One of the top items we were looking forward too the most about the new house is finally being able to host family gatherings. Our first test was Thanksgiving. We got the keys on Nov 15, and thus had a short amount of time to get enough kitchen/dining/seating supplies moved from the apartment. All the important stuff made it over in time, if you don't consider seating important. So not only did we have the pressure of cooking a turkey and various side dishes, but everyone was essentially huddled around the kitchen watching us prep as we only had a folding table, some folding chairs, and four bar chairs that arrived just a couple days earlier.
So even with the extra pressure of everyone watching us cook, and the fact that we really hadn't used any of the appliances prior to Thanksgiving, everything turned out very well. The turkey turned out nice (it never hurts when you stuff butter and herbs under the turkey skin before cooking), Mary made some excellent vegan cornbread that we turned into dressing, and there was pie...
And frozen pumpkin mousse torte...
And pumpkin creme brulee...
With that trial by fire out of the way, we were ready to up the ante with Christmas. Mary's family had plans to gather on Christmas Eve, with a total head-count of 19, including 6 kids under the age of 11. Not only was this going to test our hosting abilities, but also the house durability as there always seems to be an inverse relationship between the size of the child and the mess they can create.
With this size of event, we went the potluck/buffet food service arrangement. In previous years, Mary's family Christmas Eve meals have learned towards and Italian theme, but since Mary is lactose-adverse and her Mom is allergic to garlic, we felt a menu theme change wouldn't hurt. We ended up going with a Latin American/Caribbean themed meal, mostly because we new some great rum and guacamole pairings.
Mary created some cranberry mojitos, Christmas sangria, and chicken tortilla soup, and I tackled carnitas and chorizo tamales, tomatillo salsa, spicy habenero salsa, and a mole sauce. I had never done tamales before and didn't have a steamer basket, so I had to MacGyver one with a foil pie tin that I punched holes in with a screwdriver. I thought dealing with the corn husks would be my undoing, but it all went really smoothly and were a big hit.
On the sweet front, Mary provided some of her delicious Creme Catalan (a Spanish creme brulee made with lemon zest), and I tried my hand with a sweet potato pie and a dulce-de-leche apple pie. Mary recalled the disaster that was my sweet potato pie last year, but this year I was confident I could redeem myself. Turns out that all I needed to do was omit all the suck and fail, and triple the amount of awesome.
The dulce-de-leche apple pie turned out phenomenal. It is just unfortunate that it will never happen again as dulce-de-leche is easily the most time consuming dessert item ever and it took a quart of whole milk to produce a little under a cup of caramel.
There was also a pecan pie halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas to help bridge the gap between overindulgence holidays. There is still noting wrong with sugar baked with pecans in a pie:
Time to wrap this up, Mary's got the New Year's Eve paella ready to consume!
Happy New Year!
--Isaac.
