First off... Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're all enjoying your time with your families.

I'm always curious what's on people Christmas food list/menu? This morning I made a Dutch Baby. We're doing Raclette later.



I more or less followed this recipe. I did use GF flour and basil pesto instead of the sun-dried tomato pesto it called for.

Mrs Fido isn't a big fan of things like Prime Rib or Beef Wellington so a few year ago we somehow landed on Pastitso as our official Christmas dish. Just pulled it out of the oven


Started things out with some Tiropetes



Finished off the Big Fat Greek Christmas dinner with Baklava



Layered shot of the Pastitsio

Meat Church recipe for smoked beef tenderloin with cowboy butter, potato pave, and roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and pecans.

We always get a honey baked ham for my wife. blehch. Candy has no business on a ham

I smoked a boneless turkey breast. I used the recipe that was in the turkey post around Thanksgiving that was a youtube video. After years of crap turkey I've managed to crank out several greats over the past 3 years and this one was no exception. Brined about 22 hours in a ~6% salt bring with some apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, peppercorns, and garlic powder. Injected w/the generic Tony Chachere's cajun butter. Rubbed w/Meatchurch Holy Voodoo, fresh cracked pepper, thyme, and basil.

It was absolutely fantastic. I've never used an injection and i'll never smoke turkey again without one. I probably won't use it when I sous vide turkey breast (also fantastic turkey), but definitely smoking. I can see me smoking more turkey during the year using injections. We'll tinker with recipes, use the meat slicer to make some sandwich meat, etc. It'll be fun to make my own injection recipes moving forward.

I mixed the drippings with flower, better than boulion, water, and wine to make a delicious smokey gravy that is kick ass on mashed potatoes or sandwiches.