The Good Plate

Archive for the ‘Christmas’ Category

Your Goose is Cooked!

Dickens’ Christmas Dinner Menu

• Christmas Salad
• Roast Goose with Sour Cherry Sauce
• Chestnut Stuffing
• Wild Rice
• Haricots Verts
• Christmas Pudding

I lucked out this year and got a free range goose! I was so happy when I found it that I was jumping up and down. It was going to be a Dickens’ Christmas after all!

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness¹, were the themes of universal admiration….

In half a minute Mrs Cratchit entered — flushed, but smiling proudly — with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

`A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us.’
Which all the family re-echoed. `God bless us every one.’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 1843

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re going to have a Dicken’s Christmas this year. I’m roasting a goose, and I’m serving Christmas Plum Pudding for dessert. The journey to this pudding has been long and interesting.

Getting suet was difficult. Why? Because most people don’t buy suet, so it’s hard to come by. What is suet you ask? Suet is the hard fat around the kidney of a cow or sheep. Suet has a high burning point, so it’s perfect for making such things as Christmas pudding and mince meat.

I had mince meat pie that was made with suet, and it is truly superior to that which does not have it. So many people said “Ew!” to suet that manufacturers removed it from the ingredients, thereby producing a far inferior product. It’s been so vilified that younger butchers don’t even know what it is.

I finally found a butcher who had it, and asked my friend to pick it up for me, as he was closer to the butcher shop. He brought me this mass of fat, and I put it in the refrigerator. So, today, I started actually making the pudding.

I decided to use a recipe from Housekeeping in Old Virgina. Actually, I used a combination of the various recipes. They all had the same thing in common, equal amounts of bread, suet, eggs, brown sugar, and raisins. This was some true eyeballing.

Read the rest of this entry »

I really like giving stuff I made in my kitchen to my friends, neighbors, and Spane’s school. So, this year I decided that I was going to give out some of the fudge and cookies that the kids made at the Kid’s Christmas Party on Saturday.

Life has been hectic since then, and Spane really wanted to help me to decorate the Roll Out Cookies. Today was also the last day of school before the winter break, a perfect opportunity to give his teacher and the front office some nice treats.

We got up very early this morning and started our project. The first thing I did was cut up the fudge in nice pieces. I put a little cappuccino and a little Peppermint on each plate, then wrapped each plate in some nice Christmas tissue paper that I tied with a red ribbon that said “Kiss the Cook”.

Of course, I saved one of the plates of fudge for our house. As I write this, most of it is gone. Oh, well, I can make more.

Then it was time to decorate the cookies. I separated the cookies into groups. There were nine flower looking cookies, and a dozen Christmas trees, but various other assorted cookies. The Christmas trees I knew had to have green icing, and I thought the flowers should be white.

I have found the best icing for cookies is Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Vanilla frosting in the can. I put some of it into a microwave safe bowl, and heated it in the microwave for about 10 seconds, or until it was runny. You have to be very careful not to let the frosting burn, because it will get so hot it will melt the plastic container it comes it!

Then I took a tiny bit of green Wilton food coloring gel and mixed it in thoroughly.

The cookies were on cooling racks over baking sheets. This helps keep the area clean because the icing can drip. This also keeps whatever you might want to sprinkle on the sheet, and not on your work surface.

To paint the Christmas trees, I simply used my small silicon pastry brush and painted the green icing on. After I put the cookie back on the rack, it was Spane’s turn to decorate the cookies with multicolored jimmies and multicolored candy covered sunflower seeds. I used a bit of rock candy as the tree topper.

After the icing had dried a bit, I put the cookies on the same serving dish that still miraculously had three of the White Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies I had made on Saturday.

Then it was time to do the flower cookies. For those, I poured the white icing directly on them, and then sprinkled chopped peppermint on them. Then I put a glacé cherry in the middle.

Spane wanted to take the cookies to school with him for the classroom party, but I said, no, all the other cookies I have decorated have been given away, but not these. I promised him the we would make more cookies for Valentines day.

It gives you a warm feeling in your heart when you give someone a cookie, and they bite into it. Then the corners of their mouth starts to come up, and there is a big, giant smile on their face. I’m not talking about kids, I’m talking about adults, but kids do that, too. To see that smile on someone’s face after eating something I made just makes my day.

Today is the 17th of December, in the year of our Lord, 2011. My friend Valencia had emailed me about having her child come for a sleep over a few weeks ago. Spane then came to me and asked if his other friend could sleep over. Then Spane and Noelle started practicing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer at the park, and the idea sparked in my head to have a kid’s Christmas party.

So, today we’re baking and making candy. I’m writing down the recipes on cards that I’ll give to the children so we won’t have to do anything with the computer except take pictures.

Here’s what we’re going to make:

• Fudge -
  • Peppermint Fudge
  • Cappuccino Fudge
  • Fruity Fudge
• Cookies -
  • White Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies
  • Roll Out Cookies

Before we get cooking, here’s a little entertainment for you. Presenting Mr. Leo, Mr. Spane, and Miss Noelle doing their rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Amber and I are backup singers (seriously, we’re off camera).

Read the rest of this entry »

So, this morning, I got a while hair up my rear. Whilst thinking about making waffles for breakfast, I looked in my pantry and spied a jar of peanut butter, a can of Spanish peanuts in their skins, and a box of Dark Hershey’s cocoa. Reese’s peanut butter cups jumped to mind.

The choice of peanut butter is important in this recipe. Don’t go for the extra cheap peanut butter that has no flavor. Since the recipe has Spanish peanuts, you will want to use creamy style peanut butter, Jif is my favorite.

Ah yes! The time has come again to get all those tools out for the Holiday cooking. These days are pretty hectic, so it’s important to have your tools on hand, and that they are clean and in working order.

I’m always surprised to see people buying cooking tools that only do one job. A friend of mine went out and bought a Quesadilla maker, that couldn’t be used for anything else, and she already had several frying pans that were perfectly suitable to the task. That, to me, is a waste of time and money.

So, what I’m going to talk about here are tools that you can use any time of year, and that can be used for many jobs. I have all these products in my kitchen.

I’ve done a lot of shopping for you, found the best prices, and best products. This is a no-brainer! You can shop for the products by clicking on the link provided, or the picture, the choice is yours.

1. Stand Mixer
2. Food Processor
3. Cookie Press
4. Cookie Sheets
5. Nesco Roaster Oven
6. Electric Knife
7. Knives
8. Measuring Tools
9. Timer
10. Thermometer
11. Mitts
12. Bowls
13. Organizer

Read the rest of this entry »