Christmas Dinner Revisited

I feel like in my posts lately it may not seem like I've been doing much cooking. But I have. It's just that I've been having a low-key holiday season this year, so when I have been cooking, I've been sticking with my tried-and-true recipes, many of which I've blogged about in the past.

Take, for example, Christmas dinner. I spent most of the day at home cooking, making some of my favorite recipes but adding a few changes here and there. I thought I'd give you a look at my Christmas dinner this year, and maybe it might give you an idea for dinner on New Year's Day. Enjoy!Roasted Beet Salad with Pears and Baby Watercress in a Blood Orange Vinaigrette. I started my dinner with a beet salad because you know I love beets. This salad is very similar to this blood orange and roasted beet salad here, but I switched it up by not using goat cheese and adding fresh Bartlett pears. The pears made the salad more refreshing and juicy. I also got those baby watercress at Whole Foods (they're the ones where the watercress stem is very thin and the bunch is sitting in a tray of water).

Grilled Lamb Chops with Butternut Squash Puree with Marsala Reduction, Micro Greens and Roasted Yukon Potatoes. I think lamb chop is an easy and stress-free entree to serve for dinner. So I got some French-cut chops and just seasoned with salt and pepper and some fresh rosemary and just grilled them with olive oil. The real work came in the surrounding items. I started by roasting a small butternut squash, and then puree-ing it with my hand blender with a dash of milk. Then I low simmered about a half cup of Marsala wine with a cinnamon stick and a tablespoon of sugar to create this sweet, holiday-appropriate reduction to drizzle over everything. I also roasted some yukon potatoes and topped everything off with micro greens. (I see restaurants using micro greens every where and you can now buy them at specialty grocery stores or the farmers market, which is where I found mines.)
Meyer Lemon Custard Cakes. I ended my Christmas dinner with this easy-to-make lemon custard cake. I got the recipe originally from Martha Stewart's Web site. When I made them last year, I enjoyed them so much when made fresh and with Meyer lemons in season. So I did them again for Christmas.

So that was my Christmas dinner. (And boy, did I pay for it with the dishes to wash! I think I'm still washing dishes.) I have to say I really liked the beet salad and the lamb chops smeared with butternut squash as I cut into them. So what was your favorite thing about Christmas dinner?