Merry Christmas, what a year 2011 has been!
Christmas wreath adorning our doorway. Denise claims the wreath was inspired by me. I contend that I’m much more handsome than the sock monkey.
Christmas as a time of traditions.
Every Christmas, Denise and Patrick’s families take a dual family trip. This is a tradition Denise and Patrick initiated 3 years ago and hope to carry into the years to come, so that no matter everyone’s individual paths in life, every family member will converge every Christmas to share new memories together. Denise absolutely loves traditions and being in the company of those she loves. She’s very excited at the prospect of watching these Christmas trips grow in number and size as our families enlarge with all the +1’s.
In the past, the dual family trip has taken us to Vegas, Mammoth, and San Diego. This year, given Denise’s potential surgery before year-end, the families stayed close to home for Christmas.
Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve, Denise and Patrick hosted an afternoon gathering at our home. Denise and Patrick adorned various indoor shelves with strings of lights and put together festive floral arrangements. Denise even made some gingerbread men as snacks, which complemented the snacks everyone else brought.
‘lette macarons, Patrick’s brother’s contribution to our array of finger foods. Here is a brightly colored sampling of 6 (1 already eaten) macarons fresh from the Beverly Hills bakery. Chewy, almost mochi-like filling sandwiched in delicious lightly flaky crust.
Then, following another family tradition where one’s first paycheck at a new job is spent treating the families out to dinner, Patrick treated us all to a delicious Asian feast at Capital Seafood.
Five pounds of crab, prepared house-style, at Capital Seafood. We only really ever chow down on crab when eating out with Patrick’s brother, a true crab enthusiast.
Christmas Day
On Christmas, everyone gathered for a home-cooked Christmas dinner hosted at Patrick’s parents’ home. Patrick’s mom is an excellent cook, but Denise has been wanting to lighten Patrick’s mom’s cooking load and learn to cook some delectable group-friendly eats. So this year, Denise made a Christmas chicken, adapting a recipe from her friend Tiffany.
Adaptation of Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken recipe
Total time: ~2 1/2 hours (including 1 1/2 hours of chicken baking in oven)
Ingredients
- 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large bunch fresh thyme or rosemary, 20+ sprigs
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
- assorted veggies; example: 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced, 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks, 2 zucchinis cut in 1-inch chunks, 2-3 medium sized russet potatoes cut into cubes, 6oz white button mushrooms cut in half
- Olive oil
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry.
- Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme or rosemary, lemon quarters, all the garlic, and a few chunks of onion. Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string/thick rubberband and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.
- Place the assorted veggies in a roasting pan (9×13 pyrex baking pan works well). Toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top, breast-side down (so the juices are drawn into the breasts as the chicken cooks).
- Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, flipping the chicken breast-side up after 45 minutes of cooking. After 1 1/2 hours, the juices should run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, if desired, prepare a sauce with the chicken drippings. Pour 1/2 c white wine into pyrex baking pan and heat to a simmer on the stove, while scraping the burnt fond and drippings. Boil the liquid down to ~1c.
- Strain the liquid into a sauce pan (so that the sauce will be nice and homogenous with no floating chunks). Boil off the liquid.
- Add 1/2c water, 1/4c milk, 1 tsp flour and bring everything to a light simmer to dissolve the fond. Let liquid evaporate until the sauce is of desired thickness and consistency.
- Serve sauce over sliced chicken and veggies and even over a side of rice.
Merry Christmas everyone, eat up your fill of delicious food and stay warm!
i love you monkey 