Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Sorry to hear about your Mom, Amy. Things like that are always difficult, but especially during the holidays.

So sorry to hear about your mom JB. We lost my father-in-law this fall so this holiday season is also a very different one for us.

On Christmas Eve we are with our neighbors. I am making appetizers but have no idea what they will be. At the moment I am thinking phylo something or other. Christmas day I am going back to old family recipes. Manicotti (home made wrappers) and bracciole (did I spell that right Jean?) and sauce. Dessert will probably be Christmas cookies. It is just the 4 of us and my MIL. The 26th is the traditional bowling outing and dinner at a local Italian thing. I shall then wire my jaw shut until New Years Eve.

Mary

Sorry about your FIL Mary. I guess many of us are dealing with loss this year...

Amy

Amy, Mary, JB, sorry to hear you're all going through that. It's tough any time of year, but especially at the holidays.

My traditional Xmas dinner is prime rib, Yorkshire puddings, and the classic trimmings. But since there will be just 3 of us this year I'm thinking a little smaller. After reading Kenji's recent post, I'm leaning toward his Beef Wellington.

The problem I'm having is locating foie gras. You'd think between Tampa & Sarasota someone would have it, but no luck so far. I can get D'Artagnan products locally, but not the foie. There's a place in St. Pete that says they don't have duck liver but they have foie gras. After 10 minutes on the phone, I'm still not sure if what she has is a pate or liver. She kept insisting it was real foie gras, not duck or goose liver! I'd hate to wait until Saturday to drive up there just to find it's not what I want. I probably have about 24 hours left to decide whether to order it online.

Plan B is that my local supermarket carries prime grade beef and I can pick up a rib roast this weekend.

I ordered my prime cut rib roast from Wegmans @ $25/lb. Do you mind saying what your price is?

I'm doing a prime rib, twice baked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms probably green beans or peas, and something else. Lots of desserts, though.

$22/lb at Publix

Folks,

Well, y'all know what I'm doing Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning is a bagel breakfast, which has been a tradition here since I first tried making bagels.

Christmas day? Not sure. Haven't planned anything yet. Thoughts?

SilverSage,

I could hook you up with some black-market foie gras from California, but it's pricey.

Thanks for the thoughts ; )

Amy I am so sorry about your mom and Mary about your FIL. JB, My mom was in hospice for a few weeks, but did not have an appetite at all, so hopefully yours will enjoy her French meal. Last year's Christmas was very hard, a little better this year but not much.

SS, have you tried getting some from Marky's in Miami? Not sure what shipping would be, but it should not be a lot given the distance. BTW, my folks used to live in Bradenton. There's a little gourmet food place on the road where the airport is on, a ways past it that had a lot of specialty items, I think it was Fresh something (not much help, but there are not a lot of gourmet shops in Bradenton.).

Ours is always the same, my kids would mutiny if I made anything other than ham, a special potato casserole and caesar salad....fine with me, as it is easy as pie. However, the pie is always more time-consuming to make than the rest of the dinner!