Today was a crazy day of food and friends. I love the menu we had today. I woke up with Noelia, Sara and Jon in my apartment with me. And I was so excited to start the day. First up was breakfast. Ham and Swiss Quiche & Raspberry Sweet Rolls with Orange Juice. It was fantastic.
Next up was dinner preparation. I was blessed to have a duck given to me by Yuri and his mom. It was so fun to have something completely different for Christmas dinner. I have never cooked or roasted a duck before, so I loved the adventure of cooking something new. Steven came up with the idea of Roasted Duck with Apple Stuffing and Sausage Rolls. And it was amazing.
Many thanks to my mom, who over the years took the time to teach me how to prepare and stuff poultry. The duck was packed and sewed up perfectly. You would have been impressed, Mom. Unfortunately ducks are full of fat and not enough meat, so Yuri came up with the idea of stuffed chicken thighs. Steven helped me make a salo, garlic, seasonings mixture and I stuffed a tablespoon under the skin of each thigh, and baked them. They were fantastic.
I made creamy mashed potatoes with sour cream, green onions and a bit of dill. They were excellent and no leftovers, which was a great sign.
Next up into the oven was the sausage rolls. These were completely random and filled the bread for the table. I made italian like sausage with ground pork sausage. Then I rolled out puff pastry, added a layer of mustard and a bit of sausage…and rolled it up. And again…no leftovers.
Dinner was fabulous. The only thing I really missed the boat on was the gravy. It was there, it just wasn’t quite right.
Besides the Caramel Apple Pie that we had for dessert, there was also a Porter Cake that came all the way from Ireland. Anna was making them when we were visiting and she sent me home with one, so I was excited to finally break it out.
And lastly, there were all the Skype and Google Voice calls to the states. Six PCV’s in the apartment means lots of computer usage, so we finally just moved the computer into the kitchen for easier calls. It was perfect and we had good chats with the family. Here is Jon for the last Skype call of the evening.
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