Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Josh,

You're the perfect person to ask, but I welcome everyone's input...

Unlike year's past, Andy and I are not going to Chicago for the holidays this year. So, we are planning to ski with friends on Christmas and then have them over for dinner. Thing is Karen is a quasi-vegetarian. She'll eat fish, but no meat. Everything I like to make for Christmas dinner is meat-oriented. Thoughts? It would be particularly helpful if it could be make-ahead...I want to enjoy skiing all day.

Amy

Amy, are you resigning yourself to just make one main course?

Not necessarily, but it sure would simplify my life. We've gotten epic snowfall in the last week, and I really just want to ski for the next week!

Amy

How about some kind of a spinach lasagna, or grilled salmon?

Hiya Amy, it's great to see you again!!

trink.

Mushroom lasagne or penne a la vodka?
Fitzie

Amy,

Well, my most complete suggestion would be my last two years of Thanksgiving dinners, which are on my blog:

http://www.fuzzychef.org/archives/Anoth ... -2008.html

http://www.fuzzychef.org/archives/A-ver ... -2007.html

For make-ahead, I would suggest any vegetarian casserole: lasagna, veggie moussaka, veggie bisteyah, etc. You could partially cook it, freeze it, then reheat and finish it that evening. Actually, this year's thanksgiving was 80% make-ahead for me: the parsley sauce was made ahead, as was the semmelknodl. I just did the fish and the mushrooms at the last minute, which took about 40m.

Let me know if you need any of those recipes.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! Josh I would love the recipe for semmelknödel, although I don't think I'll make it for Christmas. But, I really do want to try it.

The menu I've come up with isn't as make-ahead as I'd like, but it's not that much same day labor as many of my other menus...lol

Apps
Tapenade with croutons
Bagna cauda

Main
Cheese souffle in crepes with tomato coulis
Pan fried snapper with warm sherry and herb vinaigrette (served over mesclun greens)
Couscous with candied almonds

Dessert
Chilled lemon souffle

One thing about living at 10K feet...you can make awesome souffles...

Amy

Amy,

Wow, that sounds much better than mine. Although you are a professional chef, and I'm just a retired baker.

Here's what I'm doing, still sticking to the "no-meat" theme. I also had to adapt to some guests who are "fussy eaters", and my original idea of doing a paella or mocqueca (Brazillian seafood stew) was vetoed because they'd likely do too much picking stuff out. And my MIL is on a low-carb diet which we're trying to help her stick to (she's borderline diabetic). It's still a Spanish theme though.

Appetizer

Homemade sourdough baguette slices with:

• garlic & sherry chantrelle mushrooms
• petit basque cheese
• mashed avocado & salt

Main Course

• Whole steelhead (salmon-trout) stuffed with rosemary and roasted in a salt crust, served with caper sauce on the side.
• Asparagus pimenton
• Tortilla de patatas

Dessert

Chocolate pots-de-creme with shortbread "spoons".

We haven't decided on wine, yet, though. If I'd known I was going to do Spanish, I'd have brought up my liter jugs of cheap Spanish wine and made sangria. Maybe I still will.

Amy and Fuzzy, both of your menus sound awesome. How about some photos?

D'oh!

I completely forgot about the fishing ban in force in Oregon and Washington. So there are no whole steelhead to be had (except farmed, and those are bland and mushy).

So, the main course has changed to:

• Seafood-noodle paella with tuna, shrimp, mussels, and squid
• Chicken & sausage rice paella with rosemary
• Asparagus pimenton (or Andalusian-style, haven't decided yet)

The reason for the two paellas is that we have one person who can't eat shellfish, and another who doesn't eat meat (me). And yes, I'm going to cook the meat paella; just because I don't eat meat doesn't mean I don't know how to cook it.

And of course I'll photo-blog this at http://www.fuzzychef.org. It just might take a while; I'm on dial-up here and don't really want to try to upload pictures.