darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
[personal profile] darkemeralds
Gah! It sneaks up on me every year. I need ideas.

As a single person with no kids living in a very small house, I ignore the damn thing as much as possible. I've never hosted a holiday meal, I have mutual-no-present pacts with all of my friends and family.

So when people around me start mentioning "Christmas" and "next week" in the same sentence, I'm invariably surprised.

But still, I do have friends and family, and they do like to sit down and eat together on festive occasions, and this year (next week...gah!) we're going to my mom's. I was going to volunteer a big pot of my fabulous-if-I-do-say-so-myself boeuf bourguingon, but my older sis was before me and trumped me with an offer of prime rib.

Younger sis then whumped me in the dessert category.

This leaves me holding the bag on some kind of potatoey, starchy side dish offering. Any ideas?

(no subject)

20/12/09 09:10 (UTC)
ext_7009: (Book reading octopus)
Posted by [identity profile] alex-beecroft.livejournal.com
I sort of did it :) I tweaked the recipe to fit what I had in my cupboards. So I did a layer of potatoes, a layer of raw onion sliced in rings, a thin layer of potatoes (just to cover it) on top and then a can of peeled plum tomatoes on top of that and red Leicester cheese on that. I used mixed herbs and stirred a spoonful of chilli pesto into the tomatoes. And then baked it for about an hour.
It was really nice! I was worried the onions might not have cooked, and they were still crunchy, but they tasted sweet, so that was excellent. And there was enough flavour from everything else that the potatoes themselves didn't feel like too much blandness. I will definitely be doing that again :)

(no subject)

20/12/09 09:18 (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] emeraldsedai.livejournal.com
I don't think I know Leicester cheese, but I've looked it up and I'm guessing that a Cheddar would do...?

I'm thinking I might sauté the onions--maybe even brown/carmelize them a little--before putting them in.

You and [livejournal.com profile] kispexi2 have convinced me that a combination of potato, tomato, onion and cheese will win the day. Thank you!

(no subject)

20/12/09 21:02 (UTC)
ext_7009: (Aubrey UFO)
Posted by [identity profile] alex-beecroft.livejournal.com
Yes, the Red Leicester was a bit too bland for the purpose. That's just what I had on hand because my children don't like cheese which is too strong. A mature Cheddar would be very good instead.

For me the crunchy-but-sweet onions really added a touch of wow factor to the dish, because I'd never had onions like that before. But caramelised would probably be safer :)

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darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
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