Posted on 12/15/2017 4:39:44 PM PST by Jamestown1630
While enduring a ‘bug’ this week that left me unable to do much but sleep or sit in front of the TV, I happened upon Clarissa Dickson Wright’s series, ‘Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner’, which you can find on YouTube, and which is a really interesting history of how our 'three squares', and the ways we partake of them, have evolved over time.
In the Lunch episode, she featured a pasty (yes, no 'r') crust design, executed by food scholar Ivan Day. This was so beautiful, I had to find the design, and know more about it.
On the way, I found some interesting stuff – including Day's great website on historic food:
http://www.historicfood.com/portal.htm
The pasty design seems to have been derived from Edward Kidder’s ancient ‘Receipts of pastry and cookery, for the use of his scholars’, published in 1720 (you can still buy a copy on Amazon ;-):
http://www.historicfood.com/Edward%20Kidders%20Lamb%20Pasty.htm
I’m not personally a fan of British pasties; but it seems to me that we could decorate our sweet or savory pies just as beautifully – it just takes practice, and starting small! And you don’t need cutters to do this; just find a design, make a cardboard cutout of it, and find a sharp knife to cut the pastry to each of the shapes; then do some detail on the pieces.
Food52 has a lot of starter ideas for ‘fancying up’ your pie:
https://food52.com/blog/8744-9-ways-to-fancy-up-your-pies
-JT
“(formerly great Marshall Field’s) store windows,”
BEST EVER! Every Christmas when I was kid!!!! 1000 Isle Dressing to die for! Still get Frango mints. Thanks for the memories.
Yes; I’ve been successful with fudge sometimes, but it does need a lot of tending.
Sorry to bug you but did you ever do an appetizer thread?
I’m in charge of them for Christmas dinner and I want to try something new.
Thanks for running these threads. Much appreciated, MUCH and then some!
We all owe you.
The Asians have a tradition of steaming because many didn't or don't have ovens like we do (which you may already know).
I love smoked fish but especially love to baks fresh salmon filets.
The first thread I did was appetizers. Not many appetizer recipes showed up, as we were talking about all sorts of other things; but I posted my favorite olive and cheese puffs, and I’m sure appetizers have come up in many other threads. (Be sure to add a pinch of cayenne, which I left out of the recipe):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3254561/posts
My son whom I dearly loved certainly had faults but he did learn what you are saying and was a great help and comfort to me in many ways. What happened with him wasn't my fault in the events and choices, but I blame myself for passing on the anxiety gene which tormented us both terribly. He fought so hard to cover it up, made many accomplishments but eventually it was a woman who was the primary cause for losing him. He loved her so much and gave her so much, and she and his best friend and business partner betrayed him in an awful way. The only way I can deal with that part of it is to not think about it. I don't blame him for what he did,
He did, towards the end, wrote me such a loving and appreciative email for how good I was to him as a child, I have printed it out and put with my treasured keepsakes.
Christmas, I can't like other people do the last couple years, too much physical and emotional pain combined, spend most of the time in bed. The best I can do is not ruin it for the others.
I felt bad about airing my family problems on that uplifting thread and thought about asking the mod to delete them, but let it be.
Would be good with this Jr League cheese crisps recipe. Fab with cocktails, soups, salads.
NOTE: works only w/ Jack cheese cut 1/4" thick....will spread out paper-thin when baked.
MONTEREY JACK WAFERS / Makes 36-48 wafers
METHOD Cut lb Jack Cheese into 1/4" slices, then in circles 1-1/2" in diameter. Bake on n/s sheetpan,
3" apart (will spread) 10 min 400 deg. Do not overbake. Remove immediately; cool. Store airtight.
(HAT TIP KALEE VARIATIONS) 1. substitute crisps for bacon in a BLT.
2. A Decatur GA, served crispy cheese wafers in a sandwich with lettuce and tomato on toast.
CHERRY CHOCOLATE KISSES / males about 36
ING cup unsalted butter, softened but cool cup powdered sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons bottled maraschino cherry “juice” 1/4 teaspoon almond extract 2 and 1/4 cups flour 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped Granulated sugar, for sprinkling the cookies 36 milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped
METHOD stand mixer/paddle butter til creamy, a min on med. Reduce speed to lowest; slowly add conf and salt. Add cherry juice, almond extract, mix/combine. On low speed, slowly add flour, scraping down the sides.Increase to med; and add cherries.
FINAL Shape into 1-inch balls, and place the balls sheetpan 2" apart. Thumbprint gently in its center until the cookie is about 1/2-inch thick. Sprinkle with bit sugar. Bake 325 deg til bottoms lightly brown 14 minutes.
Remove to counter, immediately press chocolate kiss into each cookie’s center; wire rack to cool completely.
Thanks! We weren’t that focus on the weeks topic back then. Not sure we are any better now! LOL.
ONE SOLITARY LIFE
He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty.
Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
Hugs Aliska! Plus prayers for you and your family. Merry Christmas!
Anything left of the Kerrygold Bread Pudding?
Yes, sadly she is the only one eating it. My oldest wasn’t around and he would love it too, he might not know where it is in our fridges. I can’t eat sugar but I love to bake.... it ends up being a good combo for me, I walk into a bakery and go NUTS wanting to make it all. Instead of eat it all. :)
That sauce. The toffee sauce smell is so complex and delicious.
Let me get you a pic of the pudding. It came out perfectly in the Bain Marie.
And of course make the sauce too, but don’t drench the serving in it like pancakes and syrup. Sprinkling and dotting. Even better the next day or so.
Beautiful-—looks just like the perfection the artisans over at Kerrygold achieved.
T/y for the realtime cooking tips.
And as you see, it’s easy to do the pattern even without the exact sized / shaped pan. I only had the rectangle. But it still fit perfectly into the roaster for the water bath.
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