A Day of Re-orientation and the In-House Food Critic

   Christmas Centerpiece – moved to the kitchen where I can really enjoy it!

I don’t know about you, but the day after Christmas always brings with it a strange feeling for me.  There is a mixture of the sense of a letdown and relief.  All of the hoopla is over, the house is a mass of piles of pots and pans and empty boxes.  I don’t know, I actually feel a little bit forlorn.  For too many years I have searched for the perfect feeling from Christmas and I have yet to capture it. (Is it time to finally relinquish the possibility of this?)   It was always fun when the kids were little and the expressions on their faces were the rewards for all of the effort.  But now the meaning of Christmas has become all mangled and unclear for me.  Buying presents seems silly and the actual amount of time we get to spend together as a family is terribly limited.  So, I guess I am grateful to turn the page today and re-orient myself. Usually, I find this day more cleansing than anything as I turn my focus to looking toward Spring and a new year (as contrasted to anything related to THE New Year – a “holiday” I prefer to skip – except as an excuse to prepare a nice meal – rack of lamb probably this year).

I actually will look forward to a couple of big snow storms over the next 8 weeks or so,  as I do like shoveling, and then, VERY quickly thereafter,  the emergence of the first snowdrops. Basically, I yearn to experience something completely new and different from this time of year.  Reading the dining sections this morning was uninspiring and stale (and if I see one more picture of Angelina Jolie with her leg sticking out of that dress touted as one of the highlights of 2012, I think I just might scream.   And so, on this thorny and cranky note,  my thoughts turn to the kitchen.

I took a moment to re-evaluate  – aka – be my own “food critic” (who else could be harder?) and the cooking experiences of the last several days – I learned a lot and made some definitive mental notes:

Seafood Paella – rice was overcooked; be much more careful next time – but I loved using my huge copper paella pan….. and this is a good one-pot meal; served with salad and garlic bread;

wine from the Newport Food and Wine Festival – excellent

Raspberry Tart – quantity of pastry cream too little and crust was tough but it was still fine

Baked Fontina from the Red Cat and Ina Garten – the very expensive Fontina D’Aosta separated when I baked it and we had to pour off a siginificant quantity of oil……not attractive when it came out of the oven and will write to Ina about this as I followed the recipe exactly.  Tasted good though and will keep this alive but try to fix it.

Fresh Caught Wild Shrimp from Kings in Bernardsville were OUTSTANDING – I was happily surprised – these were made into a scampi over linguine, served with garlic bread and a nice salad; a very quick and informal Christmas Eve dinner as Christin was arriving late on the train

The Breakers’ Key Lime Pie – so happy and grateful to the Dining Staff from the Breakers for not only sending me the recipe on Christmas Eve but also taking the time to correspond back and forth with me about a couple of questions; results were yummy!!! – texture was not quite right (will work on)  but who cares!  no hesitation in the eating department here

The Smitten Kitchen Apple Coffee Cake – made this with Ina Garten’s streusel as a topping – delish but next time will use butter instead of oil; don’t know, I just always “get” that oil taste hanging in there and I don’t like it

The appetizer was roasted garlic shrimp  a la Ina again, (I had more of the delicious fresh wild caught shrimp from Monday night) – perfect 8 minutes in oven at 400F with lemon juice spritzed over; we ate these sans cocktail sauce – perfectly fine

Sweet Potato Rolls – always so heartwarming to make and watch rise – actually over-rising a little before baking yesterday – and a little too dense for my liking but fragrant and yummy anyway

Baked Ham – my dear Mom’s recipe – always great – glaze is small can of crushed pineapple, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup coarse grain mustard; baste ham with pineapple juice

Mashed Yukon Gold Sweet Potatoes with Roasted Garlic – Ryan loves pureed potatoes – I told him I don’t want baby food and pureeing potatoes is a big subject of controversy in the chef world as food processors often turn them to paste;( I recently watched a show on this on America’s Test Kitchen) so I mashed them with a real potato masher.  Not sure what happened – flavor profile was ok but they were somehow grainy – think I will return to russets even though the consensus if for yukons

Haricot Vert with Sliced Shallots, Lemon Zest and Browned Butter – good pick-me-up flavor profile for this basically boring-tasting veggie – next time add some sliced, toasted almonds and an herb

We actually had “left-overs” of the Key Lime Pie for dessert

Didn’t have but wanted – the Blood Orange Bellinis – Christin and I considered but decided against – should have had these in the am with the panettone French toast…….

And, today………this am it’s back to the ubiquitous scrambled eggs and 1/2 cup applesauce for breakfast – all of those cookies, cakes and desserts have taken their toll……..Have to try to clean it up significantly.   But, first I just may have to whip up some of that panettone french toast I didn’t fit in yet…….

Resolutions are for January 1st, right???????