Hi everyone. Christmas dinner was great this year (as always) and it was really easy too! Cajun/Southern USA was the theme. Let me break down what we served for you starting with the appetizers:

Pickled Okra
Shrimp with Spicy Remoulade
Meat & Cheese Platter
Mini Muffaletta Sandwiches
Cornmeal-Crusted Fried Oysters

All the appetizers were fantastic, including the oysters which I normally don’t like. We also had some marinated artichoke heats and really delicious sweet-hot peppers that we served on the meat & cheese platter. And now for the main dinner:

Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo
Fried Red Snapper with Cajun Rub
Steamed White Rice
Spicy Red Beans
Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms
Seared Collard Greens
Cornbread
Green Salad with Candied Pecans

The gumbo cooked all day long so it was really thick and hearty. We kind of cheated with the crab-stuffed mushrooms; we bought prepared crab cakes at Central Market and stuffed the mushrooms with those (a great shortcut to remember!) I’m so sad that Christmas is over and I already can’t wait for next year – we may do New Mexican food. That will be two regional US themes in a row…interesting. That also means Robert has to help with the planning and cooking which make it even more fun. OK, I need to go recharge my brand new iPod now. Hope you all had a great holiday and I’ll talk to you soon!

Here’s an e-mail from one of my biggest fans! I thought it was very funny so I had to put it on my blog.

Happy Holidays!!
I had Thanksgiving w/ Andrea and her brother, his fiancee and a couple others. It was lots of fun and very relaxing. Everyone was supposed to make a side, there were originally going to be 9 of us. I’d planned to dazzle folks with my classic Midwest marshmallow fluff, featuring canned fruit coctail… but at the last minute 2 people dropped out and there was already WAY too much food. I knew then that only a light Asian appetizer would suffice. In a rural town w/ only a Fred Meyer and just a few hours before they closed I rustled up chutney(most employees did not know what it was), a whole fresh coconut (which was disected on the table saw), ginger, lime, peanuts and everything else except the big store was out of shallots. A smaller, seedier store in the next town had them in a 70′s style fishnet package. They played Christian rock which seemed a few weeks early but I decided it was better and more appropriate than death metal. For me personally the success of the dish lies in finding the most enormous spinach leaves. Regardless it was a hit and it moved. People kept coming back for more, asking about it and where they might find the recipe.
Thanks Ellie May!

M

I’ve been totally lacking in holiday spirit even though I told myself on December 1st that I was going to enjoy every day in December as though it was Christmas. Oh well, I blame it on being sick all of last week. I’m skipping work tomorrow and my mom, sister, and I are going out for our annual “non-shopping” day so that should help put me in more of a holiday mood. It used to be a shopping day but since none of us really like to shop, we usually just end up going to lunch and planning christmas dinner instead and that’s much more fun. I just learned that my sister has been baking cookies and listening to Christmas carols all weekend. That sounds so nice. I’m feeling the need to bake something now. Next weekend I will make biscochitos, the famous cookie of New Mexico (or possibly Spain…) They are made with anise seeds and are really flaky, although I don’t use lard like you are supposed too so mine are less flaky. But they will still make the apartment smell good and get me into the spirit of the holidays! -elliemay