Posted on 12/01/2018 3:04:20 PM PST by Jamestown1630
We will be away this Christmas and probably won’t be cooking a big holiday meal. But one thing I’ve always wanted to try is a crown roast of pork – just because it’s so beautiful.
Especially this time of year, you can often purchase a crown roast that is already boned, trimmed, frenched and tied. Depending on where you are, you may have to order well ahead, and will certainly pay a pretty penny, but it will save you a lot of work – and this is definitely a Very Special Occasion or Holiday dish.
Here from Taste of Home is a recipe with Apricot/Apple stuffing:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pork-crown-roast-with-apricot-apple-stuffing/
If you want to buy two rib halves of pork loin and do-it-all-yourself, Jimmy Kerstein, author of ‘The Butchers Guide: An Insiders View’, has an excellent video (all of his videos are very succinct and informative):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_rXxawB6Og
(Those pretty little paper decorations on the bone ends are called 'chop frills' and are easy to find on the Web.)
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I don’t know if this is new, but I just discovered it a few months ago – Rice a Roni has a Cilantro/Lime flavored rice now, and it really is very good for a prepared, boxed item like this. If you have spent a lot of time and effort on a great Mexican or other dish and need a quick and unusual starch to go with it, you might appreciate this.
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Chef John of Food Wishes has an interesting little ‘pudding’ dish that would make a nice lighter dessert for a fancy meal, and sounds and looks very Holiday: Lemon Gingersnap Posset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_933Sthfx5c
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Finally, one of my favorite holiday things is in the stores now - the Kraft Roka Blue Cheese Spread, which comes in a little jar that you can use as a juice glass later. We only seem to see this in our local stores from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and it's displayed on special stands in the dairy department (not refrigerated). They also make other versions, including an Old English one. This year there's a little flyer with coupon and recipes on the display.
-JT
CHILI CHEESE PIE / make a dip sans crust
CRUST Press combined cup crushed tortilla chips/3 tbl melted butter over 9" springform bottom; bake 325 deg 15 min. (Can eliminate crust to make a dip.)
FILLING Beat 16 oz cream/cheese, 2 eggs. Mix in 4 oz can chp green chilis, 2 chp jalapenos, 4 oz ea shredded
colby/jack cheeses. Bake in crust 325 deg 30 min. Cool 5 min. Place on server, remove sides. Spread w/ 1/4 c sour cream.
GARNISHES Get fancy: mound center w/ chopped tomatoes, circle of sliced black olives; chopped scallions.
SERVE w/ circle of chips at edges. Maybe a few red tortilla chips scattered festively around plate.
Grilled Peppers Stuffed with Goat Cheese
Boil yellow/red bell pepper halves w/ water 2 min. Drain cut side down on p/towels. Fill w/ 2 tbl combined
2 oz ea soft goat cheese (chevre), shredded Jack, 2 tb snipped fresh chives/ snipped fresh basil. Wrap in dbled foil.
grill tender-crisp 5-6 min (cheese melts). CHEF'S TIP Cut each half in 2 wedges to make finger food. SERVE warm.
Caramel Cream Cheese Pie
CRUST Cut 1/2 c chilled Crisco into combined 1 1/3 c flour/1/2 tsp salt. Stir in 4 tb ice water til dough holds together. Saran/chill 30 min (up to 48 hours). Roll out into circle 2" larger than pie plate. Bake golden 425 deg 10-12 min. Cool completely on counter.
FILLING beat 8 oz cr/cheese, 1/2 cup dulce de leche, 1/4 c conf. Set aside. In 2nd clean/COLD bowl, beat stiff 2 1/2 c h/cream, 1/4 c granulated sugar. Hold 1/2 cup for garnish. To remainder, fold in, fully blend, caramel cream cheese.
ASSEMBLY Spread 1/2 c dulce de leche on cooled pie crust bottom. Top w/ caramel cream, then garnish w/ reserved whipped cream. Drizzle w/ 2 tb dulce de leche. Frige 4-24 hrs. SERVE.
NOTE: I use Hershey's Caramel topping.
May the birth of the Baby Jesus fill your hearts with peace and joy.
I’ve been using it so fast lately, it doesn’t have time to go bad ;-)
Thank you, Liz. And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours.
Same to everyone on the lovely cooking thread!
I use Peg Bracken’s no fail pie crust recipe. My mother gave me that book about 40 years ago.
I’ll have to look it up - I like Peg Bracken very much. She slims down the recipes more than Ina Garten does.
My go to recipe for pie: 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 stick of butter, very cold, diced. Blitz it and then add ice water till it comes together. Stick in refrigerator for an hour or freeze until used. Makes only one disk, you can double it or just make a second one after cleaning the mixer. Crust is in the fridge, apples are in a bag under the door.
I’m trying to make turkey gravy this year. I found lots of turkey parts down here (could never find them in my old home) and so will roast them for the fat today.
I’m making an apple pie this year for dessert.
Thank you, dear Jamestown and thank you for your beautiful threads which are a sea of calm in turbulent waters, lol!
Merry Christmas!
Pres Trump and the first lady hosted the final two parties of the season: There were two Hanukkah parties and at the Christmas party guests feasted on lamb chops, shrimp and potato latkes; a dessert bar included lemon tart, coconut cake and Christmas cookies. Champagne and egg nog flowed freely.
A beautiful “still life.”
Nice to see the thread still going. Merry Christmas to all my cooking friends. We are into a new project - homemade capicola. Actually hubby’s project I am helping. We got a beautiful Boston pork butt from our local butcher with the slaughterhouse in the back. Only 1.39 a pound. Cut out the “money muscle” and made pulled pork in the pressure cooker out of the rest. This video is what we followed exactly. It’s in the first stage brining in the fridge until Friday. The amazing thing is it can be done in the fridge with no smell, thanks to the unique Umai dry bags that come in the kit. They have another kit for dry aging steaks in the fridge. We could never do things like this before as our basement is too warm. Really an amazing video and he has a nice channel. Other nice one we have watched is spatchcocked marinated turkey. But this link is for the capicola. The finished product looks amazing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QqYdUtNyN4
Wow.......you’re cooking adventures are impressive.
I love that editorial......thanx for posting.
Thank you, Jamestown1630, for the historical links for Christmas!
Believe me if we had not found this video we would not be trying it. I come from a long history of ethnic smoked and cured meat culture. A younger friend of my husband’s used to work at a butcher and did a capicola hanging in is basement, complete with the spray on mold. This first one is a trial. Later in January they will get together here and do a few more, plus grind up the excess pork for salami and anduja. Those will hang at his friends house. It will be fun and a plus is I get to drag out my Dad’s Enterprise sausage stuffer. Cast iron and heavy! A side trip is when we had goats for 25+ years I made all kinds of cheese almost every week. Have missed making cheese for the last 5 years. Can’t stand it anymore. So I just found a source for decent A2 cow’s milk from a local dairy. What tipped me over the edge was the last shot of the capicola video, with a tray of thinly sliced meat on a tray. Gotta have some homemade cheese with that, even if it’s just fresh mozzarella.
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