Food I made & served for Christmas dinner
Seven Layer Salad
Turkey Carciofi Casserole
Stuffed Hot Sausage & Ground Beef Meatloaf with tomato sauce
The salad is an old family recipe, with spinach, iceberg lettuce, water chestnuts, green onions, celery, peas and bacon with a topping of Mayo & sour cream, sprinkled with paprika.
We tried turning chicken carciofi into a casserole, subbing turkey meat for the chicken cutlets. The sauce consisted of butter, EVOO, pasta water, lemon juice, Sauvignon blanc, and shredded Parmesano reggiano. Mixing the cheese into the hot liquid melted it, thickening the sauce and giving the whole dish a subtle cheesiness, which played well with the artichokes and capers.
The surprise hit was the meatloaf, though. I took it from the oven and poured its sauce on it as it rested, then hit the shower to de-funkify myself. By the time I came back to the kitchen, most of the guests had arrived and had hit it HARD. That picture was taken as I returned…they had eaten approximately 2.5lbs of it in the few minutes it took for me to make myself presentable. By the evening’s end, all that remained was a chunk about the size of 2 small adult fists. Maybe half a pound?
I used:
1lb 80/20 ground meat
2lbs Louisiana hot sausage (homemade from old family commercial recipe)
3 jumbo eggs
Half a can of panko
About .75lbs of sliced Boar’s Head Black Forest ham
One ball of mozzarella from the Mozzarella Cheese company
The sauce was a jar of Dave’s Gourmet red sauce, jazzed up with diced tomatoes, parsley and chives.