Christmas Dinner

[Dagstag v 2.0]

Pork crown roast, rice casserole, creamed corn (surprisingly delicious, I don't even like corn that much), candied yams, roasted tiny carrots with dill. Rolls with butter.
For dessert, a caramel pie with meringue and SO's mom's amazing cherry pie that has a layer of sweet almond paste at the bottom.

[sweetie darling]

I made (I think it was) Lily's recipe for brisket and it.was.great!! I can't believe I haven't made brisket in all these years. Lots of other kinds of roasts, but not brisket in the oven. I made close to an 8 lb'er for 4 adults. My two nephews ate the majority, killing it off the next day in sandwiches. I was hoping for more leftovers but as it happened, I saw a sale at a local store, so I went and bought 2 more briskets the day after Christmas. One I froze and the other I made to eat and freeze already cooked (nephews are gone). The 2nd attempt I played with the recipe, adding Porcini mushrooms, beef base and red wine. I'll reheat it today and get a better idea of how the changes helped or not.

I also made a kale salad, twice-baked horseradish & cheddar potatoes, and browned-butter string beans.

[caribougrrl]

so, the label on the frozen duck says "thaw in refrigerator overnight, or 2 hours in cold water"

being distrustful, I took the duck out of the freezer 3 days before Christmas... on Christmas Eve, I poked at the duck to find it was still frozen solid!  so I filled the sink with water, stuck the duck in it and went to bed... in the morning, the duck was squishy, so, much gladdened, I stuck it in the fridge

at 1 pm, I took the duck out to find that the fatty layer on the outside was thawed, but the center was still frozen solid... so the duck sat under cold running water for 3 hours before I finally let go and admitted defeat.

we had a lovely meal of vegetable/chickpea pie and fatoosh


I cooked the duck on Saturday, and it was fcking delicious.

[srsly]

so, the label on the frozen duck says "thaw in refrigerator overnight, or 2 hours in cold water"

being distrustful, I took the duck out of the freezer 3 days before Christmas... on Christmas Eve, I poked at the duck to find it was still frozen solid!  so I filled the sink with water, stuck the duck in it and went to bed... in the morning, the duck was squishy, so, much gladdened, I stuck it in the fridge

at 1 pm, I took the duck out to find that the fatty layer on the outside was thawed, but the center was still frozen solid... so the duck sat under cold running water for 3 hours before I finally let go and admitted defeat.

we had a lovely meal of vegetable/chickpea pie and fatoosh


I cooked the duck on Saturday, and it was fcking delicious.

Oh no. I risk salmonella poisoning by soaking our duck in warm water all.day.long. Then the recipe I found online suggested that I leave the duck on a roasting pan all day to dry out the skin and brought to room temp. I roasted it for longer than the recommended roasting time. No one got sick from it. I will do duck for next year's Thanksgiving. It's by far more delicious than turkey.



Here's my first Yule log made with a package of cookie mix that I had to improvise into a sheet cake filled with my pumpkin macaron filling. Got rave reviews for it:

[Run Amok]

My dad made this for dinner-- it was yummy! It's something I never would have made-- because it sounds like it will not be that great. But, it was actually terrific!

[diablita]

Mags, that's a lovely cake but why did you choose to use a mix?  I make "pionono" (the name for roll cakes in Peru) ALL the time and can suggest some different cake bases for next time if you'd like.

[srsly]

Mags, that's a lovely cake but why did you choose to use a mix?  I make "pionono" (the name for roll cakes in Peru) ALL the time and can suggest some different cake bases for next time if you'd like.

We call it ¨pianono¨as in ¨piano¨. And I don´t know if it´s true, but I was told that the reason for calling it such was that the process of rolling the cake is like playing the piano. LOL!

I used a bag of cookie mix because my son brought it last Thanksgiving with the intention of making the pumpkin cookies for everyone but he got held up in traffic and got in very late. Then I hogged the oven all day long. Anyway, I decided to use the mix because I didn´t want to wait til next year to use it. I went all ¨Chopped¨on it and turned it into a cake roll. So happens that I have some macaron fillings that was left over from my fall flavors so I used it as filling. It came out really good.

I would love to make this gluten free and thought of using your almond cake recipe next time I make a roll cake. I´d certainly be thrilled to learn of other types of cakes to use for this. Thanks!!