Posted on 12/06/2016 3:21:02 PM PST by Jamestown1630
One of the prettiest of the holiday specials for television done by Jacques Pepin is his Hanukkah Celebration video. Everything he made for the meal was visually beautiful and different. I especially liked the Frozen Souffle, and the Chicken-Pistachio Mousse covered in aspic above, which is a lot easier to do than it appears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWzfqc5rf5E
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A great tool for making holiday treats are these irons; the flower shaped ones make cookies, but the shell-like ones are great for making little cases to stuff with savory or sweet fillings. The shapes are made by dipping the iron in batter, and then into hot fat for a few seconds. Like crepes, your first one might be lacking, but you get the knack very quickly, and they're fun to make. The cases can be made in advance and kept crisp in an airtight container. I like using a shrimp or crab salad inside; you should fill them just before serving. If for some reason they didn't remain crisp, a quick tour in a low oven or dehydrator should bring them back. The iron sets come with recipes, and I usually use an adapted beer batter for savory cases. (The ones pictured are available at World Market, but you can find them in many places.)
Among my favorite cookies to make for Christmas are 'polvorones', or Mexican Wedding Cookies; they're very easy and special. (Practically the same cookie is also called a Russian Tea Cake):
I usually make these with Pecans.
-JT
NO-BAKE FRENCH SNOWBALLS / Vintage recipe---found this in an old cookbook
METHOD Combine 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 1/2 c sugar. Add cup chp nuts.
Moisten w/ 1⁄2 cup fat-free sweet/cond/milk, tea vanilla, pinch salt. Shape
into balls. Roll in combined cocoa and sugar. Freeze for chewiness.
VARY---add tb cinnamon to rolling mixture.
Use peanuts processed very finely---almost into peanut dust.
Hershey’s Special Dark was touted on America’s Test Kitchen. I guess when you can get that Kimbell guy to smile, it must be good. I use it now.
That’s what Calpurnia serves to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird when she realizes she’s been too mean to the little girl. Bread and butter with sugar sprinkled on top!
That’s what my mother called French Toast. It wasn’t until I married that I started serving French Toast with maple syrup.
I keep a batch of these in the freezer and use them with a cheese plate/wine tasting type of event.
I like Pati’s Mexican Table. I have her first cookbook and it a good one.
Looks interesting
Finally caught up with thread and all suggestions, recipes, and ideas.
Thanks
Rosette irons!! We make rosettes all the time at Christmas. It’s a family tradition. Fair warning, they are so light, you can easily eat way too many!
I have a divinity recipe that uses the microwave. It’s never failed me. Super easy, and super yummy!!
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes/ makes 8 Pancakes
WET ING Add 2 Eggs, tsp Vanilla, 2 Tb Veg/Oil to 1-1/2 c Buttermilk.
Add 2 c Ricotta, 4 Tb Sugar, 2 Tb Lemon Zest. Whisk gently stir/combine.
BATTER Stir/combine 1-3/4 c flour, Tbl B/Powder, tsp K/Salt. Add to wet ing;
fold in to evenly combine leave small lumps in batter); Do not over mix.
COOKING Heat 1/4 tsp veg oil on griddle or non-stick pan. Using a 4 oz. ladle,
pour batter into 6” diameter pancake. Cook 2-1/2 min (edges begin to dry and puff up;
little air bubbles appear on surface. Flip; cook done 1-1/2 min. Plate.
SERVE w/ a shower of conf, buttered maple syrup, strawberry topping.
My friend made these for a recent party. She cut them into smaller pieces. They were really good and were gone in a flash!
https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/apple-pie-bars
Jodie Foster does that in “Taxi Driver,” but she puts jelly on before the sugar. I saw it over Thanksgiving break again. Never gets old.
I love savory crackers! I do plan to make these.
I used coriander seeds, toasted them briefly in a small dry pan, then ground them up.
The pancakes look fantastic. I am going to make them this w/e.
Not my favorite! I much prefer Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Jodie’s hilarious in that.
After all the hullabaloo over the meal Trump and Romney had at Jean-Georges’ restaurant the other night, I thought it’d be fun to do a “Julie and Julia” with the menu. It was a complete waste of time and money. Do NOT ever use a single one of 3 Michellin Star Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s online or video recipes. None of the dishes from that meal are correct. Not saying Jean-George is a big fat liar who’s too full of his pompous jerk self to post an honest ingredient list but... excuse me, but 1/4 C of sugar for a chocolate cake is blatantly obvious.
Mr. b is always laughing as I don’t like following recipes but this time I did with the exception of substituting chicken wings for frog legs and doubling the cake sugar to 1/2 C knowing full well even that wasn’t enough. Who passes up chocolate cake?!? Well, my garbage can doesn’t since that’s where the cake ended up.
The garlic soup with 4 heads of garlic to 4 cups of broth? Yes, that’s heads. But, hey, I was determined so played along with the chef’s famous recipe. The kitchen sink drain got the pleasure of that dish and I burped garlic for two days. BTW, we used to get frog legs (not sold in stores here) fresh from our stock tank so I know substituting the accompanying chicken wings didn’t change the concept of the dish.
The steak, well, anyone with two taste buds to rub together knows to let the steak speak for itself. It’s supposed to be the star. That’s why Georgie boy charges $25 extra for it. It isn’t supposed to be drowned in sauce, especially a sauce with a dozen ingredients. That’s just over the top frou frou, hence the pompous.
Speaking of sauce, not everything needs sauce, “Chef”. There was also sauce on the cauliflower and scallops and the carrots had a glaze. The cauliflower and scallops were boring with no taste despite having a capers and raisin sauce which was the color of baby you know what.
For our next night’s dinner, it was out with fancy smancy recipes and back to my old homecooking. I steamed the remaining 95% of the unused portion of the cauliflower as a low carb mashed “potato” dish with an appetizing buttery color, thank you very much. Roasted some carrots with olive oil and salt and pepper without any sauce so they tasted like... carrots. And grilled the remaining steak without sauce so it tasted like steak. Also, made a little tossed salad for something fresh. Mr. b said, “Now, that’s a GOOD dinner.” Guess our palates and wallets aren’t sophisticated enough for Jean-Georges.
Jean-George should be ashamed and return each of his stars. The cooking shows, Good Morning America or whomever and Epicurious and the various foodie magazines should ban him from their guest list. He shouldn’t be allowed to make dog food, imo. And, yes, $138 plus $25 extra for the steak is waaay too much even if the REAL honest to goodness edible recipes were used. We all know the customers are paying for the name of the chef, the building and most importantly for “being seen” rather than the food. With steak on sale here (I’m sure Georgie boy gets his discounted) for $4/lb, an 8 oz steak with all the side dishes and dessert, my cost, including pantry items. was $5 and change per person.
We have pecan trees so this just got put the wedding cookies on the cookie list! It does look very easy to make.
I have my grandmother’s set of cookie irons but never use them. The shells always seem to uncrisp themselves too quickly. Can’t imagine stuffing them as they’d melt into goo within two minutes. Maybe need another recipe.
I haven’t made them in a while, but I’m pretty sure I used a recipe very like the beer batter that I make deep-fried veggies with - the kind you get at the Fair.
Most recipes you find are sweet, but can be adapted for a savory case. I don’t recall having any problem with them being fragile, and I made them several days ahead.
Your oil does have to be properly hot, though, so they don’t get soggy.
Aaaack! The cauliflower and scallops with the caper-raisin sauce is one of my favorite recipes! But I got it from the Washington Post many, many years ago.
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