Christmas Eve dinner is a special event for me. Every year, I cook a four-course themed dinner for my family. One year the theme was “wrapped” foods, one year the theme was red and green, that sort of thing. Since I only go to this extreme once a year, I like to go all out and push what I’ve learned about cooking. Over the years, I’ve seen some good improvement in my cooking techniques, but also in my meal planning as these dinners have been for as many as eighteen guests.

This year was a first in a few ways. My brother, who is an excellent dessert guy, developed the dessert course in harmony with the earlier courses, and he also gave me a lot of help as my “sous” this year. Previously, I’ve done the entire meal on my own, which can be limiting. Also, this was the first year in which I asked my guests to pick a theme ingredient, Iron Chef style. In years past, I would surprise my guests with the theme — this year the surprise would be on me. I did ask for a week notice, but I also had to come up with the courses, shop, prep, pre-cook, and cook for fourteen adult guests.

After Thanksgiving, the guests emailed back and forth and compiled a possible list of ingredients on which to vote:
Agar gum, liquid nitrogen, miso, the whole goat, goat dairy, filo dough, bacon, rosemary, chili pepper, green chilis, orange, pomegranate, cocoa, rum, bourbon, avocado, sugar, cheese kids like, tomato, cilantro, hazelnuts, pistachio, nuts in general, coffee, beer, deep-fried everything, bread, rice

The semifinals simmered down to coffee and avocado, with a tie-breaking vote creating another tie. So, a coin was flipped, and coffee won the spot of honor.

I created an amuse bouche and three courses of dishes using coffee, and my brother came up with a final dessert (I don’t know what he would have done with avocado).

I asked Christey if she wouldn’t mind printing a tasting menu, just a 1/2 sheet with some different fonts. Of course, she came back with a two-piece vellum and card-stock menu, tied with a coffee-colored bow. It blew me away as well as our guests.
ho ho ho

Wow! We have been crazy busy and out of town. But we are now back for at least a good two weeks

In lieu of a real post, I am going to post pictures of our Thanksgiving feast, mainly because it was amazing. Our Thanksgiving consisted of 4 families who all contributed to the feast. Peter was in charge of the seafood dish. He decided to make his wonderful lobster bisque, which is very much like his crab bisque, with the obvious difference of lobster instead of crab.

Duck and Turkey and Green Beans, Oh MY!

This is my entry for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust from Jenn, the Leftover Queen.

Kittie won last month (congratulations Kittie) and her choices for this month’s joust were:
*Whole Grain
*Ginger
*Citrus

I made a crystallized ginger and lemon rind wheat bread with bulgar (whole wheat), and a hot and sour soup with ginger, lemon juice, garnished with popcorn (another whole grain). I formed the bread into a bowl and used it to hold the soup.

Soup soup soup!

We live on a canal, which in turn feeds into the mouth of a river, which then feeds into a lagoon, which makes its way to the Atlantic. Which is a roundabout way of saying I could sail around the world from my backyard and return, except I don’t think our canal is deep enough to take the draft of a world-cruising sailboat, even if I could afford one. Our canal does, however, host plenty of salt water blue crab, free for the eating.

I love making a more or less classic bisque, from fresh caught crab straight through to the plate. The many steps involved just kind of make it more real.

Blue Crab Bisque and Shrimp Stir Fry follow. And yes, crabs have been boiled alive to create this post