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!!

The Bunny looked more like a Pilgram

Easter came late this year, Warren and Curtis came early. Noel had invited them to an Easter dinner this year. We never really get a holiday with them, Thanksgiving and Christmas is divided by my parents and her mom's. So I wanted to cook something big. Noel wanted to come up with a "menu" last week, I wanted to wait until we went grocery shopping. Turkey was on sale, so it was an easy choice. Two Thanksgivings ago I made a turkey at my parents house that was awesome!! Turkey with Herbs de Provence and Citrus. It was so good then and I knew I it would be good now. Funny story- the first time I made this I almost burned down my parents' house. There is a lot of chicken stock and butter used in this recipe and the pan I used was a cheap pan that folded as I took it out of the oven. As it folded in half, the liquid spilled in the electric oven, hit a coil and instantly caught on fire. As everyone was running around looking for a fire extinguisher it came to me shut the oven door. Fire went out in a few minutes but the stove shut down. I learned this time to use a cookie sheet under the cheap style roasting pan so that wouldn't happen again, especially in my gas stove.

This Turkey with Herbs de Provence and Citrus is so tasty and so easy to make. We found it on Foodnetwork.com, we find a lot of recipes on there. It takes about three hours, 30 minutes are prep. Need to cut an orange, lemon and onion into quarters, get fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and stuff it in the bird. *Make sure the neck and giblets are taken out of the bird and put in the roasting pan. Melt two tablespoons of butter with one tablespoon herbs de provence (you can find this anywhere), one tablespoon pepper (I used pink,black, white, and green pepper corns), and one tablespoon salt. Instead of using a pan I have a stainless steel bowl that I melt butter in, I find at a low heat the big bowl makes it easier to melt and not burn!! Take the melted butter and brush it all over the bird, making sure to get under the skin as much as you can. Let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes and preheat oven to 400. This is where I like to open the bottle of wine and pour myself my first glass. After 30 minutes tent some tinfoil over the breast and roast 20 minutes. The kitchen should start smelling like heaven!! Now add three cups turkey stock (it ask for chicken but I found turkey) and a few more sprigs of rosemary, thyme and sage. I also melted two more tablespoons of butter mixed with the same herbs and pepper mixture and brushed it over the turkey again. Let roast another 40 minutes, reduce the heat to 350, remove the tinfoil and add one more cup of stock. Let it roast until the thighs reach 165, every so often you want to basted the turkey(I did about every 15 minutes). Your house is going to smell so good!!

After the turkey is done you want to let it rest about 30 minutes. This is the perfect time to make any veggies, potatoes, and the gravy. This recipe has a gravy it tells you to make and it is so good Noel was dipping chips in while we were watching t.v. that night. First, melt six tablespoons butter, whisk in one-third cup flour, make sure to break up any chunks, and start to blend in four cups of the juice the turkey was sitting in. Cook about 10 minutes and whisk often until thickened to your liking. A gravy that people would kill for!! Wait what about that bottle of wine I opened, where did I use it on the turkey? I didn't, I drank it. I picked Viu Manent Reserva Carmenere knowing it would go well with the turkey. 

I did make two sides. Mashed potatoes and a veggie medley, Noel calls it a hash. It's kinda like a cooked salad. I started with bacon...BIG SURPRISE THERE!! I cut about two cups of small chunks of bacon. Put them in a skillet over low-medium heat to melt down some fat. While that was going on I minced two cloves garlic, diced a medium shallot, chopped large carrot, one celery stock, a red pepper, and about dozen or so brussel sprouts. After the bacon was cooking for five minutes or so, I tossed in the garlic, shallot and celery, and cooked until they smelled good(about minute or two), then added the carrots and cooked for about another two minutes. As the carrots were getting soft I added the red peppers and topped with the chopped Brussels sprouts. I then added a tablespoon of the gravy and a dash of herbs de provence to the veggies and covered the skillet to let steam. As the veggies were steaming, I was able to make my mash potatoes. I didn't know what to do with them, but as I was just about to give up and serve them plain, I saw my cayenne pepper and saffron. A light went off in my head and I added a dash of pepper and two pinches of saffron. I didn't tell my guest what I had done I wanted to hear from them what they thought. Everyone was in love with the taste. The gravy made them a little more playful. 

This was one of my favorite holiday meals to make. First, I made it in my own kitchen. Second, it was a recipe I had  conquered a few years ago, so I was able to make a few changes to show my personality. Next time I make this I may even blend my own herbs de provence, it looks pretty easy.