Christmas is coming very soon! I happened to look back at the last Christmas - 2011, what were on the table.
The theme was France. I always like to choose a theme when I cook. That's an easy way for me to create a coherent flow and a harmony among dishes, which make a sense to me. Was there really such things on that menu? J could wonder so - well, they might have not been noticeable, but it's OK just at the level of my self-satisfaction.
For the main dish, we had Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Filled Pasta Sheets. The recipe was by Chef Thomas Keller, posted on
Williams-Sonoma website. It was wonderful! I loved the recipe. There was grazed root vegetable for a side, of course, made in a classic French way.
Before that, there were two kinds of appetizers -
canapés with tuna salad
and eggplant caviar
.
And, a cup of French onion soup, adapted from the Cook's Illustrated February 2008 issue. Finally I was able to use my onion soup cups that I bought a few years ago! As easily imagined, the soup took a long time to finish, but turned out lovely!
My favorite part of the dinner - desserts was a Yule Log or
Bûche de
Noël. I checked multiple recipes online and in my book shelf and combined them to build my own log. It was so fun to make this cute cake even though the first chocolate sponge cake didn't corporate with me, so I needed to bake the second cake at the last second. The meringue mushrooms were adorable. I wished I could keep them forever.
Actually this was the highlight of the Christmas dinner 2011 - J's mother's strata for the next day's breakfast. It was absolutely delicious! We were totally spoiled. In fact, I had not known strata until I found the name on the menu at a restaurant that we dropped by for brunch last year. Their strata was kinda dry and room-temperature - I wasn't impressed. Then, I believe we told the story to J's mother. So, hers was my second strata in my life. That was moist and very flavorful that I really enjoyed.
I can't believe it was one year ago. Time flies.
