We had grilled lamb, roasted vegetables, twice-baked potatoes with truffle oil, eggplant cassorole, served with a 2005 Silver Oak Cabernet, and for dessert, my daughter’s triple-layer chocolate cake.
God is good; the Lord is near.
May all that are without find shelter, food, companionship, faith, and love.
May the Child Jesus console all families touched by the Newtown tragedy.
Well, my son and I did a traditional English Christmas dinner and I was overruled by the guest, who wanted turkey rather than goose for sentimental reasons. I bowed to his tradition rather than mine, which was always goose or pheasant. However, all went well. Son and I started the night before, of course…..
Glazed carrots in honey
Leeks fried in butter
Brussels sprouts
Roast potatoes
Cranberry and orange mold
Sausage, veggie and fruit stuffing (all gone-no leftovers on that one)
Turkey
Desert Chocolate Christmas Log
Champaign and Stollen brought my guest!
I am supposed to be making soup and bubble and squeak this morning, but I am really tired.
As I was tasked with kitchen duty, our menu was lighter:
Baked sugar-cured ham butt (with cloves)
Roasted sweet potatoes (with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and Fluff)
Fresh green beans with butter and salt
Cranberry jelly
Dessert was:
new York style cheesecake with cherry preserves
Pecan Pie with fresh whipped heavy cream
Assorted cheese tray (Stilton, Extra Sharp White Cheddar, Sap Sago [on toast bits], mild cheddar, Colby, Brie) along with Carr’s Water Biscuits and other savory biscuits.
Wonderful menu for a most beautiful feast. ^^ We made tamales…four different types of chiles were used to make the chile sauce from scratch. I hail from the West Coast of the U.S. with strong family ties to the north of Mexico. Also, we had a big pot of fresh made chicken soup, roasted green chiles, fresh red salsa, beans, salad, fresh.
@Charlotte Allen…every year I make persimmon cookies and persimmon bread. One year I made persimmon bread pudding with a Brandy creme sauce…a Nancy Reagan recipe.
To everyone who graces this wonderful blog…the merriest of Christmases as the little Lord Jesus blesses each and every one of you. I pray for all to have a wonderful and blessed New Year beginning with Father Z and his wonderful wit, humor and solid faithfulness to all things Catholic!
@Stumbler: Persimmons are wonderful, aren’t they? The Cuisinart is the persimmon’s best friend. You used to have to push the pulp through a strainer–but no more!
My husband and I are from Southern California, so we love tamales. I used to make them fairly often, but I’ve gotten out of practice. Must start again, although locating the corn husks is tricky here in DC.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups (24 ounces) fish stock*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
2 1/2 pounds cooked and chilled King Crab legs and claws, cracked and legs cut in half crosswise
1/2 cup 80-proof vodka, room temperature
* The restaurant chef make his own fish stock for heating the claws, but for the home cook, using the shelf-stable boxed variety from the supermarket is much easier and works fine.
Directions:
Melt butter in a large skillet with cover over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 1 1/2 minutes, until aromatic; do not let it burn. Add stock, salt, pepper and crab legs. Cover and simmer 6 minutes.
This may have to be done in batches if they don’t all fit into the pan at one time. If done in batches, remove the heated legs from the pan and keep them warm until all are heated through. If done in batches, repeat until all are heated.
When the last batch of crab legs are heated in the pan, remove cover, and reduce heat to medium high. Add the vodka around the side of the pan and let the vodka warm. Ignite it. Once the flame subsides, serve crab legs with pan juices over them.
We struck out on a new menu this Christmas. We had the families favorite meal. Spaghetti with meat sauce (I make the sauce with fresh herbs from my potted herb plants and a dash of Zin). Paired with the usual home made garlic Parmesan baguettes and the rest of the Zin. Caesar salad available for those who choose. Desert: triple chocolate brownies.
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The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
:-O~~
English battered cod – with chips (i.e. French Fries, but not thinly cut) – the best meal in creation!!
Wensleydale cheese? I’d rather have White Cheshire – bit more savoury & salty.
Tripple Chocolate Cake? This is perhaps a triple chocolate cake with a built-in tipple?
Father, that’s a menu even Jack Aubrey could endorse. I’m curious… what are the wine pairings?
“Too much is always enough.”
Very Nice.
We had grilled lamb, roasted vegetables, twice-baked potatoes with truffle oil, eggplant cassorole, served with a 2005 Silver Oak Cabernet, and for dessert, my daughter’s triple-layer chocolate cake.
God is good; the Lord is near.
May all that are without find shelter, food, companionship, faith, and love.
May the Child Jesus console all families touched by the Newtown tragedy.
I can no longer look at a slice of Wensleydale cheese without breaking out in laughter.
It’s rare I see a menu like this that almost everything is something I would love. Sounded like a lovely meal, thanks be to God.
Well, my son and I did a traditional English Christmas dinner and I was overruled by the guest, who wanted turkey rather than goose for sentimental reasons. I bowed to his tradition rather than mine, which was always goose or pheasant. However, all went well. Son and I started the night before, of course…..
Glazed carrots in honey
Leeks fried in butter
Brussels sprouts
Roast potatoes
Cranberry and orange mold
Sausage, veggie and fruit stuffing (all gone-no leftovers on that one)
Turkey
Desert Chocolate Christmas Log
Champaign and Stollen brought my guest!
I am supposed to be making soup and bubble and squeak this morning, but I am really tired.
We had:
Radicchio, goat cheese, and toasted-pecan salad with vinaigrette
Prime rib au jus
Yorkshire pudding
Braised endives
Persimmon pudding with vanilla ice cream
Chartreuse
Apparently all armies, spiritual included, travel on their stomachs.
What is that first item on the list? With the fancy writing it is hard to read.
As I was tasked with kitchen duty, our menu was lighter:
Baked sugar-cured ham butt (with cloves)
Roasted sweet potatoes (with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and Fluff)
Fresh green beans with butter and salt
Cranberry jelly
Dessert was:
new York style cheesecake with cherry preserves
Pecan Pie with fresh whipped heavy cream
Assorted cheese tray (Stilton, Extra Sharp White Cheddar, Sap Sago [on toast bits], mild cheddar, Colby, Brie) along with Carr’s Water Biscuits and other savory biscuits.
Wensleydale cheese? Nice Cistercian connection there! – Cracking good cheese, Gromit!
Have a very Happy Christmas!
Wonderful menu for a most beautiful feast. ^^ We made tamales…four different types of chiles were used to make the chile sauce from scratch. I hail from the West Coast of the U.S. with strong family ties to the north of Mexico. Also, we had a big pot of fresh made chicken soup, roasted green chiles, fresh red salsa, beans, salad, fresh.
@Charlotte Allen…every year I make persimmon cookies and persimmon bread. One year I made persimmon bread pudding with a Brandy creme sauce…a Nancy Reagan recipe.
To everyone who graces this wonderful blog…the merriest of Christmases as the little Lord Jesus blesses each and every one of you. I pray for all to have a wonderful and blessed New Year beginning with Father Z and his wonderful wit, humor and solid faithfulness to all things Catholic!
@Stumbler: Persimmons are wonderful, aren’t they? The Cuisinart is the persimmon’s best friend. You used to have to push the pulp through a strainer–but no more!
My husband and I are from Southern California, so we love tamales. I used to make them fairly often, but I’ve gotten out of practice. Must start again, although locating the corn husks is tricky here in DC.
My favorite meal on this earth, and the easiest to cook, are King Crab Legs, boiled, with real butter on the side. But they are getting hard to find!
I think those darned Russians have over-harvested them!
You’ll never regret this recipe:
Taverna Opa’s Steamed King Crab Legs
Recipe and photo from the Taverna Opa Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Recipe Type: Crab, Seafood, Seafood Appetizers
Yields: 4 servings
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups (24 ounces) fish stock*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
2 1/2 pounds cooked and chilled King Crab legs and claws, cracked and legs cut in half crosswise
1/2 cup 80-proof vodka, room temperature
* The restaurant chef make his own fish stock for heating the claws, but for the home cook, using the shelf-stable boxed variety from the supermarket is much easier and works fine.
Directions:
Melt butter in a large skillet with cover over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 1 1/2 minutes, until aromatic; do not let it burn. Add stock, salt, pepper and crab legs. Cover and simmer 6 minutes.
This may have to be done in batches if they don’t all fit into the pan at one time. If done in batches, remove the heated legs from the pan and keep them warm until all are heated through. If done in batches, repeat until all are heated.
When the last batch of crab legs are heated in the pan, remove cover, and reduce heat to medium high. Add the vodka around the side of the pan and let the vodka warm. Ignite it. Once the flame subsides, serve crab legs with pan juices over them.
We struck out on a new menu this Christmas. We had the families favorite meal. Spaghetti with meat sauce (I make the sauce with fresh herbs from my potted herb plants and a dash of Zin). Paired with the usual home made garlic Parmesan baguettes and the rest of the Zin. Caesar salad available for those who choose. Desert: triple chocolate brownies.