Christmas Party 2012

This year we had a Christmas Party to celebrate with a few friends and once again it was a last minute deal.  When I say last minute, I meant last minute.  We were at the store that afternoon buying groceries and making things up as we go.

 

Now, Crystal is a big Pinterest fan and went online and found a couple ideas which I thought were genius.  She learned how to take box cupcake and tweaked the recipe a bit to make it taste rich and homemade.  The Meatloaf "Cupcake" with a Mash Potato "Icing" was a great idea.  I would have never had thought of that.  The Deviled Eggs with Avocado was Festive, but most importantly Delicious.  And the 4th food item she found was Tomato Soup in a shot glass served with Grilled Cheese.  I liked this idea, but I wanted to take a step further and made Gazpacho and served it in Brandy glasses with strips of Grilled Cheese to dip.

 

Christmas Party Menu: Gazpacho with Grilled Cheese, Meatloaf "Cupcake" with a Mash Potato "Icing", Mini Quiches (Made by Crystal), Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, Red Velvet Cupcake (Made by Crystal), Deviled Eggs, and Asian Empanadas.



 

 

 

 

Red Velvet Cupcake, Mash Potato Cupcake, Gazpacho, and Mini Quiches.

Gazpacho with Grilled Cheese.

Deviled Eggs, Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, and Asian Empanadas.

Asian Empanada with Asian Chimichurri Sauce

 

Cranberry Galore!

I have been cooking Thanksgiving for my Family the past I would like to say 10 Years.  Usually, I would put together a List of Ingredients I need and my mom would pick everything up the week before Thanksgiving.  For some reason, this year, she came home with Cans up on Cans of Cranberry Jelly.  I for one do not let anything go to waste!

 

Ribs sounded terrific the week after Thanksgiving.  I ran to HEB just for Ribs and came home and the cans of Cranberry Jelly kept staring at me. 

 

The End result was Cranberry BBQ Sauce for the Ribs.  I slow cooked the ribs in the Oven at 225 Degree F (Same Temperature I would do on the smoker) for about 4 to 5 Hours.  The Meat just feel right off the Bone.

 

Of course I needed a Side Dish and made a Potato Salad that had Bacon, Hard Boiled Eggs, Olives and a bunch of other items. 

 

I had caught wind across the Room that someone wanted Dessert so there I go again, running to the Kitchen.  Once again, the Cranberry Jelly Screaming at me.

 

 

This resulted in a Cran-Apple Pie with Almonds.  I wished I would have taken a picture of it after Plating it.  Nothing makes a Home smell better than a HomeMade Pie in the oven.

 

Last but not Least!  My favorite...Old Fashions.  This bottle of (ri) Bourbon was selected by my cousin Khanh.  How can you beat a Build-Ur-Own Old Fashion Station!

 

 

Is it a Steak or is it a Roast?

When my cousin Khanh from California and I get together, we like to cook.  The day after Thanksgiving, we went to HEB to cook dinner and they had a special on Ribeyes.  Now typically, I ask them to cut me 1 1/2" thick steaks, but Khanh got the bright idea and told the guy to cut us 2-2" thick cuts.  When he handed us our order we realized we may have over ordered (we may have been hungry when we went to the store)

 

Side Story: They had put the 2 pieces of steak on their scale and rang it up and it came out to be $130 for 2 steaks!  I was on the phone with one of the Doctors I work with discussing his office space and my jaws dropped.  The guy had forgotten to put in the sales price which dropped it down to about $50.  I mean i knew it was not going to be cheap, but $130 for 2 steaks! 

 

Anyways, as you can see the picture below, these steaks are the size of a roast and took up a whole pan each.  We had seared it off with a Thyme and Garlic infused butter and finished it off in the oven.  Again, the Red Wine came out to make a Red Wine Sauce.  Side item was Roasted Asparagus and Garlic Bread.

 

Each Piece was a little over 2 1/2 Pounds. 

Thanksgiving 2012

I have been cooking Thanksgiving for my family since I was about 14 years old...the whole dinner!  Typically I would inject the Turkey and deep fry it thinking that it would not dry out the Turkey.  This was true, I always hated buying gallons upon gallons of Peanut Oil to just fry two Turkeys.

Two years ago I soaked the Turkey for about 48 hours in an Asian style marinade.  The Turkey went pretty quick.  This past year, I made a Brine similar to the Brine I made for the Pork Loin in my previous post and let it soak for 48 hours. 

Now, I always heard placing large pieces of meat in a Brine to keep the meat moist, but did not believe it till now!  There was not a dry piece on the Turkey!  This will be my go to option from this point on!

This Years Menu Includes: Turkey, Ham, Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potato Pie, Almond Apple Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole (made by Crystal), Mash Potato, Corn Bread and Brussels Sprouts.

Overall Spread

Centerpiece

Sweet Potato Pie (Top), Almond Apple Pie (Middle), Pumpkin Pie with an Almond Brittle (Bottom)

 

 

Typically every year there would be a fair amount of leftovers, but when I visited my parents the next day to eat leftovers, majority of everything was gone!  Now, normally I do not enjoy eating leftovers but Thanksgiving is a whole different story.  All and all, Thanksgiving 2012 was a success!





 

Boudin Stuffed Chicken

We had invited our neighbors over for dinner and I may or may not have forgotten about it which meant I forgot to stop by HEB on my way home from work.  Luckily I had a whole Chicken I had just bought that week in the Fridge and Boudin in the freezer and some Brussels Sprout.  This turned into Boudin Stuffed Chicken with Brussels Sprout with a Balsamic Glaze.

What I did with the Chicken is was open it up like a book and deboned the whole bird.  The first and last  time I did this was when I was 15 years old when made a Tur-duck-en so it took me a little longer than I was hoping.  From there I took the Boudin and stuffed the bird.

I did not have any Butcher's Twine on hand so I took a loaf pan and stuffed it in there. It was a perfect fit!

Breaking in Clark's new House...!

My friend Clark and his wife had moved into their new home several months ago and after a month of living there, Clark and I thought we should have a Dinner Party.  His words were:

"I want you to Break in My NEW KITCHEN!"-Clark
 

The Dinner Party Menu:

Starter: Corn Chowder
Main: Pork Loin Roast, Brussels Sprouts (Prepared by Clark and the beginning of my love for Brussels Sprout), and Macaroni and Cheese

"Dessert": Brie En Croute with Peach and Almonds

 

 

The corn Chowder was made from scratch that I had made a Corn Broth as a base. 

I had first Created the Brie En Croute a couple months before that for my Wine & Cheese Party.  It was a huge hit with the Buttery Puff Pastry and the Creamy Brie combined with the Peach Preserve and Almond.  It was almost like a Cheesecake!

I had prepared the Pork Loin the night before by letting it Brine in a Brine I Created for 24 Hours.  I had seared it off and finished it off in the oven and cooked it to 140 Degrees F.  It was cooked to a perfect Medium, but had alot of Criticism for it by other Guest. 

I took a bottle of White Wine and Deglazed the pan off to Create a White Wine Reduction.  At this point the Pan had Flambeed and the look on his Wife was PRICELESS!!

Per Clark's Instructions, I BROKE IN THEIR KITCHEN as he had requested!!!!  His wife has BANNED me to Cook at their house for a while!

Star Ingredient: Apples

Mike had come back from Boot Camp months after leaving the beginning of Fall.  We decided last minute to have Mike and his family over again for Dinner.  This was during the week so I had to prepare something real quick after work.  Can never go wrong with Pork in general so I picked up some Pork Chops from HEB.

I got home and realized a plain Pork Chop and Asparagus was going to be too simple for them especially after months of him being in Boot Camp.  I had several Apples so I made Stuffed Apple Pork Chops with a Shallot White Wine Reduction Sauce. 

Asparagus was going to be served as the Side Dish and that was served with a Hollandaise Sauce.  Spicy Herb Roasted Potatoes was the 2nd Side Dish. 

 

 After dinner, I cannot remember if it was me or their kids that wanted dessert (most likely it was me).  Why not stick with the Apple theme and continue on with a Salted Caramel Apple Pie. 

(I need to get a new Pastry Brush.  Not a fan of the Silicone ones.)

Alittle bit of Japanese and alittle bit of Chinese

We were having people over for a Boxing Match at the last minute...Might have been a Pacquiao Fight.
I had a desire to serve to my friends Sushi.  And in order for me to fill people up, I made Asian Glazed Ribs to go along with the Food.

 

There is an art to making Sushi Rolls and slicing Fish that I am trying to still Master.  I would like to say I did a pretty decent job in making it. 

I had have been having my Birthday dinners at Kita Sushi in The Woodlands for the past several years and this past year, my friend Julie had ordered the Hot Cheeto Roll.  I tried to recreate it with my own filling inside the roll and rolled it in Finely Crushed Hot Cheetos.  To our surprise, it was delicious. 

The Ribs were Seasoned with Chinese Five Spice Rub and slowly roasted and basted with a Hoison Glaze. 

Menu:

Chinese SpareRibs

Nigiri Maguro (Tuna) and Sake (Salmon)

Variety of Rolls

Wine & Cheese Party

If you guys have never heard of or been to Phoenicia then you guys need to check it out.  It is a Mediterranean & Specialty Food Store and I always have the time of my life there...especially down at the Deli Aisle where they have a huge variety of Cheeses. 

I may have gone bit overboard one day and just loaded my shopping cart with all sorts of Cheeses and Dried Cured Meat.  It had been a little bit over a month and none of the Cheese had gotten touch and I had several Wine bottles.

"Tons of Cheese + Tons of Wine= WINE PART!"
 

Now I do not remember the Variety of Cheeses I had but there was plenty to go around because I had a Wine & Cheese Football Party 2 days following and had plenty.

 

 

 

It was a great turn out, but two Wine & Cheese Party later, The Wine was gone but still had plenty of Cheese and Salami. 

I do not let Food go to waste so I try to Create new Recipes with Leftovers.

Dinner the following week was Eggplant Parmesan.

 

 

I had several day old stale French Bread and turned those into Breadcrumbs.  One thing that I have grown away from is Red Sauce Pasta Sauce in a Jar every since I started making my own.  I threw together a quick Red Sauce for this Dish.  

Seafood Extravaganza

Last Fall my buddy Michael took off to Boot camp and had mentioned he never cooked a Live Lobster or anything.  I thought it would be fun to go pick up a few Lobsters and have him and his wife and kids over. 

On a Saturday Morning, we jumped in the car and drove down to Hong Kong Market because they tend to have the best deals on Lobsters. 

So we may have gotten carried away while we were there.  They had a huge tub of Blue Crab and people were just picking away.  We started off just filling 1 Paper bag up and that turned into 2 and that grew into 3 Sacks full of Blue Crab!  We had not even gotten to the Lobster.  We eventually got about 6 Lobsters (I think) and picked up some Dungeness Crab at the same time. 

This was only part of it.  You can see more bags on the floor in the 3rd Picture.

 

 

After that much Shellfish, we thought we would just pass up the Shrimp.  To our surprise, my Brothers showed up with about 10 Pounds of Shrimp that my Parents had sent with them.

We had enough for a Lunch Seafood Extravaganza and then for Dinner!  Between 6 of us, we killed every last bit of it!