“Polar Express,” “Home Alone,” “Elf,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
These titles all have one thing in common: they’re beloved Christmas movies.
In elementary school I would always look forward to the week before Christmas break, when the whole class would sit around our projector. With chips and a cup of hot chocolate filled with tiny marshmallows, we eagerly waited as a Christmas movie was loaded onto the projector. While the movies we watched always changed, the nostalgic atmosphere they created stayed year after year. One year we watched “The Polar Express,” followed by “Home Alone” and “Elf.”
With Christmas just around the corner, I curated a three-course meal inspired by the dishes in these beloved movies: hot chocolate from “The Polar Express,” tomato bisque from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” pepperoni grilled cheese from “Home Alone,” spaghetti and meatballs from “Elf” and to wrap it all up, caramel pecan apple pie from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Hot Chocolate
By far the easiest part of this course, the hot chocolate took less than 10 minutes.
I heated a mixture of whole milk, cocoa powder and sugar over medium heat until it was fully incorporated before adding in a handful of dark chocolate chips and whisking until the chocolate had melted. Then, I whisked in a bit of vanilla extract before pouring it into a cup.
The smell of chocolate had filled my kitchen and immediately reminded me of the times I would drink hot chocolate with my class while watching “The Polar Express.”
The dark chocolate added a hint of bitterness which helped curb the sweetness and richness of the drink.
Tomato Bisque and Pepperoni Grilled Cheese
The tomato bisque mostly went off without a hitch.
I started making the tomato bisque by preheating my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and quartering and deseeding 5 pounds of beefsteak tomatoes. These tomatoes were placed in a large, deep tray and tossed with a mixture of a quarter cup of sunflower oil and seven minced garlic cloves.
I peeled and rough chopped white onion while the tomatoes roasted for about 20 minutes to soften the skin. After the tomatoes were finished, I peeled and discarded the skins.
Setting aside the tomatoes, I threw the onions into a Dutch oven and sauteed them until translucent. I added the tomatoes, 2 cups of water, salt, dried basil and pepper flakes and covered the pot to allow the vegetables to soften.
To get a silky texture, I poured a third of my soup into a blender, covered the lid and turned on the blender.
Disaster.
Since the soup was still piping hot, the filler cap in the center of the lid stopped the steam from escaping, leading to the cap popping off and soup shooting everywhere. This chucked soup across my kitchen, on the floor, countertops, my apron and my right hand. Thankfully, the burns were minor but could have been avoided if I had been a little more careful.
After carefully blending the rest of the soup and adding a splash of half-and-half, I moved on to the pepperoni grilled cheese.
The simplest of the entrees, the pepperoni grilled cheese went perfectly.
I started by melting a little less than 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan and placed a slice of bread into the center. Then, I stacked a layer of mozzarella cheese followed by nine slices of pepperoni and another slice of mozzarella cheese. After letting the bread toast and the cheese melt for three minutes, I placed another slice of bread and flipped the sandwich to cook for another three minutes.
Meanwhile, I melted a tablespoon of butter in the microwave and mixed it with some dried parsley, salt and pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning.
Then, using a pastry brush, I brushed the mixture over the sandwich and let it cook for an additional 30 seconds on each side.
After removing it from the pan, I sliced the grilled cheese diagonally and plated it alongside my tomato soup for the perfect appetizer.
Together, they were perfect.
The richness of the grilled cheese neutralized the acidity of the tomato soup, leading to a perfect bite that tasted like tangy pepperoni pizza with a slightly spicy kick. The tomato bisque was smooth with a heartiness given by the half-and-half, but wasn’t too rich or heavy.
The two paired together created an extremely satisfying appetizer that exceeded all my expectations.
The best dish I made in this series of courses.
I started with the meatballs. First, I ripped apart a few slices of bread and mixed it with some water to create a sort of paste that I would use to give the meatballs structure and extra starch.
Combining a pound of lean ground beef and a pound of mild Italian sausage, I added grated parmesan cheese, four cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and an egg before mixing all the ingredients together.
Then, after rolling the meat into one and a half inch balls, I dredged them in flour and sauteed them for around six minutes before taking them out of the pan.
To the same pan, I added a roughly chopped onion and cooked it until they were soft and golden, to which I added four more cloves of garlic and 56 ounces of canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes. When the sauce started to boil, I added the meatballs back in and covered the pot slightly as I let the sauce simmer.
As I waited for the sauce, I began cooking the noodles.
Since I was rushed and didn’t have a pasta machine on hand, I defaulted to using pre-made spaghetti from Rao’s, my go-to brand. I cooked the pasta in lightly salted water for 11 minutes before straining and setting aside.
After letting the sauce reduce for 30 minutes, I added in some chopped basil, salt and pepper before mixing it into the pasta, garnishing the dish with fresh basil and parmesan cheese before serving.
It was amazing.
The meatballs, despite being my first attempt at making them, were very well seasoned and juicy with a great sear on the outside. The rich yet acidic sauce of the spaghetti had thickened enough to coat the noodles without falling off, leading to sauce on each bite.
Caramel Pecan Apple Pie
Every time I decide to bake a pie, I feel a sense of impending dread as pies are my weakest dessert.
This time was no different.
I started by making the pie crust by combining 2 1/2 cups of flour, sugar and a pinch of salt in a large bowl before adding two cold sticks of cubed butter.
While most recipes would say to use a food processor to blend the butter into the flour and sugar, I didn’t have one and instead gradually broke apart the butter into small pieces with my hands before carefully mixing in a splash of water to give the dough some structure.
After rolling into a ball, I flattened the dough and let it rest in the fridge for an hour before using it. Then, I began rolling out the dough into a thin sheet. However, much like the last time I made pies, the dough came out much too crumbly and I had to spend 15 minutes trying to patch together the rips in the dough.
With the dough somehow holding, I placed it in a 9-inch deep pie dish before blind-baking in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for around 10 minutes to ensure the dough wouldn’t be soggy.
Normally, you would cover the crust with parchment paper before using a pie weight, rice or beans to hold down the dough as it baked; however, in my haste, I had forgotten to place parchment paper before using rice to weigh down the dough.
As a result, the rice had sunk into the bottom of the crust, leading to a large portion of the rice remaining in my dough.
This was catastrophic.
I had to spend the next 30 minutes using tweezers and chopsticks to painstakingly remove every minute grain of rice, the majority of which were clear making it incredibly difficult to see.
After what seemed like an eternity, I was left with a clean pie base and moved on to the next step of the recipe: preparing the filling.
First, I peeled and thinly sliced five granny smith apples and tossed them with a spritz of lemon juice and a splash of vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, I combined chopped pecans, brown sugar, granulated sugar, ground cinnamon and cornstarch before tossing the mixture again to coat the apples.
For the caramel sauce, I melted caramel candies with a tablespoon of water and added half-and-half before pouring it out of the pot and letting it cool.
I spread a thin layer of caramel sauce at the bottom of the crust before adding the apple mixture and drizzling four tablespoons of melted butter on top and set the dish aside.
To make the streusel topping, I combined flour, sugar, cold cubed butter and chopped pecans. Then, I added the topping on top of the apple filling and placed it in the oven to bake for 65 minutes.
After taking the pie out of the oven, I cut a slice and attempted to remove it from the pan to plate but noticed a small detail: there was an unusual amount of liquid at the bottom of the pan.
I had overlooked one thing: the time it takes for a pie to cool.
Apple pies especially need an increased amount of time to cool enough to cut since there is a lot of moisture in the apples released due to the sugar content.
So, after waiting for two hours for the pie to cool adequately, I cracked open the refrigerator door at 3 a.m. and placed the pie to cool overnight.
The next morning, I cut a slice of the pie and microwaved it for around 40 seconds before digging in.
I loved it.
Granted, apple pie is my favorite type of pie, but this had a slightly different flavor than usual. The caramel sauce at the bottom and the pecans baked into the filling added extra notes to the pie compared to a normal apple pie.
However, if I were to make this again, I would definitely make more caramel sauce since the caramel flavor was not as pronounced as I would have liked.
Some entrees, such as the tomato bisque and grilled cheese and the spaghetti and meatballs, I would make again on the regular. I would reserve others, like the caramel pecan apple pie and hot chocolate, for more special occasions.
Overall, this was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience that I would recommend others to try, albeit maybe on a smaller scale, especially if you’re looking for something to get into the Christmas spirit.
