Christmas Eve Brunch (or, Too Many Cinnamon Rolls)

Last year I didn't really eat during the holidays. I was right in the middle of some really serious weight loss, and I wasn't willing to compromise my goals. This year, apparently my goals were compromisable. :)

We had Mark's family here for Christmas Eve. Since everyone had the whole day off, we did a big brunch in the morning instead of a big dinner in the afternoon for the following reasons:

• I'm totally intimidated by centering a whole meal around a big, expensive piece of meat which I may or may not scorch beyond recognition.
• I like the idea of having the whole shebang cleaned up and done by early afternoon.
• Cinnamon rolls.

So, in order to offset the informality of the whole brunch thing, I planned a menu that was a little bit of overkill, even for me. (The need to cook twice as much food as is needed for an event is a genetic abnormality inherited from my mother's side of the family.) We had a potato/sausage/egg casserole, homemade cinnamon rolls, chocolate-filled puff pastries, three kinds of sausages, "green top" (a jello-ey thing that's a tradition for us), croissants, a citrus salad dressed with a lime syrup, and...I think I'm forgetting something, but you get the idea.

Oh, punch. The punch was terrible. The rest rocked.

Several items were new recipes. I got photos of most of them despite the chaos--are you proud of me?

Cinnamon Rolls: These were sort of the centerpiece of the meal. I found a pretty good recipe on allrecipes.com, then did a little modifying. Instead of the oil I used 1/2 cup melted butter, and I added some cinnamon and 1/4 c sugar to the dough with the flour. I frosted them with the famous vanilla buttercream that I learned while making cupcakes for our friends Dave and Monica's wedding. It's, like, magic frosting. But that's worth its own post. For now, here's how the rolls looked.




Petits Pains au Chocolate: These were both fancy-sounding and fancy-looking but were almost embarrasingly easy. And the recipe actually came from a site that is NOT allrecipes.com, proving that I am not in a complete rut. However, believe it or not, I found that 1/6 of a chocolate bar was too much chocolate for these. Instead of 3 squares of the Cadbury bars I had, I used 2 squares per pastry. They were a hit.



Citrus Salad with Lime: I didn't get a picture of this one, which is a shame, because it was really pretty. I sectioned 5 lbs of navel oranges and 2 grapefruits (which took FOREVER--praise the Lord I did it the day before), mixed in some fresh raspberries, and tossed it with the lime stuff from yet another foodie website. Would have looked even nicer with a few sprigs of mint or something, but we don't generally swing that way around here. (Mark: "Why is there foliage on my oranges?")

Orange Cake: This was the sleeper hit of the meal. Honestly, I only made the thing because I own a bundt pan I'd never used. (Also the compulsion to cook in ridiculous excess, but we've covered that.) And I like orange. That's it. But the recipe is really easy, and everyone loved it. LOVED it. There was a discussion afterwards about whether it outshone the cinnamon rolls, which is saying something.

I actually used vanilla pudding instead of lemon, since some of the reviewers said the cake tasted more lemon than orange, but I did add some fresh lemon juice to the glaze to increase the tartness. (I LOVE citrus flavors, but I like them TART...like, just south of where you cross over from "mmm...orangey" to "this reminds me of some kind of industrial floor cleaner.") Honestly, even with the modifications the glaze wasn't quite tart enough for me. Also, I poured it when it was too hot, I think, so it didn't crust up at all. For a little visual interest, then, I piped on some frosting (basic vanilla, from Betty Crocker) that I was using on gingerbread men.

There were 6 adults and 5 children eating this stuff (and one of the kids was 3 weeks old, so he didn't eat many cinnamon rolls). You might not be surprised that we had a ton of leftovers. And they held up really well. The thing is, when your fridge has cinnamon rolls in it, it's hard to eat whole wheat toast and yogurt for breakfast.

Lesson learned this year: When I was 100 pounds overweight, a few holiday pounds were a drop in the bucket, but at my present weight I'm learning what all the fuss has been about. My pants are definitely a little tight. So here's what I think: it's Christmas. The cinnamon rolls were worth it. And I lost it once, so I'm pretty sure I can lose it again, and then pick up where I left off.

I have more to cover...we did our train ride into the city, we've had some new crafts, and there's one thing which might be a recipe or might be a craft. Undetermined. But the baby is screaming and is apparently not going back to sleep. (He and I have some philosophical differences when it comes to napping.) Also, I have a houseful of kids demanding a snack with increasing fervor. Until later, then...