December | 2015 | VeniVidiEdi

This marks our first Christmas holiday in our Fredericksburg vacation home. Foodprep-wise, I am quite apprehensive on how the kitchen would hold up. Don’t get me wrong, we fell in love with this house with its uniqueness, magnificent views, and being country-chic and rustic. But those last two adjectives are not my favorites specially when it pertains to a kitchen. With these in my mind, I was plotting and scheming for recipes that won’t require too many gadgets and can be done with only one oven to use. The other thing was ingredients. I don’t have a neighborhood butcher and grocer who I can trust for my meats and veggies, so I had to list and pack all my ingredients and get ’em all from H-town. It really didn’t help that I was working 4 straight shifts prior to our drive here…

Anyhoo, after a meticulous list of gadgets and ingredients, we were able to pile all into the G-wagen, another feat which was almost like German engineering in itself. Remember that we also packed our personal effects, gifts and of course, our the two dogs. They have to have individual carriers, lest we end up with only one puppy and a furry carcass after a four hour drive.

We arrived late in the afternoon and we took a hike to the river because forecast said that it might rain in the next couple of days. Hiking is a great way to stretch our legs after a long drive. Once there, we were again reminded why we simply have to get this place.

The water was too cold to do anything but skip rocks. Have to wait till summer. But since we are in Texas, with its bipolar weather, that can be tomorrow.

Back to the house,I decided to do some food-prep. For my main course, I decided on Herbed Turkey Breast . I admit this bird will have a dual purpose. I want to use the left-overs for Turkey Pot-Pie. It’s Dave’s favorite so I’ll cook it on his birthday.

I am not a big fan of soggy stuffing so I opted for ItalianSausage and Mushroom Stuffing as one of the sides. This stuffing still has some crunch to it and all the bread bits are soaked and cooked in white wine. Yey!

D loves Butternut Squash Soup. I find it quite bland most of the time. After several tries, I finally made one that hits my mark—add sherry. Whoops, I guess someone forgot to take a soup selfie…That’s what sherry does to you. This is the easiest dish on my list except that I forgot to pack my peeler. I had to peel the squash with a huge kitchen knife (forgot to pack a paring knife too!). I ended up with a complete set of ten fingers, so I thought that really called for a celebration, hence the sherry.

Another side I made is Parmesan-Topped Sweet Potatoes .

If you want this dish dessert-like, serve like this and top with marshmallows.

As always, I try to jazz thing up a bit, so I added some parmesan-sage topping

For dessert, We picked up Butter Cream Pie from our favorite pie place, Fredericksburg Pie Company.

For wine paring, we decided on an Viognier from Grape Creek Vineyards, one of our favorite wine-clubs in the area. We just picked up our member selection and this was among their holiday favorites.

From our table to yours, Merry Christmas!!!!

(I have hyper-linked my dishes to corresponding recipes. Last time I checked, the hyperlinks work. )

I love sweet potatoes. I understand why most people cook almost to a “dessert-level” because of its sweetness. When I was a kid, I used to have these fried then covered in caramelized sugar. Man, that memory gives me a toothache. Nowadays, I prefer to have my sweet potatoes as a savory dish. I am cooking this with Parmesan because I love cheese.

Stab a fork through 4 sweet potatoes. I must say, this is the only hard part in making this dish. Everything else is easy breezy. Wrap in wet paper towels and nuke for 15 minutes. Once done, scoop up the meat and add 2 T of butter, cut into small cubes.