Amuse Bouche

Last night carrot cake for my grandmother's 90th birthday.

Pain Poilane or similar French country bread. Fabulous toasted, sturdy enough for sandwiches, satisfying with just cheese. Appropriate with jam and with roast beef.

Also seafood, but salt cod brandade is one of my favorite things and it is both salty and fluffy. Not a mousse, but a more textured fluff.

I'm not sure what the grocery situation is in Orlando, but I'd plan on more "spreads" rather than "dishes." Salads, fruit, cold cuts, cheese, dips, veggies all can be purchased and prepared with minimal equipment.

Katie, I don't have a pic of the one I made specifically, but it looks a lot like this: http://www.shop.com/op/aprod-p18605224-k24...over?sourceid=3 You can tuck photos or notes in under the ribbons, or use pushpins, like a bulletin board.

Well, after this weekend, I may be "artisanaled" out. Office folk are getting homemade fudge (I tried to make one of those "no fail" recipes with marshmallows and decided it wasn't going to set so returned it to the pan with candy thermometer) and homemade almond brittle. Family are getting baskets with handmade jewelry for the women and jars of spiced apple chutney and pickled onions, and depending on my energy and time this week, pecan brittle. And I made one of those french memo boards for my grandmother. It was actually relatively simple to construct, and looks good, if I do say so myself.

I'm always looking for a pie alternative, since I'm not the biggest pie fan (sacrilege! I know). This year we'll probably have the standard pumpkin (made by my grandmother) and pecan (made by my mother) and I'm thinking I'll bring chocolate gingerbread in a bundt pan.

It's good to see this thread! I'm currently in Phase 1 of the SBD, which said more "sensible eating" and less "diet" to me. I find dinner is easy, and breakfast is fine with eggs, but I have trouble with packed lunches, and I'd love some ideas. This week I made a salad with chick peas, chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, scallions, low fat goat cheese, and a little EVOO and red wine vinegar. One thing I'm totally craving is homemade chocolate chip cookies. I know this wouldn't work for Atkins doers, but what do you SBDers think about making some with whole wheat flour, 70% chocolate, and maybe a mix of sugar and splenda with some walnuts thrown in? As a very occasional treat? One of my non-egg breakfast ideas - best for mornings when I go to the gym and I want some carbs beforehand, is fat free refried black beans with a little low fat cheese mixed in, eaten with a spoon like cereal. It's excellent, and very filling.

Does anyone have the reservations confirmation phone number for Babbo, and can you give it to me? I made reservations last time I ate there, and I want to call and confirm but I don't have the number.

I quite like Dalmore's regular 12 year old malt as an "everyday" scotch -- it has some of the same sherry finish, and it's a great highland scotch for the price (about $20 a bottle in NYC)

Amuse, My girlfriend and I made 140 bourbon balls this past week. The best part is they get better the longer they sit around! We used Wild Turkey 101 this year -- it was a value based decision.... what brand/proof did you use? I love these things! ← They are still good when they sit around but the alcohol evaporates, so they're less fun! We used Jim Beam because we could buy a small bottle -- we're not bourbon drinkers normally. We drink either scotch or rye.

Ooh, cookies! I went baking crazy this year! Last year I bought a copy of Dede Wilson's Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies, and it's become my Christmas cookie Bible. I've made the Chocolate Bourbon Balls (incredibly easy and boozy -- the best kind of Christmas cookie!) for the past two years running, and also the Pfeffernusse (her recipe has a lot of cardamom and ground almonds and ground candied peel, which make them taste sort of uber-Christmas to me). Both of these also have the advantage of keeping for well over a month. I also made her Nutmeg Logs this weekend, which are like nutmeg flavored sugar cookies with a rum icing -- I've rechristened them eggnog cookies. They're excellent. I also made the recipe in her book for mincemeat for mince pies, and it's delicious. My family never really had traditional cookie recipes (maybe because we had Christmas pudding and a Christmas Eve prune cake?) except for indifferent sugar cookies, so I was excited about this book! I know I sound like a commercial for the book, but I've found it both inspiring and reliable.

Thanks all! I'm trying to decide between a recipe for an iced rum sauce I have and regular brandy butter. There's actually no suet in this mincemeat -- I made an all butter recipe. Yes, it's high in fat, but this is dessert on Christmas -- we're not going to worry! Mincemeat is very easy to make, BTW. I had no idea.

I'm thinking of serving mince pies for Christmas eve, and I want to pair them wit something. I don't know if a traditional brandy butter/hard sauce will be too rich, but what about a brandy butter flavored ice cream? (Not sure how I would flavor it, though! Any other suggestions>?

Last year I had my first real tree -- not my family's tree, but mine. And to celebrate I bought a set of copper pots and pans, and they're some of my favorite ornaments. We also have beaded fruit -- 2 apples, a pear and a cluster of grapes, and glass vegetables, including a carrot, a bell pepper, and of course, a pickle.

I love Clementines too. And I have to second (last year's) recommendation for the Nigella Lawson Clementine cake -- it lasts forever - improves over the course of a week, so it's excellent to have on hand for the casual visitors the holiday season brings.

I'm thinking this year of making spice rubs and packaging them in little tins (found them very cheap at www.specialtybottle.com!) a la Dean and Deluca, which sells a collection of 9 spice rubs for $60. I think if I buy the spices in bulk, it could work beautifully.

In Nigella Lawson's new cookbook, there's a recipe for brussels sprouts with pancetta, chestnuts, and parsley. If that's not special, I don't know what is. But then, I love brussels sprouts.

Also forgot to say that a good source for spices, dried fruits and peel is www.kalustyans.com

I made the Jamaican Spiced Rum Cake from the New York Times Cookbook this year, and judging from the mini muffins that I made, it's my favorite recipe so far. I used brandy instead of rum, and I cut WAY down on citron -- substituting 1/2 c. candied lemon peel and about 1/3 c. citron instead, and I left out the glace cherries altogether. It has figs, dates, prunes, raisins, currants, candied orange peel and toasted almonds in it, and it makes two loaf cakes (plus 6 mini muffins). Another "variation" on fruitcake is Panforte, which is another favorite of mine.

Christmas tree decorating is always done well before Christmas (and when I still lived with my parents we would go cut down a tree. Now I live in NYC and my husband and I buy one on the street), accompanied by carols and eggnog. Christmas Eve was traditionally celebrated with my dad's family. We would go to my aunt's house and open all the presents from that side of the family. We'd have pickled shrimp and "dilly" crackers and rillettes all made by my grandmother, and dinner would often be leftovers from my aunt's holiday party, which so offended my mother she usually brought homemade lobster bisque. Dessert was always my grandmother's homemade prune cake. Then we'd go home, put out cookies and milk for Santa (or later, cookies and Scotch, which the Santa in our family much preferred!) and read The Night Before Christmas, or when I was older, T.S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi. Now that I'm married, when we have our folks visit for Christmas, Christmas Eve is spent with my FIL. We have a fairly simple dinner and exchange gifts with him. Christmas morning we wake up and have stockings and coffee first thing. Then down to the Christmas tree and open presents with immediate family. (Now my folks and DH's mother). After presents, it's breakfast of pancakes and gravy. It's not Christmas without pancakes and gravy. An old family tradition, and don't knock it until you've tried it. We usually go to Church on Christmas morning, when it's not particularly crowded (after the midnight masses on Christmas Eve) and the service is usually very traditional. Then home to cook and clean in preparation for Christmas dinner -- roast beef, garlic potato gratin, and some green, with steamed persimmon pudding and hard sauce for dessert. My mom's family always came for Christmas dinner and we did presents with them then, but now our celebration is smaller, and it's just my MIL and my parents again.

For those who are interested, I did make the recipe in Jane Grigson's book, and it looks exactly like the picture on the website, but I can't vouch for taste or texture. I think the recipe is 8 oz. flour or fine oatmeal (I used half flour and half steel cut oats that I ground up in my cuisinart), 4 oz. brown sugar, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1 T ground ginger, and 5 oz salted butter. You combine the dry ingredients, then mix in the melted butter, then spread in a pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. It's crunchy and a bit crumbly but not hard. Good dunked in tea.

Jane Grigson's English Food also has a recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread. It's a wonderful little book -- fun to read with some interesting historical recipes.

There's a recipe in (of all places) the New Joy of Cooking that I really like (made it last night in fact). You halve acorn squashes, scoop out the seeds and bake until tender. Meanwhile, you saute 1/2 c. chopped onions in 1 T butter, then add 1/2 c. rinsed quinoa and stir till toasted. Add 1 c. chicken broth, bring to a boil and cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed the broth. You add chopped toasted hazelnuts, chopped parsley, parmesan cheese and some of the cooked squash, diced, and serve it in the acorn halves.

Chunky. BEans. Beef. I just made a chili recipe from Epicurious.com for Ding Dong 8 Alarm Chili (though I used only 1 serrano chili instead of the 4 it called for for 8 alarm) and it was excellent. Nice blend of peppers (ancho, chipotle, serrano), beef that is slow cooked and then shredded, tomatoes, onions, lots of garlic.