Holiday Party 2006 food photos

As described in "What's everybody cooking for the holidays, 2007?" here's what we made for our friends and neighbors this year:


The Menu


12 kinds of cookies and bars: Left (top to bottom) Peanutbutter and Chocolate Bars, Jam and Cream Cheese Kolachki(sp?), Lemon Bars, Mint Brownies; Middle: Chocolate Crinkle, Nut Crescents, Soft Spice Cookies, Pistacio; Right: Butter Balls, Chocolate Filled Shortbread bars, Pinwheels, Caramel Bars

Kosher mini hot dogs in crescent roll dough (no pic, they didn't last long enough for me to grab one)


Deviled eggs with smoked almonds, dijon and chives - not as mutant as previous years, but my guests cleaned this plate


Vietnamese Chicken Salad (the recipe from the picnic -- MrsF loved it)
Came out a little wet, but tasty.


Morrocon Seafood Phyllo Rolls (Tribune sunday magazine recipe)


Burgundy Beef mini-pies (from a book called Finger Food we picked up at Printers Row Book Fair this year)

Carmelized Onion and Feta mini-quiches (same book, forgot to take a pic)


Fried Goat-Cheese Stuffed Olives, which I nicknamed Reindeer Droppings (same book)


Blue Cheese and Spinach calzones (from a book called First Impressions)
These were amazing. Just garlic, spinach, bleu and cream cheese in pizza dough.


Curried Cheesecake with chutney and fruit (same book)
This was delicious but awkward to eat, we've got a lot of this left.


Chicken in Green Pipian (Bayless "Mexican Kitchen") in mini corn cups (Martha Stewart)


Smoked salmon sushi Napoleons (Definitely a Martha Stewart)


'Porcupine' balls (meatballs coated with rice that pops up when steamed - Complete Asian Cookbook). One of the few recipes I didn't double, and they were all gone quickly (the pic is about a third of them)


Yellow Curry Potato Egg Rolls (experimental recipe attempting to duplicate a restaurant dish). Tasted great, but we fried them early and kept them in a warm oven, they got kinda mushy.


Cheese Board -- violated Cathy2's rule of threes, but it still worked. Banana leaves make a nice base.

Wow, Joel. That looks fantastic. You must have some great friends and neighbors to treat them to such a feast.

What was your prep. schedule like for this? (How much was done in advance and how far?)

I was exhausted after grating and frying potatoes for latkes this weekend. I can't imagine how tired I'd be after preparing two dozen different dishes in my home kitchen.

Best,
Michael

The cookies were baked and frozen starting before Thanksgiving and finished on the 10th. The recipes were all picked out by December 1.

The Phyllo Rolls, Beef Pies, and Quiches were all baked and frozen on the 8th, 9th and 10th before I went out of town on business for a week. The Calzones were formed and frozen that weekend too, and the chicken for the Vietnamese Salad and the Pipian Cups were (separately) poached, shredded and frozen too. The only other far-ahead prep was a yellow curry paste I'd experimented with, and, again, froze.

I got home from Jersey Saturday around noon, and it was pretty much non-stop work until the part started at 4 on Sunday. Having both sons around helped -- while their egg-peeling skills leave something to be desired, they have, over the years, gotten to be hot dog crescent encasing experts.

So Saturday we made the cheesecake, boiled the eggs, made the dressing for the salad, and made and spiced the mashed potatoes. We also cut, oiled and baked the tortilla cups.

Sunday was a lot of plating and "bam"-ing, plus the Porcupine Balls, frying olives and eggrolls, making the sushi stacks, and the green pumpkinseed sauce. The latter was kept warm on the stove with the chicken stirred into it (love the Thermador ultra-low burners), and spooned into the corn cups.

Hi Joel,

That looks amazing. Now, if only I were one of your super lucky guests!