the review: christmas dinner

You have been waiting what feels like an eternity for the glowing review of our oh-so-impressive Christmas dinner, right? I hate to tell you, but you are going to have to keep waiting. This year’s Christmas dinner was the worst we have ever cooked. It was bad. It was really, really bad.  

There was this terrific article in our local paper the day after Christmas that outlined tips for making a successful meal. You read that correctly. These handy tips were in the paper the day AFTER Christmas. Like maybe they could have been printed before Thanksgiving? My brother and I had a good laugh over how many of the tips I did not follow on the road to Christmas Day’s disastrous meal. There were several gems in this article (that I do wish I could find so that you could read it too), that I did follow including the always good "know when to give up and start over". This, my friends, is exactly what I did when my gnocchi alla romana would not take shape. If you can believe it, the substitute gnocchi was even worse than the original. It was like potato tapioca. Total fail.

The good news? Everyone got in on the action to make the gnocchi. This was really an all hands on deck situation. (Appologies folks above for posting your photo on the www without letting you know first. I'm sure it is ok because you all look WAY better than the gnocchi.)

The roast was pretty good. It took all day so I'm not going to bother giving you a real review as who has time to cook anything all day? I'm pretty sure Rob will not be spending Christmas day basting every thirty minutes next year.

I will say that the minestrone was good. You should make that. You can even make a vegetarian version with no pancetta and substituting veggie broth. It is delicious. I like to add the pasta when I serve instead of putting it into the pot. Also delicious was our friend Allison’s tiramisu and the cake I made the day before Christmas. My brother did a pretty good job with the green beans and Abby made a nice effort on the Brussels sprouts, despite forgetting to season them. This was great since I completely burnt the roasted veggies and, as previously mentioned, the gnocchi was a complete fail.

Can we end on a good note? My husband rocked the garage decorating. This photo does not begin to show how fantastic our garage looked. With 21 people at dinner, this was the only place we fit and Rob made it ever so festive.

Next year, we are having lasagna. Assuming, of course, that I find the winning recipe well in advance of the holiday.