It might be a little obvious that I did not finish my 12 Days of Christmas posts before Christmas, purely because I decided I needed to slow down and enjoy the holidays with friends and family. I took lots of pictures, but told myself I wouldn’t actually write until the week after Christmas so that I could relax and not stress over all the holiday duties. Being a person with anxious tendencies, I have found that putting your phone and/or laptop down for a while does wonders – in the busy world we live in, it is so hard to remember to unplug and live in the moment, but that is exactly what I did this holiday season!
On the Friday before Christmas we had friends over for a festive get-together, which I failed MISERABLY at taking any pictures of. My house was decorated up, I had a huge table full of appetizers, and even had little door prizes for the kids. You guys will just have to take my word for it that it was a super fun party and my decor was lovely, because my phone and camera were both nowhere in sight for the evening! The one thing I did manage to snap a single shot of was this delicious monkey bread I made… it was my first time trying the recipe and I will have to blog it for you guys because it was perfect! It was like fresh little Cinna-bon bites all baked together in a pull-apart bread. So YUM!
On to Christmas dinner! For our Christmas dinners, we love to go all out. Last year I did a Beef Wellington which is a beautiful and delicious dish, but it is a lot of work! It also takes some skill and attention since you want to make sure you do not over-cook your meat while getting your puff pastry to the right temp, and vice versa. My husband was craving Prime Rib, so we decided to do exactly that.
In looking for Prime Rib recipes, he discovered a lot of recipes for Yorkshire Pudding accompanying it… we both have heard of Yorkshire Pudding but had no clue what it was like, so we decided to have open minds and gave it a try! A little research told us that Yorkshire Pudding is a traditional English dish to accompany Prime Rib as it is made from the pan drippings. It is a relatively simple and neutral puff pastry, that is actually quite entertaining to watch as it poufs up in the oven. We also had some broccolini and homemade scalloped potatoes that I tossed together using a bechamel cream sauce and cheese.
For dessert I had debated a Yule log but just couldn’t find the effort within myself to do all that baking. I decided instead on a simple chocolate torte with a side of peppermint ice cream and it was just right!
So, what was on your Christmas dinner menu? I plan to blog my recipes for the monkey bread and the torte, because I think they both turned out quite well!
Cheers to the last few days of 2017!
X.O. – Abbey Co.
That all sounds delicious!!