This year, my brother went up to visit his girlfriend's family for Christmas, so I offered to make my mom a "gourmet Christmas" meal. She was to provide the wine, and I would take care of EVERYTHING else... EVERYTHING. I turned to my most trusted recipe source - Bon Appetit - and found a wide variety of Christmas Menus. I settled on a French menu with turkey as a protein, since my mom loves her turkey. And I vowed my turkey would not be as dry as my Aunt & Uncle's usually is (sorry to rat you out!). A few weeks before the big day, I was talking to my good friend Becky, telling her about my eternal dry turkey problem, and she suggested I brine my turkey, using a handy dandy brining pdf she had on hand--Thanks Becky!!
So the Monday before Christmas, I bought a small turkey (8lbs) and let it thaw in the fridge. Wednesday I made Ryan help me make the 2-gallons worth of brine, and fill my (beer) cooler with ice, the 2 gallons of brine in a garbage sack, and my turkey. On Thursday evening, I whipped up the truffle butter (the truffles were SUPER expensive - $15 for a teeny jar!) in my food processor. I took the turkey out of the brine, and dried it off, and rubbed the butter all over it. I added lemons and onions into the inside cavity and put my baby into the fridge to sit overnight.
In the mean time, I whipped up a few desserts. First, Ryan had requested a strawberry ice cream cake for his birthday, so I cheated a little and made a boxed strawberry cake and bought some vanilla and strawberry ice cream. After freezing the two 8" rounds, I cut each in half longways (so I was left with 4 layers), and let the ice cream soften a bit. I lined a trifle dish with saran wrap, and started layering! First a layer of the cake, then half of the strawberry ice cream, another layer of the cake, and half of the vanilla ice cream. Then I repeated the entire thing until I had 8 layers and my trifle dish was full. After it was completely frozen, I tried prying it out of the dish, and it was truly stuck, so Ryan had to come in with his man muscles and pry his own birthday cake of the trifle dish (shameful on my part, I know, but you don't know how hard that cake was!). I frosted it with whipped heavy cream and decorated it with strawberries. It turned out to be a deliciously strawberry 8-layer ice cream cake.
We cut into it on Christmas and Ryan (and his family) LOVED it! See all the layers!?
I also made some chocolate mousse from Julia Child's famous cookbook - Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which I had stolen from my mom's cookbook shelf a few weeks ago. (She actually had the two-volume box set, so that's why I'm linking to that version. And I will add it's the 1972 printing, so you know it's been loved!) The mousse took forever and was super complicated, but was definitely worth all the trouble. Lastly, I made panna cotta, from David Leibowitz, which was EASY, QUICK, and delicious. Instead of having to worry about unmolding both the mousse and the panna cotta, I put them in cute martini glasses I had, so they would be ready to serve at a moment's notice!
At the last moment, I decided to accompany this french meal with some homemade baguettes. A few months ago, I made ciabatta from scratch with a recipe I found on the King Arthur website (a great baking website all around!), and they turned out pretty good, so I felt confident making baguettes. Thursday night I made the poolish (the yeast starter) and Friday morning after putting the turkey in the oven I finished the dough and set it to rise. I had to cheat a little on the rise since I was running short on time, but they turned out amazing anyways. And I have to thank Aunt Joanne for the wonderful couches (the round thingies you form baguettes on) she gave me! See if you can find my baguettes in the photo below of our Christmas Table spread :)
Friday morning I put the turkey in the oven, and I thought it would take much longer than it did to cook it through. I took it out after maybe 2 1/2 hours, tented it with aluminum foil, and let it sit while I finished the rest of the food.
The rest of the meal was fairly simple. A variety of cheeses for appetizer (a little trick I picked up from Ina Garten--no cook appetizers!) -- I chose Stilton Blue Cheese, Ile de France goat cheese, and Port Salut. For sides, I cooked up the haricot vert (French green beans) and carrots coated with dijon mustard mixed with heavy cream, in the Bon Appetit menu. These were easy AND delicious, even though I hate mustard, and I've made them once since Christmas. The potato galette, also in the Bon Appetit menu, was rather simple to make as well, it just too forever to place layer after layer of potatoes. It turned out beautifully (I made extra sure the top layer was arranged perfectly), but when I tried to unmold it, I guess I didn't use enough butter on the pan, and the potatoes stuck, so it didn't look as pretty on the table as it did pre-un-molding. My wonderful boyfriend had the privilege of carving the turkey. And the cognac gravy was the best gravy my mom said she had ever had!
All in all, Christmas dinner went off without a hitch (thanks to my own neurosis and list-making!) and my mom (and Ryan & I) LOVED it. Next year she wants me to come home and make the same meal in Tampa.
Brining is soooo the way to go! I therefore take credit for the excellence of your meal. Okay, just the bird. Also, that ice cream cake looks devilishly delectable.
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