Christmas Preparations 2023

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@lindag 

 

they are 

 

yet they are taster roasted than squirrels .

 

I had them in north Africa many years ago and they were bred, like chickens, for that purpose. Here it's referred to as squab.

The Passenger Pidgeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was rendered extinct by the earlier 20th century.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

2 hours ago, TdeV said:

@Senior Sea Kayaker, you've probably done tons of research but I'm very interested in tourtière!

 

Montréal Spice Company Épices de Cru publish this tourtière recipe from the de Vienne Family.

 

There's also this tourtière recipe from pbs.org, this tourtière recipe from King Arthur flour, this tourtière recipe from New York Times, and this tourtière from Saveur.

 

Looking forward to hearing about your adventure.

 

Edited to add: I omitted @Ann_T's Tourtière

 

 

 

Thanks for the links and I have done some research. I have to say that recipe from the de Vienne Family is scary. Tourtiere does not contain olives and duck confit.

The PBS and Saveur recipes are much closer to the mark. One of the better ones I've found is Food Wishes's version.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

2 hours ago, chromedome said:

I've never seen anyone eat tourtiere with maple syrup, molasses, or cranberry preserves. I have seen a grandkid apply a splot of ketchup to one, and presumably she wasn't unique in doing so, but it's not something I've seen an adult do. The Acadian-descended friend who introduced me to tourtiere (to be clear, it's a Quebec thing not an Acadian thing) served hers with extra gravy, and that's usually the only sauce/condiment I use as well. I've had others but hers is the version I mostly adhere to (no specific recipe as such), with pork as the dominant meat, onions as the only veg and allspice as the dominant seasoning. There are as many variations as cooks, as is usually the case with traditional favorites.

 

Ours would be served with either green tomato chow chow and or pickled beets. Certainly not molasses or maple syrup. 

 

 

[liuzhou]

 

4 hours ago, lindag said:

I've heard pigeons referred to as flying rats.

 

Yes, but that is usually in reference to city pigeons / rats.

 

 

Wood pigeons and commercially farmed squab are very different. I have four in the freezer which will be used over the holiday. Very popular meat birds here, especially in Cantonese restaurants.

 

Cantonese Roast Pigeon

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[MaryIsobel]

13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Nearly forgot. Having been born in Scotland, I don't recognise Christmas without these. In past years, I've  bought  two packs of the non-alcohholic version, but this year they are carrrying the Glenfiddich type for the first time. so I've ordered one of each.

 

P.S. The Brillat Savarin mentioned above has arrived by plane from Shanghai and is now resting in my fridge.

 

 

Those who love mincemeat tarts are getting few and far between. Always used to make them for my Dad and my boss. Dad had gone to greater glory and I've retired. My husband thinks they are "okay" but wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't make them. The Glennfiddich tarts are available to me locally for 11.99 Cdn. I will definitely treat myself to these. My Dad's Nan (my great grandmother) was well known for her love of a dram with chocolate or shortbread or mince tarts so seem very fitting, thank you!

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

Those who love mincemeat tarts are getting few and far between. Always used to make them for my Dad and my boss. Dad had gone to greater glory and I've retired. My husband thinks they are "okay" but wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't make them. The Glennfiddich tarts are available to me locally for 11.99 Cdn. I will definitely treat myself to these. My Dad's Nan (my great grandmother) was well known for her love of a dram with chocolate or shortbread or mince tarts so seem very fitting, thank you!

 

Back in the day I was quite fond of Glennfiddich as a drink.  I did not know there was such a thing as Glennfiddich tarts.  I'll have to see if I can track them down.  I like mincemeat.  I remember buying a jar of Black & Crossweĺ mincemeat and I'd bake 1 filled frozen tart shell at a time.

[MaryIsobel]

33 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Back in the day I was quite fond of Glennfiddich as a drink.  I did not know there was such a thing as Glennfiddich tarts.  I'll have to see if I can track them down.  I like mincemeat.  I remember buying a jar of Black & Crossweĺ mincemeat and I'd bake 1 filled frozen tart shell at a time.

They are on the London Drugs website, London Drugs has a decent amount of "British" food and treats. I don't think they go any further east than SK or MB but they maybe available on line? My Dad was a Scotch lover. Glennfiddich was his special occaision dram.

[liuzhou]

I don't mind a drop of Glenfiddich although it's far from my favourite. More of a Macallan man, although I do love a Laphroaig, too. I even own a square metre of the distillery! Stocks of both have already been laid in.

 

And the last of my cheese arrived today. All set, apart from mince pies which have just been dispatched from Shanghai a short time ago.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[MetsFan5]

Last year I bought beef Wellingtons. This year idk. I’d prefer to sleep especially after the feast of 7 (plus) fishes on Xmas Eve. I just contribute wine and charcuterie. 

[Ann_T]

Other than our traditional Christmas Eve Tourtiere, I haven't thought about Christmas dinner yet.

Moe loves an old fashion Chile sauce with his tourtiere and I want gravy on mine.

So from yesterdays roasted chicken I made gravy and put it in the freezer. 

Netted 3/4's of a litre from that little chicken. 

 

And I also have some wonderful pork gravy, from the porchetta I roasted earlier this week, also in the freezer, just enough to go into the meat

filling for the tourtiere. 

 

I will have to make a small batch of the Chile sauce between now and then. 

The last couple of times I made it I just used canned tomatoes.  

 

I have a duck in the freezer so maybe I'll do that.  Matt is a vegetarian so I can pretty much do what

I want for Christmas dinner and Moe will be happy. 

 

 

[liuzhou]

I already have some Keluga Queen caviar and smoked sturgeon and have ordered some goose foie gras. Planning a luxury Christmas after months of enforced delivery dinners. I'm not sure how all these cheeses, caviar and foie will fit together. I quite fancy a roasted suckling pig but I'll order that from the restaurant next door - It wouldn't fit in my toaster oven. Will last a few days.

 

Image - Liuzhou Hotel

 

Foie Gras

 

Keluga Queen Smoked Sturgeon and its Caviar

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Kim Shook]

I made cinnamon pecans a couple of days ago:

 

Yesterday I made peanut brittle.  The two batches came out very different.  First batch:

 

Second batch was much lighter and more “brittle”:

Both are good.  I’m guessing that the temperatures were slightly different even though I used my thermapen. 

 

 

I've got some of the "debris" left from breaking up the brittle:

Any ideas of something good to do with this.  I mix the crumbs and shards of sponge candy with chocolate and make what I call "Happy Accident Candy" - it resembles a Crunchie bar (the best candy bar in the world, in my opinion) and I'd love to do something with these delicious scraps, too.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Kim Shook (log)

[Kerala]

Our Christmases are epic. For the first time we are going to rent a place away rather than have me or my sisters host, and for the first time we will have my niece's parents in law along. 16 of us, I think, for seven days in a cottage in Bude, Cornwall.

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I made cinnamon pecans a couple of days ago:

 

Yesterday I made peanut brittle.  The two batches came out very different.  First batch:

 

Second batch was much lighter and more “brittle”:

Both are good.  I’m guessing that the temperatures were slightly different even though I used my thermapen. 

 

 

I've got some of the "debris" left from breaking up the brittle:

Any ideas of something good to do with this.  I mix the crumbs and shards of sponge candy with chocolate and make what I call "Happy Accident Candy" - it resembles a Crunchie bar (the best candy bar in the world, in my opinion) and I'd love to do something with these delicious scraps, too.

I'd do the same thing with this and the chocolate.  I'd snarf that down in a heartbeat.

[liuzhou]

Well, they arrived.

 

 

The question now is can I resist until Christmas? Maybe just one to test?

 

[chromedome]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Well, they arrived.

 

 

The question now is can I resist until Christmas? Maybe just one to test?

 

Gotta make sure they weren't damaged in shipping, right?

[Kim Shook]

I had two successes and one failure yesterday.  I made chocolate fudge and Reeses Cup fudge (chocolate and peanut butter):

This is my mother's family recipe and has been made for over 80 years.  My mother remembered her aunt making it when she was a little girl.  It's made with milk chocolate (my great aunt specified Hershey's in the recipe - I tend to use the Trader Joe's Pound Plus bar, but the times I've used Cadbury were the best) and is very smooth and creamy.  

 

The top layer is just a half recipe of the chocolate fudge, but the PB layer is unusual.  It isn't cooked - it's just 10X, PB, brown sugar, and melted butter.  Over the years, I've added PB chips and PB powder to up the flavor, but that's it.  It does have to be refrigerated or it breaks down.  But it has a lovely texture - similar to the inside of a Reeses cup.  Hence the name, I suppose.  

 

My failure were my iced almonds - they are basically a glazed almond cluster.  I just overcooked them - they are much too hard and taste burnt.  I'll give them another go today.  I have to wait until someone is around to sprinkle coarse salt on top of each cluster as I dollop them out.  

 

[Tropicalsenior]

@Kim Shook your Reese's fudge sounds very similar to a recipe that I made when I lived in Michigan. It was chocolate peanut butter pinwheels. You spread a layer of chocolate on waxed paper and then you spread a layer of peanut butter, powdered sugar and something else on top. You rolled it up into a pinwheel and cut it off in thin slices. The recipe was on all the powdered sugar packages and I didn't even think about it when we moved to Reno. Different sugar company, no more recipe. I've hunted for that recipe forever because it was so good.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Reeses Cup fudge (chocolate and peanut butter):

Kim, would you be willing to share your recipe? I just went through the internet again and there are tons of recipes but not a one of them are like the one that I used. The peanut butter filling on yours sounds very close except for the brown sugar. And it seems like it would be a lot easier than trying to roll the suckers up into pinwheels. As I remember it was a real PITA.

[Kim Shook]

8 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Kim, would you be willing to share your recipe? I just went through the internet again and there are tons of recipes but not a one of them are like the one that I used. The peanut butter filling on yours sounds very close except for the brown sugar. And it seems like it would be a lot easier than trying to roll the suckers up into pinwheels. As I remember it was a real PITA.

I'm always happy to share!  This is the original recipe for the Reese's Cup fudge.  I never cared for the chocolate layer in that recipe, so you'll see in my notes that I now use a half recipe of my Aunt San's fudge instead.  Also, I now add about a bag of peanut butter chips and probably 1/4 cup of peanut butter powder to the mix in the peanut butter layer.  If you can't get ahold of those things, don't worry - I made this for 35+ years without them and there were never any complaints! 

[Tropicalsenior]

@Kim Shook thank you so much. I love your recipe pages. So easy to share and there is never any second-guessing with your recipes. I think that the original recipe that I used had chocolate chips and shortening for the chocolate layer so that's probably what I will use. The fudge sounds great but we can no longer get Hershey's candy bars here. I don't know why but they've just disappeared. I asked a couple places and was told that Hersheys no longer made them. That's their standard answer down here.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I'll be joining cousins for a big Christmas Eve dinner.  I was asked to make the same caraway and blackberry slaw that I made for Thanksgiving.  It's bright and colorful and holds well. 

 

And they asked for the banana pudding that I ordered from ZEF BBQ so that's easy peasy. I added some smoked turkey to my order to make the minimum!

 

[gulfporter]

Speaking of chocolate and peanut butter treats, I often make Buckeyes and find them fast and easy to make and always popular.   Half the batch I make in traditional manner, for the other half I dip the balls totally in the chocolate and top with 1/2 or quarter of walnut (depending on size of nut).  

 

Balls and nuts in the same sentence.  Sorry!

Edited December 9, 2023 by gulfporter (log)

[blue_dolphin]

22 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

Speaking of chocolate and peanut butter treats, I often make Buckeyes and find them fast and easy to make and always popular. 

 

What are buckeyes?  I have a bag of these buckeye beans but suspect that's not it!

[gulfporter]

15 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

What are buckeyes?  I have a bag of these buckeye beans but suspect that's not it!

 

Buckeyes are the State Tree of Ohio....similar to horse chestnuts, if that helps.  When the outer layer is removed it looks like photo #1.

 

The candies look like photo #2, though I smooth over the hole with back of a spoon.