Titled a lot of pictures of Christmas food:

A couple days before Christmas, I ate the following:

In the interest of taking better pictures, I tried to get closer. Still nothing terrific. But I don't care. That's spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, asparagus, and tomatoes. And more farmers market baby kale salad.

Next?:

That's meatloaf with some farmer's market sausage mixed in, steamed kale, baked beans from my previous post, and roasted japanese parsnips and golden beets. Also, a perfect ketchup mound. Everything was great, the beets were awesome.

Which brings us to Christmas. I didn't get pictures of everything, because by the end I just wanted to eat.

First the pecan pies I made the 23rd:

Those are made from a recipe from a friend, with an additional 2 tablespoons of this:

Uhhhh...they were awesome.

I also made an apple pie, with bourbon. Don't have a great picture. It's there in the left corner:

Then on Christmas Eve morning I made the chicken liver pate:

So that (livers, onions, garlic clove, 2 bay leaves, marsala wine, butter) got all food processed with more butter, and served with crumbled egg yolks and minced onions. Along with olives and cheeses. It was the beginning of the Christmas Eve food bonanza.

And then the time came to start eating. It was at this point my sister attempted to teach me how to take good food photos with my phone. Let's see how that turned out, shall we?

That's a good picture of the spread. Lot's of brown and yellow, San Diego padre-esque, even. Everyone thought the liver was to die for!!!!! Or something. It was damn good.

From there we moved on to baked stuffed cherry stone clams, prepared by my father.  Me and him devoured them.

 More good pics from my sister:

She's gonna ruin this blog's reputation.

Next for the Christmas Eve feast? Little neck clams. But before the pics, let's go to a video of Richard Jewel shucking clams for the Wakal family:

He's really in terrific shape! And what a great 'stache! Good job, buddy! I never believed them when they said you set off that bomb at the Atlanta Olympics!

So, how did they turn out?

Hot stuff.

But wait, there's more. Kielbasa. Obviously, I took the picture.

And then after everyone went to sleep, visions of sugar plums dancing, and Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day, we awoke. To more food.

But first, some prep to get through the day.

Now, ready for the day, and the food.

Oysters? Yep.

 
Caesar salad? Sure.

And then, Prime Rib.

So, there was a plate of prime rib and horse radish sauce, and lobster tails. and garlic mashed potatoes, and kale and chard. But I didn't take a picture.

Enough already!

There was a lovely Christmas sunset:

Merry Christmas!

Let's get caught up.

Last Wednesday I roasted some beets. I then cut up the greens, mixed them with spinach and kale, made honey mustard vinaigrette, and it was devoured.

For dinner was salmon, red potatoes and dill, and asparagus. I got the fish recipe from this book:

It turned out terrific. The salmon didn't need any lemon or nuthin. Unfortunately, the picture looks like someone threw up on a piece of salmon:

I'm trying to give Martha Stewart a run for her bad food picture money.

And then, Wednesday turned into Thursday. And that means FARMER'S MARKET!

So, the last time I went, the market had been moved to a masonic lodge. Then snow came and changed because no one took care of the parking lot. So, the market is back outdoors at Kerr Park. Some hot pics:

Hi, can I have some kale, and chard, some beets, some parsnips...and HUMAN MEAT!!!!!

So here's the haul:

That's curly kale, then from the left, baby red kale, spinach, baby swiss chard, japanese parsnips, a loaf of multi-grain bread, golden beets, 2 pounds of kielbasa, some breakfast sausage, and a pound of....chicken livers. Not pictured is a baguette and chicken pot pie. That's because there are other pictures with them in it.

That's a salad with all those greens. I've never had baby red kale before. It was great. It looks exactly like arugula, yet tastes like kale, but without the chewiness of adult kale. The whole thing was terrific.

The next day I made a batch of baked beans. I didn't want meaty bacon beans, so there's no meat. Except I used Campbell's pork and beans, but whatever. I mixed 3 cans of beans with an onion and green pepper, sauteed. Heated through, then added dinosaur bbq sauce, brown sugar, white vinegar, and dijon mustard. And baked for 2 hours at 325. These were really good. I don't have a picture of them on a plate, but is that a bad thing, really?

 

Ciao!

Before I get to food, I'd like to take note of an overweight former eagles player that had a shaved head, labret piercing, big black coat, and tan and brown saddle shoes.

Am I the person you want to take fashion cues from?!?????

In 5 years he's gonna look like my stupid profile picture. Get a clue!

Onto food.

I made penne alla vodka. It's a recipe from one Joseph Pesqueira. There's really not much to say except it's one of my favorite meals. Easy, yet sophisticated.

That's penne, vodka, olive oil, parsley, crushed tomatoes, heavy cream, garlic, onion, basil, and pancetta. Not pictured is parmesan cheese.

So you cook the meat and onions and garlic:

Then you add the tomatoes and vodka, reduce it, and then add the herbs and cheese. It's phenomenal.

With wine, and spring mix and spinach salad. Yum.

Here's the desert ingredients:

No picture of the drink. Imagine?

The post of 2 delicious meals I ate for dinner. Also, a promise to do spell and grammar check. That last post with the commas and periods. Ugh.

The first dish is one I haven't made in quite a few years. Not sure why, as it's delicious. It's been cold and wintery, and I wanted some delicious hearty soup that wasn't meat based. So, it was peanut soup time. When I first read this recipe I couldn't really comprehend it tasting good. But it works and...opens up a whole 'nother world of...peanut butter. My father had two bowls.

The ingredients:

Peanuts, red onion, sweet potatoes, garlic, ginger, kale, peanut butter, chicken broth, whole peeled tomatoes, and coconut milk.

So, I used chicken broth, because it's what was on hand. You could really use whatever you want. And probably add chicken. But I find the sweet potatoes and kale and broth satisfying enough.

Some hot prep pics!

This stuff is really easy to make.

I'm really disappointing myself with my awful food pictures. A couple things to note. The sweet potatoes in this were really sweet, making it extra delicious to this guy. Also, yes, those are denim Ralph Lauren Polo place mats. Cause nothing's more appetizing than eating off of someones folded jeans.

So there was more smoothie, which was breakfast for another delicious meal. Eggplant Parmesan. It's Mario Batali's recipe, which means no breading of the moulinyan. Just roasting, then stacking and baking.

So those get roasted, put in a a big baking dish, chopped basil, mozarella, parmesan, sauce, repeat, with some breadcrumbs on top. You get this:

Looks awful. Yuck.

It's messy so it's hard to get a good plate shot. Oh well, I keep my streak alive. Some delicious hand rolled Wegman's Italian bread on the dish.

Better believe it.