Commander's Palace Christmas tradition

Every year, David and I do a Christmas lunch at Commander's Palace. It's such a festive time of year: holiday parties and families gather in the bustling dining room while carolers sing amongst the tables.

I can't handle martini glasses, because I'm a klutz, so I get mine in an old fashioned glass.

This year, we both took off work on Friday, and enjoyed our dinner along with our $0.25 martinis (I love that the menu says, "because three is enough"!).

Our food was delicious (as always). I had the strawberry salad with pickled fennel and the open-faced oyster poboy, which was interesting and delicious. It is surrounded by a brown butter romaine sauce!

David showing off his festive bell and traditional turtle soup with sherry

Not your average poboy!

After lunch, we walked around a bit, including snooping around the "teddy bear house". It wasn't open for tours (which, by the way, are $12 a person! I don't think I'd actually pay $24 to wander around this guy's house!), but we looked in the windows. Apparently the owner collects teddy bears and creates Christmas displays each year ("With over 12,000 bears!" as his sign proclaims).

Squinting in the sun

We finished our holiday by baking Christmas cookies. I have a really good roll-out sugar cookie recipe, and we used our Star Wars cookie cutters just to make David happy. They were cute until he destroyed them by his pathetic frosting skills. 

I love the one where the icing just sadly trails off...

And in case you want the recipe, here it is!

Cream together:

1/4 C butter

3/4 C sugar. 

Mix in: 

About 2 TBS orange zest (or 1 tsp vanilla, but I like the orange zest much more)

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 C flour

Form a dough. You can add a tsp or two of milk if absolutely necessary. Wrap in plastic wrap to chill a little. Roll out a little less than 1/4 inch thick; cut cookies; bake on greased sheet at 350F for 12 minutes. 

When cool frost with royal icing:

Beat 1 egg white, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, 2 C powdered sugar, and three good dashes orange bitters until thick. 

Merry Christmas!