Meal Planning for Xmas and the New Year / White Chocolate Cranberry Toffee

[a_boleyn]

I'll be cooking for one for the two upcoming holidays, and want to make a couple of special meals, but I don't want to stress out by doing a LOT of cooking ... nor do I want to end up with a TON of leftovers. So, I've come up with the two tentative menus below

Comments

[spikesgirl58]

Yum menu! When are we sitting down?

We're doing a traditional turkey, etc. I'd like to throw a surprise in there or two, but we will see. My friends are willing to eat just about anything I throw at them.

[a_boleyn]

I usually plan things for around 2pm like my mom did. :)

I have 2 turkeys (I even splurged on a Butterball) and a bone in ham in my freezer. I just didn't feel like thawing and cooking them and then dealing with the leftovers.

Christmas Eve dinner is going to involve scallops and shrimp over fettucine in an Alfredo sauce. Whether it will be spicy (Creole-style) or not is still up in the air. I was going to serve it over polenta but changed my mind.

[spikesgirl58]

We got a Butterball this year as well. It's the first time in forever. We are going to start thawing it on Wednesday... not exactly sure where yet. Our poor friends, we have totally take over their kitchen! Mike even bought a brand new stove and a freezer for our arrival. Yeah, he enjoys our cooking.

Sounds very yummy. We spent the day in the kitchen. We did cream cheese brownies, three kinds of cookies and rum balls. I am whupped and I still have dinner to go - Parmesan Chicken with a Grilled Caesar. I suspect dessert will be brownies and cookies.

[a_boleyn]

Is that early enough to start thawing it? Or are you going to do the quick thaw method where you get a giant pot large enough to hold it and fill the pot with cold water? My dad had a large white ice cream tub (the kind ice cream stores get theirs in) that he'd fill in the basement for that.

All those wonderful desserts ... I'm trying to restrain myself but I have all the ingredients for gingerbread men (the butter is softening right now) and I'm going to roll down there (I gorged on a Mexican dinner my brother dropped off for me last night), any time now, and make the dough and then throw it in the fridge.

I haven't nibbled on the toffee I made yesterday, today, and am going to resist so I'll have SOME left for Christmas. And then I'm making those mini cheesecakes. Oh gosh, I'm going to explode.

[spikesgirl58]

Rose made a similar comment as she tried to talk me out of making dinner. "We can just eat candy and cookies." Ah, no. She can, but I'm eating a regular meal and not snacking.

We will do the fast thaw method as we have to start the brine on Wednesday night. We have a brand new five gallon bucket all ready for the task.

[a_boleyn]

More power to you for resisting.

I've never brined a turkey. Maybe one day.

I have been very lazy today. I intended to start making the dough for the gingerbread men earlier, since I didn't have to make supper, but I've spent the day wrapped in an afghan reading fanfic on my computer. Oh well, it won't take long and then I'll just throw the dough in the fridge. If I get really lazy, it'll end up in the freezer until I feel more inspired.

[spikesgirl58]

I used to scoff at brining, but it is incredible the flavors that it brings to just about any cut of meat. Brining pork chops is incredible! The trick is finding a bucket big enough.

I think you deserved a lazy day - you have been working very hard and besides, your 'easy day' would kill most people. 'Sides, so of the fanfic you read was mine, so I am driven to say, "Rock on!"

[a_boleyn]

I could brine pork chops without a big problem so I might give them a try. :)

Reading fanfic is an addiction. I just wish some of the incomplete stories that I love and reread on occasion had some hope of being finished. After 2 to 5 yrs on some of them, I should probably give up hoping.

[spikesgirl58]

Brining chops is wonderful!

We are going to do manicotti tonight and I'm putting together a barbecue sauce and start marinating the ribs for dinner tomorrow night. That will make it much easier. It's nice having a gas stove to play with.

That's why I avoid anything that say W-I-P I will wait until someone finishes a story before I read it - I've gotten too disappointed otherwise.

[a_boleyn]

I've never made manicotti because filling the cooked pasta tubes always seemed so fiddly and, of course, pretty messy.

Do you have any suggestions for a brine recipe... just water, salt and sugar? How much brine should I make for a couple of pork chops? I don't want to 'waste' the salt and sugar if I don't need to make too much.

[spikesgirl58]

Filling the manicotti can be messy, but I've always been someone who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Besides, it's so worth the effort.

This is the recipe I use - it's Alton Brown's. This is for a turkey, so you need to adjust the ingredients to reflect the size portion you are using. For four pork chops, a quarter of this recipe should suffice.

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

[a_boleyn]

I'm quite messy in the kitchen though I try to keep it down to a minimum and clean up as I go which sometimes means I don't pay attention to what's going on on the stove. OOPS!!!

Thank you for sharing your brine recipe. It sounds very flavourful. Definitely NOT just salt and sugar and water.

[spikesgirl58]

Alton insists that no matter what you use, you bring flavor to the party. Use this once and you will never have unbrined chops again.

[a_boleyn]

I'll definitely give it a try for New Year's. My dinner is pretty simple otherwise though I have to come up with some chicken stock between now and then for the chicken and semolina dumpling soup. Kind of a Romanian version of Jewish matzoh ball soup.

[spikesgirl58]

Let me know what you think!