proclaim "we had way too much food". I didn't mention the other four or five dishes that were brought over to contribute to the feast and I almost forgot about the candied yams and the turkey neck gravy I made also. And yes we did indeed have way too much food but everyone always enjoys the leftovers that they leave with or come back to eat the next day or even day after that.
We always say we will NOT cook so much food for the next big holiday but when deciding what the menu will be we always end up saying "well, we HAVE to have such and such and this or that and it once again always ends up still being a ton of food. Oh well, I guess that's one of the reasons for calling these meals "holiday feasts".
I started off the Christmas Day cooking late Monday afternoon to get a jump on all the cooking to be done. I started with getting the turtle soup going but only after opening a nice beer. A Banana Bread Beer which really does smell and taste a bit like banana bread. Pretty good!
While the turtle soup was simmering I made the dressings. Cornbread Dressing, a Crawfish & Andouille cornbread dressing which I used to stuff(actually overstuffed
)a pork loin. Two others which were Shrimp & Mirliton and a Artichoke dressing. No pictures of those as I forgot. After that was all done I decided to have a little egg nog. A pre mixed(with liquor)version, Pennsylvania Dutch. Pretty good stuff but I did have a little more with a little extra Maker's Mark.
Now it was time to make some cookies. Fruit Cake Cookies. I had put the fruit and pecans to maserate in some sherry the night before and they smelled fantastic. After mixing all the ingredients and forming into tubes they needed to chill so I left that in the fridge until the next morning.
Christmas morning I awakened early, had some coffee and it was time to get the cookies in the oven.
Before baking and I didn't get a shot of them after being busy with other stuff.
These came out really good everybody loved them but I did overbake them just a bit too long.
Later Christmas morning my daughter, son-in-law and grandaughter came over to open presents.
This was going to be a long day. By the time we finished with gifts it had already felt like I was up twelve hours.
Even the puppy was worn out. I felt like crawling under there with her for a nap myself.
No pictures of plated food as things started getting hectic when others began arriving and finishing up the other food.
The turtle soup warmed and completed. This was some delicious soup. Those that eat turtle soup raved over it and there were a couple that wouldn't eat it. Oh well more for me. It really is some delicious stuff!
The turkey right before I took it off the grill.
It too came out fantastic! Tender, juicy and crisp skin. This was so good I'm going to do another one on Sunday to have breast for that day and some meat and the carcass to make a gumbo on New Year's Day.
Finally the Crawfish dressin overstuffed pork loin on the other grill.
It's funny that it's like everyone must congregate around when it's time to carve the meats. I almost have to fight them off as they watch with anticipation of which meat they will want to put on their plate first. Of course someone's always got to sneak and grab a piece of the crisp turkey skin or the almost charred small bits of pork loin that falls from the slices.
It was a great Christmas and as many always proclaim "we had way too much food". I didn't mention the other four or five dishes that were brought over to contribute to the feast and I almost forgot about the candied yams and the turkey neck gravy I made also. And yes we did indeed have way too much food but everyone always enjoys the leftovers that they leave with or come back to eat the next day or even day after that.
We always say we will NOT cook so much food for the next big holiday but when deciding what the menu will be we always end up saying "well, we HAVE to have such and such and this or that and it once again always ends up still being a ton of food. Oh well, I guess that's one of the reasons for calling these meals "holiday feasts".
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