Posts Tagged ‘joy’

The New Year has begun with a bang for me, and I’m pretty busy with work plus some minor home improvement projects.  However, I still make time to read some of my favorite blogs.  I’m completely obsessed with the baby goats at Chickens in the Road:

Head over to the Chickens in the Road blog to check out more stuff.  It has baby cows and some more baby goats who were born in the last day or so.

I hope everyone’s holiday was as splendid as mine!  I took some much-needed time off work to relax and let my tattoo heal.  Over Christmas, I fixed a spectacular feast centered around a delicious beef braciole.  I know most people eat ham or turkey, but I always do a non-traditional meal for Christmas Day.  The stuffing in the braciole is the best stuff on Earth!

Braciole Stuffing

It’s made of bread, toasted pine nuts, onion, garlic, pancetta, spinach, parmesan, and provolone cheeses.  I always make it the day before because I think it tastes even better when it has time to let the flavors meld.

Next, I roll that into a nice flattened piece of flank steak and tie it with some kitchen twine:

Holiday Braciole

After that, I brown it and use the pan drippings to make a homemade San Marzano and red wine tomato sauce and braise the braciole in that sauce for 2 hours at 350° F in a dutch oven.

Braised Braciole

The best thing about making a braciole is that I get days of leftovers! I always have leftover sauce and stuffing.  This year I used the sauce a few days later to make a delicious meatloaf.  I used the stuffing later to make stuffed chicken breasts.  Even though making a braciole is quite a process, it definitely has benefits because you get several meals from it.

After toiling with holiday cooking, I treated myself on New Year Eve.  The Mister and I typically don’t go out on amateur night, so we opted to stay home and indulge with a bottle of Cristal champagne and some hand-dipped chocolate strawberries.  Sooooo good!

Strawberries & Cristal

Overall, we had a wonderful holiday and a fantastic start to 2011.  I hope the rest of the year lives up to the beginning.