Regulars of this blog know that I slave away in the kitchen during Christmas and New Year. This year was no different although I had help from my sister, grandma and cousin. We each had our own menu in mind and we don’t really care if the food one cooks goes with another’s menu. Christmas or New Year’s table is always a smorgasbord of different things. Here’s what I cooked:
MB brought home a fiesta ham from the office so I glazed that and put it in the oven. I really like this Purefood’s Fiesta Ham because it tasted like pork and had the texture of real pork unlike some other hams that taste and look like luncheon meat.
I also made this roasted chicken stuffed with lemons, onions, garlic and bay leaves. Those are bacon strips on top. They will keep the chicken moist as long as you continuously baste the chicken all throughout its 2.5-hour cooking time. I didn’t. I only basted it once or twice because I was sooooo exhausted already just from prepping. I roasted 2 chickens. If you are going to do this and a million other dishes, ask someone to help you with the prep work. You can also use the bacon strips for the gravy. I didn’t have the ingredients and patience to make the gravy so I served this with store bought canned cranberry sauce. The outside of the chicken was massaged with a mixture of butter, EVOO, chopped parsley, crushed garlic, S&P of course, lemon juice, lemon zest and some bay leaves. I also put this mixture just under the skin. Everyone loved this including the young ones. I kept hearing my mom asking to give her some more chicken. = )
I also roasted some potatoes to go with the chicken. This has turmeric and chili. This is soooo good. MB loved it, mom loved it. Everyone was gushing about it during dinner. I used about 6 huge potatoes and cut them up into wedges. At the end of the night, I was left with just about 1.5 potatoes. I packed them for MB’s office lunch. He kept asking for it after Christmas.
I also made some chicken macaroni salad which was not served during the dinner. I guess grandma kept it for herself. We have some at home too. Here’s what the rest of the family cooked:
Grandma made some very tender pork barbecues. They were really so soft it’s like eating chicken. My sister made the lumpiang shanghai mix and my cousin fried them. Oh, the corn and carrots was my idea but I was too exhausted to cook so I gave the ingredients to my cousin and asked her to cook it since it was her favorite.
There’s the spaghetti which is a staple on the Christmas table. Grandma cooked this as well.
That’s a bowl of paella also from Grandma and some menudillo from my sister. These two are also staples on the Christmas table. I can’t believe how much food Grandma cooked this year and she’s 83! Yes, my grandma is a chef, baker, she knows how to sew beautiful dresses and make beautiful elegant cakes, she can crochet and knit, she can make beautiful flower arrangements, etc. etc. In short, my grandmother is a rockstar!
For dessert, they had ice cream. I didn’t eat because I’m lactose intolerant. I also brought over some Lotte Pepero Almond and Chocolate sticks. I brought 3 boxes and they were wiped out in less than 5 minutes. I think there was also some fruit salad.
New Year’s dinner is coming and this time I decided to do some very simple dishes so that I can chill out on the first day of the New Year. What did you have for Christmas?
Yumm! :D merry xmas!
ReplyDelete