EAT OUT ON CHRISTMASÂ
Sometimes it’s nice to just go out to eat on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day instead of staying home and laboring over the stove, missing out on all the carols and gifting and mistletoe. Or, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you might just want to take advantage of smaller crowds at Boulder’s best restaurants.
Whatever your motivation, we’ve assembled a short list of some of the dining options available to anyone who wants to turn off the Yule log channel and get out of the house this year.
Several prix fixe menus will be offered throughout Boulder on Christmas Eve. At Mateo, you can indulge in a three-course menu ($55) that starts with pickled beet and turnip salad, before a second course of panroasted Cornish hen served with confit broccoli and tomato marmalade with bacon lardons. The meal ends with spiced bread pudding and cinnamon gelato.
OAK at Fourteenth will also host a Christmas Eve prix fixe meal ($75). Start with a roasted chestnut and chicken soup or woodfired Brussels sprouts. Then choose between a duck breast, sea scallops with curry or braised beef shortribs. Dessert options include swiss chocolate cake roll or egg nog panna cotta.
On Christmas Day, Jill’s at the St Julien offers both a brunch and a dinner menu. A brunch buffet will include myriad options: shrimp bisque, crab legs, prime rib, salmon, turkey breast, salads, pastas, charcuterie, a breakfast bar, and endless mimosas, Bloody Mary’s or sparkling wine.
Jill’s Christmas dinner is five courses including soup, appetizers and entrée choice of beef filet, turkey breast or potato croquette, and dessert. Brunch seatings are at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., dinner seatings are at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Both are $59.95 for adults, $21.95 for children.
Other Christmas Eve and Day options include Arugula, Colterra, The Greenbriar Inn, North End at 4580, and Via Toscana.
— Matt Cortina
CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIREÂ
When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut, I remember walking to the bus stop in late fall and picking up these spiky orbs that had fallen from any number of trees along the street. Picking through its urchin shell revealed a deep mahogany nugget and I pondered, wide-eyed and young, how beautiful and complex nature can be. Then I’d pick another up and chuck it at my brother’s head.
Anyway, you’re bound to see more chestnuts (and other winter nuts) show up in your neighborhood grocery store this month. If you want to do more with them than I did as a kid, here’s how:
Pick up an assortment of fresh chestnuts from the store, choosing nuts that are unwrinkled, glossy and dark brown. Cut a slit in the shell, about three-quarters around the circumference of the nut. Roast them at 350 degrees for 35 minutes in a rimmed baking pan.
After baking, and while the chestnuts are still hot, remove and discard the shells and skin. Then you can eat them as is, or cover them in melted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. You can also shave them as a garnish on dessert, or slice them and add them into salads or soups.
— Matt CortinaÂ
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