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For the last couple of years, my family has taken up a new tradition of going out for buffet brunch on Christmas Day, instead of a fancy dinner at home. This tradition continues this year, but in addition to that, to celebrate Winter Solstice, and as an early Christmas celebration, my mom also prepared the following three-course dinner for us.

Appetizer: Atlantic Mussels

Atlantic Mussels with White Wine & Blue Cheese Sauce

The blue cheese, after mixing into the white wine sauce, surprisingly wasn’t too over-powering. The broth was still light, with just a hint of the blue cheese. The sauce wasn’t gooey so we believe we could use a bit more cheese.

Entree: Roasted Leg of Lamb

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Zucchini & Blueberry Sauce

The rub/crust on the leg of lamb consists of fresh thyme, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon zest. The meat was well-seasoned and was cooked just right, with just a little bit of pink colour in the meat.

Dessert: Velvety Chocolate Pudding

Velvety Chocolate Pudding

The pudding was in fact velvety. It goes perfectly with a cup of espresso and biscotti.

These three dishes were all new recipes that my mom found in a holiday magazine. Without any trial runs prior to this dinner, we had all the confidence in mom that they would turn out well. Sure enough, the magazine didn’t disappoint us, neither did my mom. A delicious meal was delivered!

Final Thoughts

You may think that eating out is costly, so you would resort to cooking at home, which also gives you the non-rushed environment so you have the luxury of indulging into every bite and every dish. While I agree with the latter, ingredients for a home-cooked dinner like above isn’t inexpensive. Plus the time and effort in menu planning and cooking. Sometimes I almost prefer the hassle-free option to leave it in the capable hands of talented cooks and chefs at a restaurant. Goes to show how much I appreciate mom’s cooking =)

More pictures from our yummy dinner: