December's Greatest Hits

There's been a lot of cooking this month. I hosted a party for 25 people, then helped friends stock the freezer for their mom who is sick. We cooked an obscene amount of food -- ribs, mac & cheese, turkey a la king, spaghetti sauce -- and packaged it all up in ziplocs.

Then the Brit and I went skiing for a week, but we cooked all of our own meals. Of course then it was Christmas! A smoked salmon champagne breakfast

Mr roast beef

A few mince tarts

And then best of all, in the sleepy, hazy days after the big day, a table laden with leftovers, pickles and a hearty soup:

 

Merry Christmas!

More ham tales

Friends, I once again need to commend ROAST HAM as the little black dress of entertaining. Last week I followed through on my threat to host a Christmas Mixer - Tree-trimming soirée. And yes, as always I made chicken liver paté along with Jenny's Famous Spiced Nuts and a round of gingerbread chocolate cookies.

But that's not enough food for a party that begins at 5pm and goes on for an indeterminate time period. And so ROAST HAM. I had it all carved and plattered, alongside sliced bread, pickles and Dijon mustard. The crowd went wild. And they stayed for 9 HOURS (and would have stayed longer if I hadn't begged them to let me go to bed).

ROAST HAM!!

A New Weeknight Pasta

Against all precedents (set by months and months of lazy weeknight meals), we made hand-rolled pasta last Tuesday night. It took 2 and a .5 hours. On a Tuesday, after work. Not recommended, well not unless there was some kind of post-work peanut butter-on-toast snack to tide you over.

You see, the Brit had braised some short ribs on the weekend and while I loves me some short ribs, really there is nothing better than short rib LEFTOVERS (all broken up with their juices) poured over homemade pasta. It's just the business, and I crave it mightily.

And so it begins, the humble dough ball of 2 eggs and 1 cup flour, which you then knead for 10 minutes, separate into 6 portions and then send through the magic roller thusly:

There's a zen-ness to it, roll, roll, roll your dough..... until you have 6 lovely sheets of pasta:

Which take up all of your counter space, but you don't care because SHORT RIB TIME IS GETTING CLOSER. You slice the sheets into ribbons, boil them ever so briefly and toss with melted butter:

And then add the motley mess of braised beef, melted collagen, carrot and onion bits. Grrrmmmmmh.