Am going pretty low key this year and having some of my neighbors over for dinner on Sunday. Is relatively last minute so my menu currently exists in doodled from on a post it.
My must haves for pretty much any holiday:
Barefoot Contessa Potato Gratin - I don't care for fennel so I leave that out and up the onion a bit. I first made this nearly 10 years ago and holy god is it good. And it's equally yummy reheated. I have to restrain myself to making it only a few times a year.
Grandma's mushrooms - nothing super fancy about these, just sauteed with wine, garlic and a bunch of other spices I just had to email gma to check on. Have had them at every holiday or family dinner since I've been born so on the menu they go.
Brie of some sort. I blame France. During my study abroad when lunch was routinely a brie and butter sandwich with a green apple, I developed a love of the gooey scrumptiousness. Winter holidays usually find it dolled up with a brandy brown sugar topping but this year I think I'm going to do a caramelized onion puff pastry take.
Old favorites:
Bruschetta - will be nice to have something fresh on the table amongst all the butter and cream.
Roasted asparagus - because when doesn't a meal call for roasted asparagus?
New recipes to test on willing subjects:
Roasted shrimp - originally I wasn't going to have a entree and just let the sides fill out the meal but I feel like a let down to all the cooking shows I watch if I don't. Will likely use the Ina recipe I linked to add some herbs and serve warm as the main course. The potatoes are insanely rich so wanted to go lighter than lamb. Not to mention, I've never really made a main protein for a holiday that has to serve many people so would rather not undertake anything too challenging.
Pumpkin olive oil cake - I may weenie out on this and just get everyone little Easter baskets at their places and have that be dessert but I'm intrigued by the idea of an olive oil cake and since my compromise for having the potatoes (and eating the leftovers all next week) was to not make Paula's gooey butter cake, this seems like a reasonable choice that ties in with the rest of the menu. Is a fall recipe so I may find a lemon olive oil cake recipe. We shall see.
Now I just have to figure out how to cook everything. The apartment oven is small and not always the most reliable. The potatoes are the star so even though I could make them ahead would rather those go straight from oven to table. Though, they can cool for awhile so perhaps when I pull them out, I'll put the shrimp in. Cake can probably be done the day before or the morning of when I get back from church? Bruschetta can be done ahead, bread toasted quickly. Mushrooms are on the stove so that's fine, then it's the asparagus and brie. Perhaps when the potatoes come out, asparagus will go in shortly followed by the shrimp? But what about the brie...
I see flowcharts in my future.
Comments