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I think it all looks AMAZING. I'd definitely dive into all of that.

@chromedome That is an amazing array of cookies. That's what I call a job well done. Congratulations!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post about this CFM! Christmas week was jam packed and I had a couple of moments of high anxiety, wondering if I’d get it all done. On Tuesday morning, I started with two bone in hams. They were coated in mustard and a homemade rub. I poured a 12 oz bottle of Coke in the bottom of each pan, covered them tightly in foil, and then two hours in the oven at 275. Removed from the oven and covered in a combination of Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce, apricot preserves, and apple cider vinegar, and back in the oven, with the temp raised to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. After the first two hours, as I was preparing to cover them in sauce. I thought they were done, but I was sadly mistaken (misunderstood the internal temp goal of 200 for pulled ham, vs 165 for “done” ham). So much to learn. Later that evening (hours later) it was pullable. Tasted good, too. The pulled ham sandwiches were accompanied by broccoli salad. (Thanks for the suggestion @Shelby!) My recipe calls for raisins, but I subbed with Craisins. Broccoli, bacon, cheddar, red onion, sunflower seeds, Craisins. My husband was turning his nose up at the broccoli salad from the beginning. (He is now a believer.) I made and dressed the broccoli salad on Tuesday for the Wednesday delivery. Before dressing: The dressing was made of mayo, sugar, red wine vinegar, salt, black pepper. Nothing unusual or edgy. I toasted the buns, and you can see that they are a beautiful color. Unfortunately, they were still a little over toasted and the sandwiches didn’t have any give. It made me sad. Maybe the chocolate chip cookies with flaky salt helped. I hope so. [ There was a family and two single guys waiting for food as we unloaded. I apologized for the over toasted buns and one of the single guys insisted he preferred crunchy bread. 😂 That was nice of him. I feel good that we were able to complete and deliver for 11am on Christmas Eve.

That sounds like an amazing soup stock @Duvel And wow, quite the cookie extravaganza @chromedome

This is an extraordinary amount of talent and work! Anyone who is getting these beautiful cookies is a very lucky person! And, yes, WOW. I would so love to dive into a bowl of that soup. You did amazing!

" . . . in place of . . ." malted powder and diastatic malt powder are not the same thing . . . that said, I use it all the time. so 'in place of' I suppose there maybe a difference - per some 'experts' diastatic malt powder gives the same/similar flavor boost, but also helps the yeast do its thing.

@Duvel Wow, just wow!

No pics of Christmas Eve dinner (gumbo) or Christmas Day lunch, but last night was finally a relaxed meal, and it was meatballs (frozen Costco) and baked ricotta, and air fryer roasted broccoli.

@Duvel Very impressive . ' outdoors ' due to various aromas ? did guests have to bring their own chairs ?

Lunch on Christmas day in Catalunya is Escudell i carn d’olla (or soup and meat from the pot). Tradition in my wifes family dictates that every family of the 5 siblings of her parents takes over one festive day, and my parents-in-law have the first Christmas day. So I make soup … The escudella is a two day affair. You boil pigs ears, snouts, skin, beef short rib … Chicken carcasses … Salt bones, beef bones, ham bones … in a gigantic pot outside the house. Two days. The result equals a great ramen stock - salty, umami, a lot of body: it gels once it cools just a timy bit … Veggies … Once the stock is ready, potatoes, cabbage, blood sausage and regular sausages are boiled in it … After that, the pilota - a giant meatball, heavily spiced with garlic and parsley and star of the show - is gently poached. Meanwhile the guests arrive and start with pica pica. I prepared everything, but was too busy to take a picture of the prepared table. It is traditionally enjoyed with red vermouth or beer … Just before service, large pasta shells called galets (“cookies”) stuffed with meat are boiled and the soup is served with them as first course. Wines … Everyone happily slurping away … Second course is a sampler of all the meats, cabbage and potatoes from the pot, served with olive oil and salt. Third course is almost irrelevant, but consists of chicken poached in its own juices together with sweet wine-macerated dried fruits (plums, raisins) and nuts … … followed by a fourth course of stewed apples with savory minced meat filling). The dinner concludes with turrons (assorted sweets probably unchanged since the middle ages), cava (sparkling wine) and brandy. And some whisly for me 🤗 And the kids citing traditional Christmas poems and collecting money from everyone. Little one did well … Total duration was about 5 hours. Definitely no complaints …

Wow!! That's a lot of cookies!!

I'm glad you posted these pictures, reminded me that I have a couple slices vacuum packed in the freezer. They also used to have a store in the Hong Kong airport that I could stock up on passing through. I can recommend the chilli pork as well!

I haven’t heard anything yet. After Purolator returned my order to Goûter, I was told via email that FedEx”s process required them to charge those costs to Goûter and Goûter would let me know so I can pay.

When I was a kid, astronaut ice cream was all the rage...

Provides more nutrients for the little yeasties. Gives a darker, redder crust. Should not affect the flavor.

Yes, thanks! It's a small electric deep fryer, with no temperature adjustment. I'll post photos. I'm rather embarrassed to admit that it's fitting the bill for this purpose. We had set it aside for our cooking and health purposes, and forgotten its existence.

Lovely haul! Any word about tariff fees or customs?

By request, some photos of the cookie binge. First, here's an overview of the spread. ...and some of the decorated cookies. Closeups of a couple of 'em (note the food-colouring stains on the fingers...). Last pic is cookies monogrammed for three grandkids out west (initials S, M, and L, because the yellow icing gooped a bit and they're not entirely as pretty as I'd have liked). Glad to have it all done with for another year; they're all packed up and ready for mailing/hand delivery. For the curious, if you scroll back to the panoramic view, we have (clockwise from top right): snowman sugar cookies, Christmas tree sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, the three big personalized sugar cookies, some zimmtsternen, vanillekipfeln (not sure of the spelling on that, there may be an 'r' in there somewhere toward the end), a shortbread-ish ball cookie known to us as "Russian tea cakes" but which is also known as "Pecan meltaways" and many other things, linzers with raspberry and apricot filling, the "faux linzers" I spoke of earlier, gingerbread snowflakes and gingerbread people, and finally snowflake sugar cookies. I had tubs with additional quantities of several of these, but this was enough to give you the idea. Not pictured were ginger crinkles, which are much like gingersnaps except soft and chewy (I'd parked those on top of the fridge and forgotten them until after the pics were taken), and chocolate-filled sandwich cookies because I realized while setting up the photo that I hadn't actually made the ganache or filled them yet.

I’m guessing Fry Baby is a deep fryer, either stove top or electric?? Nice save !

Try setting up an ebay alert and a google alert

Last on our odyssey.... ETA this was last night but I was too exhausted to post it. 1 hour flight on a budget airline.... Sweet roll filled with chocolate.

I have continued to hope for a chance to pick up the extra pans for this. But checking today, it looks like the end I feared has come. https://afourbox.com/ is now a dead site. I do not think anything more will be forthcoming.

Green salad and what I may as well call potato fritters. The fritters are the real victory, of the snatch-the-bacon-from-the-fire variety. Sometime a week or two ago I made a huge batch of mashed potatoes with greens, cream, garlic, and possible some cheese, from some of the Russet potatoes I received back in October. This mashed potato dish was intended to mimic something wonderful I'd eaten last July in Kenya, but it failed miserably. I've been pecking away at it despondently, wondering whether I could salvage it or should simply give it to the local wildlife. Sometime ago I rediscovered my darling's "Fry Baby" from a hidey hole atop a shelf in the hall closet. He used it a lot before we were married. We haven't used it much since then, but hadn't given it away. Hmm. Maybe I could put it to good use. I did. I made little balls of the mashed potato mix, rolled them in a mix of Italian-seasoned bread crumbs and corn flake crumbs, and fried them. Success! Is it worth writing down and trying to reproduce what I did? No. But I'll be able to use the rest of those potatoes, and the Fry Baby.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I definitely put off an oil change too long in my Minipack, but fortunately I got away with it! I could not believe how gross the oil was...