Dinner #3: Twelve Days of AJRB Leftovers

Menu
December 17, 2016

Appetizers
Meatballs with Cranberry Glaze
Green Olive Tapenade
Yogurt & Spinach Dip

Course One
Butternut Squash Soup with Creme Fraiche, Croutons, and Pine Nuts

Course Two
Shiitake Mushroom, Rosemary, and Bacon Risotto

Course Three
Roasted Vegetable Medley

Course Four
Pork Tenderloin with Lemon, Sage, and Garlic and a small salad

Course Five
Poached Mulled Pears with Honey and Lavender Panna Cotta

Beverages
Cranberry Apple Cider Sangria
Blackberry Ombre Sparkler
Christmas Cider

It's an acknowledged thing that people like to cook for the holidays - that cooking is a thing that brings people together. 

Unsurprisingly, we were no exception. I was back from my first semester at graduate school for about one month, and on top of trying to pack in seeing all of our family, we wanted to have our first ever Holiday AJRB so we could begin making our own holiday traditions. 

Our menu, similar to the second event, was five formal courses, but this time, we didn't include the appetizer as a formal course so it was kind of like six courses. So it was three appetizers and five formal courses. As we developed our menu, some things shaped up easily and naturally - the butternut squash soup, the risotto, the pork tenderloin - but some were a little more challenging. I wanted to make a dessert that wasn't what everyone was having at all of their big holiday gatherings (so we went with poached pears and honey panna cotta), and then we ran into a wall with Course Three....which continues to be a problem even in menu planning today. Spoiler, we've gotten a little better at it these days, but still Course Three can be elusive. After a soup, and a salad, but before a protein, and dessert - what do you serve? Do we always go with a pasta-like course? In menus we have studied (lol, that makes it sounds so much more serious! Like when people say "I researched something" when they really just Googled it), other menus put a fish dish in their Course Three slot but we don't always agree with this because two proteins can feel overwhelming. And quite frankly, usually our guests are already getting full by Course Three, even if they don't want to admit it. 

Anyway, I digress. What we decided for this menu was to do Roast Vegetable Medley. 

One of the things I loved most about this dinner, and has since become a thing I've learned about and is definitely most prominently a thing for me during the holidays is tablescaping. Landscaping, for your table. I learned about it during planning our wedding, but I felt like I first noticed the impact of it at this AJRB. It wasn't just about having beautiful flowers at the table - I used some leftover pine branches from the wreath my family made, we put in some candles that we never light, we mounted the placecards and menus on construction paper for the first time. It was a vibe, as the kids call it. 

So, table was set and it was beautiful. When our guests arrived, we were so excited to show off our appetizers and Course One (which is funny because we look back at the pictures now and realize we have also improved on the photography quality). Then came the risotto. 

I don't know how we hadn't learned this before, but we definitely learned this in the risotto course. Portions are key. When planning a five/six course dinner (depending on how you want to look at it), maybe don't plan on serving a full portion of every course to every person. Or else you have a ton of leftover risotto. And when I say a ton, I mean, a week with John and I eating it at least once if not twice a day, amount of leftover risotto. 

Our Course Three, as predicted, was fine and not much more. Course Four - as expected with a Pork Tenderloin - was a crowdpleaser. Course Five, as much as I wanted it to be beautiful and fantastic - was kind of a dud. I didn't add enough gelatin to the panna cotta so they didn't set right and the pears sat next to them, looking confused. All in all, not my best dessert. 

However, Christmas crackers, a British tradition, were popped - meaning everyone got little games, paper crowns, and the shapeless panna cottas were forgotten in the not-so-controlled chaos that followed. 

Happy Holidays!