Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine #8

[Seni]

We have had some simple meals over last days, probably will do for Christmas as well, as no kids here. It will be New Year when we celebrate BIL's birthday and burn the effigy of 2025.

Anyway, yesterday made grilled tuna steaks, rice (long, whole grain), steamed baby carrots, arracacha which translates as Peruvian carrot, bit like a cross between sweet potato and swede, onions, before a brief oven session with cream and parsley.

Tomato and basil salad.

Today I made fried rice with the leftover rice, sesame oil, more onion, almonds and sesame seeds.

Plus briefly steamed cauliflower, then cooked in the oven in a sauce of sour cream, harissa, peanut butter, some cilantro.

Big green salad as my husband thought I overdid the harissa.

 

[iamshadow21]

It's midnight, and I'm making Peppermint Brownies. Using my tried and tested brownie recipe with peppermint essence, and tomorrow I'm planning on drizzling the top with different coloured chocolate and sprinkling it with smashed candy cane.

It's partly because we suddenly have six people to cater for rather than four for our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, but mostly because I wanted them. Partner helped make them and approved of the peppermint level. I just got them out of the oven and they smell great. As of midnight, we've officially been a couple for 25 years! And we have brownies. That's pretty awesome.

(Fortunately, mum was able to go out and buy a leg of lamb this close to Christmas because the chicken we had would not have stretched to six. So we'll slow roast the lamb the day before, and do the chicken the day of, because that will give us time and oven space to to it all right.)

 

[ilovewings]

It's midnight, and I'm making Peppermint Brownies. Using my tried and tested brownie recipe with peppermint essence, and tomorrow I'm planning on drizzling the top with different coloured chocolate and sprinkling it with smashed candy cane.

It's partly because we suddenly have six people to cater for rather than four for our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, but mostly because I wanted them. Partner helped make them and approved of the peppermint level. I just got them out of the oven and they smell great. As of midnight, we've officially been a couple for 25 years! And we have brownies. That's pretty awesome.

(Fortunately, mum was able to go out and buy a leg of lamb this close to Christmas because the chicken we had would not have stretched to six. So we'll slow roast the lamb the day before, and do the chicken the day of, because that will give us time and oven space to to it all right.)

Congrats of 25 years!!!!! your brownies sound delish--- I love lamb but never cook it---
Merry Xmas

 

[iamshadow21]

Congrats of 25 years!!!!! your brownies sound delish--- I love lamb but never cook it---
Merry Xmas

Thank you!

I hope they taste as good as they smell. I think I overcooked them a little, but them being a bit more cakey isn't a deal breaker for me.

It's an Australian institution. I don't have it all the time, but it does slow roast very well and feeds a crowd.

 

[PayrollNerd]

It's midnight, and I'm making Peppermint Brownies. Using my tried and tested brownie recipe with peppermint essence, and tomorrow I'm planning on drizzling the top with different coloured chocolate and sprinkling it with smashed candy cane.

It's partly because we suddenly have six people to cater for rather than four for our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, but mostly because I wanted them. Partner helped make them and approved of the peppermint level. I just got them out of the oven and they smell great. As of midnight, we've officially been a couple for 25 years! And we have brownies. That's pretty awesome.

(Fortunately, mum was able to go out and buy a leg of lamb this close to Christmas because the chicken we had would not have stretched to six. So we'll slow roast the lamb the day before, and do the chicken the day of, because that will give us time and oven space to to it all right.)

Congratulations on 25 years! That’s quite an accomplishment these days. Your meal sounds delicious too! I’m not a fan of peppermint but that actually sounds pretty tasty.

 

[iamshadow21]

Congratulations on 25 years! That’s quite an accomplishment these days. Your meal sounds delicious too! I’m not a fan of peppermint but that actually sounds pretty tasty.

Thank you! We became friends at seventeen, a couple at nineteen. We've been together ever since.

Most mint I'm not a fan of either, especially common mint and spearmint, but I do like peppermint hard candies and peppermint with chocolate.

 

[iamshadow21]

I used so many bowls. So many spatulas. Remarkably, there is not a rainbow of chocolate on every surface of the kitchen.

Here it is, before I cut it and destroy the Jackson Pollock image of decadence it is right now.

I used eighty grams each of milk, white, and dark, with a sprinkling of crushed candy cane after each.

The milk seized on me immediately, and I used a little cream and boiling water to get it back. The white and dark were no problem. I used the microwave method to melt it, which has always worked well for me.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I used so many bowls. So many spatulas. Remarkably, there is not a rainbow of chocolate on every surface of the kitchen.

Here it is, before I cut it and destroy the Jackson Pollock image of decadence it is right now.

View attachment 632779

I used eighty grams each of milk, white, and dark, with a sprinkling of crushed candy cane after each.

The milk seized on me immediately, and I used a little cream and boiling water to get it back. The white and dark were no problem. I used the microwave method to melt it, which has always worked well for me.

Happy Christmas to you and yours! It's Christmas Eve morning here in Michigan. Looking forward to dinner at our favorite Picano's, after which we'll watch A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott (1984). Best ever version of the Dickens' classic!

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

For Texas bakery, the traditional holiday fruitcake is no joke

Collin Street Bakery in Texas makes 20,000 desserts a day.

www.nbcnews.com

CORSICANA, Texas — In a holiday full of classic confections — candy canes, gingerbread and sugarplums — there's one that's showing up less often: fruitcake.

The treat's been on fewer and fewer dessert tables in recent decades. That may be thanks in part to Johnny Carson's declaration years ago: “The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”

But fruitcake has been at historic events for centuries, including Princess Diana and King Charles’ wedding and a trip to the moon on Apollo 11...

Think I'll order one of these fruitcakes next Christmas

 

[iamshadow21]

For Texas bakery, the traditional holiday fruitcake is no joke

Collin Street Bakery in Texas makes 20,000 desserts a day.

www.nbcnews.com

CORSICANA, Texas — In a holiday full of classic confections — candy canes, gingerbread and sugarplums — there's one that's showing up less often: fruitcake.

The treat's been on fewer and fewer dessert tables in recent decades. That may be thanks in part to Johnny Carson's declaration years ago: “The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”

But fruitcake has been at historic events for centuries, including Princess Diana and King Charles’ wedding and a trip to the moon on Apollo 11...

Think I'll order one of these fruitcakes next Christmas

I love fruitcake, but I'm aware I'm in the minority. I didn't as a kid, but as an adult I discovered you could get ones without those horrible red and green glace cherries.

 

[killarney rose]

I love fruitcake only if I make I-homemade from scratch. The only fruits I use are cherries, pineapple, and dates.i hate raisins!

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I love fruitcake only if I make I-homemade from scratch. The only fruits I use are cherries, pineapple, and dates.i hate raisins!

Many years ago, I used to make several fruitcakes each Christmas as homemade gifts. I don't have the patience to do this any longer. My vision is poor with almost no sight in my right eye. I don't like being in the kitchen much any more as I'm always anxious and afraid that I'm going cut myself or get burned

 

[killarney rose]

I make one almost each year but this year I was feeling a bit lazy and I cut back on my holiday baking. I have to pace myself when I do a lot of cooking because I have a very bad back(scoliosis).

 

[Seni]

Keeping things simple, tomorrow we will have:

Asparagus with vinaigrette (make that a bit creamy using Japanese mayo)

Pitta bread and humus. Olives

My "lucky seven vegetable couscous" and stuffed mini aubergines.

Banana Split for dessert (with ice cream, whipped cream, hot dark chocolate sauce and some nougatine to sprinkle on top)

Am chilling a bottle of Cousino Macul (Chilean)


Hope you all have a great Christmas day!!

 

[snooptroop88]

Keeping things simple, tomorrow we will have:

Asparagus with vinaigrette (make that a bit creamy using Japanese mayo)

Pitta bread and humus. Olives

My "lucky seven vegetable couscous" and stuffed mini aubergines.

Banana Split for dessert (with ice cream, whipped cream, hot dark chocolate sauce and some nougatine to sprinkle on top)

Am chilling a bottle of Cousino Macul (Chilean)


Hope you all have a great Christmas day!!

This sounds awesome.

I cooked over the past few days to get everything so it's made, it's all ready, we've already been ripping into it, but plenty left so we're good. Pretty basic, ham with some honey & ginger glaze, lil black pepper. Got a spiral this year, but a teeny one. Dressing, couldn't do stuffing, really, with a ham (did try one year, might yet try again, but not now). Dressing was good. Yorkies again! Lucky those yorkies WERE with ham because they really needed salt, I mean you could taste it. But when you eat it with the ham, which is so salty itself naturally, it works. Mash potatoes. Rice crispies treats (made a couple of batches), some chocolates from the grocery, kind of a good brand with marzipan. Later today I'm doing some honey roasted carrots. Put a ton of veg into that dressing, but it's just not the same as having some real vegetable side. Apps were quick lil meatballs cooked up with red sauce & some slivered parm. There was so much other cooking being done, I tried a jarred sauce, LOVED it, this is now my favorite jarred sauce along with Mezzetta. Del Fratelli, but it's not spicy, it's kind of sweet and you can taste a little fennel in there. So got lucky with that. (Really love Rao's too, but these other options are a lot more budget friendly.)

Happy Holidays everybody!!

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Like many (half) Jewish families, we had planned to do Chinese takeout on Christmas. After some poor-quality food, including eggrolls that likely contained spoiled pork, not to mention skyrocketing prices, we won't go to P.F. Chang's anymore. The popular chain isn't really authentic Chinese by our standards. So, there's that. There is a plethora of Chinese restaurants/takeout in our area, but we like to know about the best places to go. Our hair stylist told us about Cheng's in Rochester Hills where she goes frequently for dine-in and takeout. I checked out the extensive menu and read dozens of reviews that claim Cheng's is the best Chinese cuisine in Rochester Hills. We had planned on takeout from Cheng's as halftime of the Lion's game approached. DH placed our order online and was told the food would be ready in 45 minutes. He was order #40.

As soon as the second quarter of the game ended, DH left to pick up our Chinese dinner. Fifteen minutes later, DH called to say that the line for takeout was very long and that they were only on order #30. It would be at least an hour, maybe longer, before our order was processed. DH thought this was bullsh*t, canceled the order, and was already enroute to the Thai place that we have grown to like. Hoping that Best Thai would be open, DH asked what I wanted. Curry Puffs are my new favorite menu item, so he got two orders (total of 4 large curry puffs). I ate three and was satisfied: They are so good! DH got cashew chicken with rice and deemed it amazing. Thai on Christmas will be our new tradition: It's much closer to home and nowhere near as busy as Cheng's.

The weather's not great today with rain, freezing rain, and/or sleet in the forecast. We hope our guests will have a safe trip here. We got our darling little great-niece an Amazon tablet and are excited to see her open her gift. There hasn't been a wee one in the family for a long time, so this will be a special day for all of us. I made cocktail sauce for chilled shrimp yesterday, so there's not much to do today besides setting out the food.

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy holiday season