[tygo]

This has so far been an Xmas season of fairly lackluster food, including Christmas Eve and Day dinners at my in-laws where the most exciting items on the menu were the stuffed mushrooms and potatoes au gratin that I made (my aunt-in-law brought boiled sweet potatoes where the ingredients included peeled sweet potatoes and water).

And since I have my parents coming down on Friday and I have a five day weekend, I'm going to do it up for a few days. 

Friday

Friday is the day I get off from work for NYE and will start with an early morning trip to Wegman's for supplies.  Very early.  My son will have me up at 6 AM anyway since he does not yet distinguish between school days and days off.  I want to enjoy my grocery shopping experience without needing a whip, chair, and double-edged combat knife to navigate the crowds.  My parents will be showing up around noon and the dinner menu will be:

Crab Cakes w/ Remoulade
Steamed Broccoli
Old Bay Potato Wedges

I'll then finish off New Years Eve by drinking by myself in front of the TV.  Got a couple of nice beers and a bottle of Glenfiddich to help me along.  Maybe my dad will make it to midnight with me.  Maybe.

Saturday

Gotta have pork and kraut on New Years Day, but the standard "throw it in the crockpot recipe" is relatively boring and since I have the time I figured I'd punch it up a little and add some beer to the food.

Bock Brined Pork Butt w/ Saurkraut
Roasted Corn Salsa
IPA Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Giving credit where credit is due the brine and mashed potato recipes are courtesy of The Homebrew Chef

I think I need to grab the pork butt tomorrow night from Giant (hopefully they have one) so that I have enough time to give it a good brining.  I'm going to cook it low and slow in the oven separately from the kraut.  I'm torn on whether to cook the kraut completely separate or add it in with the pork at the end.  It'll be a game time decision.

Sunday

The wife and kids will be heading out for some family visits in the morning and I'm going to instead use the quiet time to bottle up my Helles Bock and do some brewery setup for Monday.  So keeping it relatively simple for today:

Grilled Lemon Pepper Shrimp on Croutons
Wild Rice Pilaf

I need to make bread for dinner on Monday anyway so I'll probably do it on Sunday and use the fresh bread to make the croutons.  Anything I can do to make Monday's meal easier because...

Monday

Monday is brewday.  10 gallon batch of the Classic American Pilsner.  Presuming this one turns out well it'll be one of my entries to the NHC so I want to nail it.

So I'm keeping it very simple, especially since I made the bread yesterday.

Chicken Caesar Salad
Fresh Italian Bread

It'll also be nice to have a nice light meal after three days of rich and heavy food.  A little palette cleanser before...

Tuesday

Today's the day to do it up and try something different.  No work, no brewing, nothing in particular to do other than the morning kid chaos.  So today's meal will be a bunch of stuff I've never attempted before but have been thinking about trying for awhile:

Red Wine Braised Shortribs
Brussel sprouts w/ Pancetta
Creamy Polenta

For those recipes credit goes to Robert Love

After I clean up from this one I'm going to never want to cook again in my life but I'll get over that after a few days of my standard weekday fair of hamburger helpers and chicken nuggets.

Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures of all this food.

[euge]

Sounds good to me. Moderately ambitious with quick prep and set to serve a crowd. The sauerkraut... I'm for adding it late in the cook. My concern is over cooking the stuff. And polenta! Tuesday's menu looks awesome!

Nothing wrong with the TV and a bottle of Scotch to keep ya company. Even better if there's a few beers involved.

[punatic]

A traditional New Years Day meal in the South: blackeyed peas and greens (usually collard or mustard greens).

Peas bring good luck and greens bring money, in the coming year. 

I smoke a ham too, cause it tastes great with peas and greens!

[euge]

Ham is part of the Southern luck trifecta. I can't recall why though.

[punatic]

Wasn't so lucky for the pig though, ay?

[euge]

Such is the lot of the humble pig. Our porcine friend.

[phillamb168]

IPA Garlic mashed potatoes? Yes please. Also I'll have some of those old bay potato wedges.

How do you do your polenta? I've always treated mine like a risotto, lots and lots of liquid, lots and lots of stirring.

[capozzoli]

WOW, that menu sounds delicious.

We make roast pork and sauerkraut with perogies for New Year dinner. Yeah, for some reason pork is said to bring good luck. Dont know why either.

The Slovakian say you shouldnt eat anything with wings cause "your luck will fly away"

[tygo]

Crab Cakes w/ Remoulade
Steamed Broccoli
Old Bay Potato Wedges

Potato wedges were tasty but my timing was a little off so they sat for a couple extra minutes and weren't as crispy as I would have liked.  The crabcakes were fantastic.

Bock Brined Pork Butt w/ Saurkraut
Roasted Corn Salsa
IPA Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Went with a Brown Ale instead of a Bock for the brine.  Hook and Ladder Brown to be precise.  Pretty decent beer and worked very well for this purpose.

Here's the roast:



And with the fixins:



The Garlic IPA mashed potatoes were really good, but it was mostly garlic and thyme that came through.  I can't say I got much out of the IPA addition (I used Celebration).  I probably used about twice what the recipe called for too. 

So far so good in the weekend of food.

[tubercle]

Collards and peas today.

 Tomorrow is that bacon thing (bacon explosion?) but instead of sausage, hamburger meat and onions will be used.