Tuesday, December 25, 2012

christmas lunch menu

1. boneless turkey breast draped with bacon and herbs
2. pumpkin mashed potatoes
3. roasted parsnips
4. roasted brussels sprouts with lemon
5. carrot-raisin-pineapple salad
6. homemade cranberry-apple-ginger sauce with a hint of orange
7. choice of sparkly apple-pomegranate, apple-grape, or apple-cranberry juice
8. chocolate-coconut cookies (gluten free)
9. Christmas pudding with brandy butter

Then...a nap? With kiddiewinks in the house? No way that's happening!

Monday, December 24, 2012

rosemary red cabbage, apples, and onions

We have little eggies with ham almost every breakfast and I'm always on the lookout for fun and savory sides to go with. My garlicky/vinegary favorite is kimchi (nobody's complained about my breath yet!), but I alternate with slices of avocado and/or tomato, or with just zigzags of ketchup on top.

Practical Paleo is my main inspiration for meals lately and this little sweet-and-sour number came from its luscious pages. (Even the kiddiewinks, especially the elder one, sit around and read it to find recipes for me to make. It's that yummy.)

This would be lovely accompanying your holiday meal as well.

You'll need:
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced (I chop mine in half and then cut it into half-moons)
  • 1 T. coconut oil
  • 1/2 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 2-4 T. apple cider vinegar (I use 3)
  • chopped fresh rosemary to taste
  • salt to taste
  • 1 green apple, cut into matchsticks (I leave the peel on when I buy organic)
Do this:

In a large pot on the stove, saute the onion in the oil till soft, then add your reddy-purpley cabbage and cook it till it begins to soften as well.

Add the vinegar, rosemary, and salt and allow it all to soften together and the flavors to meld beautifully and fragrantly.

Add the apples and cook them until tender.

I'm a vinegar kid so this hits the spot every time, and the addition of rosemary is unique to me. I've made a variation of this for years, but with the rosemary it really makes me happy. And my eggs get goose bumps.

Monday, December 17, 2012

christmas puddings 2012

 fruit soaking in brandy, ready to be pudding-ed



Flashback to 2010 when my mother-in-law was here from the UK and helped me make her mother's Christmas puddings...

Flash forward to my 2012 helper (above!)...

And my husband helped stir because once you put in the breadcrumbs, suet, eggs, sugar, candied citrus peel, currants, golden raisins, raisins, spices, and brandy, it is stiff stuff!

Well, the puddings are made and brewing in the basement till Christmas and we already have two sets of plans for those puppies.

And now I'm being summoned for a game of pirate chutes and ladders, so me pretties, I must depart.