Holiday Traditions at the Table

As you might expect, food is a major part of the holiday at my house. The festivities begin with the much loved cookie classes, generally scheduled a week or two before Christmas. Class is held in my kitchen, and then we head next door to The Cooking Cottage for either lunch or dinner, depending on the time of day. This year my daughter Kate made several pans of delicious Butternut Squash Lasagna – it was quite a hit – everyone seemed to enjoy it – that will be hard to top next year…

As promised, here is a picture of the 2009 cookies – Black & White Biscotti, Amoretto Truffles, Ambrosia Macaroons, Lemon-Pistachio Wreaths, Chocolate Cherry Toffee Cookies and Southern Cracker Cookies. Cookie classes were attended by a total of 69 people, so we did a lot of baking!

 The major December snow storm didn’t put a damper on the Cooking Cottage Kids Gifts from The Kitchen Classes – Molly’s classes were sold out and every single child found their way through the snow to class and left with a delightful assortment of homemade gifts for their friends and family.

My brother and niece arrived from Michigan and made a beautiful breakfast - poached eggs and speck, which is Italian bacon – delicious!

Our family and friends enjoyed our traditional seafood pasta in The Cooking Cottage on Christmas Eve.

As per tradition, we had a farmer's omelet brunch on Christmas morning at Winnie’s new home.

Christmas dinner at my house consisted of favorite recipes from the fall season at The Cooking Cottage, including Confetti Spinach Salad, Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin, Shrimp Rockefeller, Old-Fashioned Mashed Potatoes and Braised Carrots with Fresh Herbs. Dessert was a tray of Christmas Cookies.

The Shrimp Rockefeller was really popular – here is the recipe - maybe you’d like to include it at your next party or family gathering.

SHRIMP ROCKEFELLER

2 10-oz packages frozen chopped spinach

½ cup chopped onion

¼ cup water

¼ tsp salt

3 slices white bread, trimmed and cut into cubes

½ cup butter

1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp celery salt

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp hot red pepper sauce

½ cup dry bread crumbs

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp butter melted

1 ½ pounds shrimp, cooked and peeled

Preheat oven to 400º.

Combine the spinach, onion, water and salt in a saucepan and cook until the spinach is thawed and separates easily. Stir in the bread, ½ cup butter, Worcestershire sauce, celery salt, garlic powder and hot sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes. Combine the bread crumbs, cheese and 2 Tbsp butter in a bowl and mix well; set aside. Reserve 8 – 10 shrimp. Arrange the remaining shrimp in a greased shallow baking dish. Spoon the spinach mixture on top and sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture. Top with the reserved shrimp. Bake for 15 minutes.

Serves 8 - 10

Enjoy!