Here I am again.
So now for the menu. Here’s what we had:
Aperitif:
- Olives medley
- Walnuts
- Grissini
Washed down with Prosecco di Conegliano.
Lunch:
- tortellini in brodo
- roast turkey with potatoes and a carrots and butternut-squash puree
- endive, apples, walnut and cheese salad
- Strawberry charlotte
For these items, we drank an American wine. For the first time, I decided to try something new and asked the wine guy at Austin Liquors in Shrewsbury, MA whether he could recomend a wine that would remind me of an Amarone or a St. Emilion and woyuld not cost me an arm and a leg. He told me to go for a Chateau St Jean 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. Sure, it’s nothing close to what I was asking for, he said, but if I like those wines I mentioned, I would be very satisfied with this one. Well, he was damn right. We really enjoyed it. And for 15 USD, I enjoyed it even more. Anyway, back to the food. Let me tell you about ho to cook those things.
Tortellini in brodo:
I have to admit that I cheated a bit on this one. Could not really bother to make the tortellini meslf, so I bought them “dry” from Barilla. But I made the soup meself.
- I bought two beef ones, some leeks, an onion, carrots and parsley
- I boiled the bones in ~ 4 litres of water (start with cold water) for about 4 hours. A lot of fat will come pout of the bones. Remember to regularly remove it, or your soup will be quite heavy.
- chop the leeks and the carrots and the onion(s) in half. Pass them in a frying pan woth olive oil for about 5′ and throw them in your beef stock
- cook for another 30-45 minutes.
- pass the whole thing through a sieve and cook the tortellini in the remaining stock
- add a spoonful of miso (gioves a nice twist to the soup)
- serve with some minced parsley and some grated parmigiano.
Rosted turkey:
This one is simple. We got a 14 lbs bird. Just shoved it onto our roaster and into the oven, at 350F for ~ 4 hours. Once the temperature in the breast was ~ 80C, we switched off the oven and let the bird cool down for 15′ at room temperature.
Roast potatoes:
Very simple as well. I cit hte potatoes in small cubes and brought them to the boil for about 5′. Removed the from the ater, put on an oven tray and shoved them in hte oven, close to the heating block, for ~ 40-45′.
Carrot and butternut squash puree:
- boiled ~10 carrots together with a medium sized squash until sift.
- added nutmeg (maybe half a tsp), salt, pepper and a drop of olive oil
- pureed the whole thoing until smooth and homogenous
Gravy:
This one was done by Hanne. still, very simple. Mix two soup spoons of flour with some of the bird’s juice in a small sauce pan, until the flours becomes kind of a thoink cream. Then start slowly pouring the rest of the liquid.
Finally, we also ad the salad, for which i have no picture and the cake mmmh cake 
Here it is
We finished woith coffee and tea and chocolate
Well, that was my christmas lunch menu. We enjoyed it, and that’s what counts.
Next, new year’s dimmer
Bye bye!
Fred
Well Christmas is over.
Was a fun two-days session and we had the chance to spend some time with firends and nice food
We had some frinds coming to our place on the 25th and I was eager to host, as it is the only time during the calendar year, were I feel free to use all the nice stuff for the table. We ahve some many wedding gifts that make a difference on a table setting but that we are “ffraid” to use on a daily basis. 
I just feel like sharing my “happy” set up with you guys.
The table cloth was all hand made by my mom. Took her ages, but the cloth and the matching napkins are just “adorable”. The dishes are maybe not the most beautiful ones ever, but they have been in the family for ages, thus they have a very strong sentimental value to me.
Cutlery and glass-ware are all new and “to be handled gently”. I like them a lot and still can’t believe that we got them. Thanks a lot guys!
On a similar note, we had a wee aperitif table set in the living room, so that we could have some prosecco to get the stomac moving 
I’d like to spend a few words on that tray. It comes from Cairo (Egypt) and it’s a hand made silver and colored glass “snack” serving platter. When we got it, we just could not figure out what it was. After putting all the glass bits in their respective holes in the silver tray, it became quite evident what it was. And we just fell in love with the thing. It’s an extremely simple yet detail-rich platter and you can clearly see that whoever created it, is a real artist. We are very fond of it.
Ok, so this was the setup of our lunch. Now, for what was served (next post).
Cheeriuss!
Compliments to the Chef