Early Christmas Dinner

Since we moved to Nashville we've been getting together with my parents and sister most Sundays for a family dinner. This is always put on by my parents. But since we'll be spending Christmas with Pat's family, Pat and I decided we wanted to host my family for a holiday dinner. Last night Mom, Dad, E, and Mark came to join us for supper. We cooked something new - duck! We had crescent rolls, asparagus roll ups, mashed potatoes, pan seared duck, and blueberry chutney to go on top of the duck. We love duck but had never tried cooking it before. Yesterday morning Pat went on a wild goose chase, or rather, a duck hunt. ha! He ended up with 4 duck breasts.  This is what they looked like after Pat scored them.

And here we are sporting our matching aprons.  These were a Christmas present from my parents a couple years ago. :) 

Here is the duck all cooked.  We saved the excess fat from the pan to use for future cooking.  Duck fat potatoes sound pretty good to me.  Alton Brown calls duck fat culinary gold.  I didn't get a picture of the chutney I mentioned, but it was great.  It was made with 2 cups of brown sugar, some red and white wine vinegar, 4 cups blueberries, 1 lemon juiced, 1 cup minced onion, some freshly grated ginger, and green peppercorns. 

Here we are about to eat on our fine china! (for the first time) 

Here we are after the great meal, before exchanging gifts and having my Mom's chocolate pecan pie. 

It was so nice to have them over for a great meal.  We have a lot to learn as far as hosting meals, but you have to start somewhere and we are learning from the best (my parents and Pat's parents).