winner winner Christmas dinner

Christmas is done. and I am relieved. I can finally go to the gym. with my oh so lovely in-laws visiting for the past 5 nights, the most exercise I got involved pouring glasses of wine. so now I get to go back to the 'real deal'.. and with my fancy new Creative Zen mp3 player as well. goodbye iPod! you treated me like a piece of crap so farewell to you. now I have Zen. adding music is easy. adding photos is easy. and when my workout is hard, I want an easy player to help me through it.

anyway, I hope everyone had a most excellent last holiday of 2008. my highlight among several highlights would be the Christmas Dinner that I wrote, directed, produced, and starred in.

Warm Leek and Goat Cheese dip served with crackers and bell peppers. leeks sauteed in butter, salt and pepper with goat cheese and cream cheese stirred in later and thrown in the oven to get that pretty toasty look. goat cheese haters became lovers!

Beef Tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic, fresh rosemary, thyme, and parsley for 4 hours and then roasted to juicy perfection (I even offered Medium to Well done to all of my guests - the smart ones take the Medium).

Homemade Cranberry sauce.. cranberries, orange marmalade, cinnamon sticks, and sugar. a crowd favorite for years now.

Green Beans with Pecans. a recipe I picked out for my mom to make. steamed green beans that are later tossed with salt, pepper, EVOO, and toasted pecans. yumm-O!

Standard Salad which I also picked for my mom to make. an array of salad ingredients served with a homemade italian dressing made with a lemon infused EVOO that is to die for.

Mashed Potatoes. made it up. milk, butter, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. nothing extravagant.

Buns brought to you by Pillsbury.

Mixed Berry and Pear Cobbler. black, straw, blue, and raspberries tossed with pear chunks in lemon juice and flour with a rolled oats, butter, flour, and sugar mixture sprinkled on top. golden brown out of the oven! served hot with vanilla bean ice cream.

everyone was happy and full and my beef tenderloin is rapidly becoming as famous as my recipe for the thanksgiving turkey which is going strong for 4 years now.
another highlight of my Christmas? seeing how much my husband enjoys the ginormous ping pong table I got him that now takes my car's spot in the garage.

in other news...
...6lbs of tenderloin for 6 people is far too much. even with 3 days of leftovers-are-whats-for-dinner.
...27 year old's can shop at Forever 21. it's ok.
...27 year old's can read the Twilight series. it's ok.