December 24, 2015 Christmas Eve Open House

I December 24, 2015 Christmas Eve Open House  

Today was spent cooking and getting ready for our Christmas Eve Open House.  We butchered the 12 lb. King salmon by removing its head, a bit of the front belly and a portion of the tail.  Here is a before and after pictures of the salmon: 

    The salmon and Suzette before poaching

   The salmon after poaching 

The preserved lemon dishes included Moroccan Chicken, which I cut up and transferred to our crock pot to serve hot, the cauliflower couscous with chick peas and preserved lemon served cold, pasta with sautéed spinach and preserved lemon served warm in a large copper chafing dish, and my favorite, quinoa, walnuts, shaved Brussels Sprouts, and preserved lemon.  In addition we had turkey, warm rolls and Suzette’s cranberry mayonnaise for turkey sandwiches, poached King salmon decorated beautifully by Suzette served with Julia Child’s recipe for cucumber dill sauce made with yogurt, a little mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, and wine vinegar.  Here is a picture of the salmon.

Then there was a green rice made by Susan Palmer using a Rick Bayless recipe.  Susan also made my mother’s recipe for cranberry jalapeño salsa.  I amassed an impressive selection of cheeses this year, thanks to better provisioning by Costco, including: a new hard Italian cheese called San Joaquin Gold, Costco’s blue, Old Windmill goat cheese with thyme, a 2.2 lb. wheel of brie from Isigney Ste. Mere, the incredibly creamy Chaource made by Lincet, P’tit Basque made by Istara, Grand Pont L’Eveque, and a new soft ripened goat cheese named Pico from Perigord, France.  All the French cheeses and the Italian cheeses are Appelation d’ Origine Protégée, which means they meet certain standards and their origin is certified.  

Here is some info from Wikipedia on the subject of a. O. P..

These laws protect the names of wines, cheeses, hams, sausages, seafood, olives, olive oils, beers, Balsamic vinegar and even regional breads, fruits, raw meats and vegetables.

Foods such as Gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, the Waterford Blaas,[4] Herve cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Piave cheese, Asiago cheese, Camembert, Herefordshire Cider, Cognac, Armagnac and Champagne can only be labelled as such if they come from the designated region. To qualify as Roquefort, for example, cheese must be made from milk of a certain breed of sheep, and matured in the natural caves near the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Aveyron region of France, where it is colonized by the fungus Penicillium roqueforti that grows in these caves.[5]

This system is similar to appellation systems used throughout the world, such as the appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) used in France, the denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) used in Italy, the denominação de origem controlada (DOC) used in Portugal, the denominación de origen (DO) system used in Spain and the Denumire de origine controlată (DOC) system used in Romania. In many cases, the EU PDO/PGI system works parallel with the system used in the specified country, and in some cases is subordinated to the appellation system that was already instituted, particularly with wine, for example, and in France (in particular) with cheese, for example Maroilles (as most others) has both PDO (Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) in French) and AOC classifications, but generally only the AOC classification will be shown.

I love Costco's cheese program. 

We also served lumpfish caviar with chopped onion, chopped hard boiled egg, and sour cream.

Many of the regulars showed up this year.  The early arrivals included Bill and Regina Turner, Allison, Ben and Brandon Zachak (our neighbors on the north) and Sandy Buffet (our new neighbor on the South).  Jay and Paula Steinberg came to celebrate our new marijuana dispensary relationship with UltraHealth at the Birdland and we found out that Allison’ sister is married to Justin, the president of UltraHealth’s son.

Robert and Marilyn Mueller came, as did, Josefo and Davida.  Alan and Smokey Torgerson came with her two or three daughters and Paul, one of the daughter’s new husband.  The Petrakises, less Roy, came and Dale and Jennifer Alverson came with their old friends, Denny and his wife.  Also in the early shift were Jill and Marty.  Lots of Luke and Willy’s friends showed up.  Later in the evening Drew, Travis and Kathleen came and soon there was a large group of the neighborhood kids including Emily and Rachel Souder/Graf, the Simbanas, and several others.  

I think the big draw this year is the new kitchen, which everyone seemed to like.  

I made a pot of mulled wine and some hot mulled apple juice and served Gruet Brut Champagne, Block Patch Pinot Noir, Gruet Chenin Blanc.  

Lynn Adkins, Lisa, Michele and Ed came.  Michele is now living and teaching history and government in Las Vegas, N.M.  Ed is directing the U.S. Military’s worldwide investigation and research into advanced technologies, such a quasar computer technology.  Michelle brought head cheese from Mississippi, Lisa brought a lovely banana nut bread, and Lynn made the best brought dish of the night, Dates stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese, and wrapped in Prosciutto and baked in a 425 degree oven for 8 minutes. 

Sandi Buffet brought us a lovely box of Buffet’s chocolates, Rose Petrakises brought Mexican Wedding cookies, Jill and Marty brought a St. Clair winery Merlot, Robert and Marilyn brought a tin of sesame oil, among other gifts.

We actually had some great desserts this year.  Suzette successfully made an Italian Meringue cake with pouring custard that she garnished with Pomelo fruit and zest.  At the other end of the spectrum, I bought a white 9 inch round cake made by Pastian’s Bakery decorated with green, red, and white icing for Christmas.

The flow of folks was slow enough to allow us to talk to almost every one.

  Folks in the new kitchen.

Suzette and I went walking at 10:30 to Janis and Tom LaFountain’s home and visited with them and their family.  When we retuned home, Luke helped us put up the food.  Luke was heroic this year and put up about 180 luminarias all by himself.  

All in all, it was a great Christmas Eve Open House.  

The most fun part of the evening for me was introducing five or six year old Ben to the cheeses.  He carefully tried every one of the cheeses and critiqued each one.  His favorite was the new Italian San Joaquin cheese, as it was for many others.

Bon Appetit