Gal Two Does December!

I made December's menu for Christmas Eve. It was a lovely idea, homemade soup simmering on the stove top, crusty bread sticks, a crisp shortbread cookie with your tea... but Christmas Eve isn't the day to try it! Things just felt a little rushed because of our 4:30pm church service and the matzo balls which are a little tricky, and not like hearty noodles that you can just add to the soup and leave. However, I think the menu was an over all success. Nothing was overly hard, the flavours were good, and there was a lot that could be done ahead. Just a few parts, like shopping a mission veggies, and having several hours to watch the stock, were a bit time consuming. There are lots of pictures thanks to Luke! Let's go.

The whole chickens. These were actually only $2-3 and very easy to work with. Nice surprise.

 Unpacking and draining them

 Since I didn't have a stock pot large enough for the whole recipe I divided it between to pots. It was still a stretch as my pots were full to the brim! Luke cut the third bird in half to divide between the pots.

 The pots full of water, veggies and herbs. The veggie prep here was a snap since you didn't even have to peel anything!

 The pots after adding the chickens; as you can see they are FULL. We made the stock a day ahead and chilled it. I removed the fat (not a pleasant task!) before packing half for the freezer and warming the other half for soup.

 This was veggie prep for the soup on the date is was eaten. We only made a half batch, but there were still a lots of veggies to clean, peel and chop! Thank you Luke!!

 Time for some cookies! This was also done the day before; the dough was made (easy) and wrapped in plastic to chill over night. In hindsight, I should have been more aggressive with some hand kneading! The dough kept wanting to come apart when I was cutting it the next day.

 Day of: making the matzo balls! I've never had these before and they have a distinct taste to them, which I liked and the boys weren't sure about (although they ate them). I also made them up a few hours ahead, but I think they would be better done right before eating. I boiled them in just plain water and they tasted great. Boys also thought the overall texture wasn't that good, but I didn't mind it! I was a fan.

 Finished meal on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Gals! Can't wait to start year two!