Christmas Dinner Menu from Breakfast to Dessert

This Christmas I became a grown-up. Yes, I stopped believing in Santa a long time ago (except when I still watch Miracle on 34th Street), but this was the first holiday meal that I hosted for my family at my place. It may be because my mother always does such an amazing job not only with the cooking, but being such a warm, loving host that we've never wanted to change it. It may also be because I live in a studio apartment that may total 300 square feet if we count the fire escape. But this year it was time for a new generation in my family to step up to the plate. And I've learned that it's not about how much space or square footage you have, it's about who you have in your life to share it with. Even in our small home, we still made quite a feast and enjoyed each other and the meal, creating lasting memories.

Here was our Christmas Dinner Menu: 

Smoked Ham with a Madeira Glaze

Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Raviolis, Brown Sugar and Black Truffle Oil Sauce

Arugula, Gorgonzola, Candied Pecans and Tomatoes with Balsamic 

I got the ham from Ottomanelli and Sons Meat Market in the West Village on Bleecker Street. These gentlemen have a first class butcher shop. Even amongst the chaos and craziness of the holidays you will still get friendly, helpful service, let alone as always their quality meats. The reason I chose ham was my small oven is lacking for roasting or baking; it pretty much only broils on top and bottom. So the ham was already cooked, it was just a matter of heating it and basting it to give it flavor. They also provided a wonderful recipe for a glaze, that my brother and I slightly improvised.

Inside the Old-School Meat Market

Long line around the corner to the butcher shop

Mission Accomplished: Day of Food Shopping 

We put the ham in a 3" inch deep roasting pan, and added 1/2cup of Madeira wine and some water. We then poured some more Madeira wine on top of the ham in addition to a little olive oil, and rubbed some butter and brown sugar on it. We put that in the oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, to prepare the glaze, we mixed 1/2 cup of Dijon mustard (we used Grey Poupon) with a cup of brown sugar and since I had some apricot preserves I added a 1/4 cup (even orange marmalade would have been nice). We continued to mix the glaze adding some more Madeira wine to bring it to the right consistency. We took the ham out and poked some clove spikes all around it with some juniper berries, and basted the ham with some of the glaze. We cooked it on 375 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, consistently basting it.

Since I couldn't use my oven to prepare anything else, I opted for fresh raviolis. I chose two: wild mushroom and aged goat cheese. On the same block as Ottomanelli's is a wonderful Cheese and Italian Specialty Shop called Murray's Cheese. They have quite an assortment of pastas, chocolates, cheese, olives, bread, spreads — it's wonderful! I also learned that they offer classes for cheese learning and gift making. Since we've now eaten the raviolis I would highly recommend the circle raviolis stuffed with mushroom, but would pass on the square raviolis. The goat cheese ravs let the stuffing out when put in the boiling water (my brother chef told me it was because they were prepared without enough flour). I also got some black truffle oil from Murray's which we used in the sauce for the raviolis.

Thankfully my brother took over for the sauce and prepared it with butter, Madeira wine, brown sugar, pomegranate berries and thyme (I believe he also added a little flour to it as he was sauteing it to thicken the sauce). When the sauce was finished, he tossed the raviolis in it, he then added the truffle oil on top to bring out the flavor... DELICIOUS!

As a starter we had an arugula salad with amazing Gorgonzola cheese from Murray's called Gorgonzola Mountain from Italy. First I toasted the pecans in a hot saute pan and added brown sugar, hence candied pecans (super easy and smells great). Other than some sweet cherry tomatoes, the dressing was just olive oil, balsamic, salt and a pinch of pepper since arugula already has a peppery quality to it.

Lastly were the Brussels sprouts that we would have preferred to 

roast, but due to our oven dilemma we decided to pan saute. My brother got a hot pan with some olive oil and butter, salted and peppered the Brussels sprouts after cutting them in half and put them in the pan for about 10 minutes, letting them get nice and crispy on the outside.   

Happy Camper

One of the best parts to the meal was the Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, 2010, courtesy of mom, aka Val. We have now been spoiled by my mother that for any holidays or special events we are enjoying her favorite wine -- and Caymus sure does know how to put the "special" into something. 

Dessert:

Homemade Greek Christmas Cookies, Courtesy of my Yiayia Golfo: Melomakarona & Kourambiedas 

Edible Fruit Arrangement

Variety of Small Cheesecakes

Worst Yule Log EVER (Bought from Zaro's in Grand Central Station) 

I will only write something negative if it warrants the review, only as a means to prevent others from having to experience it. I wouldn't feel right not to mention how disgusting the yule log from Zaro's was in Grand Central Station. It was hard to believe that something so beautiful, coming from such an established bakery could be so horrible. I had purchased Christmas Cookies from Zaro's and they were delicious, so I couldn't believe the yule log was so bad. There was no buttercream to it whatsoever, even though it was advertised that way.                     

                                                                                 All you tasted was sugar and wafer -- no cake and certainly no nice textured frosting. Thankfully I had other desserts which came to our rescue. 

Breakfast:

Rustichella d'Abruzzo Panettone

Amarena Cherries 

Cheese Charcuterie

Pillsbury Croisants (Just had to!)

Scrambled Eggs & Salami

Fresh Fruit

Most of my breakfast also came from Murray's. The panettone was so moist and sweet, such a delicious fruit bread that went perfectly for breakfast. I'm glad I took the advice of the sales person and bought the Amarena cherries which only come out once a year, and are now completely sold out. The Amarena cherries are in a syrupy consistency that can be eaten as is, or spread on bread. They went well with the variety of cheeses and panettone. Out of all the cheeses my favorite was the Hudson Red from Twin Maple Farm (rich and semi-soft). I also had a wonderful sharp Cheddar that paired well called Prairie Breeze.

My advice is try to get as much done and prepared in advance so you can enjoy the company you are eating with and the time shared together. I specifically chose the menu that I did because overall it wasn't too time consuming or stressful, while offering such nice festive flavors. By the end of my 2+ years living in our tiny studio, I will have some of the greatest memories -- which goes to show that it isn't about the space or stuff you have, but what you make of it. Thank you to my family for making this Christmas so special. I hope everyone had a magical and blessed holiday. Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2013!

    

Quick, Easy, Affordable Christmas Flowers

 A quick post on inexpensive floral arrangements for Christmas. Since this is the first Christmas I will be hosting in NYC I have been running around to get all the details taken care of. Of course for us that means number one, FOOD & DRINK, and then in a close second, flowers.

This was a pre-Christmas celebration with our uncle and aunt who came into town for the night. We did dinner out at Good in the West Village, and as usual it was fantastic. Good is a great local spot that never fails and is always consistently... well... Good :) On a side note but worth mentioning, the happy hour at Good is great. Bar bites are a few dollars for happy hour between 6-8PM, and all their scrumptious cocktails which are premium liquors are half price, meanwhile the wine and beer are somewhere around $3-5.

After Good, we came back to our place to do an early Christmas! What fun, Christmas squared! Presents, pie, spiked egg nog, stalkings twice, and even D.C.'s Christmas Spectacular on TV. But the point of this blog was to share a centerpiece idea I came up with.

White roses, berries & Christmas Greens

Firstly, I wanted something that would last the whole weekend onto Christmas. Many of us are having holiday get togethers throughout the weekend onto the actual day on Tuesday, so I wanted something that wouldn't wilt and would look fresh. I also wanted to make it myself, keep it inexpensive and something short that I could use on the dinner table on Christmas Day (there is nothing worst than tall flowers on a dinner table blocking views and making cross table dialogue difficult).

Since I knew my linens had holiday plaid and would be colorful, I wanted something simple and festive for the flowers, hence the white roses. Initially I wanted to keep it monochromatic with just white roses, but then I came up with this quick and easy way to make the centerpieces multidimensional while also adding some holiday cheer.  What's great about this is you can use glassware you may already have instead of fancy vases. I personally used a margarita glass and round wine glass, that way there was different heights and shapes involved.

What's Needed:

• Dozen Roses (I chose white, but red would work as well)
• Holiday Mix Greens (Balsam Fir, Holly, etc.)
• Red Berries
• Glassware that can be used as vases

Dessert Setting. Pecan Pie from Amy's Breads in Chelsea Market
and Lenox Holiday Setting which is proudly made in America

First I cut the roses to know how many were needed for both arrangements and to what height. Then I cut the greens to fit into the vases and make sure the stems were cut off so you only saw greenery. I added water first, and then arranged the greens sideways in each vase. That way the bottom of the vase that you normally would only see stems, now appeared to have floating holiday greenery.

The trick to keeping the berries in place and not all floating to the top is to purposefully place them in the greens so they stay in place. I took some berries off the stem and had them individually placed among the floating greens, while I also took some small branches of berries and placed them in the floating greens. The flowers were purchased from my local bodega.

What I really like about these arrangements is you can make as many as needed for whatever size table you have, and to whatever height and shape preference for the vases. Whether it is two or ten, the motif would look chic and festive on any size table. On the picture below you can somewhat see the height dimension. Plus, while mixing the centerpieces with candlelight on the table it adds another dimension as if there is candlelight glowing in the vases.

Living in Manhattan the total cost for the dozen of roses and greenery was $25, but elsewhere I imagine it could be even less. I already had the glassware for vases which made it easy as well. Plus I had plenty of left over greenery and even a few roses, so I continued a similar theme for the rest of the rooms which in my situation isn't many (bathroom and windowsill, we're talking a studio apt).

I was also quite excited for the first part of my holiday hosting because I got to use my new and first ever China. For the holidays my mom got us the classic Holiday Lenox Dinnerware. It's American designed and MADE In the USA (go Lenox). So excited for my dinner setting for Tuesday, the 25th.

On a parting note, other than a decadent pecan pie from Amy's Breads in Chelsea Market, which was phenomenal, the overpriced egg nog was soooooo well worth it I am going to buy another pint tomorrow. For $10, you can get such delicious egg nog it tastes homemade except it isn't, other than coming from the local, organic farm called Ronnybrook. If you don't buy much this year, you need to buy this egg nog... It was even voted "Best Thing I've Ever Had" from Food Network. So convenient, the local Duane Read Pharmacy sells it.

I will be posting a Christmas Dinner post going over the menu, but just early inspiration for the flowers which truly sets the tone. Merry Christmas and God Bless!

My husband Charles with our Aunt Jaci and Uncle Larry! Love you guys & thanks for a fantastic early Christmas