Marlene

We're doing a full turkey dinner since we didn't do one at Christmas Appetizers deviled eggs mini tourtieres Main homemade dinner rolls or Challah, I haven't decided yet Turkey mashed potatoes glazed carrots, or asparagus homemade cranberry sauce savoury bread pudding (instead of dressing or stuffing) gravy of course! Dessert either a NY cheese cake or chocolate yule log. Haven't decided yet. The cheesecake, I would make. The yule log would be store bought. We are having company and we'll play cards and pool, and toast with champagne at midnight.

I ordered and received both chicken and veal demi from this supplier, of the more than gourmet demi glace, just last week. I'm in Ontaro, and there seemed to be no problem with the order. more than gourmet

The filling certainly keeps for a couple of days. I generally make the filling a day or two in advance and the crust if it's a whole pie, the day of. the toast cups and wonton cups can be made several days before and kept in an airtight container. when ready to serve, fill and heat for 10 minutes or so.

I do mini tourtieres at Christmas/New Year's Eve all the time. I have used toast cups in the past, but recently have started doing them in Wonton cups instead.

I'm with Anna. I'm a procraticook rather than baker, but it works out the same!

I think it was JAZ who actually said it, but I would agree with it. If you want till it's right, the food will never stick. Sticking means turning sooner than you should have.

If I'm roasting potatoes separately, I mix a tsp of dry mustard or dijon together with 150 mls of heavy cream, toss the potatoes with the cream mustard mix and roast at 375 for about an hour, turning every 20 minutes or so. Otherwise, I toss them around the roast.

Individual Apple Charlottes -----For the filling:----- 3 lb Braeburn or Golden Delicious apples (6 or 7 apples) 1 lemon, rinsed 1 vanilla bean 1/3 cup raisins 1/3 cup golden raisins 2 1/2 oz (5 Tbs.) unsalted butter 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 Tbs Calvados (or other apple brandy) -----For the crust:----- 1 loaf sliced white bread 1/2 lb (1 cup) unsalted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar Crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream for serving or not if there are allergies 1. Make the filling: 2. Tip: These can be completely prepared a day ahead, covered (still in the molds) with plastic, and refrigerated. To reheat, let them sit at room temperature while you heat the oven to 350°F. Bake until hot, about 12 minutes, and unmold. 3. Peel, core, and dice the apples into 1/4-inch pieces (you’ll have about 6-1/2 cups). Using a vegetable peeler, peel the zest off half the lemon in long strips, taking care to avoid the bitter white pith (if necessary, remove any pith from the zest strips by scraping it off with a knife). Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the back of a paring knife. In a large bowl, toss the apples, lemon zest, vanilla bean seeds and spent pod, raisins, and golden raisins. 4. In a 12-inch skillet or 5-quart Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat and then add the sugar. When the sugar is fully moistened, add the apple mixture and cook, stirring almost constantly, until the apples start to release liquid and look soft on the outside (they’ll still be a little crunchy inside), about 7 min. (you want to just start the cooking process at this point while still leaving the apples crunchy). Set the apple mixture aside to cool slightly and then add the Calvados. ----- Prepare the crust: ----- 1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven; heat the oven to 475°F. Trim the bread crusts. Cut eight rounds to fit the bottoms of eight 8-ounce ramekins. Cut enough rectangles to line the sides. (The bread should come to within at least 3/4 inch of the ramekin’s rim, if not the top.) Melt the butter in a medium skillet and put the sugar in a shallow dish. Brush the insides of the ramekins with butter. Generously dip both sides of each piece of bread in butter followed by sugar on one side. Lay one round in each ramekin, sugared side down. Nestle the rectangles, sugared side facing outward toward the ramekin, so they line the sides of each one. 2. Trace around the ramekin bottom with a paring knife to cut a round of bread to line each ramekin. 3. Strips of bread line the sides. They needn't come all the way to the top, but they should be close to the rim. ----- Assemble and bake: ----- 1. Pick the lemon zest and vanilla bean halves out of the apple filling and fill each ramekin, pressing on the filling to get rid of air pockets. Be generous; the filling will cook down. Set the ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet (leaving a few inches between each) and cover snugly with one sheet of foil. Bake for 40 min. To see if the charlottes are done, run a paring knife around the side, knock on the ramekin bottom, and invert a ramekin onto a plate to check the bottom; it should be nicely caramelized, and will have caramelized more than the sides. (If they’re not done yet, return them to the oven for a few more minutes). Unmold and serve with a spoonful of crème fraîche or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

do frozen fries have to be defrosted before you can deep fry them?

Bingo. How well said, and pretty much describes me as well.

Katie, your Cranberry Orange Sauce is one of the two cranberry sauce staples on my Thanksgiving table every year!

Thanks Bob! The guy that sold me the knife was careful to warn me about the chipping when using hard stuff, but he also went on to say that he has to say that so people are warned, but also said more or less what you said. Since it's still brand new, I have been babying it a bit and using the Wusty for the heavy duty stuff. But I love this knife!

I recently bought a Misono UX10 and it has been a revelation in terms of cutting vegetables and such. It leaves my Wusthof in the dust. I do use my Wusthof for heavier tasks such as hard veg and fruit like squash or pineapple, so the Misono hasn't made the Wusty obsolete. misono UX10 I have the left hand version of this knive in the 9.5 inch and it really is amazing.

I am so guilty of this. I can remember several fabulous dinner parties, but the next day I had to run the dishwasher 7 or 8 times in a row just to get the kitchen cleaned up. I suck at cleaning as I go. Like tonight for example. I've been testing recipes all day, plus had a friend over for dinner. So I've got piles of pots from the recipe testing, plus pots and dishes from dinner. It's almost midnight and I've run the dishwasher twice. I will run it probably three more times tomorrow before the place is clean again. But I dont' want to clean when I have company either. I'm just essentially messy when I cook!

Cobblers, or apple crisp topping.

Unsauced, sauteed with butter, parmesan and garlic, and a dollop of sour cream added after it comes out of the pan.

Interesting. I use the CI crust for most pies and tarts and things now, and I find I have less shrinkage than with a standard pate brisee.

This is on my Christmas list as I'm not allowed to buy anything from October to january so the family has things to buy for me. However, a friend of mine is starting to work his way through this and has been quite impressed, and he's a pretty serious baker.

I do a lot of this right now as we are putting on an addition at the cottage. Cinnamon rolls can be retarded in the fridge overnight and baked off in the morning for a fresh treat. Cookies, muffins, coffee cake can all be baked the day before. Banana bread. Carrot cake in a 9 x 13 pan so can be cut in individual servings easily.

Whoo hoo! Thanks!

Mike that sounds fine to me. If you really wanted to smoke some pork you could make mini pork sliders or even mini smoked chicken sliders. The only thing with skewers is that the meat can be hard to get off the skewer especially if you don't have enough seats for everyone.

One of my best friends has a Mac and uses Mac Gourmet. I like the software enough that I considered getting a mac just so I could use it!

Crispy Crunch M&M almonds Kit Kats

This is also a great idea for the vegetarians at the table. I did this one a couple of Christmas' ago for a non meat eater Egg Noodle, Chard and Fontina Torte Olive oil as needed (about 1/4 cup) 2 lb Swiss chard, kale, or spinach 1 large onion, thinly sliced 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped salt and pepper to taste 1/4 lb thin egg noodles (fettuccini size) 8 eggs 1 cup whole milk 2/3 cup mascarpone (or cream cheese) 1/2 lb Fontina, in 1/4 inch cubes Cook the greens of choice in boiling salted water til wilted and tender, transfer to a sieve and cool. Reserve the water to cook the noodles. When greens are cool, squeeze to remove water and chop. Cook onion in olive oil til soft and golden, add chopped garlic and combine. Remove from heat and add chopped greens, salt and pepper. Cool. Cook egg noodles in the reserved water, drain and stir in about 1 Tblsp of olive oil to prevent sticking. Cool. Stir in cubed fontina. Blend the eggs, milk, mascarpone and salt and pepper in a food processor til smooth Combine egg mixture, greens and noodles. Pour into a well-buttered gratin dish or deep pie plate and bake at 350 F for 45-50 min. til tester comes out clean and dish is nicely browned and bubbly. Can be made a head and reheated. Cover with foil.

Thanks for this Anna! I'll be trying these soon.