Red king crab legs (Costco) with optional garnishes
mixed green salad (avocado - cherry tomato - celery - yellow pepper - carrot - romaine) with optional dressings
oven-baked steak fries with optional garnishes

chocolate peppermint house-shaped cakes with powdered sugar
assorted holiday cookies

I remember in college, I first tried a spinach and shrimp deep dish and it was fantastic. I think it was Gino's or Giordano's though. Spinach is something that doesn't work that well on a regular pizza but is perfect in a deep dish. I would try spinach and pepperoni.

Lou's has a lighter crust that most of the places here. If someone is visiting, and are willing to leave Michigan Ave./River North, I always recommend either Pequod's or Lou's. I, like most Chicagoans, haven't had deep dish in at least 2 years (people here mainly eat thin crust). But if you think of it as it's own food, rather than a type of pizza, it's an enjoyable treat occasionally.

Green Chili stew tonight!

Are you writing a restaurant menu? What is up with all the "optional" this or that? :p
And what would be a "garnish" for crab legs? I use melted butter and lemon but would not call them garnishes so wondering what you are referring to.

They're optional.

I prefer my Costco cooked king crab legs out of the shell - all that nonsense of lemon butter bays sauce etc is optional for the table and totally unnecessary for me. I have to mentally sigh and nod when my spouse asks me about spritzing lemon on the shared bowl of The de-shelled crab legs.

salad dressings are optional - our child enjoys the salad by the piece and fed by a parent. My spouse requested their Ranch and eschewed it. Only I consistently use our California (maybe organic?) EVOO and Star-Branded red wine vinegar.

steak fries - only I want mine with malt vinegar & ketchup. My spouse uses cocktail sauce with it and our child uses ketchup. We all enjoy these oven-baked steak fries.

Wait, what? You hand-feed your child? Meaning he sits there with his mouth open and you hand feed him? He is around 12, is he not?

Most people eat crab legs without the shell. :p Shells are too crunchy.
I think most of us assume that people put what they want on their food.
You surely must be joking that your son actually requests to be hand fed lettuce?? And even a bigger joke that you actually do it? Why?? He plays sports so I assume that he is capable of holding a fork. Do you do this in public as well?

This
:eek: :eek: :eek:

This.
Yep... That about sums up my thoughts.

Do you masticate it, and feed it to your kid, baby bird style?

Like this?

I remember that. It's not very often that something makes people scream and snort with laughter.

Round two of tamales (we made another batch) in the steamer for dinner and romaine with goat cheese and dried cranberries.

Calibur carryout:
double cheeseburger
fries
chocolate milkshake

fresh Casarece pasta with shaved black truffle
crunchy fries with shaved black truffle

assorted Christmas cookies & brownies
half almond croissant

It’s not occurring as often as I prefer.

next thing we know, you’ll be confused with people who eat their candy bars with fork & knife

i like this idea. Thank you!!

Tom Yum Goong made 100% from scratch all fresh ingredients. Exactly like in Thailand. It's wonderful to now live in a place where these items are at least somewhat readily obtainable.
Scratch made pork Gyoza dumplings
White rice
Rice noodles

Probably some ham and cheese sandwiches. With some spinach.

Steaks on the grill. It's obviously a little cold to grill but nothing my pea coat and a few bottles of beer can't cure.

A casserole with chicken, broccoli, and cheese. I'm visiting my parents, and it is what my mother decided she was making.

Fresh papperdelle pasta:
with shaved black truffles
with king crab legs

raw tofu

Christmas cookies
junior’s cheesecake

Found some short-dated veal scallopini today so it was Wiener Schnitzel with appropriate cucumber and potato salads as accompaniments.

I'm envious of your black truffles! How and where did you score those?

awww no envy - you can do and get anything that I have! Actually everybody can :-)
my spouse bought it online as my Xmas gift...

Truffle Shuffle, Oakland

mailed in a jar with the outer insulated bag and 2 freezer sacks!

ive chosen to not look at the website (aside from a recipe) in order to avoid finding out the price. I’m getting the Costco $42 ounce of caviar if they still have it. That’ll be my spouse’s Xmas gift with the cooked blini and other garnishes... of course I’m a believer of eating caviar only with a spoon!

The caviar comes with an Ivory (looking) spoon :D

How fresh are the truffles?

I last had truffles in Italia in 2013 so I can say that they tasted good but I can’t identify their freshness.

alas zero caviar at Costco. I missed out this year. I’ll survive.

Thanks, freshness is usually correlated with aroma (and taste) so if these were very fragrant then they were fresh. Tasting good is the most important part.
You didn't miss much - the caviar was a bit mushy missing the wonderous "pop" that quality ones have. I wouldn't buy it again.

It is probably a mother of pearl spoon.

Sigh, no more likely plastic made to look like mother of pearl :(

I will say that there are some great places doing domestic paddlefish roe -- worth checking out. I may get some caviar for NYE. We typically do our big steakhouse dinner on the Eve of the Eve, and usually skip the steak in favor of a huge seafood tower. We're doing takeout from there this year, and the seafood tower isn't offered but a few individual items are. We'll get those, and then for NYE I think I'll make our own seafood tower and will pick up some caviar if I can find it.

I last had truffles at a market stall in Cassis, France. It was a sandwich with nothing more than a bit of olive oil, sea salt and truffle on some of the nicest bread you'll taste. It was 12 euros but worth every cent.

Christmas Eve supper:
red king crab legs with optional garnishes
oven-heated seeded sourdough baguette with salted butter
roasted Brussels sprouts
oven-baked steak fries
roast beef sandwich on japanese milk bread
olives
small bowl of curried chicken salad

assorted holiday cookies
hot chocolate

ah, then Truffle Shuffle black truffles are nicely aromatic and fresh. We didn’t eat our final bit today so I’ll change the unbleached paper towel :-)

I went to a friend's house and we stayed outside on her deck with the heater
salmon candy
Union Square cafe bar nuts (my contribution)

salad of romaine with Suzanne Goin's Green Goddess dressing recipe topped with blood oranges, sliced avocado and pomegranate seeds (also my contribution---red and green theme)
lobster mac and cheese

french apple pie

Probably some turkey meat tonight. :)

Filet mignon and baked potatoes with broccoli. Should be good even though cooking outside when it's 35 isn't going to be much fun.

Beef Tenderloin
Roasted potato medley
Jalapeno creamed corn
Green beans
Macaroni and cheese


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a148864605.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4dd31a82f8.jpg
I had bacon wrapped scallops to cook but I totally forgot about them when making buffalo chicken dip for the afternoon.

Nice job on the beef....sous vide?

Reverse sear on kettle grill

Usually a sous vide insures that it is the same degree of doneness all the way through. Nice job on the grill.

It was the smaller of the untrimmed tenderloins I bought at the start of the pandemic. After trimming, this was the smaller end and I tied up "the chain" meat for a smaller roast not pictured. The trimmings and silverskin were used for smoke on the cook and given to the dog of our guest.

I will say that I'm kinda tired of mac and cheese via a box with the liquid cheese. I did it as the kids here eat it, but I grew up eating a "souffle style" mac and cheese and prefer it time permitting. Guess it's a "Two/ThreeAmericas" thing as my friends typically have never heard of such a dish.

Box
Bechamel version
Souffle version

We are overall full from our Christmas luncheon so only some of us are consuming supper:

spaghetti with Rao’s marinara and meatballs with added Calabrian chili oil (surely my favorite dish!!)
penne would parmesan
meatballs in Rao’s marinara

mixed green salad

assorted cookies / etc

I thought you were making that turkey from BA or having caviar for dinner with blinis. I couldn't keep track of all your different meals but I thought that is what you decided . I am pretty sure that jarred spaghetti sauce was not one of your xmas dinner ideas!