Now, with seven of us for dinner, I had to think seriously about how to manage cooking seven multiple dishes in one oven all at the same time, and at different temperatures. As it turns out, that's patently impossible. I should have planned the menu more carefully. (I'm sure Ina Garten, from whom several of the recipes came, has more than one oven. After all, she's in the business. But I'm in an apartment building where most of the youngish residents eat pizza and carry-out so no extra oven space, nor for that matter much counter space, for an adventurous, Christmas-celebrating cook.) I had to go to my meal-time drawing board and use my managerial skills to figure this out.
I realized I could make the dessert - a chocolate ganache cake - the day before. Or at least I could make the cake the day before. The cherry preserves I intended to add to the top (my own little twist) and the chocolate ganache and chopped hazel nuts (also my own twist) for the top, would have to be made on Christmas day. Call it my Black Forest Chocolate Ganache Dessert. I made the cake part, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Fine. Done. Easy.
Now for the gorgonzola sauce for the tenderloin. The recipe called for boiling - yes, boiling (I should have known better, and so should Ina) - four pints of heavy cream over medium high heat for 40 minutes. I poured the cream into a saucepan, turned on the burner and turned my attention to setting the table. Remember, it's still the day before Christmas. When I pulled open the drawer to my buffet to get out the napkins, I noticed that the cream was boiling over on the stove. As a matter of fact, it had almost all boiled over. The heated cream was all over the surface of my glass top burners and the pan was sizzling at the bottom with burned cream. What a mess! Cleaning up spilled cream on a hot surface is not a lot of fun. So I used a roll of paper towels to sop up the mess, leaving the burned-on parts in a ring on the burner, turned off the stove and put the pot in the sink. But I had ruined all the cream; I had to get more. But the neighborhood 7-Eleven-kind-of-store, the only thing nearby, didn't carry heavy cream. Half and half only. That didn't constitute an acceptable substitute. So, off to Eddie's, yet again, for four more pints of cream. By the time I got home, the stove was cool, so I set about cleaning up the glass top with the special cleaner, in a chore I've always hated. The burned on parts were a bitch to get off. But after several dish towels were ruined, I once again had a clean stove. Now to go about boiling down the new cream. I put it carefully in a new saucepan and turned the heat to medium low, in contrast to Ina's instructions. Watch that stuff like the mongoose watching the cobra. But I turned away for only a moment and the cream boiled over again. Oh shit! More clean-up. More delay. Time does march on, despite my problems. I did manage to salvage the remaining cream long enough to boil it down, over very low heat, to a white sauce consistency, where it was supposed to go, and added the gorgonzola - well, it was actually Roquefort, but close enough - and parmesan, whisking like mad, off the heat, to get the cheese to melt and integrate. Once that was done, I let the gorgonzola mixture cool, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator, knowing the cheese would solidify in the cold, but believing I could reconstitute it with a little heat just before Christmas dinner. Whew! What an ordeal for just a little sauce.
Then I dared to also bake the potatoes the day before. They were baby Yukon Gold ones, sliced very thinly - about 1/8 inch slices - but not all the way through. So they bake as a whole, and fan out prettily when done. A little olive oil, some salt and pepper and fresh rosemary (which I had to go to two different stores to procure). This procedure went well enough - I sliced completely through only one potato - and the potatoes were done, as predicted. Now where to keep them until tomorrow? Would they darken in the refrigerator? I finally decided not to cover them and just shoved them into my microwave. At least they were out of the way.
Let's see. What else? Well, the rest of the menu consisted of Oysters Rockefeller, baked cherry tomatoes and a whole tenderloin of beef, all of which could wait until tomorrow. The day was practically over. I sighed, and took a short nap, and realized that in all my frenzy to prepare for Christmas dinner, I hadn't thought about the night before Christmas dinner. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And went to bed.
Stay tuned
I realized I could make the dessert - a chocolate ganache cake - the day before. Or at least I could make the cake the day before. The cherry preserves I intended to add to the top (my own little twist) and the chocolate ganache and chopped hazel nuts (also my own twist) for the top, would have to be made on Christmas day. Call it my Black Forest Chocolate Ganache Dessert. I made the cake part, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Fine. Done. Easy.
Now for the gorgonzola sauce for the tenderloin. The recipe called for boiling - yes, boiling (I should have known better, and so should Ina) - four pints of heavy cream over medium high heat for 40 minutes. I poured the cream into a saucepan, turned on the burner and turned my attention to setting the table. Remember, it's still the day before Christmas. When I pulled open the drawer to my buffet to get out the napkins, I noticed that the cream was boiling over on the stove. As a matter of fact, it had almost all boiled over. The heated cream was all over the surface of my glass top burners and the pan was sizzling at the bottom with burned cream. What a mess! Cleaning up spilled cream on a hot surface is not a lot of fun. So I used a roll of paper towels to sop up the mess, leaving the burned-on parts in a ring on the burner, turned off the stove and put the pot in the sink. But I had ruined all the cream; I had to get more. But the neighborhood 7-Eleven-kind-of-store, the only thing nearby, didn't carry heavy cream. Half and half only. That didn't constitute an acceptable substitute. So, off to Eddie's, yet again, for four more pints of cream. By the time I got home, the stove was cool, so I set about cleaning up the glass top with the special cleaner, in a chore I've always hated. The burned on parts were a bitch to get off. But after several dish towels were ruined, I once again had a clean stove. Now to go about boiling down the new cream. I put it carefully in a new saucepan and turned the heat to medium low, in contrast to Ina's instructions. Watch that stuff like the mongoose watching the cobra. But I turned away for only a moment and the cream boiled over again. Oh shit! More clean-up. More delay. Time does march on, despite my problems. I did manage to salvage the remaining cream long enough to boil it down, over very low heat, to a white sauce consistency, where it was supposed to go, and added the gorgonzola - well, it was actually Roquefort, but close enough - and parmesan, whisking like mad, off the heat, to get the cheese to melt and integrate. Once that was done, I let the gorgonzola mixture cool, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator, knowing the cheese would solidify in the cold, but believing I could reconstitute it with a little heat just before Christmas dinner. Whew! What an ordeal for just a little sauce.
Then I dared to also bake the potatoes the day before. They were baby Yukon Gold ones, sliced very thinly - about 1/8 inch slices - but not all the way through. So they bake as a whole, and fan out prettily when done. A little olive oil, some salt and pepper and fresh rosemary (which I had to go to two different stores to procure). This procedure went well enough - I sliced completely through only one potato - and the potatoes were done, as predicted. Now where to keep them until tomorrow? Would they darken in the refrigerator? I finally decided not to cover them and just shoved them into my microwave. At least they were out of the way.
Let's see. What else? Well, the rest of the menu consisted of Oysters Rockefeller, baked cherry tomatoes and a whole tenderloin of beef, all of which could wait until tomorrow. The day was practically over. I sighed, and took a short nap, and realized that in all my frenzy to prepare for Christmas dinner, I hadn't thought about the night before Christmas dinner. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And went to bed.
Stay tuned
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