Christmas Season 2013/2014 - Holiday Brunch 2

Pistachio Rum Cake Pudding

Top left: Just out of the oven.
Top right: Glaze poured on bottom.
Bottom left: Pre big reveal.
Bottom left: The big reveal.

Russian Tea Cakes

My friend Noel makes Russian Tea Cakes every Christmas just as her mother did and, I believe, as her grandmother did as well. Her grandma, who was of Czech descent, refused to call them Russian Tea Cakes because of what the Russians did to the Czech people. I believe the family still calls them pecan crisps or something like that. Pictured above are some of the actual cookies made by Noel. She sent some home with us after her most recent holiday fete.

Christmas 2013 - Dinner

Mom came over at about 3:30 p.m. and we ate around 5. In addition to the beef bourguignon we had a salad of field greens with grape tomatoes, walnuts, feta cheese, and Annie's mango poppyseed dressing.  Dale did some oven baked Brussels sprouts. For dessert we had a lovely chocolate cake from Kowalski's.

Christmas 2013 - Beef Stroganoff

Dale and I had originally planned to make Julia Child's beef bourginoine recipe for this year's Christmas Day dinner. That would have meant spending a good chunk of Christmas Eve day preparing it and with having to sing for two Christmas Eve services we decided that there wouldn't be quite enough time without making the day overly stressful. Instead we combined the bourginoin recipe with out crock pot beef stroganoff recipe which cut the total prep and cooking time by more than half.

First Dale sauted garlic and green onion and then the mushrooms. Next he browned the meat on the stove and then put it in the oven for about a half hour. After that he added wine and mustard and then cooked it in the over for about three hours. Before serving he added sour cream. We served it over egg noodles. The result was heaven.