Holiday Almanac December 9: Decorating & Appetiser Puffs

For more information on the Holiday Almanac, go here. Or to see what I've been up to on past Holiday Almanac days, check out this page.

In Eleanor's family, the Christmas tree was never decorated until Christmas Eve, after the kids went to bed, and it was a silver aluminum tree with a coloured wheel underneath that spun to turn the tree different colours.

But when I was a little kid, we lived a few hours away from both sets of my grandparents, and so we always spent Christmas in St. Pete with them. Because of this, my parents would celebrate Christmas early with us as a family before we traveled, so every year a few days before Christmas we would bake a 'Happy Birthday, Jesus!' cake, open all of our gifts to each other, and then drive late at night to Eleanor's house, where we would stay for the duration of the Christmas holidays. Consequently, we always put our tree up a lot earlier than Eleanor, but never before December 1, as my parents always thought that was tacky.

Judson and I have largely stuck with the 'after December 1' rule for our tree trimming (and I'm proud to say we've had a real live tree every year that we've been married except for our first year in Scotland, when we had no money and no ornaments to put on one), but this year we broke the rule and put the tree up two days after Thanksgiving... oops.

Anyway, decorating is one of my favourite Christmas traditions with Judson-- we light a bunch of wintry candles, put on old-timey Christmas music, and then hang ornaments (and make fun of the ugly ones we each treasure) and put out our wee Christmas village... and afterward we drink mulled wine and watch Christmas Vacation for the millionth time. It's always fun and it's rapidly becoming my favourite part of December.

2010.

2015.

So since today's directions have me 'replacing broken [ornaments] and checking tree lights,' here are some photos of this year's decorations... and since the Almanac asked me to make 'Appetiser Puffs' but did not include directions on how to do so, here are some photos of something we'll just call Appetiser Puffs (mushroom filling wrapped in puff pastry dough) which I made over the weekend for our party. My dad devised the original recipe for these, and this is the umpteen millionth time I've made these mushroom turnovers-- ahem, Appetiser Puffs-- and they always turn out delicious. In fact, I even have a photo of Judson brushing egg wash over a batch of these to take to a holiday party on Christmas in 2010, ages before we got engaged back when neither of us had any idea how to cook and we were just such babies.

However, I can't find my dad's recipe anywhere, so I used  this recipe with the following modifications: shallots instead of onions, olive oil instead of butter, a splash of vermouth, fresh thyme instead of dried, 4 sliced garlic cloves, and a lot less sour cream. They were great! 

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. I love decorating for Christmas, and these mushroom turnovers are one of my favourite parts of Christmas. Make yourself some mushroom turnovers and get those Christmas ornaments out!

Pollo alla Verona, or, Wine-roasted Chicken

Eleanor was born in 1920, so she would have been a teenager during the height of the Great Depression. Although I have no idea what life was like for her during that time, I know she came from a HUGE Catholic family of sisters, and I can imagine they, like everyone else during that era, didn't do too well. So when I realised nearly every non-dessert recipe in The Box is heavily meat-centric, I wasn't too surprised. If you've gone through a period in your life where eating meat was not an affordable option, it makes sense that you'd later cook it for every possible meal.

I've never cooked a lot of meat, primarily due to an ill-fated attempt at vegetarianism that lasted through most of high school and most of university, and at which I'm sure Eleanor would have scoffed mightily. I guess I just missed my imprinting period when it comes to learning to cook meat, which means that, since I do nearly all of our meal-planning and grocery shopping, Judson and I don't eat a lot of meat.

THAT'S all about to change, much to Judson's delight. Pollo alla Verona was the first savoury recipe I've attempted from The Box (trying to ease my way in with a straightforward one before tackling things like “salmon loaf” and “pronto pups” later on). It calls for three 1.5 pound chickens, split. Let's take that sentence apart-- first of all, what even does it mean to “split” a chicken? I summoned Judson to handle this part, under the pretense of “I don't think my hands are strong enough to, you know, CUT THROUGH A BONE.” (Eleanor, give me a break on this one, please). So Judson came to my rescue and chopped the bird in half through its sternum, nearly breaking our knife along with it.

Secondly, THREE chickens to feed SIX people? I guess chickens were just a lot smaller back in the 1950s, because the recipe calls for 4.5 pounds (about 2kg) of chicken in total, and I bought the smallest bird I could find and it was that big on its own.

I'm not sure what makes this chicken “Veronese,” except that it has a tiny pinch of oregano in it, but it got a resounding thumbs up from us both. We ate it with a small green salad and some sautéed spinach, but it's hearty and filling on its own. Bonus? It reheats great, and the sauce was even better the second day.

he second best thing about it is that if you have someone you're trying to impress, it's really easy to make on your own-- no “stir this while chopping these” or “mix constantly while everything else in your kitchen burns.” The pan preps itself while you prep the chicken, then while it parbakes, you can make the sauce without worrying about the meat. Plus, the cooking times were perfect, even though I overcrowded the chicken halves in the roasting pan since we have the world's tiniest oven.

he best thing about this recipe? It calls for both red and white wine, so by the time you're done, you've got two open bottles at your disposal. My grandma definitely knew how to party. Dinner date, anyone?

The Verdict: 

5 Spoons out of five. It's delicious. Make this for someone who loves you tonight.

The Recipe:

Pollo Alla Verona

The Ingredients:

6 tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 medium onions, sliced
2 cloves minced garlic, chopped
4 ½ lb whole chicken, split in two halves through the breast (for me, this was one medium chicken-- if yours is smaller, scale up and get two birds)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
½ lb mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tbsp basil, chopped
¼ tsp oregano
2 tbsp flour
¾ cup white wine
¾ cup red wine
red or green grapes and mint leaves (optional garnish)

The Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Put 2 tbsp butter in a roasting pan and place in oven as it heats, just long enough to melt butter, then allow oven to continue preheating.
Scatter onion and garlic in this pan.
Rub chicken with salt and pepper, arrange skin-side down in butter mixture and bake 15 minutes.
Turn skin-side up and bake 15 more minutes.
Meanwhile, toss mushrooms with lemon juice and saute in remaining 4 tbsp of butter in large saucepan for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat, stir in parsley, basil, oregano, and (very slowly) flour.
Return to heat and gradually stir in both wines.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Pour sauce over chicken in roasting pan and continue baking for 20 minutes longer, basting halfway through.
Chicken is done when juices from the thickest part run clear.
Taste and adjust seasoning. If sauce is too thin, put the roasting pan across two burners of your stove and heat it until it reduces to desired consistency. Spoon sauce over chicken and “arrange on a platter garnished with red and green grapes, parsley, and mint leaves.”

Serve with a chunk of crusty baguette to soak up the sauce. You can thank me later.
Serves 4, generously, or 6 with a side salad and baguette.