2012 Holiday Party Photos (long)

Here's our spread from our annual holiday party.
Our theme this year was nursery rhymes. We tried to come up with a Jack Sprat item with something fat and lean, but couldn't come up with anything that works as a buffet item.

Holiday Menu (I highly recommend a blackboard when you remodel a kitchen)


Jack Horner's Corners - Duck with Plums, from a Jamie Oliver recipe I found on the net. The duck gave up its all for this meal, with rendered fat going into the crust (25%, the rest butter), and for stock used in the grits.




Humpty Dumpties - Obatzda Deviled Eggs. Obatzda is a Bavarian cheese spread with camenbert, cream cheese, butter, paprika, onion and caraway. Garnished with pretzels and chives.


Pumpkin Eater - Greek pumpkin, leek, walnut, feta and blue cheese tart. Kind of quiche-like, very rich, it's bigger than it looks, it filled a half-sheet pan. From "Savory Baking"


Cockle Shells and Pretty Maids - Butter-Poached Shrimp and Grits. From Michael Ruhlman's "Ruhlman''s Twenty" except I made the shrimp sous vide at 58C for 30 minutes, to cut down on total butter used in prep. Delicious, but the least popular dish of the night, partly because of "grits aversion" and because they couldn't stay hot in those shells.


Itsy Bitsy Spiders in Sunny Sauce - Italian meatballs pierced with spaghetti, in a sun-dried tomato sauce. Meatballs from New Gourmet's Italian Wedding Soup recipe (I wanted a meatball that could withstand simmering), sauce from the internet.


Muffins, Man! - Curried mini muffins, with cauliflower (on the left with visible onion rings) and chicken (right).


Deedle Deedle Dumplings Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings from "Asian Dumplings." Fillings are Char Siu and Shiitake Mushroom (right) and Tofu and Crimini (left).


Well she had a little lamb - Birria Lamb Huaraches. Lamb birria and huarache recipes both per Bayless. Salsa is my tomatillo recipe. Huaraches are tough to make in small size, and don't keep well: by the end of the night they were drying out badly. Birria is sweet and delicious.


This Little Piggie - Sai Ua Sausage with peanuts, cilantro, chiles and ginger garnishes. Reasonable copy of Aroy Thai's version, using David Thomson's recipe (I could have used a little less chile, a little more kafir lime).

Before Cooking, my first attempt at sausage making:


Cows in the Corn - Smoked Brisket (GWiv's website instructions) with homemade sauce (also GWiv but added molasses because I know my audience), blue corn muffins and spicy pickles (Famous Dave's, a last minute addition or I'd have made them myself)


The Cheese Stands Alone - okay, it doesn't, because of the fig jam, crackers and marcona almonds. Blue, English Cheddar, a Merlot-soaked cheese and a homemade goat cheese ball with hazelnuts, honey and cranberries.


Oats Peas Beans and Barley Salad - An internet recipe, with peas subbing for corn, including scallions, bell peppers and cilantro, with an oil and vinegar, garlic, cumin and chile powder dressing. Topped with homemade oat-cumin crackers.


Cookies and Sweets - First picture: Homemade turtle, chocolate shortbread stars, peppermint cookies. Second picture: Chocolate Crinkles, Pistacio (in rear), kolachkes (cheese and strawberry), salted nut bars. Third picture: Raisin "strudel" bars, Pecan Pie Bars, Pinwheels, molasses ginger, Pecan Crescents.

To call the spread and creativity impressive would be a great understatement. Amazing as always! Thanks for sharing.

joel, what an amazing party you had! how many people were treated to that gloriously creative and delicious looking feast??

Justjoan - fewer than some years, we forgot to mail invites out, and only folks who got our Facebook post, or got handed one in person... So about 25-30, we had a lot left over of a few dishes, and a few were gone fast (always need more deviled eggs).