New Year's Day Feasting

So so so sorry for the lack of posting. I don't know what's going on but my workload has mushroon clouded into a massive nuclear bomb that takes up around 16 hours a day + weekends. I'm working to get this down to a more manageable level so I can actually remember what my family looks like and cook something every once in a while.

Regardless, here is a backpost on New Year's brunch.

ahhhhhhhhhh the soup - Happy New Year!!! Every new year in Korean culture we celebrate by eating a rice cake soup. The rice cakes need to be the oval shapes too, has something to do with bringing good luck - as with everything asian...it's all about the luck. My version includes dumplings as that's the soup version I grew up with.

The new year's table...soup, seafood pancakes, braised short ribs (with korean bbq sauce) plus all the fun panchan...especially kim chee.

lemon meringue pie because well, i don't love korean desserts because desserts in asia really aren't very sweet - it tends to me just various bean pastes (bleh)

The prime rib from Christmas made a return visit as the base bone/meat for the stock - mm mm good!

Christmas Dinner Buffet

Christmas dinner this year was a fabulous potluck of deliciousness. We had 13 people for dinner so it was imperative that we divide and conquer the meal otherwise I would have jumped off the bridge by noon. On the menu was...

Appetizers: Clam Dip, Deviled Eggs, Baked Brie (Chelsea)
Salad: Spinach, Arugula, Radish and Orange
Main: Prime Rib with Horseradish Crust
Sides: Mashed Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Glazed Carrots
Dessert: Cran-Blueberry pie, Pear-Apple pie, Ginger-Pear-Custard Pie, Gingerbread Cake, Assorted Cookies.

If you left our house hungry, there was a problem because we had so much food! Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the dessert table so there is no documentation of the fabulousness that was the pie-bonanza.

Merry Christmas Brunch

Let the feasting begin! Yesterday was Christmas and the day started off with breakfast for 7 adults and 1 baby so that we may have enough strength to forge on to open presents. On the menu for breakfast was...

- Green Eggs & Ham (a homage to Rose's Cafe)
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Fruit Salad

Green Eggs & Ham
This is really just soft, slow scrambled eggs with spinach served on top of a crusty italian bread toast with a side of bacon. I served mine with caviar for a little special something

Orange on Orange Cupcakes

It was Forrest's holiday party - not the big dress up event but his Director's annual potluck holiday dinner that they host in the east bay at another coworker's house. Last year we brought appetizers and folks almost seemed disappointed that I did not bring a baked good so this year I made cupcakes. Standard yellow cake recipe but replace the milk with OJ.

Leann's Potato Cinnamon Rolls

While in Kansas for Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to try Leann's cinnamon rolls (they were tasty) which have potato in them. Leann is Jana's mother in law and we went to her house a couple of nights so the adults could get in on a poker game. She even has a dedicated table that looks like a real poker table! Anyhoo the real purpose of this post is to talk about the wonderful cinnamon rolls that I got to sample at her house. Holy smokes they were tasty!

I got the recipe from Jana and tried to make a batch the minute I got home. They turned out pretty good - the only issue was that I didn't make enough of the caramel sauce. And the recipe was very loosey goosey as in a list of ingredients and about 4 sentences of instructions - I am still amazed I was able to pull this together.

yeasty goodness above....while the caramel simmers on the stovetop below...

the dough is rising!

Thanksgiving Pies...

(blueberry pie pictured above)

This thanksgiving was spent with Forrest's family (we rotate every year) and we decided to go out to Kansas to spend it with Jana and family. My in laws rented a house nearby to stay at during the week and we ended up hosting the dinner at this house.

Tamra (middle niece) and I were responsible for the desserts, so we spent the day before Thanksgiving baking three pies for the family dinner. We only used a recipe for the pumpkin pie - right off the Libby's can! The others we just kind of winged it and thankfully they turned out delicious!

Above - pumpkin pie...traditional recipe off of the Libby's pumpkin can. Below is an apple pie with a oatmeal struesel topping. TASTY. For the day before, I also baked a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting that we basically just snacked on for the next few days.

Red Pear Crostada

Just out of the oven and mmmm mmm tasty. Actually I didn't get to eat any of this dessert because I was so full from our sushi dinner then didn't have enough time to digest before heading out to the airport for my red eye to NYC.

Pears all prepped and ready to go. Just an easy sprinkling of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves.