The boys really loved their presents Christmas morning. Nikita asked Santa for Lego C3-PO and City Lego, and received instead the Star Wars Landspeeder which included both C3-PO and R2D2. Ivan only asked Santa for a stethoscope, and received a whole toy Doctor’s kit, including a thermometer and syringe for giving shots. Both boys also found some scratch art and a Christmas cookie on a stick in their stockings.
Christmas breakfast consisted of yeasted waffles (Cook’s Illustrated) and Christmas Stollen (New York Times). The Stollen turned out quite nice; Igor really liked it, but I think Ivan only ate the frosting. This is not surprising: Ivan also only eats the toppings of the Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes Igor buys from BJ’s.
The boys were kept busy with their new toys as I made final preparations for my family, who were driving up from NYC for dinner. And the dinner turned out well: prime rib; Chicken Relleno; potato casserole with Gouda, garlic, and thyme; Brussels sprouts in a mustard-tarragon sauce; crescent rolls; Russian salads. My dad made the chicken, and the salads came from Galina or the Russian store. Cook’s Illustrated was the source of the other recipes, including the rolls. The wine was good, too: a Malbec for the beef, and a Riesling for the chicken.
The beef turned out perfectly – very tender. And the sides complemented it well, though next time I would completely cook the potato casserole (as opposed to saving the cheese broiling until the end) and warm it with the prime rib because the oven is already at 250 F. This would’ve helped me get dinner on the table sooner: dinner was ready by 6.15, but Nikita suddenly got hungry at 5.30. The beef was out already, so the boys ate earlier than us, and Nikita was kept busy with his new Legos or chess with Igor while Ivan acted out scenes from Don Giovanni.
Once dinner was cleared, the table again groaned under the weight of the desserts: pecan pie, Christmas Stollen, Bico, and Ginatang. My mom made the last two; the boys really love the Bico, which is cake made with rice flour, and topped with candied coconut. The pecan pie was a hit as usual, and the Cook’s Illustrated Foolproof pie crust was perfect. The crust didn’t shrink during the prebake, but I wish it would retain the fluting. Tea and coffee were passed around, as well as homemade eggnog.
More presents were opened after dinner. Probably the best ones were the City Lego sets for Nikita from Liz and my family, and for Ivan, a panda jacket and lighted orange ball (see photo).I originally thought of buying bagels for breakfast the next morning, but decided against it because we had so many desserts for breakfast (my sister-in-law Brielle would have been content with just the pecan pie). Plus, my mom had made zucchini bread and I had made winter fruit salad. So, I just made a tortilla with spinach and mushrooms. The recipe for the winter fruit salad came from the New York Times, and it turned out quite well. The boys particularly like the syrup. I had doubled the recipe, which was way too much; I’m going to make a cake with some of the leftovers.
It’s taken me a couple of days to recover from my week of Christmas cooking, but as you can see, the planning paid off. A blizzard has kept us housebound (though we picked up a dresser from our friend Liz the day after Christmas), and I’m thankful that our house has both heat and Christmas leftovers.
