Abra

Zuke, thank you so much for undertaking to blog Christmas week, which must be a fairly thankless task, given that people are so busy offline right now. I'm loving your blog, each time I get a chance to dip in. Your Dad is adorable with that waffle, and Bernie's, well, it's easy to see that that baking was done with love. Farmed saskatoons? That's a new one for me. Genny, that's a very sweet story. Thanks for sharing that with us.

BryanZ - good suggestions, nice technique escalation. Elie, Yum! That looks so appetizing. Rlibkind, I've eaten that exact fried-then-marinated herring in Sweden, many years ago. Do you have an actual recipe, or did you just follow the concept. I remember it being delicious. Alinka, ok, no studio, but do you have a special lense that does such close focus? I want my pictures to look just like yours! My dinner was a head of roasted cauliflower, a bowl of roasted squash, and a dish of homemade applesauce. I'm saving up for tomorrow and Sunday, when I have a lot of food and drink planned.

That sounds just like what she described! Do you know anyone who would be willing to give you a recipe for that bread? Tum knows how to make the pork, it's just that she doesn't bake. Funny, it sounds tasty to me. Like bacon on raisin toast, which I think is good.

It looks beautiful, BryanZ. Maybe when you have it on bread, with a non-salty sauce, it will be perfect. Najadlax sounds wonderful!

Cool idea - apple relish! I have to copy that.

Those are lovely, Cadbury! Last night I made the advocaat for the bitterkoekje pudding. It's a bit dark, but I'm hoping that a little aging will yellow it up. No brandewijn to be found, so I did combine cognac and vodka, but at least I found Dutch vodka - Ketel One is made in Holland, so I got that for a smidgeon of authenticity. I haven't tasted it yet, but it smelled delicious, and was creamy and thick when I put it in the fridge.

Just kanom pang, and I think na moo. I know that's not very specific, but any help you can come up with, I'll really appreciate!

Jennifer - get them to allow you to serve one plated course, preferably the first course. Then they can see how nice it is and next year you can expand it.

Wow, some of those menus make me feel like getting a plane ticket to your house! And Fistfullaroux, it's wonderful that your wife's well again and making cookies. For Christmas Eve, for 7, just a little buffet of nibbles: Baked Feta with Olives and Pita Crisps Ginger Garlic Hummus and Crudites Homemade Gravlax with Daniel Rogov's Mustard Sauce Cheese Plate Rockdoggydog's Lingonberry Cocktails Chufi's Parfait - a Dutch bitter almond pudding topped with homemade advocaat assorted (bought) sweets - panforte, torrone, Turkish delight, pismaniye Christmas morning (just 5 of us all day) Chufi's Boterkoek with lots of ginger big bowl of clemtines French Twist - yeasted cinnamon raisin bun loaf (I made this today and put it in the freezer - it's so pretty I can't resist posting it) then, we'll all make tamales together. I'll have everything prepped ahead so we'll just fill, wrap, and steam Black Tamales with mole Corn, Cotija, and salsa verde (vegetarian) tamales Then, I'm sure hoping we'll manage to find room for dinner! Salad with Herb-Baked Goat Cheese Dry-aged at home (for a week) Rib Roast with Porcini-Pancetta Sauce Spinach Madeleine (spicy and creamy) Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Pecans (main dish for the vegetarian, extra starch for the rest of us) Green Onion Parmesan Popovers Crushed Peppermint Mini Cheesecakes Homemade Brandied Plums Buty 2004 Columbia Valley Conner Lee Vineyard Chardonnay Chateau Lamartine 2003 Cuvee Particuliere Cahors I've been cooking since yesterday, needless to say!

Yegads, don't toss it! At worst, saute it and don't share with anyone. Personally, I think a little pate is a nice idea too.

This is my first time with dry-aging, but mine's not hard. I started it on Sunday, and I have it triple-wrapped in fine cheesecloth, per the Fine Cooking instructions. They say it will lose 20% of its weight, and that one should trim off the hard, dry bits before roasting, but I just went and poked it, and while it feels stiffer than it did 4 days ago, it's still tender to the touch. Maybe you should wrap yours for the remaining time? I don't have a hygrometer, so I'm no help there.

Well, it's a Thai person who asked, and she says she always eats it with crispy, fried pork. I'm baffled, though, because I've Googled it to a faretheewell and can't find a recipe.

Megan, that green apple sauce is stunning. Did you cook it with the peels on? And Susan, those quail egg sushi! In advance of the holiday, I'm eating as lightly as possible. For example, this beautiful pile of greens, lightly glued together with a couple of eggs and a bit of 2 year old Gouda. Yes, I ate them all by myself. The cooked picture looked horrid, so I'll spare you that. My husband doesn't like greens, so he got An omelet filled with leftover gyro loaf and tzatziki, with some toasted pita.

As impressive as your, er, elevators are, it was the real elevator that brought a lump to my throat. That's the quintessesntial Saskatchewan, Pool logo and all. All that and salmon candy too.

I've had a request to make a fluffy, light Thai raisin bread with just a little cinnamon. Would any of you happen to have a recipe? It's evidently eaten with crispy fried pork.

I wish I had some of that stamppot right now! Here's the boterkoek I baked today. This one's a gift so I couldn't cut it open to see the crumb, and the one I baked for us for Christmas morning is well-wrapped and slumbering in the freezer. I figure I'll let it thaw on the counter overnight on Christmas Eve and warm it a little before serving it with the presents. I used 12 knobs of ginger, since we all love it.

I want to look just like yours, but partly set up would be good, so I'll use the pudding directions. Thanks! I haven't made the advocaat yet. Looking for the equivalents to brandewijn on Google, I see some recipes with cognac, and some with vodka. Therefore, I'm thinking of making it with half vodka, half cognac. Yum, I've been just dying to make this dessert!

Thanks, Bridgestone, that makes me feel more optimistic. Now tell us a (lot) more about najadlax! Which comes first, the cure or the smoke?

Klary, I want to do some of your recipes for the holiday. I'm going to make the boterkoeke with ginger for Christmas morning, and I'd like to do the advocaat/bitterkoekjes pudding for Christmas Eve. Can you give me some proportions for the pudding? They both sound perfect for this time of year.

No farmed salmon in this house. So, bolstered by your various encouragements, I now have two matching sides of beautiful, silvery sockeye, skin intact and shiny, not a pin bone in sight, slowly thawing next the the rib roast that's dry-aging at 38 degrees. I will drain and turn it carefully and often, and give it extra time in the cure. And if it's not the ultimate gravlax, well, it'll be the first I've made, and I'm pretty sure it'll be scrumptious.

Hmmm, our semolina is golden yellow, but it looks like yours is white. I wonder if it's more like our farina, or Cream of Wheat cereal?

C'mon, enough with the bagels and rice pudding already...let's get to the pierogies! We used to eat them a lot in Regina, potato-stuffed, nestled in caramelized onions and napped with sour cream. Lots of freshly ground pepper on top. Swoon. They don't exist here, alas.

Just for you, Zuke, straight from Ponteix on the bald prairie, via a 20 year detour, comes this yummy rice pudding. It's an unorthodox recipe, like my friend Marge, but it's strangely compelling. * Exported from MasterCook * Marge's Rice Pudding Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1/2 cup basmati rice 1 1/4 cups water 3/4 tsp salt 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup sugar 6 T flour 2 1/2 cups milk 3 egg yolks 1 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 pinch nutmeg 1 pinch cinnamon Cook rice in water with salt until done. Plump raisins in boiling water for 10 minutes and drain. In a saucepan mix together the sugar and flour. Whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until thick. Beat the egg yolks lightly, add a little of the hot mixture to them, then whisk egg yolks into the milk mixture and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the rice and raisins, and add nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. -------------------- Abra Food for all and all for food!

Ok, I surrender. I'll either get a whole fresh salmon today, or make rillettes from my wild-but-frozen. It's sad because it's the most perfect, red, fat and juicy sockeye imagineable. Or, no, I rebel! What if I swim against the tide and do it anyway? How not-perfect can it be? Jamie, that blood orange treatment sounds delectable. I haven't seen any blood oranges yet this year, I'll have to give another look.

Beautiful, Wendy. And you're going to have a great time. I love Stockholm and St. Petersburg, they're two incredibly beautiful and under-visited cities. Uh, you know it's going to be really cold and dark, right? Try to get back into the canals in Peterburg - it's like the Venice of the North. You can see a whole page of pink banana squash here. It's a nice dry, fluffy, sweet squash. If I keep posting on this thread you all will be amazed by how much squash I eat. I love the stuff. Grub, that's neat how you do your pictorials, and that dish looks delicious! You can get your rolls to hold together better, if you have the time, by wrapping them really tightly in plastic wrap and chilling them for half an hour to an hour. When you remove the plastic they'll stay tight as you brown them.