Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all are enjoying your time with your friends, family and loved ones. I've had a wonderful day that started with watching my adorable nephews open Christmas presents. It was so cute! I think Grady was beyond confused when he saw my whole family together since he's used to only seeing us separately. The initial look on his face was priceless.

Next, we dug into our own gifts and had breakfast. My mom found a great breakfast bake recipe from Paula Dean. It had hashbrowns, eggs, sausage, bacon, cheddar, Parmesan cheese and spinach, which was my moms added healthy touch. It was delicious! And as soon as we were finished eating, it was time to get to work on dinner.

The Christmas Feast!

We made the same Worlds Simplest Turkey that I made on Thanksgiving, the roasted veggies and salad from Tuesday's Hoboken Feast. The new dish I brought to the table was Rachel Ray's Christmas Pasta. It was outrageous! It was packed full of meat and wonderful flavors of red wine and San Marzano tomatoes. This is a great pasta for special occasions or dinner parties.

Christmas Pasta!

Christmas Pasta Recipe:
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 lb bacon, sliced
6 bone-in beef short ribs, about 1 1/2 pounds
Salt and pepper 
2-3 carrots, chopped
2-3 ribs celery, chopped 
2 onions, finely chopped
7-8 cloves garlic, minced 
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 tbsp fresh sage
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh oregano, or marjoram, chopped
A pinch of ground cloves
3 tbsp tomato paste 
2 cups Malbec, or other rich red wine,
1 10 1/2 oz can  beef consomme 
1 28 - 32 oz can  San Marzano tomatoes
3/4 lb bulk hot Italian sausage
3/4 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage
2 lbs rigatoni pasta
1 cup grated pecorino cheese 

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees . In a large Dutch oven, heat 4 tbsp. olive oil, over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and render out the fat until crisp. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside for later use.
2) Season the short ribs generously with salt and pepper. Add to the pan and brown on all sides. Set aside. Stir in the carrots, celery, onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and cloves. Partially cover the veggies and cook to soften a bit, 5 to 8 minutes. Once softened, add the tomato paste and stir for a minute or two to incorporate, next add the wine, consomme and tomatoes. Return the short ribs and bacon to the pot, stir everything together, bring up to a simmer, cover and bake until the meat is tender to the touch or falls apart easily, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
3) Take the meat off the bones and shred with two forks or with your fingers. Add the meat back into the sauce. Place the pot over medium heat to bring up to temperature.
4) Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 2 tbsp. of olive oil,  over medium- high heat. Add the sausages to the pan and cook, breaking up with the back of a wooden spoon, until browned, crisp and crumbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the sausage and then add it to the meat sauce. Stir together to combine.
5) While the meat sauce is coming together, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the rigatoni. Salt the boiling water and cook the rigatoni to al dente.
6) Toss the pasta with the meat sauce and top with cheese.

We rounded out our Christmas evening with a trip to the movies to see Parental Guidance. As cliche as the previews of this movie were it turned out to be pretty good. Plus, my young doppelganger, Bailee Madison was in it so it obviously couldn't be bad.

With that, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!