Christmas food!

[rocketgirl]

Whatcha making?


Its supposed to be 72 degrees here, so I'm going to smoke a pork loin. I think im also making a bread pudding with a bourbon sauce and maple bacon topping.  Maybe homemade Mac and cheese (which I could finish in the smoker.  Maybe roasted Brussels sprouts.


Depends on whether it's just me and one friend, or if it's me and several friends.


My family is doing Christmas Eve afternoon and just ordering sandwiches platter from the store.  Dad cant cook anymore and my stepmother broke her elbow (on her dominant arm of course).  A real meal for a bunch of people is too much to put on a 13 year old.  I guess they could have ordered a ham and we all potluck, but the other grown "kids"  have multiple family things.  And it's hard for me to keep something hot for an hour drive (not to mention if I cook, I am not going to be on time. 

[RioG]

Ooh, smoke pork loin sounds good.

We're doing the traditional - turkey, sides, mashed potatoes and enough wine to sink a ship.

Just one family dinner for us, and pretty small at that with just my sister and nephew.  Christmas has changed a lot but I don't think I mind.  Less stress.

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[rocketgirl]

Converting from a recipe in a 9x13 pan to 8x8 has been more complicated than expected.  (I found a similar enough recipe that should have helped, but I think the cook time was way off.  I think the rosemary kalamata gruyere bread pudding is going to be too dry.  I am not doing the sweet one that long & I think it will be better; plus it has a sauce.)  This is why I ran a test kitchen night.  (Although I'll definitely be doing a 9x14 of the sweet bread pudding on Christmas, so I can follow the recipe more closely (aside from using bourbon instead of brandy & adding crumbled maple bacon instead of pecans).

[rocketgirl]

Savory bread pudding needs work. (The "savory" is onion, a wee bit of garlic, rosemary, kalamata olive & gruyere.  And salt & pepper).  The recipe I was referencing really had too long a cook time, but the cheese formed a crust so it did not dry out.  I did not have enough of any of the seasoning other than onion.  I like my seasoning!


Sweet bread pudding is successful (but better with maple bacon on top).  Just hadn't made it in so long, I wanted to run a test.  Converting from a 9x13 pan recipe to an 8x8 pan recipe does not work neatly at all, but it was close enough. I might have had a tad too much bread, as it tasted fairly light for a bread pudding.  The bread wasn't fully immersed so it was crunchy on top, but it worked for me.  I liked it.  I'll probably do it "right" on Christmas (when I do the full 9x13 and do the bacon) but this was good too.

[rocketgirl]

Everything smells like bacon!  Maple bacon is fried up for the (sweet) bread pudding topping.  1/2 pack of regular bacon is diced and in the fridge to go with the roasting of brussels sprouts later.  4 cups of bread cubes are "dried" in the oven to become "stale". Sweet potatoes are chunked.  I probably won't make a savory bread pudding today, so the other half of that onion is available for the mac and cheese.  I brined the pork loin overnight and switched to marinade this morning (basically more brine, but also with bourbon and some garlic).  Time to go drag out the smoker and wipe down the patio furniture.  Then will need to cut a little rosemary off my bush to use with the sweet potatoes later.  Once the the pork is in the smoker, I'll do the bread pudding (means I'll probably serve that cold or at room temp, but whatever - it will give me the opportunity to clean some dishes and get them out of the way.)  I only have one oven, so...  At least the rolls and the brussels sprouts go at about the same temp, so they will be last.  The mac and cheese will be done in enameled cast iron, so as long as the lid is on, that stays pretty warm on its own.