Posted on 12/21/2006 11:34:34 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
PING!
Sean has been excellent this week. If only every week could be this good!
Afternoon.
How about some Ruth's Chris please
You don't say?
Howdy.
LOL
Thanks
The chef is here. Good eats for everyone.
Not much better response with candy canes. Well, this is a sure winner.
Fruit Cake
My favorite is from the Collin Street Bakery mentioned below. We had one every year when I was growing up. 
From the Wikipedia entry on Fruit Cake
The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash.
In the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added and the name fruitcake was first used. Robert Sietsema finds that inexpensive sugar from the American Colonies and the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits created an excess of candied fruit. The fruitcake was the way to use them.
In the 18th century, Europeans were baking fruitcakes using nuts from the harvest for good luck in the following year. The cake was saved and eaten before the next harvest. Fruitcakes proliferated until a law in Europe restricted them to Christmas, weddings, and a few other holidays. Even so, the fruitcake remained popular at Victorian Teas in England throughout the 19th century.
Mail-order fruitcakes began in 1913. The management of Ringling Brothers Circus liked the fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery, a local bakery in Corsicana, Texas. They ordered them as gifts to be mailed to friends around the country. Collin Street Bakery, using the old European recipe of baker Gus Weidmann and salesman Tom McElwee, grew quickly, and have shipped their fruitcakes to nearly 200 countries worldwide and numerous multi-national corporations and famous individuals.
The modern fruitcakes are fundamentally butter cakes with just enough dough to bind the fruit. The cakes are saturated with liqueurs or brandy, and covered in powdered sugar, both of which prevent mold. Brandy or wine-soaked linens are used to store the fruitcakes. Many people feel fruitcakes improve with age. Some cakes have been eaten 25 years after baking.
Only 55 days until Pitchers and Catchers report.
The Winter Solstice occurs at 7:20 EST this evening.
More Christmas Goodies Tomorrow.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I wish Sean would be on. I would love to hear his reaction to the Berger story.
Sean said the other day he was going to Europe. Anyone know when that is?
Springfield's Cashew Chicken
That looks great.
Yhello!
I'm pretty sure he is there now.
Any libs out there?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew_chicken
Come on down!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.