Abra

Fried rice. That pork martini is too funny!

Thanks for the Bonny Doon link, Carswell. One of those memberships just went on my Christmas wish list!

I too love gluhwein, and prefer it not too killingly sweet. CathyL, how much is a "judicious" amount of sugar, more or less? The recipe looks lovely. I hate to say it, but the recipe I got from you, legourmet, a few years ago, was really too sweet for me. Usually everything American tastes too sweet to Europeans, so this is a surprising reversal.

I've read such good things about Wickanninish, I can't wait to read about your experiences there. But what about the cedar jelly? I'm seriously craving it already.

Welcome to eGullet, Suzanne and Cadbury. That's an awesome pronunciation guide, Suzanne! I get it entirely, including the G, but now I'm wondering whether the S and the R have some special pronunciation features. I expect that they have a Germanic sound, but that's just guessing. Hopefully Klary will be back soon to tell us she's well on the road to recovery. I'm going to make some advocaat this week, and drink a bit in her honor.

Tell us more about the sweet tamales. I adore cajeta, and never thought of getting it into a tamale. Did you sweeten the dough, then use that as filling, or incorporate it right into the dough? I'll be doing black tamales again this year, as well as at least one other type for my vegetarian, so I'm making mole this week. It's such a huge ritual for me and I really look forward to it every year,

Tejon, is that cake from the Village Baker's Wife? It's beautiful! And Swisskaese, thanks for the link to Surfas. I hadn't seen them before, and not only do they have my favorite marzipan, but also the astounding corbezzolo honey, and at a much better price than Zingerman's. Cool site.

Wow, cedar jelly. That label gave me a "gotta get this right now!" feeling. How did it work into the menu? Is it as good as it sounds? Where can it be obtained? That sounds like a lovely dinner. A cool thing about your job, as opposed to, say, my job, is that you get to have people cook for you, instead of the other way 'round. How often do you feel like cooking yourself, as in, just wanting some of your own cooking?

I'm hooked on the 0% myself and eat it as often as I can. It's a miracle, to me. And it thickens sauces very nicely without curdling, so long as you temper it first.

A pain de mie (Pullman) pan is my idea of the easy solution. I too have been thinking of terrines, and that's what I've been thinking of making 'em in.

Absolutely. I might not use juices that are accumulated at the bottom of the jar, if there arwe any, but the fat, for sure. The worst it can be is rancid, and you'd smell that.

Yeah, Ludja, I'm falling for his great grandpa myself. He has such a modern, clear gaze. You sure have access to some fabulous photos, Jamie. Did you take a lot of them yourself? This is shaping to be a completely unique blog.

There is a FABULOUS beef braised in butter, using chuck roast, in Chufi's Dutch food thread in the cooking forum. Several of us have tried it, to unanimously rave reviews. It's delicious, and there's nothing weird about it. And it's awesome with the celery root and apple puree from Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France. My husband, not too adventurous in the vegetable department, now prefers that puree to mashed potatoes.

Woohoo, Jamie. Off to an awesome start! This blog is going to be a thrill, but I have a question. You're not Chinese-Canadian??? The Maw had me faked out all this time. Probably that doesn't count as a serious question. Would you provide a link to some of your columns for those of us who haven't yet, uh, tasted your wares? Do you manage somehow to be an incognito critic, with your picture plastered all over the Internet?

Any word on when they'll be available here? Or should I just get one directly from you? Personally, I'd never get another Scanpan. My Cybernox is the pan I use every day, all day, but I'd like a pan that's truly nonstick for those special applications where you need that. This thread came back up just in time for me, since I've just lately been looking around for a new pan.

C'mon Daniel, the cake recipe, pretty, pretty please? My husband is going around muttering "chocolate cake with toffee bacon!?!?"

The lamb shanks are from the Slow Mediterranean book (on my Christmas list) but I found the recipe here. Be sure to plan ahead, you need a couple of days to make it, although you can easily do it all ahead. It's a fantastic dish. I'm going to do Daniel Rogov's gravlax with mustard sauce for a starter - Barbara, that might be a way for you to get a fish into the meal and also have a light appetizer. I also want to mention a really lovely little cocktail that an eG friend invented recently for Thanksgiving. It's cava (or some other bubbly) with red Lillet and lingonberry concentrate. It's light, refreshing, and a gorgeous red color. Perfect for the holidays.

No, I don't think that would be too much at all. For one thing, the filling will freeze perfectly, so if you burn out on stuffing tamales you can pop it in the freezer and make something dynamite out of it another time. And if you want to have leftovers and some to send home with your guests, I'd make even more. It's hard to gauge how much you need because you haven't said what else is on the menu, if anyone won't eat carbs, and so on. I make big tamales, and people usually eat 2-3 each, with a good salad and maybe some beans.

Steven - I have to refer to the pictures I posted above to see how I made them. It looks like the vegetarian version didn't get written down, but from the picutres I see that I used light olive oil and veg broth for the masa, and roasted poblanos, cotija, corn, and salsa verde for the filling. A new reason for taking pictures of your prep, it's a substitute recipe when you've forgotten what you did! I love that idea of stuffing a poblano with a tamale, kind of like that inside-out sushi with the rice on the outside of the roll. Tejon, please show your work! Inspiration from the first tamalada of the season will be wonderful. Lovebenton, was that gorgeous pork filling of yours written down, or improvised? It has so many nice touches and it's still calling to me a year later.

Ok, tamale-making time is rolling right around. Who else is planning a big tamale-fest for this Christmas?

Yum, that brie looks delicious! Our relatively new Christmas tradition is to make tamales all together as a family. There was a great tamale thread last year. Here's where I posted photos of making the mole for black tamales, and then later in the thread I show the tamales themselves being made. We're not Latino, but we've adopted this Christmas tradition from Latino culture, and we all love imaking and eating them. I make a huge amount of tamales and freeze enough to enjoy them for several additional meals after the holidays, plus sending some home with our sons. And I make sure to have lots of additional mole for the freezer, since it's such a great sauce and such a project to make. I look forward to making it again in the next couple of weeks, in preparation for our now-annual tamale party.

Charity, if you have little counter space, I'd suggest doing dinner as a buffet, if you have room to set one up comfortably. Plating for 12 takes a good amount of counter space - or do you have a card table you can bring to the kitchen? I also suggest a chilled dessert. You make something great ahead of time, panna cotta, a mousse, a parfait, and then you forget about it. People get warm when they're eating and drinking a lot, and something cool, even if it's rich, is quite refreshing. Can I ask for advice on your thread? I'm doing New Year's for 12, although for sure no one will still be up at midnight. I love the look of Daniel's gravlax, and I have just the salmon for that. And that apple cream...the whole menu looks delicious to me. I love lamb with prunes, but for this crowd, I need something a little tamer. I'm thinking of a very slow braise, one that can be made the day before, improve in the fridge overnight, and warm gently for several hours. Paula Wolfert's Fall-Apart Lamb Shanks, a Catalan recipe, comes right to mind. That is one delicious dish, and fantastic if it's cold out. I'm only doing the main course, other people are doing the rest of the courses, and not in a very coordinated way. So I have to have a balanced stand-alone course, independent of what others do. I know there will be a plated terrine as the first course, but the rest is likely to be pretty haphazard. Dessert is probably going to be chocolate, but nothing elaborate. I'm looking for any suggestions for something really festive, outstandingly delicoius, and not too daring.

Suffer little, get well quick, and get your butt back here, girl. We'll miss you!

Gosh, I'm surprised about the Grammercy Tavern cake. I agree that it's the most delicious gingerbread ever, but I make it all the time in a springform, and find that it almost always sticks. It's a meltingly moist cake, and sticky from all the sugar and molasses. Eden, you should preview it in your pan bfore you need it to be beautiful, just in case. I'd love to be wrong, however!

Beautiful! I have the Swedish parlsocker (imagine the umlaut over the a), which I think is what Anita probably has too, so I'll try it with that, maybe for Christmas morning breakfast. 150 gms of sugarchips appears twice in the filling ingredient list - it's just one batch or 150 grams, right? Did you steep the saffron in the warm milk?