This Christmas, I offered to do all of the cooking so Brian could relax. Instead of a big meal I decided to do random recipes throughout the day. Here are all the courses that we ate for our holiday feast. The cutting board and plates were both wedding presents that we kept under the tree to open on Christmas.

Brunch – cheese board. In the top right we have apples with brie and prosciutto drizzled with balsamic glaze. We also had the Costco cheese board cheeses which included five different varieties of cheese. For crackers we had some Potter’s, Ritz, wheat thins, Dots pretzels and almond thins. Veggies included cucumbers, carrots, broccoli and celery. In the middle there is a salmon torte from Costco. The other meats were salami nuggets, pancetta and prosciutto. Accoutrements were honeycomb, Tessamae’s everything bagel ranch dressing, and Lusty Monk’s mustard. We also had a little shrimp cocktail platter to snack on.

Snack – pizza roses. I found this recipe on Delish. Brian suggested making a dipping sauce which added to the experience. These were easy to make and tasted great. They were supposed to be made in a muffin pan which would have given them a better rose shape but still looked okay without it. Next time, instead of cutting into strips then putting on the sauce and cheese, I would keep it all together in a big sheet. This would be less messy and have less waste. I am learning cooking tips as I go!

Next course – Deviled eggs. I wanted to do four different kinds of deviled eggs. It was going to be two of each for both of us so 16 total. But I made the silly mistake of boiling 16 eggs not thinking about how each egg makes two deviled eggs. The four varieties were classic, sriracha bacon, everything but the bagel, and buffalo chicken.

Next course – copycat Air Fryer Chick-fil-a nuggets. I found this recipe from Jamela on her by pink blog on Pinterest. I marinated the chicken in pickle juice like the recipe said but Brian’s said later that I should have added buttermilk so the fry mix would have stuck better to the chicken. Another fun lesson of the day! I didn’t have powdered sugar but Brian taught me that you can make it by blending regular granulated sugar. It was so easy! This was the first recipe where I used our new copper measuring cups and spoons!

Final course – Chicken Cordon Bleu Crescent Ring. This was the most disappointing food item of the day. I got the recipe straight from Pillsbury so I had high hopes. As I am getting better at cooking recipes, I still don’t recognize when the ratios of a recipe are not ideal. There was way too much cheese and not enough meat for this to resemble chicken cordon bleu. I tried! It was fine but we didn’t keep the leftovers. Maybe if we hadn’t eaten so much other cheese throughout the day it would have been a little more appetizing. Next time I try something like this I’ll go heavier on the meat and lighter on the dairy.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a great day with loved ones and got to eat some incredible food.