I cooked another Christmas dinner. This time for 12 and I kept the menu simple. I bought nearly 8 pounds of pork loin since the butcher at Wegmans suggested that would be cost effective and lead to leftovers. I'm glad I did because my family devoured close to seven pounds.
The only reason they didn't finish it is because I could only fit about 7.5 pounds in the crockpot.
The recipe was a variation of my standard pork with apples. I tossed the loin (or perhaps I jammed the loin) into the crockpot with most of a bottle of unsweetened apple juice. I sprinkled brown sugar over the top and tossed some apple slices and pear slices over that.
We cooked it on high about 5 hours and turned it down until dinner.
Meanwhile, because the crock pot was so full, I made the glaze in the skillet. I cooked about two cups of apple juice with about 3+ cups of mustard, various half used bottles from my house and my stepmom's. So I had equal parts brown mustard, yellow mustard, honey mustard and Dijon mustard. Added equal amounts brown sugar. Then when that dissolved into a sauce added slices of several apples (red delicious and Granny Smith) and pears.
When we sliced the meat, I poured this over top to serve. It all disappeared.
Sides included sweet corn that my mother-in-law purchased on a local farm this summer. My family thought it was the best corn ever and all I did was heat it. Buy local! It makes a difference!
I made two of my sweet potato pecan crunch casseroles, the same amount I did for last year's dinner for 20. They devoured those too. I experimented with one, adding dark brown sugar instead of light for the crumb topping and swirling blackstrap molasses over the topping. I love blackstrap molasses and it tasted like candy!
My other vegetables were my roasted cauliflower that was a hit last year and I decided to make my roasted Brussel sprouts. I know Brussel sprouts are an unpopular choice but they are one of my favorites and I was the chef after all.
I wanted to make my "Buffalo style" sprouts for my dad because, like me, he likes spicy things. I think he took half the bowl. I also made a bowl of sprouts that weren't spicy.
A bowl of salad never seems to be popular in the midst of a big holiday meal so I made a tiny iceberg wedge salad for each person: a few carrot ribbons, radish slices and cashews on each, sprinkled with white sesame seeds, and topped with my homemade peanut-sesame dressing.
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