The Best Part....
OK, so I did not get to have all of the kidlets at home, but I came pretty close.
That would be Rory and his Sweetie, Stephanie, on the left, joining us from Rochester, New York. In the middle we had Joseph, joining us from his friend Jason's house in Jacksonville, Florida. His better half, Amy, is up visiting her family in New Jersey, so Joseph did not want to stay home in Orlando by himself. On the far right screen, we had Emma and her husband, Brian, joining us from his brother's house in Houston. We may have been scattered geographically, but thanks to Skype, we were able to be together, in a manner of speaking.
It was a great day, which lead into a phenomenal dinner. We had proper Beef Wellington, which is to say kind of sort of more or less rare, but my crappy meat thermometer decided to get lazy on the job, so it is now in the trash. Regardless, the meat was still divine. I won't use pate foie gras, period, and the market was out of chicken livers, so I settled for a bit of calf liver that I cooked up and minced into the douxelle of mushrooms, garlic and onions. Turned out totally fab, and the girls laughed over the gingerbread cookie style cut-outs that I put on top of the puff pastry that surrounded the tenderloin. Dessert was a terrific buche de noel, a staple at our house. I used a chocolate genoise base that was generously sprinkled with a Bailey's sirop, that was wrapped around a yummy chestnut mousse cream filling. The icing was a milk chocolate ganache made with a mixture of Callebaut chocolates. Arilyn and I made meringue mushrooms. She got a bit enthusiastic with the bark detail, but it looked great, if a bit tatty. It may not have been as perfect as one that I would have made on my own, but I think it was all the prettier for having been crafted with such love by my girl and I.
All in all a rather nice way to start our twelve days of Christmas!
That would be Rory and his Sweetie, Stephanie, on the left, joining us from Rochester, New York. In the middle we had Joseph, joining us from his friend Jason's house in Jacksonville, Florida. His better half, Amy, is up visiting her family in New Jersey, so Joseph did not want to stay home in Orlando by himself. On the far right screen, we had Emma and her husband, Brian, joining us from his brother's house in Houston. We may have been scattered geographically, but thanks to Skype, we were able to be together, in a manner of speaking.
It was a great day, which lead into a phenomenal dinner. We had proper Beef Wellington, which is to say kind of sort of more or less rare, but my crappy meat thermometer decided to get lazy on the job, so it is now in the trash. Regardless, the meat was still divine. I won't use pate foie gras, period, and the market was out of chicken livers, so I settled for a bit of calf liver that I cooked up and minced into the douxelle of mushrooms, garlic and onions. Turned out totally fab, and the girls laughed over the gingerbread cookie style cut-outs that I put on top of the puff pastry that surrounded the tenderloin. Dessert was a terrific buche de noel, a staple at our house. I used a chocolate genoise base that was generously sprinkled with a Bailey's sirop, that was wrapped around a yummy chestnut mousse cream filling. The icing was a milk chocolate ganache made with a mixture of Callebaut chocolates. Arilyn and I made meringue mushrooms. She got a bit enthusiastic with the bark detail, but it looked great, if a bit tatty. It may not have been as perfect as one that I would have made on my own, but I think it was all the prettier for having been crafted with such love by my girl and I.
All in all a rather nice way to start our twelve days of Christmas!