Diegetics

We eat wild or organically-raised meat. Period.

Read Omnivore's Dilemma.

For Christmas day:

Smoked salmon
Roast pheasant, with roast potatoes, red cabbage, brussels sprouts
Cheeseboard (Brie, Wensleydale with cranberries, Osau Iraty)
Traditional Christmas pudding with brandy sauce
Coffee and liqueurs

Wines:
Macon blanc
Chateauneuf du Pape

Pheasant is a family tradition for Christmas, to avoid the ubiquitous bland turkey. Best slow roasted over a stock base to stop the meat drying out. When everyone had sobered up, a traditional game of Trivial Pursuits with a set so old the entertainment questions were about 80s TV soaps (who the hell cares any more who shot JR).

Roast beef with traditional trimmings on Boxing Day (26th) including Yorkshire Pudding correctly served as a starter with gravy.

The last two days have been quiet, vegetarian, abstemious and teetotal.

speechless

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tting.html

I roasted a goose , as it felt Dickensian , and found myself shocked even after all the warnings at all the fat rendered from it .

Made me think some strange Fight Club musings . My oldest and I did in fact have a conversation about glycerin .

Christmas day:

-Beautiful salad with an exceptional balsamic vinaigrette. I wish I knew more details about its components. In my education on food, I've grown to appreciate the natural beauty of leafs, greens etc. They are the epitome of the unprocessed, like sushi that grows on trees or vines.
-Prime ribeye roast, lovingly coated with crushed pepper
-Sweet potato casserole inspired by a steakhouse recipe, a rich, decadent success.
-Mashed potatoes, patiently home-made
-Julia Child's vegetable mornay, a family staple. The thrill of manipulating the complex chemistry involved in a rous never gets old. I feel the same sensations as prior to the "Pull" in skeet shooting.

We never got to dessert, as we were pretty darned sated. Had a bit of an explosion when we tried creating the au jus.

On the more general topic of food, Americana and culture, everyone in my family got a bounty from Pensey's spices this year. It sounds like many of the above posters had some incredible meals. This thread's topic is particularly important to me, so thank you, Hans. Good food is powerful. I'll leave it at that and let the details of ingredients, preparations, methods etc do the rest of the talking.

One of my Christmas gifts was this book, which I was devouring yesterday on the Metra: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.



I need to complete some kitchen renovations and then its on to duck prosciutto!

I was in the French Quarter for a week, so I had spiced grease.

Sounds awesome Demon.

Fish tacos tonight . . sockeye salmon fillets skinned and cut into fingers, rolled in flour and spices, fried, on whole wheat tortillas with sliced cabbage, mayo, and sweet pickle relish.

Kinda rough, but some of us must live here and maintain the infrastructure for the summer tourists . .

French potato salad
honey baked chicken
green bean saute
home made bread

riesling (a lazy man's pairing)


lemon poppy seed bundt cake

.

Hatchery Horrors







.

I just spied some heirloom tomatoes in the market.

For those of you who don't know about the mind-altering power of Nutella, I shall not be the one to introduce you to it. Run. Run while you still have a chance. Nutella is horrible for you. Bad. Bad Nutella.

Sorry, must run to the supermarket now.