Christmas Dinner

For those of you who have been craving Chicken Pistache on a bed of cream and Blackberry Sauce.... and for those of you who have never heard of it before.... this was our main dish for our North Woods themed Christmas Dinner.

Actually, technically, we served it for Christmas Eve Dinner. As adult children we still want to all get together for Christmas but we also think that Christmas Day is about the individual families and their own celebrations -- the kids under their own trees -- today we are all lazing about at our own homes.

So, yesterday several of us gathered at Gran and Poppy's and were treated to a dazzling display of appetizers, cheeses cut in the shape of north woods stars, birds, and trees, as well as a "porcupine" of summer sausage, among other things. Our delicious dinner entree (pictured above, and below) came with sides of made from scratch mashed potatoes, green beans from Gran's garden, and north woods shaped (more birds and trees and stars) dinner rolls.

We ate enough to delay desert for a couple hours, which was a smart idea, since desert was the Norwegian traditional tray of no fewer than seven types of cookie including "Bear Paws" several chocolate and nut types, and Norwegian pepper cookies. Naturally, we each had to try all seven kinds.

Gran found the recipe for Roast Breast of Chicken Pistache with Blackberry Sauce online somewhere (probably here, it's a recipe from the Gunflint Lodge Cookbook). We are all glad she did find it; as one of the best tasting Christmas dishes we have ever tried, you can believe we'll be serving it again. Plus it's so pretty.