liamsaunt

egg and turkey sausage on leftover focaccia

I am hosting Christmas dinner. The menu: prime standing rib roast with au jus (ordered from Heritage Foods), butternut squash and mushroom wellington for my sister and me as we do not eat red meat, twice baked potatoes, spinach gratin, roasted cauliflower, whiskey glazed carrots, homemade rolls. My mother is bringing a pecan pie for dessert. Christmas eve is unsettled. We typically go to my in-laws, but my father in law is in the hospital presently as he had a bad fall two weeks ago and suffered a TBI. My mother in law indicated yesterday that she wants to wait to get together until after he is out of the hospital/rehab, and given that he is scheduled for a second surgery today, the odds of him being home by Christmas are very remote. So, I'll probably end up cooking that day too. I also host on New Year's Day. The only thing I know for certain so far is that I am roasting a large bone in ham as that is the preferred NY main for my parents, husband, niece and nephew. I'll need a second main for this meal too as my sister and I don't eat ham either. Neither does my husband's brother and he comes to New Year's dinner. Last year I roasted a side of salmon and that went over well.

Rosemary focaccia and creamy chicken soup

Pizza last night, margharita and carbonara

The recipe is from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook Bread Illustrated. Unfortunately I cannot find the correct version of the recipe online without a paywall. ATK is rather persnickety about protecting their recipes. I've been baking a lot from this book and have generally had good success.

It's more like an eggy popover than a soufflé. Sure, here is the link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11948-gruyere-puff?action=click&module=Local Search Recipe Card&pgType=search&rank=1

Steak frites, and a gruyere puff for the non-red meat eaters. There was also a salad, I promise!

I baked a batch of English muffins for the weekend.

Dinner last night was supposed to be chicken parmesan, but husband requested chicken broccoli pasta instead. I had a piece of broccoli in the fridge, so changing the menu was not a problem.

Yes, the fish was poached in the stock, along with the mushrooms and spinach. It's basically this recipe from Martha Rose Shulman: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014778-noodle-bowl-with-mushrooms-spinach-and-salmon?action=click&module=Local Search Recipe Card&pgType=search&rank=14 I used home made miso chicken stock that was in my freezer. For two servings, I used six cups stock, one bunch spinach, 6 ounces mushrooms, six ounces of noodles, and 10 ounces salmon, plus a bunch of scallions and cilantro.

Miso noodle bowls with shiitake mushrooms, spinach, and salmon poached in the broth

It will be interesting to see how popular the fast food Beyond products become. My husband and I recently travelled to Disney. Most of the food was good and I posted about it in the Florida thread. Disney has committed to offering a vegan option at every location where they sell food, which is admirable, but at the fast service locations, that translates to Beyond Meat burgers or sausages (there are better options at the sit down places). and they have no idea how to cook this stuff. I ordered a Beyond sausage at some location in the Magic Kingdom, just to see how they handled it. Behold. This was $14, by the way. One bite and into the trash it went.

Yesterday was my fish share delivery. I thought we were getting Jonah crab legs this week in addition to our usual salmon and local white fish, and had a spicy crab spaghetti recipe picked out and ready to go. But, when I opened the cooler, no crab! It turns out that the crab is scheduled to be delivered next week. Luckily I had not started cooking yet. So I made what was intended for tonight's dinner instead: a batch of rustic dinner rolls and hake cooked in a spicy tomato-caper-olive sauce with basil. We'll have what was intended to be tomorrow's salmon tonight, and then I have to come up with something from the freezer for Thursday.

Pot pie with shrimp, scallops, peas, and fennel

I have to say the same. Your dining room is beautiful! Tonight, chili-thai basil salmon with spinach and rice. From the anguished screaming I can hear on the other side of the house, it sounds like a New England Patriots loss is going to make for a bitter dessert for the football fans in my home. My football game territory in the house has Christmas carols and wine 🙂

tortellini stuffed with mushrooms, ricotta, and walnuts in a creamy porcini mushroom sauce

Tuesday into Wednesday I made a couple of loaves of pane francese. I had trouble with the shaping--the dough stuck to the couche a bit so I lost the pointy ends. I don't think I floured it enough. I froze one loaf and made the other into a giant Sicilian tuna sandwich-- tuna that I poached in olive oil the day before, heated back up in some of its oil with sun dried tomatoes, capers, and spinach added, topped with hard boiled eggs. I found the recipe in Fish Without a Doubt, by Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore. This is supposedly a two person sandwich but it could have easily fed four.

Lasagna with arugula salad. The filling was a mix of roasted mushrooms and Italian chicken sausage, plus the usual cheeses. It's impossible to take a pretty picture of lasagna. I marvel at the clean layers of lasagna in the food magazine photos. I have always wondered if those lasagnas are taken cold from the fridge to be photographed. It tasted good, anyway!

Last night, the end of the Thanksgiving turkey was made into sandwiches with avocado, bacon, and carmelized shallot aioli

I have successfully ordered prime rib roasts from Lobel's and Pat LaFrieda for prior holidays. This year I ordered from Heritage Foods. Last year we had a prime dry-aged roast from Eataly. I do not eat beef so cannot personally comment on the flavor difference between the dry and wet aged. Both seemed to be equally popular with the members of my family that do eat beef.

Seared tuna with sage garlic chips, roasted lemon potatoes and spinach

garlic knots and spicy cod spaghetti with tomatoes, olives and capers

Thank you! Most of the pictures were taken with a Canon 60D with an 18-135 mm lens. I have had this camera for over 10 years. My husband upgraded me to a 5D with a new lens last year, but I still prefer my old workhorse. A couple of the photos, like the interior of the California Grill picture, were taken with an iphone 11.

The internet at our hotel was insanely slow, so I gave up on updating this. Now that I am home and through Thanksgiving, I have time to post the rest. Our hotel had Todd English's Bluezoo in it, so we stopped in a couple of times for late night snacks. Jumbo shrimp scampi Truffled risotto tater tots Crab beigniets We went back to Oga's Cantina in the evening for a glass of wine. My white wine was blue. Weird! We stopped in to Satuli Canteen in Pandora for an early lunch. Chili-garlic shrimp and noodle bowl Chopped chicken, bean and rice bowl We celebrated my husband's birthday at the California Grill. The restaurant has nice sunset views Bread served with roasted tomatoes and olive oil Roasted tomato flatbread Spicy kazan roll with crab, shrimp, scallops, tuna and fireball sauce Shiso glazed tuna with pineapple brown butter shisito vinaigrette, cashews, avocado and sea cress. The dark stuff was black rice puffs Fonduta tortelloni with chanterelle mushrooms, black truffle, corn-saffron butter sauce Oak fired filet of beef with aged gouda mac and cheese, spinach and onions We were too full for dessert but the waitress brought my husband a free slice of cake. He blew out the candle before I took the photo Our last meal was at the Flying Fish. Snow crab croquette with blood orange and tarragon Jumbo shrimp with crispy serrano ham and citrus Potato wrapped snapper with leek fondue and cassis-red wine reduction Sardinian seafood pasta with shrimp, scallops and lobster And that's it for this quick trip. A couple of fireworks shots to end. Disney does a great job with fireworks.

Most of the time real dishes are used. It is the festival food--the food and wine posted recently, and the flower and garden earlier--that are served on paper. There's no practical way to use china at the festivals. The booths are very tiny--big enough for two or so people inside, and the food is generally eaten while standing up and/or walking. Disney does have a robust recycling program. That said, I have always thought it would be a money maker for them to sell commemorative reusable flatware and wine cups (something like a metal corksicle). When I remember, I bring wooden flatware from home to use as I have quite a bit leftover from when I was doing chemotherapy, but I forgot this trip. We came down mostly to see Star Wars Land. The land has a bar that is built to look like the cantina. We stopped in twice. The atmosphere is pretty funky Our first reservation was in the morning, so we opted for non alcoholic drinks. The cantina does not really have food, it is just drinks. Mine, on the left, was OK. It had a mix of fruit juices and boba balls. There was dry ice (I think) in the bottom of the cup that made the balls bounce around inside the glass. Four different people came up and asked if they could take a video of my drink haha. My husband's drink was the blue milk, and it was DISGUSTING! It tasted like bubble gum. I let him share mine out of sympathy. Cool atmosphere, bad blue milk! We had dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby. Cocktails--mine was called the Fabulous Marines, but I forget what was in it (I started taking pictures of the cocktail descriptions after this meal). Bread with sea salt butter We shared an order of shrimp cocktail with fennel slaw and cucumber foam I got a bowl of the ginger-lemon grass pho, which came with mushroom and tofu spring rolls. I added shrimp for an upcharge. They gave me lots of chiles and cilantro to put in the pho, which was great. I really enjoyed this. Husband had the duck, which came with grilled plums, marinated fennel, pea tendrils, a citrus-honey vinaigrette and a pomegranate barbecue sauce. The duck was perfectly cooked. He loved this dish and ate it all. Too full for dessert. Yesterday neither of us had much of an appetite. We just had some small bites at Animal Kingdom. Nomad Lounge is a nice place to stop in for a few drinks and get out of the heat. For our first round, husband chose a boto rita (zignum reposado mezcal, combier grapefruit liqueur, guava puree, and lime juice), and I had a spice trader classic (Heyman's Old Tom gin, Dolin vermouth blanc, lemon juice, and strawberries topped with soda water) We also order a bread service to share. This had pappadum, paratha, and spiced focaccia served with tadka, spiced coriander yogurt, and fig tapenade We ordered a second round of drinks. Husband had the hightower rocks (casa dragones blanco tequila, watermelon, sweet and sour, and lime juice), and I ordered the sinaloa sangria (rose, barsol quebranta pisco, and fresh fruit. I ate most of the fruit before taking the picture haha)