Another Epic Holiday Feast

A few months ago I invited my parents and Noel's parents to Easter Dinner. Both sides don't get to interact that often since my parents live in Maryland. It was a great day, Noel made the table look amazing with her Easter decorations and flowers, we had great food, great wine and I won Apples to Apples. I love cooking for larger groups. I came up with the menu all last week. A ham with a pomegranate maple syrup glaze, steamed veggies with Dijon mustard and honey, apple sauce (more like apple gravy), roasted sweet yams, whipped cauliflower (Thanks Meg!!!), and a fig salad.  

My favorite dish for this meal was the apple sauce. I found it at allrecipes.com. It didn't use apples at all, it called for apple cider. I Daned it up by changing the raisin to dried cranberries and cherries. This came out so awesome!!!!! It went great on top of the yams that I roasted. The yams were awesome! I got a yam called sweetest oriental yam at Russo's Market. I cut them up in to 1 inch pieces, covered them in agave nectar, fresh cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Since I only have a small oven I knew I was going to have to roasted them with the ham so I roasted them for almost two hours at 350F. These yams opened my eyes to a new world of  starches. The pomegranate maple syrup glaze was amazing on the ham. The right amount of sweet and tart that helped showcase the salty ham. The fig salad was a great spring time salad and I got use red wine vinegar that I made the other day. I'm finding that I really love figs and need to cook with them more often. The whipped cauliflower was a fun dish. My friend Meg had told me about it, she said she's obsessed with the side dish. I can see why. The Dijon honey sauce I made for the steamed broccoli and carrots really helped make the steamed veggies a little more fancy. The only thing I forgot to make was biscuits, but no one seemed to even notice. This was by far one of my favorite holiday meals that I have made.

What wine do you serve with such an epic meal? I bought a sparkling rose malbec, La Rosee from Domaine Augis at Wine Emporium on Columbus Ave. Laura the wine buyer has a fantastic palate and it's helped her bring in some amazing wines. This treasure comes from my favorite wine region in the world, Lorie Valley. In Lorie Malbec is also known as Cot. The wine is made in the Methode Traditionnelle, which means the second fermentation is done in the bottle, just like Champagne. The wine is pretty delicate and refreshing, yet still has the spice and bright red fruit that malbec is know for. I know most people find it odd to serve sparkling wine with food. Why? It's perfect with food!! Champagne and fried chicken are a great wine pairing!! This wine was such a perfect pairing with this meal. It went well with the salty, sweet ham, stood strong against the yams and didn't over power the cauliflower.  I love this wine!!!!

All and all it was a great day. Noel's table setting was perfect and the dinner and wine was delicious. It really helped us show our parents that we are grown adults, and not the kids they think of. I'm sure after they both left we were back to children in their minds. After everyone left I broke into the left over ham and by 8pm, I was passed out on the couch in a "Ham Coma". I have a ham problem!!! It was a great day!!