{"id":760,"date":"2013-12-28T19:27:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T19:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galleychef.org\/?p=760"},"modified":"2019-10-09T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:30:07","slug":"celebrating-christmas-with-family-and-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/celebrating-christmas-with-family-and-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twas\u00a0the day before Christmas and all through the house, was the smell of food baking\u00a0with the exception of\u00a0grouse.\u00a0 The cookies were placed by the chimney with care, for all Christmas guests who soon would be there.\u00a0\u00a0OK so I\u2019m not a poet!\u00a0 What I am, though, is a person who loves to cook.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The anticipation of Christmas coming has always been a source of inspiration.\u00a0 This year was no different.\u00a0\u00a0 In planning the menu,\u00a0I wanted the food to be festive,\u00a0interesting, luscious and a\u00a0little over the top, yet traditional.\u00a0 For traditional, I decided to go with eggs Benedict, Quiche, gravlax, bloody marys\u00a0and roasted chestnuts.<\/p>\n

\"Chestnuts
Chestnuts in a Jar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For festive, there were ginger bread eggnog martinis.\u00a0I thought miniature cheddar grit souffl\u00e9s in their own little ramekins and prosciutto wrapped figs with balsamic reduction would be interesting and what could be more \u201cover the top\u201d then Blueberry \u2013 goat cheese \u2013 basil pie.<\/p>\n

\"Blueberry
Blueberry \u2013 goat cheese \u2013 basil pie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I needed a vegetable to round off the nutritional aspects of the meal so cauliflower gratin was thrown in for good measure. Oh, and one more thing, something special for my husband\u2026\u2026\u2026.a raspberry crumb cake. He always has had a sweet tooth.<\/p>\n

\"Gravlax
Gravlax with capers and mustard-dill sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With all the food on the table (except the eggsBenedict, which were made to order),\u00a0family and friends gathered enthusiastically to celebrate.\u00a0 My daughter made a scalloped oyster dish that has been in our family since I was a small child.\u00a0 A neighbor friend of ours shared the recipe with my Mom and Dad that had been in her family for generations.\u00a0 We loved it so much, it has become a tradition.\u00a0 My daughter\u2019s boyfriend contributed a\u00a0scalloped potato dish with a beautiful golden-brown crusty cheese top.<\/p>\n

What a wonderful Christmas day it was. There is always an undeniable\u00a0heartfelt connection when sharing food and conversation with friends and family.<\/p>\n

As everyone left I heard them exclaim \u201cHappy Christmas to all, and to all a good\u00a0bite !\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twas\u00a0the day before Christmas and all through the house, was the smell of food baking\u00a0with the exception of\u00a0grouse.\u00a0 The cookies were placed by the chimney with care, for all Christmas guests who soon would be there.\u00a0\u00a0OK so I\u2019m not a poet!\u00a0 What I am, though, is a person who loves to cook.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The anticipation … Continue reading CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[168,177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}