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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Christmas dinner 2012

December 29, 2012 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

Crown roast of pork with sauteed apples, Italian beans, and roasted asparagus on an antique Wedgewood plate on a beautiful tableclothI wish I could have shared this with you before Christmas, just like they do in the magazines. I hope now this may guide you and be helpful for New Year’s Eve or a New Year’s Day dinner party.

A big holiday like this requires a big presentation. Last year, I made a whole beef tenderloin. This year I did a crown roast of pork. Too big really for our party of eight, but I do have some big eaters, and one of my sons and one guest had four chops each! And then the leftovers were divine. I think I’ve already mentioned that I really enjoy and truly taste the nuances of a huge meal like this the next day, as leftovers. The busyness of working to get it all right, the timing and making sure each guest is happy, preoccupies me during the main meal. However, even I could tell, this was darn good!! Impressive and beautiful to boot!

But truly, the best part about a big celebration like this is that my whole family pitches in and we work together to pull it off. They helped to set up the bar area, chop herbs and clean vegetables and yes, even helped with the clean up in a major way. Our last guests left a little after midnight. Then all four of us worked to clean up and then we stayed up talking until 3 am! For my husband and me, spending time like this with our boys is the most precious of all.

One of our guests at our Passover celebration evened remarked about how well we all worked together as a family, to get the dinner on the table and make our guests feel comfortable. I feel proud that our boys have learned to entertain and that they enjoy sharing their love of good food. Serving and sharing love and food makes everyone happy – what could be better?

Here’s my whole menu:

– Straight up martinis with great olives for many of us at cocktail hour
– Homemade cheddar cheese straws – finally I found a stellar recipe for these from The New York Times – make ahead and they will keep for a while – recipe to come
– Texas smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips
– Warm artichoke dip with red pepper, celery, fennel strips and crostini crackers
– Bowls of mixed olives, toasted corn nuts and lightly salted cashews

THE DINNER:
– Roasted butternut squash soup with bourbon, served with homemade Polish bread
– Crown roast of pork with fennel, sage, garlic and lemon
– Italian beans – the best – recipe to come!
– Sautéed apples in a little butter with cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of lemon
– Roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon zest

– Homemade Christmas cookies – all recipes are here on the blog plus special bakery cookies
– Fantastic coffee from our older son

I’m noticing here that it might seem as though I had a lot of lemon going on, but the meal did not taste that way at all. Everything worked together beautifully and was delicious!!
Crown roast of pork with fennel, lemon and garlic paste/marinade.Crown roast of pork with succulent chop cut from first cut.CROWN ROAST OF PORK WITH FENNEL, LEMON AND GARLIC – adapted from Melissa Clark and The New York Times
–
serves 12 – 16

2 heaping tsp. fennel seeds
Rosemary leaves from 4 – 5 bushy sprigs
7 – 8 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup fresh sage leaves and tender sprigs
Lemon peel strips from 1 lemon – thinly peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler
2 tsp. fennel pollen (optional)
1 heaping tbs. plus 1 pinch coarse kosher salt
1 heaping tsp. cracked black pepper
7 tbs. extra-­virgin olive oil
1 crown roast of pork (18 ribs)
4 large onions, peeled and sliced into ¼” slices

In small skillet, toast fennel seeds until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Place toasted fennel seeds, rosemary, garlic, sage, lemon peel, fennel pollen (if using) and all of the salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse processor to chop everything up, then add olive oil slowly, and blend until the mixture becomes a paste, scraping down sides occasionally with a rubber spatula.

Wipe pork very dry with paper towels, then smear the herb paste all over the meat, making sure to coat the middle and the crevices on the sides of the chops.

Wrap in plastic wrap and let marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Bring the meat to room temperature for at least 1.5 hours before roasting.

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Put a thin film of olive oil in the bottom of your roasting pan and spread it around with your fingers. Place onion slices down to form a rack for your roast. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the onions and salt and pepper them. Place your roast on top and roast for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then turn heat down to 350 and continue roasting until meat registers 145 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours longer. Let rest 20 minutes before carving.
Sauteed apples in butter with cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon; roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon in a red holiday bowl.Christmas/holiday cookie platter with Cognac sugarplums, hello Dolly Squares, date bars, sugar cookies, pecan crisps, and special bakery cookiesStarting at eight o’clock we enjoyed Cognac sugarplums, pecan crisps, Hello Dolly squares, cut-out sugar cookies, date bars and special bakery cookies that a guest brought. With a great cup of joe, this is a very nice way to end a big meal.

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: butternut squash soup, Christmas dinner, cognac sugarplums, crown roast of pork, date bars, fennel pollen, fennel seeds, Hello Dolly Squares, holiday dinner, Italian beans, pecan crisps, roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon, sauteed apples, sugar cookies

The all time family favorite

December 24, 2011 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

We LOVE this cookie!!! It is work, but it is worth it! For melt in your mouth pecan heaven, this is the cookie for you. There is not much sugar in the dough, hence the double rolling in powdered sugar. Many cultures have variations of this cookie and they may change the nut to almonds or walnuts, but we love pecans. And the finger shape is a bit more elegant than a fat ball as some folks do.

Unbaked pecan crisps on baking sheet.

My mom always made a double batch and it was never enough for all 8 of us. I make a double batch for just the 4 of us, so you can imagine. Mom would enlist my brother Mark and me to help her with the rolling in powdered sugar. Our trick was to purposely break them while rolling – so they were no good and we just had to eat them. That was believable to her, especially in the first rolling while they’re still warm. But she caught on and would just giggle under her breath, unless we started “breaking” too many!

This is the single recipe. I hope it will become your family favorite too!

Baked pecan crisps on cooking sheet.

Baked cookies cooling for 5 minutes

PECAN CRISPS
¾ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup of pecan halves, ground in a food processor
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter very well. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Add vanilla. Sift the flour and salt together and then stir in the ground pecans and add this mixture gradually to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly. The dough may be crumbly but gather it together with your hands and the warmth from your palms and all the butter in the dough will enable it to hold together.

Pecan crisps.

Finished pecan crisps

Gently squeeze it. Shape dough into finger lengths. Place on greased or Siltpat lined baking sheets about 1” apart. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Then while still warm, roll in sifted powdered sugar. Cool cookies on rack and then roll again in the sugar until they have taken all that they can hold.

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Christmas cookies, confectioners sugar, holiday cookies, holiday entertaining, pecan crisps, powdered sugar, vanilla

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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