Christmas Dinner

I love Christmas, especially since I'm going home to my parents house. I thought this meant I was off the hook for cooking, but then I got a surprise. My mom called last week and requested a menu because she has been frantically redecorating, painting, scrubbing, etc. for the past few weeks to prepare a brand new guest bedroom for us! I'm willing to trade a real bed (as opposed to the rolled up daybed mattress) for dinner. Especially since Nic decided that he wanted to help out with the planning and cooking, and Poppop donated a beef tenderloin and lamb chops to get the party started. (He will also be making dessert, thank goodness, because I feel like I never want to look at a baked good again after all these holiday packages.) We used my brand new copy of The Flavor Bible to get some inspiration for the flavors.

Now I'm off to pack up my dutch oven, meat thermometer, and vegetable slicer...

Christmas Dinner
main course
beef tenderloin w/ a balsamic reduction
lamb chops in a soy and ginger marinade served w/ mint yogurt

side dishes
sauteed porcini mushrooms and shallots
braised leeks
sauteed Swiss chard w/ roasted pine nuts
glazed carrots
roasted red bliss potatoes w/rosemary
fennel and apple salad w/pecans
homemade bread

A Thanksgiving Miracle

That's what I'm going to call it if I manage to pull off Thanksgiving for 12-15 in my 700 sq. ft. apartment. And even though I'm nervous about space, I have been having a lot of fun planning the menu for the last week. Alton Brown tried to scare me Monday night by saying that you should never make anything you have never made before on Thanksgiving, but where's the fun in that? I figure I have enough old standbys on the menu to mitigate any new recipes run a muck. Now that everything is planned, the next step is figuring out the exact configuration necessary to fit all the ingredients into the refrigerator...

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Sage
The italics in the menu are items someone else is bringing to the table. Can you hear the sigh of relief? I'll try to put links into this post as I get the recipes up. I will probably post one or two recipes I've made in the past before Thanksgiving, so check back!

before the meal
fresh vegetables w/ dilly yogurt dip
candied pecans and almonds
Taylor's holiday cocktail
pumpkin soup w/ savory whipped cream

main attraction
apple cider brined turkey stuffed w/herbs and citrus, served with pan juices
turkey roulade w/ cranberry stuffing

accompaniment
mashed sweet potato casserole w/walnuts
garlic-chive mashed potatoes
simple sage stuffing
cranberry-orange chutney
warm caramelized carrot and raisin salad
string beans w/almonds
mixed green salad
buttermilk biscuits
honey yeast rolls

the icing on the cake
raisin pie
pumpkin pie
orange and pomegranate fruit salad