on the menu

My Korean buddy JW has invited me over to his place this Christmas Eve, just like last year. This may be turning into a nice little tradition. I'll be bringing over a Santa's haul of gifts again, like last year, but since JW's wife asked me to bring some kind of dessert, I've elected to make my "mouce" au chocolat and some panna cotta. My mouce is already pretty close to a panna cotta, but the main difference is that I give the heavy cream a thorough beating—until it's whipped cream—before incorporating the gelatine.

I'm also planning on cooking myself a nice Christmas Day meal (at which I shall redeem myself after my Thanksgiving turducken failure), and on Wednesday next week, I've invited my boss and coworker over to my place for a multi-plate luncheon: appetizer, main, side, salad, and dessert. Ought to be fun.

So here's the menu over the next several days:

12/24: panna cotta + mouce au chocolat
12/25: mini-turduckens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas & carrots, choux rouge aux marrons, and cranberry sauce (no corn pudding this time, alas)
12/28: shrimp + hush puppies appetizer; lasagna main course; garlic-bread side; caprese salad; mouce dessert

So there's plenty to keep me occupied over the next several days. My vacation just began, so I'll have plenty of free time to focus on fooding up. I'm especially looking forward to the stuffing, which was addictive last time.