My old co-worker Stephanie (who got me my fabulous fridge) came over for dinner tonight and there was much revelry and good eats to be had. I had a blast and can't wait to have her over again for another fun filled evening. After we were done with dinner we decided we needed to make a batch of Christmas cookies for fun and to at least say we made a batch of cookies this Christmas. As mentioned in my previous post there was much more tasty dining to be had beforehand, so here is tonight's dose of food cravings. Feel free to drool a little, I won't tell. :)
For dinner, I made roasted chicken that I slathered with butter, EVOO, salt and pepper, herbs de Provence, and some lemon. I cooked it my convection (microwave) oven and it was quite possibly the juiciest peace of poultry I have ever had. I could have eaten the whole bird in one sitting! For side dishes I made my EVOO and herb roasted potatoes and my mango, cucumber, and red pepper (a new addition to the recipe) salad with balsamic vinaigrette. The dinner was healthy and ridiculously flavor-filled. I could be content eating it ever night of the week.
We followed dinner with port wine poached pears, scented with cinnamon and star anise. Stephanie and I decided to kick things up a notch and add in some orange juice, which was a very smart addition. The orange notes would sing through the reduction every so often and surprise you. It tasted and smelled a bit like Christmas. The smell wafting through the house as they boiled was intoxicating.
The reduction on top of the poached pears was thick and syrupy. Look at the deep dark red color from the wine!
The sauce was so good, Stephanie and I couldn't help but lick our plates! I thought I would be funny and snap a pic of us doing just that! Stephanie isn't normally a plate licker, but I am when the dish is good enough and I don't care if you think it's gross... you know there are times you want to lick your plate too!
After dessert, we made a batch of candy cane Christmas cookies and had a blast doing it. Unfortunately, I ran out of red die so we made blue candy canes instead!
What we didn't know was that the blue food coloring would stain our hands!
It was totally worth it though! I ate a cookie and it tasted so good, but my lips and tongue are telling me to wait another day to eat more... the eggs aren't fully cooked/set yet in the cookies! That's the problem with raw egg sensitivities, it means you have to wait a day before eating your freshly baked cookies!
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