December 24 – December 20, 2023

Christmas Eve:   Coq au vin  [Rick, Billy, Drew, Beez and I]

Christmas:     [Billy, Drew, Greg, Mike, Kellie, Gabe]

Fillet of Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Winter Salad, Za’atar Roasted Carrots with Feta

Wednesday:            Hoisin Steak and Pepper Stir Fry

Thursday:                 Spaghetti and Meat Balls

Friday:                      Provençal Fish Stew

Saturday:                  Margherita Pizza

Ready-Made Ingredients and Relaxing Holidays

Once again, I find myself in the odd position of juxtaposing our holiday menus with yours and, well, I’m just not going to do it.  Hope springs eternal that some day, one of you, will invite us to Christmas or New Year’s Day dinner, and I don’t want to cause any second-guessing over the menu.  Do what your family loves.

We had fillet and mashed potatoes for Christmas and we’ll have sauerkraut with chops, kolbasi and ribs for New Year’s Day, and we’ll probably keep doing those dishes (and the various sides and apps that accompany them) until the nutritionist at the old folks home determines that the Gerber diet of our infancy is, once again, appropriate in our old age.

But there are two pretty nifty things we do regularly which save time and are delicious and can be cooked/prepared/thrown together even by people who get the willies just stepping into a kitchen – people who don’t know (I have met them) how to boil water,* people who don’t have a sharp knife in the house, people who still use regular table salt, and people who eat frozen dinners.

*Well, strictly speaking, they don’t know how water looks when it’s on the boil, which, functionally, amounts to not knowing how to boil water.

Some of these people are absolutely wonderful folks – nuclear physicists, musicians, and just awfully busy folks whose parents didn’t cook and who just never learned how.  Well, here are two recipes that everyone will love and that anyone can make.  Enjoy and, once the New Year gets properly rolling, we’ll give you something a bit more challenging.

1. Flat Bread.  There is a wonderful pre-cooked flatbread made by Stonefire.  You get two sizeable ovals of very good bread in each package and if you brush it with a little olive oil and heat it in the oven at, say, 400 F for five minutes or so, then top it with ham or turkey, some cheese, tomatoes, arugula, olives (really, anything you want), and heat it a little bit more, you will have a delicious appetizer or a light meal.  It’s a great way to use up leftover cheeses, meats and salad greens and other vegetables.  It will never take you more than 15 minutes and the endless possibilities for toppings will feed your creative side.
2. Easy Hummus.  All you really need is a can of chickpeas, lemon juice, salt and pepper, a touch of olive oil, a dash of cold water (all mixed in a blender or food processor) and some pita or chips or carrot sticks or cucumber slices to dip into the hummus.  Beez loves this simple approach.  I prefer to mix the lemon juice with a little tahini first, and then add a tiny amount of minced garlic and a can of chickpeas (drained), along with salt and, after all of that is processed, a little cold water to thin out the mixture.  Put it into a bowl, top with a little smoked paprika and serve with the things mentioned above. (Alas, no picture of the easy hummus, but one of my more complicated hummi is at the bottom of the post.)

I have made superior hummuses (hummi?) based on recipes from Yottam Ottolenghi and Michael Solomonov, but there you’ll be needing to make tahini sauce and crisping up some of those chickpeas, or cooking a little ground lamb in spices, and ringing some other bells and blowing a few more whistles.  But the recipes above are about ease, speed and simplicity.  Take the extra time they give you to figure out what you’re going to be better or worse or not at all or for the first time in the New Year.  I’m just going to keep reading and studying and writing and having a martini from time to time.

Happy New Year to each of you.  We feel that you’re all part of the family, so how about inviting us over for New Year’s Day dinner next year?