There’s no distraction in the middle of church like getting a text from my dad saying, “Since you and Andy are such good cooks, you are in charge of Christmas Eve dinner.”  My mind started piecing together a menu of foods that I love to eat all the time but might be foreign to my family.  This was my chance to open up a whole new culinary/dietary world to them!  I was so excited!  (My apologies to Pastor Rick…couldn’t tell you what your sermon was about that day.  Baby Jesus?)

My brother is the meat master so I put him in charge of that department.  His original idea was to do something easy like a glazed ham, but there are some ham-haters in my fam so I quickly vetoed that option.  Second (and much better) choice: Prime rib with a red wine tarragon jus.  It.was.delish.  Andy’s meat cooking abilities have shone for the last couple of holidays.  For Christmas last year, he grilled some big juicy slab of beef and my “cousin” Lindsay and I hid the bottle of Erath ’05 Southern Oregon Syrah at our end of the table.  Blissful! Well done on the rare Prime Rib this year, Andy!

It didn’t take me long to settle on 3 side dishes and a dessert for Christmas Eve.  I tried to be a seasonal as possible and use only fresh ingredients such as Butternut Squash, Pomegranates, Broccoli, Kale, Persimmons, and Pink Lady Apples.  I also wanted to add some ingredients that were somewhat foreign to my family, such as quinoa.

I was happy as a clam all afternoon in the kitchen cooking away.

Here’s what we ate (Clockwise from left):

• Double Broccoli Quinoa.  This was so hearty and delicious!  I added pomegranate seeds because my mom always made this broccoli puree with pom seeds for Christmas so I wanted to add a little family tradition.  The “double” is attributed to the whole broccoli florets, but also the broccoli pesto mixed into the dish.  A generous garnish of avocado, toasted slivered almonds, and some crispy shallots (for my dad) polished it off. (recipe inspiration from 101 Cookbooks)
• Raw Kale and Apple Salad with Pecorino and a lemon vinaigrette.  This one made me the most nervous because my family had never had kale and it isn’t for everyone pallet.  Raw kale is even more tricky to convince people to like, but they loved it!  My brother even asked for the recipe.  I incorporated some pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds on top to tie this in with the quinoa.  Inspired by my friend Lindsay.
• Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with tahini dressing.  I have been making this salad a lot lately because it is SO tasty and easy and pretty healthy.  The chickpeas give it a kick of protein so you can even put it on a bed of greens as a whole meal.  And the leftovers are pretty dang good cold.  Just drizzle a little more tahini dressing on it and you’re good to go.  (Recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

And of course, no dinner is complete without some seriously good wine.  To start, we opened a bottle of Wahluke Slope Pinot Gris produced by a friend/co-worker of my brother.  Not quite as bright and citrusy as an Oregon Gris, but it definitely had some pear and hazelnut going on.  His label is called Open Road, but I’m not sure where you can get it.  I was excited to raid my parents’  well-stocked wine collection to pick a wine to pair with dinner.  They’ve been collecting some great Oregon Pinot Noir since coming down to visit me a couple times a year and I knew my mom was sitting on a bottle of  Big Table Farm ’08 Willamette Valley Pinot.  BTF is one of my favorite producers in Oregon and the perfect wine for a special occasion such as Christmas Eve.

For dessert, I made a Steamed Persimmon Pudding Cake.  Unfortunately, it was pretty bland on it’s own, but we topped it with some creme fraiche, apricot preserves and toasted almonds.  I’m not much of a baker anymore so I can’t really boast about my dessert making skills.  I should have tried a gluten-free recipe…not sure why I didn’t.

We all ate and drank to our hearts content had a lovely time spending Christmas Eve together, just the 4 of us, which is rare since there are usually 15+ people gathered.  One of the “regulars” is my mom’s best friend and my “other mother” Julie.  She’s the Julia Child/Martha Stewart of the group and always makes something mouthwatering and tasty tasty!  At one point during dinner, my mom said, with her mouth full, “this is better than ‘Julia’!”

Safe to say, our dinner was a hit and we’ll be starting a new tradition: the kids are cooking for the adults.  Challenge accepted! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas of their own.