Holiday Dinner Recipe: Roasted Winter Vegetables

(adapted from Simon)

3 carrots, cut in 1-inch pieces
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, peeled and cut into eighths
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
(parsnips and turnips are also good, but I didn't use them this time).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place vegetables in roasting pan and splash with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, enough to coat vegetables. Stir in a dash of thyme, rosemary, and two cloves minced garlic. Bake approximately one hour, stiring every 15-20 minutes.

Holiday Dinner Recipe: Christmas Ham

1 fully cooked bone-in ham (5-7 lbs)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp mustard
1-3 T cider vinegar

Score ham 1/2" deep with a sharp knife. Place ham on a rack on a shallow pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 2 - 2 1/2 hours (20 minutes per pound). Combine brown sugar, mustard, and enough vinegar to make a paste. During the last hour of baking, brush glaze on ham every 15 minutes.

Yield: 10-14 servings.

Holiday Dinner Recipe: Christmas Wassail

1 gallon apple cider
1 quart orange juice (pure)
1 cup lemon juice
1 quart pineapple juice
24 whole cloves
4 sticks cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients and simmer over very low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 1/2 gallons (too much for my biggest stock pot!)

Holiday Dinner Party

A week before Christmas, I had a few friends over for a holiday dinner party. We started the evening with roasted chestnuts and wassail, then had a dinner of Christmas ham, roasted winter vegetables, asparagus with parmesan, and spinach and gouda gratin.

A rousing game of Quiddler was followed by homemade ice cream and Christmas cookies.

Recipes posted separately for those who are interested.

Amanda's Hat: the pattern

I've finished Amanda's hat. Pictures will have to wait until I've given it to her. I made some modifications to the pattern, so here is my version.

AMANDA'S HAT

Worsted weight yarn
Size 8 dpns

Instructions

Cast on 78 stitches onto dpns.

Work in K1P1 rib for one inch.

Increase round: Following k1p1 rib pattern, rib 7, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 7, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 7, inc 1, p1. (now have 88 stitches).

Work in a 2x2 garter rib pattern until the total length of the cap is 6 inches. The stitch pattern is:

Round 1: K2 P2 around.
Round 2: Knit.

Adding Stripes

In the garter rib pattern, the color change should be made on Round 2 (all knit round).

To make stripes "jogless" (i.e. to make them line up all the way around the hat), follow instructions adapted from Techknitting:

On color change rounds, change colors by knitting the first stitch of the new color as you usually would. Then, knit the rest of the stitches to the end of the round.

On the next round, slip the first stitch of the new color, then knit the rest of the stitches.

On every following round, knit every stitch as usual.

Decreasing the Top

First decrease round (on Rnd 1): (K2 P2tog) around.
Work 5 rounds of pattern as established (knit next round, then k2p1 around; repeat; knit fifth round).

Decrease round 2: (K2tog, p1) around.
Work 3 rounds in pattern as established (knit next round; k1p1 around; knit third round).

Decrease round 3: (K2tog, P2tog) around.
Work 1 round as established (knit).

Decrease round 4: K2tog around.

Break off yarn and run it twice through the remaining stitches, pulling the hole tightly closed.

Amanda's Hat

I'm currently working on a hat for Amanda for Christmas. Hard to believe, but this is my first hat ever! After consulting with the girls, and offering Amanda a choice of four patterns, I settled on this one from Head Hunters (in beanie style). I personally would have chosen this one, since I've seen the one Mollie made and it's darn cute. Plus I have been really itching to try a cable pattern. It sounds fun, I just haven't had an occasion to do it.

Frustration hit around inch two. I was knitting along, when I see a great big knot in the yarn. They didn't even try to cover up this tackiness. I decided to keep moving, until six inches down the yarn, I see a second knot. So chintzy. That's what I get for buying cheap yarn. I backed up and broke the yarn, but I am afraid I didn't leave enough of a tail to weave in, and it's already starting to come out. Ugh. Perhaps when I'm all done, I'll have to check the repair section of my Stitch 'N Bitch book.

Roasting Chestnuts

A couple of years ago, I went to a holiday season fundraiser where hot cider was served and chestnuts were roasted on an open fire. I had never tasted a chestnut before, and fell in love. I've thought about that fundraiser every year since, and this year finally got up the nerve to try roasting chestnuts myself.



At the event, the hostess was actually roasting them on a grill. And I have a fuzzy memory of her telling me that they required some sort of soaking preparation before grilling. So, I turned to the internets for advice.



Like everything I search on the internet, I came up with as many different ways to cook chestnuts as there are websites out there. I recently searched for quiche recipes when I wanted to try my hand at quiche, and decided the American Egg Board people probably have the greatest stake in making sure my quiche turns out beautifully, so I went with their recipe. Sadly, my search didn't turn up any definitive chestnut growers association.


Additionally, I went to fire up the grill, and realized, as with the last two winters in my house, the deck door had frozen shut. Alas, I decided it was too much work to go around from the front door, so I decided to settle for an indoor chestnut roasting recipe. I settled on this recipe from ezinearticles.com, a website I've certainly never heard of and have no reason to believe is reliable.


Here's the condensed version:

1. Sort chestnuts and throw out any icky ones. I didn't find any.
2. Use a paring knife to cut x's into the rounded side of each chestnut. Apparently they explode when cooking if you skip this step. One website advised against letting your knife go deep enough to actually cut the meat of the nut. I can't see why this would matter.



3. Rinse the nuts well. Apparently this cleans them and softens the shell.



4. Place cut side up on a baking sheet.


5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.



6. Remove from oven, wrap in a towel and crunch them a bit to give crack the hard shells.



7. Enjoy!

And that's it. Delicious. And apparently quite nutritious. I love how they look like brains when you remove the skull. I mean shell. And I love how they taste--almost like a potato, but a little sweeter. Can't wait to host a holiday party and serve roasted chestnuts!