What is everyone preparing for Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate?
We normally travel to New Orleans for Thanksgiving where my mom does all of the cooking. We host a Christmas Dinner where we go all out. I'm in charge of cooking gumbo and all of the meats. My wife handles the side dishes.
The Meats I will prepare this year are Standing Rib Roast (prime rib), a fried turkey and a smoked ham.
I plan on incorporating some of my homebrew into the cooking this year. I plan on brining the turkey with a very malty ESB, bay leaf, thyme, onions, garlic, kosher sea salt and a bit of crawfish boil seasoning.
The prime rib will be seasoned with Montreal steak seasoning, garlic, and rosemary. I will smoke the prime rib with a few mesquite wood chunks in an electric smoker. I have a fantastic IPA that I plan on creating a reduction sauce for the prime rib or the ham, I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I will look to Paxton for inspiration.
The ham will be smoked with oak in my big smoker along with some turkey parts (necks, wings, drum sticks) that will be used for seasoning meat for the greens etc.
The side dishes will be seafood dressing, collard greens, baked spaghetti (everyone else calls it macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato soufflé.
The gumbo takes a thread by itself.
Ohh, I have 4 beers on tap:
1. 108 IBU IIPA
2. Blue Moon clone
3. 1.065 OG ESB I think it has 38 IBUs
4. Cranberry Zinger. (The wit was a 10 gallon batch, I added cranberries, granny smith apples and navel oranges to the secondary to 5 gallons)
What's on your menu?