Christmas at Aunt B’s

Although my family isn’t Christian, we have been celebrating Christmas for the past couple of years as a way to get together with some good food and drink. I like to think of it as a second Thanksgiving, which is fitting this year considering I spent Thanksgiving with CT’s family. Aunt B really loves entertaining and cooking, so she was more than happy to host. I was able to even help out and bring a dish or two, which was fun.

Just like with CT’s family, Aunt B usually goes a bit overboard with the amount of food served. This year, there were 8 people in attendance, but 2 left before the main course.

There were a plethora of hors d’oeuvres.

First, a couple of cheeses including goat, bleu, Parmesan, and brie. My Dad is the cheese guy of the family, so he was nibbling on these all night. I was partial to the nice and gooey brie.

Here are the corn fritters frying up. I believe it was only corn kernels and cornmeal. B would have preferred to serve them immediately while hot and crunchy, but they were still quite good after sitting for a while. The kernels bursted with flavor after popping these in your mouth. She served these with some crème fraiche.

Green olives, also specifically for Dad.

Smoked Salmon and some buttered rye bread. I have really begun to appreciate the deliciousness of smoked salmon over the past couple of years especially when it is on top of buttery bread.

A ton of shrimp with cocktail sauce. This is another of Aunt B’s entertaining staples. She always manages to get great shrimp from the fishmonger.

Here is the first of many pork preparations we had. Prosciutto di Parma with honeydew and fresh lime. Everyone was amazed that B was able to find a ripe and juicy honeydew. The sweetness was enhanced nicely by the saltiness of the proscuitto. Squeezing some lime juice on top enhanced all the flavors that much more.

Here are the famous Pancetta crisps with roasted beets and goat cheese. B was going to use pears like she had previously, but I offered to roast some beets again. The pancetta was a lot thinner than the ones I got for Thanksgiving, so it was more chip-like. This just meant I was able to eat a lot more of them.

Gratuitous shot of Scout posing for the camera.

The main course was a filet of beef simply rubbed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary and thyme. B just bought a new electric meat thermometer, which allowed for the perfect cooking of the meat. It was nice and tender and packed with the flavor of the rub.

She grilled some polenta cakes for one of the sides. At first, I thought the sheet tray was a layer of mashed potatoes. After cooling the cooked polenta on a sheet tray, she cut out rounds and grilled them up on a grill pan. This was a nice alternative to potatoes.

Here is my second attempt at Roasted Brussel Sprouts with bacon. I wasn’t very happy with the recipe I used for Thanksgiving, so I tried something different after consulting with some different chefs. I simply cooked the bacon to render out the fat in a frying pan, while being careful to not make it too crisp. I then coated the halved sprouts in the bacon fat and put in baking dish into a very hot oven. I drizzled a little olive oil on top since there wasn’t that much bacon fat. After roasting about 20 minutes until carmelization began, I put the bacon back in with the sprouts to heat up. It was DELICIOUS! Everyone raved about them to me. I will definitely cook them this way again. It was 10x simpler than the other recipe and 100X tastier.

In a nice serving dish.

For the first dessert, B made her famous pumpkin semifreddo with caramel sauce on the side. For those that know me, you know I skipped dessert, especially since I had seconds of everything.

She also made a ton of cookies. Chocolate Chip and Creamcheese Pecan Tarts. She always makes sure to make enough for my Mom to take a couple tins home.

She also had some candies from See’s and Teuscher.

Sorry, Scout, no food dropped on the floor.

All in all, everything was delicious. Aunt B really outdid herself and I was glad to give a little help here and there. I was glad to be the recipient of a lot of leftovers, which came in handy during the blizzard we had the next day. I hope you had a nice Christmas too. Happy Holidays!