Post by: grislyatoms on December 23, 2007, 09:42:48 AM
) The posole was thin and red with big hunks of pork and hominy. The tamales were perfect, not too dry, not too mushy. Good stuff!
I pick kiddo up on Tuesday, we are going to do the usual thing: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc.
Anyone fixin' up something unusual or is it all going to be the standard Christmas dinner fare?
Post by: grampster on December 23, 2007, 11:37:43 AM
Post by: grislyatoms on December 23, 2007, 12:42:54 PM
Post by: K Frame on December 23, 2007, 12:45:18 PM
Must...
stop...
eating...
cookies!
Other than that, pretty standard fare for Christmas.
Going to be kind of sedate. This is the first Christmas since my Dad died, and to be quite honest, I'm not really dealing with it well.
Post by: Jamisjockey on December 23, 2007, 12:50:38 PM
Tonight she's brewing up some Tortilla soup. She's making Key Lime cheesecake for thanksgiving, as well as an apple pie and banana pudding.
Tomorrow it'll be a chicken salad that's amazing.
Post by: K Frame on December 23, 2007, 12:54:07 PM
What, she's taking you all back in time a month?
Or is the green fuzz on top of the cheesecake just making you THINK that it's key lime?
Post by: Gewehr98 on December 23, 2007, 01:16:06 PM
How is Mason striking it up with your mom, Mike?
Post by: AmbulanceDriver on December 23, 2007, 01:59:02 PM
Post by: BridgeWalker on December 23, 2007, 02:05:52 PM
May not be too traditional, but sure is warm and good.
Post by: Fjolnirsson on December 23, 2007, 02:08:38 PM
Post by: BridgeWalker on December 23, 2007, 02:14:05 PM
Delta, tell me more about "yogurt water"....
Simple: get some plain yogurt (not vanilla, but plain, unflavored). Put about a cup or so in a large container. Add luke-warm water. Stir to dissolve. Add dried beans--make sure there's enough water to allow for expansion. Let soak for a day or so. Dump out soakwater and rinse the beans thoroughly. Make chili.
Turned my chili from um, tasty but consequential to tasty and utterly harmless.
Seems the probiotics in the yogurt do a number on the enzymes in the beans, or so I surmise. A friend who is into natural foods and other such things taught me to do it.
Post by: K Frame on December 23, 2007, 02:26:48 PM
Post by: Paddy on December 23, 2007, 03:17:33 PM
Quote
This is the first Christmas since my Dad died, and to be quite honest, I'm not really dealing with it well.
I know what you mean. I don't think we ever stop missing them.
Post by: Scout26 on December 23, 2007, 03:45:30 PM
Quote
standard Christmas dinner fare
I'll do our traditional Spiessbraten and fried potates. Mrs Scout is making her famous homemade apple pie.
Better then Thanksgiving.....
Post by: grislyatoms on December 23, 2007, 03:53:50 PM
Quote
I'll do our traditional Spiessbraten and fried potates.
Had to look up Spiessbraten. That looks pretty good. I actually considered getting a beef rib roast this year but kiddo wouldn't have it. She expects a roast turkey.
I think I may grab a pound of crab legs on my way home tonight though, and maybe some smoked salmon, as my present from me to me.
Post by: Iain on December 23, 2007, 03:55:14 PM
Other than that it'll all be fairly standard. Might make apple, sultana and marzipan chelsea bun things again, that or a stollen.
Post by: Stand_watie on December 23, 2007, 03:57:18 PM
Don't know what though.
Post by: Stand_watie on December 23, 2007, 04:05:28 PM
I'll be making Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's (he's a real person, honest) chocolate and chestnut cake again this year. Awesome stuff, more like a mousse consistency when warm, not tried it cold, it didn't last long enough last year.
Other than that it'll all be fairly standard. Might make apple, sultana and marzipan chelsea bun things again, that or a stollen.
Other than that it'll all be fairly standard. Might make apple, sultana and marzipan chelsea bun things again, that or a stollen.
How about a goose? My dad claims that that is a traditional English Christmas dinner. I want to do Christmas in England sometime. Somewhere out in the countryside, in a little stone cottage that looks like it came out of Tolkien's "Shire".
Post by: grislyatoms on December 23, 2007, 04:05:49 PM
Post by: grislyatoms on December 23, 2007, 04:09:24 PM
used to bring a goose every year. Great stuff. He would roast the potatoes in the goose fat (schmaltz?) and sprinkle on a little rosemary. The goose was damned good, but the potatoes were a whole 'nother story.Biting down on little bits of shot is unnerving at times, though.
Post by: Jamisjockey on December 23, 2007, 04:13:04 PM
"She's making Key Lime cheesecake for thanksgiving..."
What, she's taking you all back in time a month?
Or is the green fuzz on top of the cheesecake just making you THINK that it's key lime?
Ah hell I wasn't paying attention.What, she's taking you all back in time a month?
Or is the green fuzz on top of the cheesecake just making you THINK that it's key lime?
It, obviously, is for christmas. No green fuzz....
Post by: Iain on December 23, 2007, 04:34:13 PM
Turkey is standard christmas fare in the UK these days. You can buy tins of goose fat though, for the roast potatoes. King Edwards or Maris Piper roasted in goose fat... I look forward to Christmas lunch more than anything else about Christmas. I've frozen my knackers off in my one carol service, but it's all going to be worth it, those roast potatoes and last years christmas pudding.
You'd be welcome Stand, but I'm afraid Kidderminster is nothing like the Shire and I'll be at my parents place which is Victorian, brick and likely to be very cold. My place is flat in a converted warehouse in the former carpet district, so not much like your imaginings either.
Post by: Stand_watie on December 23, 2007, 04:49:08 PM
Haven't ever eaten goose. My mother's family used to keep geese and ducks when she was a kid, apparently they could never bring themselves to kill the things and she still won't eat duck to this day.
Turkey is standard christmas fare in the UK these days. You can buy tins of goose fat though, for the roast potatoes. King Edwards or Maris Piper roasted in goose fat... I look forward to Christmas lunch more than anything else about Christmas. I've frozen my knackers off in my one carol service, but it's all going to be worth it, those roast potatoes and last years christmas pudding.
You'd be welcome Stand, but I'm afraid Kidderminster is nothing like the Shire and I'll be at my parents place which is Victorian, brick and likely to be very cold. My place is flat in a converted warehouse in the former carpet district, so not much like your imaginings either.
Turkey is standard christmas fare in the UK these days. You can buy tins of goose fat though, for the roast potatoes. King Edwards or Maris Piper roasted in goose fat... I look forward to Christmas lunch more than anything else about Christmas. I've frozen my knackers off in my one carol service, but it's all going to be worth it, those roast potatoes and last years christmas pudding.
You'd be welcome Stand, but I'm afraid Kidderminster is nothing like the Shire and I'll be at my parents place which is Victorian, brick and likely to be very cold. My place is flat in a converted warehouse in the former carpet district, so not much like your imaginings either.
I have. It was my job to kill and pluck the Christmas goose. One year, tired of plucking, I decided to skin the goose instead. It was very dry.
Regarding your parents place... no fireplace? I imagine fireplaces in all English homes.
Post by: K Frame on December 23, 2007, 06:32:26 PM
There's an odd tradition in the area where my parents grew up called "Goose Day." It's supposedly the only place in the United States where Michaelmas is still celebrated.
Here's a link to a good article on Goose Day by Mary Margaret Pecht. I worked with her at The Sentinel in 1989-1990 when I was just starting my career. I used to tweak her by telling her that one the day I was born (April 19, 1965) she had a front-page article in the paper!
http://www.villagehost.com/calendar/gooseday.html
Post by: Fly320s on December 24, 2007, 07:19:20 AM
We'll be having lasagna for dinner. It's good stuff.
Post by: peteinct on December 24, 2007, 08:08:58 AM
Post by: Ben on December 24, 2007, 10:00:55 AM
Bread is baking and ham and sauerkraut are cooking for our traditional Southern Kraut Christmas Eve dinner. Tomorrow it's turkey, pheasant (that's been in the freezer) and dove (fresh from the field over the last couple of days) with lots of gravy and plum sauce. I won't even go into the baked goods. Suffice to say I leave a pair of jeans up here that are an inch bigger in the waist than I usually wear.
Post by: K Frame on December 24, 2007, 11:05:34 AM
I brought a bunch of kraut up with me.
I went to Walmart (not as bad as you'd think on Christmas Eve) to pick up a couple of pounds of shrimp, and the thick cut center loin chops were absolutely beautiful, so I had to get some of those.
Gave Mom the option -- shrimp scampi or chops and kraut for dinner tonight, with the other one on Wednesday. Tough choice for her.
Post by: takhtakaal on December 24, 2007, 06:20:23 PM
I outdid myself. For appetizers, we had a tortilla espa?ola (potato, onion and egg frittata), chorizo sausages in white wine, alcapurrias (fritter of a mashed potato-like root called yautia and smushed plaintains, around spiced ground beef and finely chopped smoked ham), and bastones de yuca (ground cassava with flour and eggs, rolled into a log and deep-fried). For the main meal, I did a pernil, a roast picnic shoulder of pork rubbed down with a marinade and studded with sliced garlic and a spice mixture called recaito, stuck into little pockets cut all over the meat, rice and gandules, and Dominican red beans stewed with potatoes, tomatoes, and spices.
Tomorrow, the cook takes a break. We're having Indian buffet.
Post by: meinbruder on December 24, 2007, 06:49:21 PM
Left-overs are practically candy.
Da Bianhua
}:)>
Post by: Laurent du Var on December 24, 2007, 10:33:48 PM
Foie Gras with a sweet white Bordeaux (moelleux)
Steak, roasted persil potatoes, sweet peas with a three pepper sauce
and a red Bordeaux
Austrian christmas cookies (Vanillekipferln)
Sunday evenig :
Irish stew cooked in a pint of Guinness
Cookies
Monday :
light lunch - smoked salmon and snails (!) with garlic herb butter
dinner - stuffed (chestnuts, bacon, liver and bread) turkey with its own juice mixed with carrots and cellery and red cabbage marinated in orange juice and red wine. C?te de Rhone to drink and christmas cookies and foam candy for dessert.
Tuesday :
The familiy (30 people) will be meeting in an Italian restaurant across the border for Christmas lunch, I don't know the menu yet but I'm not going to lose weight there either...
Post by: Fly320s on December 25, 2007, 12:29:53 AM
Sounds wonderful.
In what part of France are you. You mentioned that you are close to Italy, which made me think of Nice, but there are many places you could be.
Merry Christmas.
Post by: seeker_two on December 25, 2007, 02:54:37 AM
Today we're at my wife's family's house. It'll be traditional fare....but pretty darn good. Her dad is doing deep-fried turkey.....another slice of heaven on a plate, please.....
Merry Christmas to all y'all.......
Post by: Leatherneck on December 25, 2007, 06:07:14 AM
TC
Post by: K Frame on December 25, 2007, 08:07:38 AM
Anyone having any problems finding fresh cranberries this year? No problem finding them at Thanksgiving, but NONE of the stores around here had fresh cranberries, so it's a can of Ocean Spray instead of my ginger ale & orange cranberries.
Post by: Laurent du Var on December 25, 2007, 08:08:46 AM
Laurent,
Sounds wonderful.
In what part of France are you. You mentioned that you are close to Italy, which made me think of Nice, but there are many places you could be.
Merry Christmas.
Sounds wonderful.
In what part of France are you. You mentioned that you are close to Italy, which made me think of Nice, but there are many places you could be.
Merry Christmas.
No you're absolutely right, I live in Saint Laurent du Var (hence the name) which comes right after Nice on the Mediterrenean Sea.
Joyeux No?l,
Laurent
Post by: Stand_watie on December 25, 2007, 03:31:28 PM
I'm going over to my cousin's house tommorrow. His wife will be cooking. She's Mexican-by-birth (now naturalized) and I can guarantee you her food will be both fantastic, and not something on the typical gringo menu Don't know what though.
Don't know what though. Update on this...when I arrived I found Maria hacking up sugar cane with a very large knife.. she told me "Doug's turning into a Mexican, he wants me to make him some 'punch'e'" (a fruit and sugar cane mixture sweet), I don't like fruit so I passed on that...she had some guacamole sauce simmering on the stove...she said "I only put one little pepper in it...", I don't care for guacamole either, so I passed on that too... I watched Doug bite into the guacamole sauce, and immediately reach for a paper towel to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead...he said "Pica"
Now I had a large portion of fajitas with those hot towel wrapped tortillas and some homemade salsa...mmmmmm
I'm fixin to reheat some of the fajitas and some pork tamales she sent home with me right now....
Post by: takhtakaal on December 25, 2007, 03:35:17 PM
I'm going over to my cousin's house tommorrow. His wife will be cooking. She's Mexican-by-birth (now naturalized) and I can guarantee you her food will be both fantastic, and not something on the typical gringo menu Don't know what though.
Don't know what though. Update on this...when I arrived I found Maria hacking up sugar cane with a very large knife.. she told me "Doug's turning into a Mexican, he wants me to make him some 'punch'e'" (a fruit and sugar cane mixture sweet), I don't like fruit so I passed on that...she had some guacamole sauce simmering on the stove...she said "I only put one little pepper in it...", I don't care for guacamole either, so I passed on that too... I watched Doug bite into the guacamole sauce, and immediately reach for a paper towel to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead...he said "Pica"
Now I had a large portion of fajitas with those hot towel wrapped tortillas and some homemade salsa...mmmmmm
I'm fixin to reheat some of the fajitas and some pork tamales she sent home with me right now....
Mmm. Didn't get to the avocados I bought yet -- the base of all good guacamole. I may just slice it up for salad to go with the leftovers. You like nopales, watie?
Post by: Stand_watie on December 25, 2007, 03:56:11 PM
... You like nopales, watie?
I haven't tried them. I'm very willing to try because I understand they are more grain in nature than vegetable or fruit...something I have found historically interesting...the more successful anglo farmers in this part of the world, in times of bovine hardship, got through the hardest times because they squinted their eyes, and figured out what the spanish or american indian language only people were telling them..."burn the fields with the prickly pear , turn the cows loose in the burned fields, they can live for weeks on the carbs the prickly pear has"
Post by: grampster on December 25, 2007, 04:02:58 PM
Being that I basically have a problem boiling water, assuming that I am able to identify the object in which the water can boil, and actually knowing where that object might be stored, and how to turn on the implement that heats the water is a mystery as well, I went to Subway for lunch and went a got a pizza for dinner from the only open business in our small town. They were closing when I arrived about 6PM yesterday. Perhaps it was the groveling and the tears, or perhaps the Christmas spirit that softened their hearts and the owners agreed to bake me a pie, else we would have starved to death.
Today, she was feeling better sp we drove into the metro area as planned and joined our kids and grandkids and other relatives at MIL's house. Large crew. We trade gifts and have sandwiches. This year was meatloaf sandwiches, potato salad and beans. MIL is 88, so we don't force her to make a large dinner anymore. Better this way anyway.
Thanksgiving and Easter are the major feasts for our family. Christmas is just a time of laughing, joking, opening silly gifts and snacking. I get all my Barnes and Noble gift cards. Wooo haaaa. The family has 4 generations involved now. 88 is oldest and 3 is the youngest. Actually kind of fun because it's short and sweet, only a couple hours and then head home to watch A Christmas Story for the 4,478th time. (That's the story of my life) and eat home made candy till my belly hurts.
Post by: takhtakaal on December 25, 2007, 04:48:50 PM
... You like nopales, watie?
I haven't tried them. I'm very willing to try because I understand they are more grain in nature than vegetable or fruit...something I have found historically interesting...the more successful anglo farmers in this part of the world, in times of bovine hardship, got through the hardest times because they squinted their eyes, and figured out what the spanish or american indian language only people were telling them..."burn the fields with the prickly pear , turn the cows loose in the burned fields, they can live for weeks on the carbs the prickly pear has"
Actually, nopales are the cactus and "leaves," the fin-like growths. The prickly pears are "higo chumbo," literally, "lowly figs." The nopales make a dynamite salad: http://ar.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061103175424AA1RbQy
Post by: Fly320s on December 25, 2007, 08:51:01 PM
No you're absolutely right, I live in Saint Laurent du Var (hence the name) which comes right after Nice on the Mediterrenean Sea.
Joyeux No?l,
Laurent
Joyeux No?l,
Laurent
Ah, I love the Cote d'Azur. My wife and I spent a quick four days in Nice and Cannes, and the immediate surrounding area. We can't wait to get back there.
Post by: Laurent du Var on December 25, 2007, 10:24:13 PM
I'll take you to eat some Socca ( chick pea flower pancakes)
in the old town of Nice. We also have a new tramway and redid the mainsquare, it looks better than ever before.
Post by: charby on December 26, 2007, 05:45:00 AM
I grilled out a couple pork chops and a ham steak, baked scalloped tators in the oven and made a simple cold pasta salad. She decided she wanted mac and cheese also, and made this mac, cheese and corn concoction in the crock pot.
I also talked her into going out deer hunting with me in the afternoon, bad mistake because she made more noise that a platoon of cooking pot carrying boy scouts. I only saw one deer at 150 yards and my muzzleloader is sighted in at 50 yards.
-C