Cozy Christmas

Traditional Christmas Dinner
Williams-Sonoma Entertaining

Usually Scott and I host Christmas Day for ~14 people, but this year we only cooked for 4. This sounds like it would be simple, but choosing the menu was the hard part. Most holiday recipes are written for 8-12 servings. The Traditional Christmas Dinner Menu from Williams-Sonoma Entertaining was for 6 servings, so we had just enough for leftovers. The only change I made was to substitute the oyster stew for a salad. Everything was delicious and I’d definitely make each recipe again. One thing I found amusing was that 4 of these recipes had half and half as ingredient; I ended up needing a half gallon of half and half.

Winter Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
This salad was very yummy I deviated a little from the recipe and for the greens got a bag of mixed greens that also contained some soft butter lettuce. This salad was full of surprises with cashews, dried cranberries, walnuts, pear, apple, and Swiss cheese. The salad dressing ended up being lemon vinaigrette since Central Market was out of poppy seeds in their bulk section. I borrowed this recipe from Peace Meals but also stumbled upon a variation of it by another name in one of my Southern Living Christmas books. This could also be great as a meal salad with some chicken or pork.

Standing Rib Roast
I splurged and bought the Central Market Prime rib roast since it’s the holidays but a choice cut would be just as good. I made the herb paste a few days before so I’d have less to do on the big day. However the cooking time in the recipe was grossly understated, I was glad I used a meat thermometer to stay on track since even with my oven on convection roast it took an additional 30-60 minutes to cook. I also skipped the madiera jus since I had too many things going on at the last minute but I did make the horseradish sauce (since it could be prepped early).

Yorkshire Pudding

The puddings were easy to make and were very light and tasty. I substituted rosemary for the thyme since I love rosemary and its easier to handle that thyme. And lastly a smear of butter makes everything better.

Potato and Celery Root Puree

This was very light and tasty, I liked the addition of the celery root and they didn’t seem as dense as most mashed potato recipes.

Creamed Spinach

I was amazed by how quick this recipe was to make. I think about 5 minutes in total. Spinach dishes can be really good or just okay…since this one had almost 2 cups of half and half it was rich and delicious.

Bread Pudding

These “individual” bread puddings were really enough for two people each. They were massive and the cream anglaise really was the best part.