Dare I say we did it, a low maintenance Christmas dinner?!?  With one less dinner guest than last year, Mike and I hosted our smallest holiday dinner yet.

As our holiday traditions would have it, I spent Christmas day happily away form the kitchen allowing for Mike to do his thing.  With Home Alone playing on the TV, I sat on the couch + sipped wine + snacked.  Compared to years past, Mike spent substantially more time on the couch during dinner prep leading me to my conclusion of a low maintenance meal; less fuss and more Macaulay Culkin!

Dinner was a southern inspired fare and as I was in charge of desert, I only have one recipe to share.  As for the rest of the meal, we had a flavourfully rich succession of the following courses…

s a l a d :

beets + dandelion greens + spinach + olive oil roasted pistachios + crackling + blue cheese in a honey vinaigrette

s i d e s :

cornbread dressing

smoked ham hawk + gruyere cheese + Beemster cheese + bacon scallopped potatoes

m a i n :  f r e s h  h a m

slow roasted for 4hrs served with a pineapple jus

d e s s e r t :  b o u r b o n  p e a c a n  t a r t s

In keeping with the southern + low maintenance themes, I went with a seemingly simple pie recipe from Chef John Currence’s cookbook Pickles, Pigs, & Whiskey; made only more difficult by my decision to make the pie into tarts.

To avoid the Christmas day oven takeover, As Mike watched his Thursday Night Football,  I baked my tarts.

tart pastry | with filling, recipes will make about 48 tarts

tart filling

• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/4C sugar
• 4tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2C unsulfured molasses
• 2C pecan pieces | toasted
• 2tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4C bourbon
• if not tarts than ….1 -9″ blind-baked pie crust

preheat oven to 350ºF
whisk together eggs + yolks + sugar in a stainless-steel or glass bowl until smooth and creamy
blend in butter + molasses + pecans + vanilla + bourbon + salt until smooth
fill tart shells 1/2 way with filling [or pour filling into pie shell]
bake for 35mins or until centre is set and pastry is golden
remove from oven + cool

serve as is or, as in our meal, with eggnog ice-cream!

From prep to clean-up and salad to desert, our low maintenance southern inspired holiday dinner held up!

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!