December 24, 2022 Lunch - Posole Dinner - Posole and a tamale and mulled wine

December 24, 2022 Lunch - Posole Dinner - Posole and a tamale and mulled wine

Today is Christmas Eve, which means luminarias and Posole and Mulled wine.

We did not hold an open house this year, but I told Luke and Willy to invite friends and invited Charlie and Susan and Ricardo and Cynthia brought us more chocolate chip cookies.

I ate granola with milk and yogurt and tropical fruit salad at 10:30 and started cooking the Posole.  I added oregano and onions and garlic sautéed in duck fat.  We agreed the broth did not have enough flavor so Suzette deglazed the roasting pan with water and then added better than concentrated beef broth that improved the broth and I added a couple of tsp.s of salt to bring out its flavor.

At 2:30 the boys arrived and put out and lit the 250 or so luminarias that stretched along the sidewalks and driveway and walkways on both Park and 15th. A huge job.

After the Posole was simmering I made the mulled wine with the recipe from the Joy of cooking.  I had 3 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon so I reduced the recipe from four bottles. I heated 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil and the sugar dissolved into a simple syrup to which I added three sticks of cinnamon, 36 cloves, and two nutmeg crushed, plus’s 3 cups of lemon and orange juice and the peel of 3 lemons and 2 oranges. After the spices mulled in the simple syrup for 30 minutes we added three bottles of red wine.  The mixture was delicious, but we discovered how to make it better.  Suzette brought up a bottle of Amber brandy and when we added small amounts of brandy the conflicting flavors of citrus and spice unified into a uniform flavor.

The Posole and Mulled Wine were finished and warming when Cynthia and Ricardo came by at 5:00. We drank mulled wine and they ate Posole and we talked for about an hour and we kept tasting the Posole and ate the 10 or 12 chocolate chip cookies they brought us.  The best part of this Christmas has been sharing time, food, and beverages with friends.

This Christmas we sought to just cook duck Posole and mulled wine and share time with friends rather than hold an open house.

After Cynthia and Ricardo left we lit sixcandles and I said the Chanukah prayers and we exchanged gifts.

at 6:30 Charlie and Susan came over and we shared bowls of Posole and tamales with mulled wine with them.

At 7:30 when they left we walked to Janis and Tom’s and sat and drank a glass ofJosh Sauvignon Blanc by their brazier with them and their family.  We also walked to Barry and Kylene’s and drank a glass of excellent red wine and said hello to Barry’s son and daughter and talked to Robert Reck about knees and hips and he adjusted the height of my cane to better fir my body.  Robert needs a new knee. Kylene brought by a tray of cookies and I took a Mexican wedding cookie and Suzette took aSwedish style gingerbread cookie in the shape of a pig.

We returned home around 9:30 and soon Willy’s work mate, Ted, and two other friends came by.

Josh is a physical therapist and he checked me out and said I would be fine.  The other is the Indian girl who has come several  christmases before, who talked to Luke about spiritual matters this time.

When everyone left Suzette heated the PPI hot chocolate and I ate another tamale and we then watched episode 4 of Season 3 of Emily in Paris and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit