What are you cooking?

[asudavew]

Happy Holidays everyone~

I missed cooking in my WFO during Thanksgiving.
My mom was sick and I had to leave town. (She's doing great now)

My goose was thawed along with 2 turkeys.
My children cooked one turkey and gave the other turkey and the goose away.

So for Christmas I'm gonna fire up the old WFO on Christmas Eve.

And cook 2 turkeys, a ham, squash, stuffing, and rolls on Xmas day.

So what is everyone else planning to cook for the Holidays?

[Chef]

Re: What are you cooking?

No WFO for our Christmas Eve meal (my sister cooks Christmas day). We follow the Italian tradition of the meal of the 7 fishes. We will start with Angel Hair pasta with white clam sauce, then onto baked stuffed shrimp, fried smelts, fried calimari with hot pepper rings, snail salad, pickled eel, bacala (salt cod) salad. Just because you need a veg we throw in broccoli salad. We will feast on fruits, nuts and chesnuts while waiting for coffee and dessert. Don't know what is for dessert a guest is in charge of that!!!

Seems silly to fire up the "Dragon" for just one dish that can be cooked in an oven.

Happy Christmas to all!!

[james]

Re: What are you cooking?

We had 40 neighbors over for a wine and cheese open house and I baked a ton of bread and focaccia. I over-estimated, so our friends all went home with slices of focaccia and bread. The family next door (i vicini) is a nice younger couple -- he's Aussie and she's half German, and she said my sourdough whole wheat with seeds reminded her of the bread she grew up with! She was so happy and they took a boule home for dinner. Very nice.

Unlike much of the rest of the country, it's been nice here with only a little rain, so cooking outside is easy.

Happy holidays and stay warm.
James

[BRIFRO]

Re: What are you cooking?

Wow! James,

How did you get to know 40 of your nieghbors? Or did you just hand out invitations? I am interested in the details of how you cooked for 40 people.

Merry Christmas to all!

[asudavew]

Re: What are you cooking?

No WFO for our Christmas Eve meal (my sister cooks Christmas day). We follow the Italian tradition of the meal of the 7 fishes. We will start with Angel Hair pasta with white clam sauce, then onto baked stuffed shrimp, fried smelts, fried calimari with hot pepper rings, snail salad, pickled eel, bacala (salt cod) salad. Just because you need a veg we throw in broccoli salad. We will feast on fruits, nuts and chesnuts while waiting for coffee and dessert. Don't know what is for dessert a guest is in charge of that!!!

Seems silly to fire up the "Dragon" for just one dish that can be cooked in an oven.

Happy Christmas to all!!

Sounds great! What time is dinner?

[asudavew]

Re: What are you cooking?

We had 40 neighbors over for a wine and cheese open house and I baked a ton of bread and focaccia. I over-estimated, so our friends all went home with slices of focaccia and bread. The family next door (i vicini) is a nice younger couple -- he's Aussie and she's half German, and she said my sourdough whole wheat with seeds reminded her of the bread she grew up with! She was so happy and they took a boule home for dinner. Very nice.

Unlike much of the rest of the country, it's been nice here with only a little rain, so cooking outside is easy.

Happy holidays and stay warm.
James

How much bread did you bake?
Have you gotten a larger mixer, or are you using a Kitchenaid for dough?

[james]

Re: What are you cooking?

The key was no real cooking. It was a wine and cheese open house, along an Italian theme. We had Parmesan and Pecorino with Balsamico and Honey, Prosciutto, and all Italian wine -- Sangiovese, Chianti, Prosecco and Pinot Grigio.

Our neighborhood has ended up being very social and everyone has everyone else's email address. Plus, we threw a number of pizza parties this summer so we are getting to know everyone. :-) It was fun.

I'm still getting by with my KA600. Everything was a 1kg batch and I just kept going. I did a 1kg Miche, 2 500 gram whole wheat with seeds, 2 Hamelman sourdough with whole wheat, 2 500 ciabatta with poolish, and 4 500 gram focaccia. Building the starter is as tricky as juggling the mixer. I walked around all evening making sure people tried the sourdough.

Really it wasn't that difficult. We threw the glasses in the dishwasher and sat down to watch a Christmas movie.

I'm looking forward to other entertaining stories.
James

[egalecki]

Re: What are you cooking?

We're having our long-standing family tradition of clam chowder, coleslaw and corn cakes for Christmas Eve dinner. If I tried to change it I'd have mutiny. My kids actually bullied my ex into asking me how to make clam chowder one year.

Christmas Day, we're having all my husband's family over, and I just discovered that it's going to be a really tight fit in the wfo for turkey-lurkey. He's a REALLY big one. I'm going to have to do it in the regular oven this time. I did get a smaller one for learning purposes, but it'll have to wait. I can't risk burning it on Christmas. For my in-laws.

I did make sourdough rolls the other day in it, and froze them. I'll put them in a pan with butter on top and reheat them.

I will get the wfo fired up next week when my parents visit- I'm going to attempt wfo standing rib roast. Anyone got any pointers? I think I'm going to do some squash too. And I want to try out Dave's mushrooms.

[RTflorida]

Re: What are you cooking?

We are going with pizza tomorrow night...starting a new tradition. There will only be about eight people, so no big deal. Christmas dinner will be a dry aged 6 bone rib roast (prime rib). This is my first attempt at dry ageing beef myself...pretty simple process, just takes up a lot of fridge space for 8 days. I'm undecided on using the WFO for Christmas, I did a rib roast last year with all the fixens as well as the past 2 Thanksgivings in the WFO. I've been told I spend too much time "out there" and not enough time socializing with family, so Christmas dinner will probably be indoors and electric.

RT

[RTflorida]

Re: What are you cooking?

OK, I'm killing 3 birds with one stone on this post:

1) Dave, glad you are back, it just isn't as fun without you around. Your exploits are missed
2) I've reached another milestone - post number 800. (still don't know how everyone has gotten to 1000 so quickly)
3) Merry Christmas and to be politically correct - HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone. I hope everyone enjoys a festive time with family and friends. This forum is great and the people are all top notch...I truely wish the best for everyone.

RT

[james]

Re: What are you cooking?

One more thing. This is the first time we haven't been in England for Christmas for quite a few years, so Carrie was hankering after a nice pork pie. You can't get them here, so I gave it a try.

In a nutshell, it's a pastry crust filled with pork shoulder and bacon that is baked, then the pie is filled with a savory jello, and then it's left to cool and set. The pastry is called "boiling water pastry" and it is flour, salt, lard and boiling water and milk.

And it worked! It passed the taste test and it brought back nice memories. I didn't use the WFO, but I'm sure I could have.

For our British members, have you ever made one?

Sorry, no internal photo -- but the jello (jelly) set nicely and you could cut nice slices of the cold pie. The pastry is dense and flavorful.

Here is a link to a professional version.

Proper 'old fashioned' pork pie: Recipes: UKTV Food

James

[bturton]

Re: What are you cooking?

Hey Elizabeth,
Good luck with the standing rib roast. I did my first one a couple weeks ago (not in a wfo yet, maybe soon) using a recipe from Bonappetit - it had a porcini and mushroom stuffing and was served with an Irish Whiskey Gravy and Horseradish cream. Maybe some other folks will have some pointers on adapting it for the wfo. The gravy and cream are nice. My husband was impressed enough to take a photo - It was an upgrade from our standard fare. The website is bonappetit.com/go/menus.

Thanks to the people at the forum for your help and encouragement. Merry Christmas to all!

[Frances]

Re: What are you cooking?

Turkey.
With sage and onion stuffing.
8 kilos of it!
My mom's bringing it round ready stuffed in a couple of minutes... nothing like delegating some of the work, is there?

And I'm on the forum to check out the cooking instructions so I can start heating the oven at the right time to get it done for 6 this evening. Its great fun, but also a bit nerve racking.

We had my in-laws over last night to celebrate Swiss Christmas, and my family (parents, brother plus girlsfriend and one adoptive great uncle) are coming over this afternoon.

Have a great day everyone!

[Frances]

Re: What are you cooking?

She just brought it... 9.5 kilos actually.