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So, yeah, I kind of forgot to take pictures while cooking for Christmas... I made a few things:

Chicken soup
I just made a broth with chicken, roughly chopped fennel, onion, celery, carrots and leeks, and some parsley. Then I ditched the vegetables, plucked the meat off the chicken and by the time dinner came around, I added some new, finely chopped vegetables and heated it up.

Green beans wrapped in prosciutto
You can check my Christmas blog from 2 years ago for the recipe.

Green bean casserole
I think everyone in the States knows how to make this.

Cornbread
I used this recipe. It came out really tasty. This was the first time I made this.

Sweet potato
I just made mashed potatoes with a bit of milk and butter.

Pommes Duchesse
Just mash some cooked potatoes with salt, pepper and an egg, and pipe on to a cookie sheet or baking tray. Place into a hot oven for a few minutes untill they turn golden brown.

Ham
Not really a recipe required. I use a frying pan with both butter and olive oil (butter for flavour, oil to prevent the butter from burning).

Turkey
The first time ever I made a whole turkey, and sadly, I overcooked it a little. It was still very tasty, but kind of dry. Oh well, you learn. I mixed about 2 sticks of butter with the zest of one lemon, a couple of slices of finely chopped prosciutto, rosemary and thyme. Then I stuffed the butter mixture between the breast and skin of the turkey, and rubbed some of it on the outside.

Stuffing
I used this recipe.

Pecan maple ice cream
This was my recipe of choice. It came out sooooo good. Everyone loved it. I made a double batch and used the egg whites that were left over to make a whole bunch of meringue cookies. I also made the maple whipped cream mentioned in the recipe with the little bit of cream and maple syrup I had left.

Pecan pie
Also a recipe from JoyOfBaking. I was actually surprised about how sweet it was. With all that sugar and golden syrup, I expected a really, really sweet pie, but it wasn't overly sweet. It was just good.

I expect to visit that site quite a bit in the future, as I got myself a stand mixer slash food processor. slash blender slash juicerWell, my Dad paid part of it as my Christmas present. I love it. My brother and his girlfriend got me a cd and some Beatles stuff (mugs, plectrums, poster). It was ok. I'm a bad person to buy gifts for, as there's not much I care about, and what I do care about, I tend to buy for myself already. I'll admit to that.

I was off from work the past 2 weeks. Besides the tons of work preparing Christmas dinner, I pretty much did nothing. I'm just so tired. I haven't been sleeping well lately. I have a hard time falling asleep, and I wake up several times a night. I think it's just the stress from work, and the fact it's about a year ago that my Mom got sick. I've been thinking about here a lot lately. I miss her.