Christmas Dinner

I pulled off a magnificent Christmas Dinner. Ben had to work today, but I got the day off. I started cooking at about 1 pm, and timed it so that every dish was ready and hot at 5:15, about 15 minutes after Ben got home.

I am really proud of how well this Christmas dinner turned out. There were a lot of obstacles to overcome. I wanted it all to taste completely authentic, but there are a lot of ingredients not available here in Japan, I also have a dairy allergy, but mashed potatoes are an absolutely necessary part of any american feast. We also only have 2 pans, 1 pot, and 2 baking pans, which is very limiting when putting together a feast.

Everything was hot when Ben sat down for dinner, everything was ready at the same time, this was really hard for me, but was the most important thing for me to accomplish.

Here is our Christmas dinner menu.
Mashed potatoes-made with homemade chicken broth and garlic
Herbed Bread
Baked Kabocha Pumpkin
Gravy- I have never made gravy before, and this was probably the hardest dish to make with all the limitations
Salad-The salad was laden with rare ingredients here, and was only possible due to the generous gifts of people in town, it had asian pear, tangerine, and walnuts
Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ham covered chicken breast-I herbed the chicen before wrapping it, and then baked the chicken
Plum Jelly- The plum jelly was a present from my dad, it was delicious on the chicken.
All of this was paired with a Yellow Tail Chardonnay

If we had been home for the holidays, we would have had many more dishes, but I am proud of what I pulled together. I tasted authentic, and was really delicious. We felt like we were whisked back home it was wonderful.

Merry Christmas Everyone!