Christmas Menu

December 24: Menu Plan:

Roasted Organic Turkey au Jus (following http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/turkey-oven-roasted-organic.htm)
Cranberry Sauce (process in food processor with dates to taste - a raw food)
Fennel Purée (cut, steam, mash)
Butternut Squash with Honey Pecan and Ghee Topping (cut, bake, top, bake)
Creamed spinach with bacon bits (with whipping cream 24-hour yogurt)
Medley of pickled vegetables
Green salad with radishes and garlic vinaigrette
Fruit Spice Cake-- or it is Spice Fruit Cake?
Apple "pie" crustless, but with nut topping


Boxing Day:  Update/Post-mortem on Christmas Menu

Turkey was great.  Roasted it with loads of cloves and allspice, and the apple stuck with cloves where the stuffing normally goes.  Loads of salt, at least to my mind since I grew up in a low-salt household.  But it was just right. For once, did not overcook the turkey.  The carrots, celery, onion and garlic head halves that made a bed for the bird were addictive and more than made up for the lack of stuffing. Total success.

Forgot to make the cranberry and date sauce although it only takes 2 or 3 minutes.  We had pomegranate seeds instead, which was really good.  Today I'll make the c.s. to have with leftover turkey, of which there is A LOT, since it was enormous - less cooking for me in the next few days, he he.

Fennel purée: I made it in the food processor and added about 1/3 navy beans to thicken.  Total success.

Butternut Squash with sweet nut topping: everyone called it the Sweet Fauxtatoes.  Even more delish than the real thing.  I had baked the butternut slices the day before, so all I had to do was pull of the peels, mash with a potato masher right in the pyrex casserole, sprinkle with pecan pieces, drizzle with the melted butter and honey mixture, and pop in the oven for 20 minutes.  Total success.

Creamed spinach was wonderful.  I had cooked the spinach the day before, sprinkled with a little lemon juice and stored in the fridge.  Cooked the bacon in the morning, with the breakfast bacon, just 2 extra slices.  Just before serving, warmed the spinach to warm enough, not hot, so the probiotics in the whipping cream yogurt wouldn't be harmed.  Mixed in the yogurt.  Total success.

Pickled veggies: didn't serve them, no room on table.

Salad - just romaine and peelered carrots (peel carrot, throw away peels, then keep peeling for very thin slivers).  Good. Nothing new there but we have a green salad with almost every meal.

Apple Non-Pie was great.  It's just the recipe for Baked Apple Slices in Breaking the Vicious Cycle, except that I use 1 apple per person, almost no honey, and add 3 prunes per person.  Let soak overnight in the lemon juice after mixing well.  Just before dinner, sprinkle with cinnamon and put in oven for 20 minutes.  Total success.


Fruit and Spice cake: didn't get a chance to make, and anyway DD had made 2 kinds of cookies.  Her own recipe and she improves it every time.  They were sweet and chewy and very tasty.  She promises to write the recipe as a guest poster soon.  The great thing about non-grain, non-starch cookies and bread is that they don't dry out. 

Oh, and I did make a great loaf of Lois Lang's Luscious Loaf, but forgot to serve it, so today we'll have TURKEY SANDWICHES FOR LUNCH!  Yum.