I cooked dinner last night – technically, Christmas Eve dinner – for 27 people…my largest crowd so far. This is my third year cooking for the family, and my mom makes a superb sous chef. A standing rib roast is tradition, and we got a huge 18-pounder this year. I smeared a horseradish-herb-butter crust all over the top and put it in the oven for about 4 hours. It was absolutely perfect. I also repeated the homemade cranberry sauce and green beans with herb butter from Thanksgiving (at Sydney’s request), and added in a huge potato gratin and salad. I didn’t realize it until we had purchased everything, but the food colors were right in season. I did as much prep as I could on Wednesday night, but we still had a lot to pull together to get dinner finished up. And too many people milling around in the kitchen once they all showed up…makes me very crabby. I start scowling and talking in a very snippy tone of voice. We cracked open a bottle of 2005 St Emilion – SO perfect with the beef.
SQ and I already got our Christmas presents back at Thanksgiving (a new Kenmore Pro refrigerator and Bosch dishwasher), so I wasn’t expecting anything additional this morning. Mom surprised me with the new Misono chef’s knife I desperately wanted and an All-Clad fry pan/basket combo. It was a good Christmas – I got to cook and I got new toys. What more could a girl want? Merry Christmas.