This was what spouse and I cooked and served to ten other relatives from their side of the family. My side is too geographically diverse to join us.
A couple of kinds of cheeses Olives Salami for slicing; Also, "salami chips": thinly sliced salami, baked to render and crisp the slices, served with a mustard dip Crackers to put the goodies on
Roast leg of lamb flavored with a pomegranate-rosemary baste Vegetarian pumpkin lasagna Dressing Spinach gratin Kale/carrot/apple salad Carrots and snow peas in a light honey sauce
Apple pie Pumpkin trifle: layers of crushed gingersnaps, vanilla pudding with pumpkin incorporated, and whipped cream with pumpkin spice in it
Wine, sparkling juice, sparkling water with juice added, water
Interesting collision of attitudes: We were operating under the assumption that spouse's brother, who was also preparing a holiday dinner to serve to (mostly) the same people Friday and announced first, was going to prepare the usual stuff. So we spent the better part of a month testing collected recipes and went off in a different direction -- where he, believing that we were going to do the usual stuff because we were hosting Thursday, decided to cede those dishes to us and made brisket the centerpiece. So no turkeys were harmed in the production of these dinners.
We had the dinner midafternoon -- for, being the fannish gluttons for punishment we are, we followed up after the young children had reached their limits and everyone had left (right on our anticipated schedule) by caching all the food that had survived the feast as we could between refrigerator and freezer, cleaning everything up well enough, packing (scheduled for the day before, but unable to meet that schedule due to prior-day prep), and driving 400 relatively stress-free miles through the dark of night to a weekend SF convention. Left only a couple of hours later than target time. I have enough personal experience as to what I need to have along to eat and listen to to make that a much more pleasant experience than battling Friday traffic, and we got there in time for the opening.
Returned from that yesterday, which is why I'm only now getting to post this. We have now sampled all the food that spent a week in the fridge -- didn't lose any significant part of it -- and are now starting to work on the leftovers.
The menu chez moonmoth
A couple of kinds of cheeses
Olives
Salami for slicing;
Also, "salami chips": thinly sliced salami, baked to render and crisp the slices, served with a mustard dip
Crackers to put the goodies on
Roast leg of lamb flavored with a pomegranate-rosemary baste
Vegetarian pumpkin lasagna
Dressing
Spinach gratin
Kale/carrot/apple salad
Carrots and snow peas in a light honey sauce
Apple pie
Pumpkin trifle: layers of crushed gingersnaps, vanilla pudding with pumpkin incorporated, and whipped cream with pumpkin spice in it
Wine, sparkling juice, sparkling water with juice added, water
Interesting collision of attitudes: We were operating under the assumption that spouse's brother, who was also preparing a holiday dinner to serve to (mostly) the same people Friday and announced first, was going to prepare the usual stuff. So we spent the better part of a month testing collected recipes and went off in a different direction -- where he, believing that we were going to do the usual stuff because we were hosting Thursday, decided to cede those dishes to us and made brisket the centerpiece. So no turkeys were harmed in the production of these dinners.
We had the dinner midafternoon -- for, being the fannish gluttons for punishment we are, we followed up after the young children had reached their limits and everyone had left (right on our anticipated schedule) by caching all the food that had survived the feast as we could between refrigerator and freezer, cleaning everything up well enough, packing (scheduled for the day before, but unable to meet that schedule due to prior-day prep), and driving 400 relatively stress-free miles through the dark of night to a weekend SF convention. Left only a couple of hours later than target time. I have enough personal experience as to what I need to have along to eat and listen to to make that a much more pleasant experience than battling Friday traffic, and we got there in time for the opening.
Returned from that yesterday, which is why I'm only now getting to post this. We have now sampled all the food that spent a week in the fridge -- didn't lose any significant part of it -- and are now starting to work on the leftovers.