Annual Christmas and Holiday Thread

[HungarianGypsy]

I'm not being politically correct when I add holiday to the title of this thread. There are so many things to do in the next few weeks. But, my favorite holiday is actually New Years. Probably because it's my anniversary.

Also, I have no free time the next few weekends. So, it would be wonderful to have some quick meal ideas as well.

So, have some fun. Share your food and your memories. I'll go dig up mine sometime before Christmas. ;-)

[snugs]

What is corn mix?

[snugs]

Here are some tips on pastry for Christmas plus one Britain's favourite Christmas recipes Sausage Rolls

[SnarlinCubBear]

I think it's corn meal. Like flour, but from corn, not wheat.

[HungarianGypsy]

It can be found in your flour section. It's used to make corn tortillas. Masa Harina is a brand name.

[ThomasThomas]

I'm not being politically correct

First your told color in between the lines, later your told to "Think out side the box" I always have had trouble finding the stupid box. Now all this PC rules stuff. I think I got it.

In between the lines.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Out of the box.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year.

PC

errr... never mind.

[Rte66]

Oh, I made sausage rolls one time, at the suggestion of an Aussie friend.

They were fun because I learned a new technique to making rolls like that. I used kitchen twine to cut them apart - laying it under the long roll and crossing over the two ends and pulling them tight.

It's really cool because it sort of closes up the ends that way. I wanted to make something like kolaches that way, too, but never tried. It would have been sausage rolls with little miniature smoked hot dogs instead of loose sausage meat in the center.

Would be cut the length of each little sausage. Do you call them "little boys" in the UK?

[snugs]

Would be cut the length of each little sausage. Do you call them "little boys" in the UK?

Not that I am aware of but there is a euphemism for chipolata which is a thinner longer sausage. We call the very small chipolatas cocktail sausages because we often serve them cooked on cocktail sticks as party fare

[Rte66]

Not ever having tasted a chipolata, I've tried to conjure up in my mind what I think it must taste like - but that's a pretty futile exercise.

It *sounds* Italian, so I keep thinking of Italian sausage being made thinner, lol. Of course, *explaining* what our smoked cocktail sausages ("Lil Smokies") taste like is probably just as useless.

We'll just go with our imaginations, then. Yummmmmm, these are gooood!

[Rte66]

It's really "dough mix," like Bisquick for tortillas. Yikes, you probably don't know Bisquick, either.

Masa harina, translated literally, means corn flour, but it's really finely ground hominy - or dried posole. It has been through a lye treatment process that makes it taste quite different from corn - and it's *not,* I repeat, NOT, your "corn flour," which is our cornstarch.

The texture is nothing alike and the taste is nothing alike. Masa harina tastes like something! Like wet tortillas!

Can you get dried posole or dried hominy there - even grits? If you have a way to grind (would need to be an almost commercial-strength grinder) it, you might be able to get close.

You could also try grinding very finely some regular cornmeal - like you make porridge or cornbread with. Do you have cornmeal, called as such?

You make pone, or corn sticks, or hush puppies, or "mush" with it. Do you know it?

[Rte66]

Christmas Ham

There were three really neat ideas yesterday morning on GMA for fixing a Christmas ham. They were all done by Emeril and looked beautiful, so I wanted to pass them along to the FReeperKitchen crew. (Had hoped to link to the photos, but they're not on the GMA site - only the recipes are.)

My favorite in the "looks" department was the cinnamon one, with cinnamon stick pieces holding orange slices in place all over the outside of the ham. Very pretty!

Here are the recipes - the root beer one is a take-off on the ever-popular Coca-Cola Ham recipe.

~~~~~
Sugarcane Baked Ham with Spiced Apples and Pears

12 sugarcane swizzle sticks, each cut into about 3 inch pieces
1 hickory smoked ham, spiral sliced, 8 to 10 pounds (no bone, water added, cooked)
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup Steen's 100 percent Pure Cane Syrup
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds (about 4) Granny Smith apples
1 1/2 pounds (about 4) Bartlett pears
2 dozen medium buttermilk biscuits

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a shallow roasting pan with parchment or waxed paper. Insert the sugarcane sticks into the ham at 3- to 4-inch intervals. Tie the ham, using kitchen twine, at 2-inch intervals horizontally and vertically to keep it together. Place on a wire rack in the roasting pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, cane syrup, molasses, corn syrup, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon. Mix well. In a small bowl, dissolve the mustard in the water, then add to the spice mixture. Blend well. (Makes about 2 1/2 cups.) Brush the entire ham with the glaze, coating it evenly.

Wash, core, and halve the fruit. Place all around the ham. Baste the ham a second time and baste the fruit with the glaze. Bake for 45 minutes.

Baste the ham and fruit again. Bake another 45 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the ham registers 150 degrees F. Remove the ham from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. Remove and discard the string and swizzle sticks. Serve the apples and pears on a platter with the ham. Serve everything warm or at room temperature. Serve with the biscuits.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

---

Root Beer-Glazed Baked Ham

One 12-pound to 15-pound fully cooked ham, bone-in, scored decoratively
4 (12-ounce) cans of root beer
4 tablespoons pepper jelly
2 bay leaves
¼ cup Emeril's Steak Sauce, or your favorite steak sauce
2 teaspoons pepper sauce (recommended: Caribbean Pick-A-Pepper)
8 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 oranges, zest and juice
2 lemons, zest and juice
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 teaspoon bitters (recommended: Angostura)


Instructions

Place all of the above ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan except the ham. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until the root beer is reduced by 2/3 and takes on a syrupy consistency, about 30 minutes. Remove the glaze from the heat and strain into a clean, heatproof container. Set aside until ready to glaze the ham.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trim rind and excess fat from the ham, leaving a ¼-inch-thick layer of fat. Score the ham in a decorative diamond pattern. Place the ham in a large roasting pan and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Remove the ham from the oven and brush the top and sides with the root beer glaze. Return the ham to the oven and continue to cook, glazing every 15 minutes and tenting the ham with foil if browning too quickly. Cook until a thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the ham registers 150 degrees F, about 45 minutes to one hour longer.

Remove the ham from the oven and let rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature, thinly sliced.

Yield: 12 to 20 servings

---

Cinnamon-Citrus Glazed Ham

One 9-pound fully cooked ham, bone-in, scored ¼-inch deep in a diamond pattern
10 3-inch cinnamon sticks cut in half lengthwise into 20 pieces
4 navel oranges, sliced crosswise into 1/3-inch slices (20 slices)
5 lemons, sliced crosswise into 1/3-inch slices (20 slices)
10 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon black pepper
One 13-ounce jar orange marmalade
¼ cup light brown sugar
½ cup orange juice
½ cup water
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the ham, cut side down, in a large roasting pan. Insert the cinnamon sticks partially into the scored ham at even intervals. Skewer one orange slice and one lemon slice onto each cinnamon stick and push the slices down so that they fit snugly against the ham. Tuck the bay leaves around the orange slices. Sprinkle the ham with the black pepper. Bake the ham, uncovered, until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F, about 2 hours. Baste the ham with the glaze during the last hour of cooking.

Make the glaze when the ham first goes into the oven: Combine the marmalade, brown sugar, orange juice, water, hot sauce, ginger, and cloves in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook until mixture reduces to a glaze consistency and coats the back of a spoon.

[HungarianGypsy]

Re-Ping for the Freeper Kitchen!!

It's Christmas Eve and there are only 29 replies on this thread. That's shameful folks. Christmas recipes or New Year's appetizers. Have at it! Maybe I'll even tell you about my prime rib if this gets going. ;0)

[A knight without armor]

Bring on the prime rib!

I never, ever heard of tamales for Christmas until recently. Then I read a children's book called Too Many Tamales. It is a lovely story.

http://www.amazon.com/Too-Many-Tamales-Gary-Soto/dp/0698114124

I like tamales. The only tamales I've ever had are the ones in a glass jar in the grocery store. They are good. I used to know a security guard that brought a jar of them for lunch almost every day.

[NRA2BFree]

Thanks for the ping! All I can say about this thread is "YUM!" LOL!

[varina davis]

mark

[varina davis]

Probably 'cause there's another long thread: Christmas dinner traditions.

[NRA2BFree]

I decided to add my favorite cookies to the thread.

Caramel Cookies From Kristy's Recipe box.
AKA: Death by Carmel Cookie :)

"Based on an old South American spoon treat."

Yields 20 cookies.
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup shortening, chilled and diced
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

===========================================

1) To Make Filling: Pour the condensed milk into a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until hot. Stirring constantly, lower the heat to low and continue to cook the milk takes on a golden color, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Transfer to a bowl and cover directly with plastic wrap. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

3) Combine the flour, 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, and the salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening and the butter until crumbly. Beat in the yolk and the cream. Mix to form a dough, adding more cream if necessary.

4) Roll dough on a floured counter to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2-1/2 inch rounds and place on ungreased sheets. Prick the top of the rounds a few times with a fork.

5) Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are light brown. Cool on sheet 1 minute and remove to rack. Spread the filling on one half and sandwich with another round. Dust cookies with confectioners' sugar.