Nana turns 90

Only a few days after Christmas, my grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday.  It was lovely having her for the holidays and for her special day.  You would never ever guess she is 90; she spent the visit watching and playing with the little one and hopefully, eating well.

My mother was kind enough to cook the main course, steak, since I have such limited experience with it.  I'm pretty sure we had mashed potatoes (there you go, it's been less than a month and already I have no memory) with it.  And I provided the brussels sprouts.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
altered only slightly from the amazing Balaboosta cookbook - I can't wait to use more recipes from it!

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb Brussels sprouts
1/4 C honey
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 gala apple, peeled cored and grated
2 T olive oil
sprinkle of kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 425.  The original recipe calls for 400 but my oven needed to be hotter.
Cut the bottoms off the brussels sprouts and then peel off the outer leaves.  This takes a reasonable amount of time and also reduces the amount of brussels sprouts you have by a lot.  I gave them a good rinse too.  Then I patted them dry, laid them on a sheet pan and tossed with the garlic, honey, olive oil and then sprinkled them with salt.  I added the apple last because you really don't want the fruit on the pan, if you do it that way, it will just burn on the pan.  If it's on the sprouts, it drips down its juices which is much better.

Pop the tray in the oven and roast until tender.  The outside will get a nice crisp on it, but they shouldn't be super crunchy throughout.  I tossed them a few times to get more of a crisp on the outside and to make sure the apple-y parts were okay.  The recipe called for a shorter cooking time than I used. Mine needed at least 40-45 minutes to be finished, so watch yours and taste test frequently.

Christmas Dinner (belatedly)

I very much meant to keep up with my posting but I'm afraid I got buried under and avalanche of hosting and cooking duties.  And toys, never forget the toys. I even neglected my photography, so you're getting recycled everything here.

Our menu was:

Duck Breasts
Scalloped Potatoes 
Roasted Carrots, Turnips and Fennel (with Bonus Parsnips)

It sounds fancy.  It tastes fancy.  But it was actually very simple to make.  The potatoes and roast veggies tend to themselves in the oven while you make the duck breasts so you really don't have to
split your focus.

Recipe Alterations:
I added an extra potato to the scalloped potatoes and therefore it needed to cook longer.
I didn't check the carrot and turnip recipe before going to the store and remember it as carrots and parsnips instead.  So I had to go back out for turnips and fennel and then just added the parsnips anyway.  It was still delicious.

What did you serve on Christmas (or eat, if you're not the chef)?  Also, do you have a traditional menu that you have every year or do you change things up?