I think people are trying new things for their celebration. Just reading about some new vegetarians who managed to keep a lot of the white trash carb cookin' overload and June-Cleaver-cheese-for-fancy on their menu. Which sounds delicious:
Chipotle Mac and Cheese
Broccoli Cheddar Bake
Sichuan Blistered Green Beans
Low Country Field Peas and Rice
Stir Fried New Potatoes with Hot and Numbing Korean Spice
Stuffing
Mom's Apple Pie
Noticed a trend on lattice pies, to make the lattice strips two or three inches wide, so that three will cover your contents. Nice and modern looking, plenty o crust and far less labor.
My ideal menu remains the very pared down one my mother conjured up when she went on strike at age 80. She said, I've cooked two gigantic holiday meals a year for the last 60 years and I ain'ta gonta do it no moar. And, there will be no goddam vegetables.
Her two menus, of which we did all the cooking:
Roast Duck
Scalloped Oysters
Fresh Fruit Salad with Cooked Mustard, and Orange Zest Dressing*
Maida Heatter's Lemon Custard Tart
Roast Pork
Country Style Paté
Fresh Fruit Ditto*
Lemon Custard Ditto
She loved that pie. She'd condescend to stew down the duck carcass into a superlative soup.
And we'd do the traditional food we couldn't live without intermittently during autumn and winter -- her sweet potato casserole flavored with orange juice concentrate and a minimum of sugar; creamed onions; Brussels sprouts vinaigrette with roasted red peppers; stuffing and a big homemade giblet gravy, like quarts. Parsnips. Salsify if we could find it. Celeriac, etc.. For Christmas breakfast, an apricot compote with cranberries, and fresh grapefruit and orange segments; tangerine/cranberry juice; overnight cheese strata; oven bacon spirals. Apple pie with cheddar, if you please. Punkin pie.
And celery. I love celery. It's scrumptious raw and scrumptious in this delicious
Jane Grigson soup. To die for with her equally delicious Burgundy
walnut bread, from her immortal book,
Good Things.
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** Mustard Fruits
Serves 10.
I melon, seeded, peeled and cut into bite-sized triangles
1 orange, seeded, peeled, quartered and cut into fan shapes
1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and cut into bite-sized wedges
1 cup grapes
1 red apple, cored and cut into bite-sized wedges
1 cup cherries
Mustard Sauce
1/2 c loosely packed dill sprigs
Combine fruit and Mustard Sauce in a large bowl, mix to coat all fruit. Refrigerate until ready to serve (can be made 1 day ahead). Before serving, garnish with dill.
Mustard Sauce
1/4 c dry mustard
1/2 c water
Zest of one orange, finely julienned
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 t salt
Juice of one orange, strained
Mix mustard and water together in a bowl, stirring until smooth. Set aside for at least one hour (no lie, don’t fail to do this). Combine zest, vinegar, sugar, salt and orange juice in a saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes. Add mustard to the syrup and stir while cooking until the sauce is thick and smooth. Remove from the heat, cool and refrigerate.
