Christmas in Knoxville (Otherwise known as Foodfest)

Foodfest? Yes, it seems all we did while in Knoxville with my family was eat! The joys of having so many good cooks in the family is lots of good food when we all get together.

On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt Marie's place. She lives one block over from my parents in my grandmother's old house. She put together a beautiful spread that included beef on crusty bread with two sauces, swedish meatballs, a spiral cut ham, shrimp, little quiches, crab rangoons, and a chicken stew that you ladled over a big biscuit. It was all wonderful and everyone had a good time. Especially one of her three dogs. The little thief was able to get his nose at table level and stole several pieces of beef off the platter before we caught him. Jim and I wanted to drive around and look at the Christmas lights but were too pooped so we just went back to my parents house and crashed.

On Christmas day we had a nice breakfast then had some snacks during the afternoon as we waited for everyone to gather at my parent's house to open gifts. After we unwrapped our gifts, mom started to get dinner on the table. And some of you may already know what my family's traditional Christmas dinner is......Lasagna. Let me just say that it was better than I ever made. Mom's the pro, I am the apprentice. One day I will make lasagna as good as hers.....one day......

And if that wasn't enough, a couple of hours later she brought out dessert. A dark chocolate pie topped with homemade whipped cream. Oh.....my..... It was rich, creamy, and absolutely delicious. Needless to say, everyone waddled home that night. And yet, we still had two more family dinners to go through!

The next night we gathered at my brother's house for dinner. He had some snacks for everyone to nibble on before dinner. On the menu a pork roast with pepper and cranberries and risotto. My brother made the roast and I did the risotto. Add in a salad, some homemade bread and we had some good eats. And for dessert, creme brulee. *burp*

For lunch on Wednesday we took my nephew Steven for his much anticipated sushi. My brother met us at the restaurant and I think we all had gills by the time we were done.

Finally on Wednesday night we ended the foodfest with one of my favorite dishes, sauerbraten and kartoffelkloesse (potato dumplings). YUM! Mom only makes this once every few years because it's such so labor intensive. You basically have to brine the meat in a water and vinegar solution for a few days. Then on the day you're going to prepare dinner you remove the meat from the brine and brown it on all sides. Then you stew it for several hours. In the meantime you make the potato dumplings. You have to boil the peeled potatoes the put them through a ricer......don't just mash them. Then you add some egg and some flour to the mix. Mom also adds a little surprise in the center....homemade croutons cooked with some onion and butter. Now this is the tricky part. You get a big pot of salted water to a rolling boil then add the dumplings, cover the pot and DO NOT open it for 20 minutes......otherwise you wind up with mush which is what happened to mom. The first batch never came together so we had to start all over again. After several frustrating hours, I took over forming the dumplings and gave her a glass of wine. And we held our breath as we waited for the second batch to cook. Thankfully they held together. It was only later that night that she realized that she didn't rice the potatoes which was why the first batch of dumplings just fall apart. This was the one meal we forgot to get pictures of but let me tell you, it was so good!

We followed it up with a dessert that started out as some cookies that flopped. Mom tried to make a black and white cookie recipe from Food TV but they were too flat and not cakey enough. She was prepared to toss them but I said we could salvage them by making a trifle with them. I broke up the cookies and layered them with some vanilla pudding and frozen strawberries. It was actually a very nice light dessert. And a refreshing way to end to feeding frenzy.

We all had a great time although it seemed to go by too fast. And we were all full.

DMBLGIT - November edition

Once again I've sent in a picture from my blog for the monthly event called "Does My Blog Look Good In This" or DMBLGIT. Any picture I took and posted during the month of November is eligable for this month's edition and I knew right away which one I was going to use.

Sesame-Crusted Ahi Tuna. Jim did the cooking and I did the picture taking......and it was delicious! Here's the picture, judge for yourself.
And if you want to see my competition, head over to the Abstract Gourmet and click on DMBLGIT Gallery (on the right side).

A plea for good thoughts

A fellow blogger and dog lover just posted that her dog got hurt and is for the moment paralyzed in his back end.
The name of her blog is Up A Creek without a PatL and her dog's name is Simba. Please, please, please, go visit her site and leave well wishes and good thoughts for this little guy.

Bah Humbug!

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. I don't think Sophie was too happy with me when I put these antlers on her and started taking pictures. What do you think?

Merry Christmas!

And don't forget to head over to Sweetnicks tonight for some more holiday hounds for her weekly round up of Weekend Dog Blogging.

Pork Tenderloin with Apples and a Pomegranate Glaze

I promised you a food related post and here it is. Last weekend while browsing the aisles in Trader Joe's I came across something new....Pomegranate Glaze. Ready to use. How easy is that? At the time I had no idea how I would use it. I figured that would come to me later.

And later was the next day. In our fridge was a nice little pork tenderloin just begging for me to use it in my experimentation of this new glaze. A quick rummage in the fridge also produced an apple. Hmm..... An idea was born.

After cleaning up the tenderloin, I sliced the apple into about 1/2 inch rings (it was a BIG apple). I placed four rings in the bottom of a baking dish, placed the tenderloin on top of the rings then added three more apple rings to the top of the tenderloin. A generous drizzle of glaze topped the dish. Into a 350 degree oven until my trusty probe thermometer told me it was done.

Also added to the oven were some potatoes that were cut into chunks and seasoned with a little salt and pepper and some olive oil. Once both the potatoes and the tenderloin were done, I did a quick sautee of Brussels sprouts which I seasoned with some garlic and soy sauce. Voila! Dinner was served.

We head to Tennessee on Saturday to spend Christmas with my family. Lots of good food will be served and I'll have the camera ready to capture all the mouth-watering meals. Three things I know for sure will be on the menu, first of which is Mom's Christmas Lasagna (see the end of the second paragraph). The next day my brother is fixing a pork roast dinner that I will be helping with by making risotto. Then the following day, mom is making one of my favorite dishes, sauerbraten. She doesn't make it very often which is one of the reasons it's such a treat not to mention pretty darn tasty. And of course, whenever Jim and I see my nephew Steven, there's bound to be a trip to the sushi bar. Nicknamed Eel-Boy, Steven's enjoyed sushi since he was about 11 or 12 with Eel being his favorite, thus the nickname. Although he's an adult now so we upgraded his nickname to Unagi-Man. Sounds much more mature......doesn't it. hehe

So stay tuned! Pictures and posts will be aplenty over the next week (as will a few extra pounds.....thank goodness my water aerobics class starts the next week)

A Christmas Carol for your dog

One more dog post then I promise to get back to the food.

Here's one of my favorite dog Christmas carols set to Winter Wonderland:

A Doggy Wonderland

Dog tags ring, are you listenin'?
In the lane, snow is glistenin'.
It's yellow, NOT white - I've been there tonight,
Marking up my winter wonderland.

Smell that tree? That's my fragrance.
It's a sign for wand'ring vagrants;
"Avoid where I pee, it's MY pro-per-ty!
Marked up as my winter wonderland."

In the meadow dad will build a snowman,
following the classical design.
Then I'll lift my leg and let it go Man,
So all the world will know it's

mine-mine-mine!

Straight from me to the fencepost,
flows my natural incense boast;
"Stay off of my TURF, this small piece of earth,
I mark it as my winter wonderland.

Going to the dogs

Where has this month gone! I realized just the other day that I last posted on Dec 1st and here it is 2 weeks later. Between several projects at work and the upcoming holidays, time's been just whizzin' by.

Today I finally had time to make a batch of dog biscuits for the family pets. Between Sophie, my parents two dogs (Frazier and KC), my in-law's two (Java and George) and my sister's dog (Walker), we got a mess 'o hounds.

I bought a bag of biscuit mix at a store in New Syrmna Beach while we were on vacation. There's a cute little place called Silly Willy's on Flagler Ave. It's a regular stop for me whenever we're down there.

The mix went together in a snap and before I knew it, there were nearly four dozen little dog biscuits on the cookie sheet ready to go into the oven. Sophie gave them her paw of approval. Let's hope there's still some left by the time we get to TN this coming weekend. Oh... don't forget to head over to Sweetnick's to see some more cute pups for this week's edition of Weekend Dog Blogging.

Weekend Dog Blogging

Close up of a very sleepy Java

Got the in-laws up here this week for a belated Thanksgiving visit. And in addition to Jim's mom, dad and brother, their two dogs made the trip as well. Java is their Boston Terrier and George is their miniature Schnauzer.

George was a little camera shy but I did get some cute shots of Sophie and Java. And if you want to see more cute pups, head on over to Sweetnicks this weekend for the weekly roundup known as Weekend Dog Blogging.

Another shot of Java asleep

"Will you please let me sleep!"

Sophie and Java