We’re closed for President’s Day, AND- celebrating that Tom’s wild health journey through the holidays turned out well, just in time for us to celebrate our 48th anniversary. Thank you Lord!
Present Day (AND President’s Day)
Posts Tagged: Holiday
Caramel Flan, Taste-of-Home Style (+ 200-serving Recipe)
We were knee-deep in flan this past week, making 210 servings for our church’s annual Women’s Christmas Dinner. We learned: do NOT let 2 1/2 lb. of sugar get to the golden stage- it’ll be too late! (Turns out, the sugar gets to critical mass, continuing right past the golden stage, right on to the stinky brown stage, before you can even get it out of the pan and into the baking dish…) But hey, a single recipe of this should turn out just fine 🙂
Strawberry Mousse in Chocolate Cups
This is one elegant dessert, but pretty easy to make. And… OMG- gluten-free!
I usually have frozen berries on hand, and even some gelatin, since I like using it in morning drinks to get the anti-inflammatory benefits.
What I’m saying is… You can probably pull this dessert together (if you’re like me, haha…). And everyone’s tummy will thank you. Nom nom…
Oatmeal Cookie Pie (AKA “Crack Pie”, “Shoefly”…)
This isn’t pecan pie. But it seems to be the “sensible”, rich cousin (cuz it has no nuts- get it?). A vehicle for butter, cream, egg yolks, brown sugar… Oh, & a buttery, oatmeal cookie crust!
Mashed Potatoes w/ Rosemary
This past year, I came up with a new recipe for mashed potatoes, and I’ll do it this way forever now. I cooked the potatoes whole, adding a few inches of boiling water to the pot, essentially steaming them. They take longer to cook than peeled, cubed potatoes, but oh. My. They were so good!
Poppy Seed Cake
I wanted to make a poppy seed cake for my husband’s birthday, but he hadn’t been too thrilled with the original recipe. Fine. He was right. The first cake was not exceptional. So I pushed myself to create a better dessert. “Poppy Seed Honey Cake” sounded awesome, so at least I had a good name.
I searched the web, but didn’t find anyone else who had used honey in a simple syrup to pour on while the cake’s still warm. But that was my plan. In my research, I did find an article about the virtues of not over-heating honey. Supposedly, the flavor is better when the honey isn’t baked into the cake, and it’ll retain more nutrients. Perfect—my plan was to thin the honey in a bit of warm water, then pour it over the baked cake. If it would have even more flavor this way, hurray!
White Chocolate Cake w/ Strawberries
I originally made this cake with cake flour. Well, I don’t make too many cakes, so the next time I went to use it, ew–it had bugs in it! So…I’m much happier with the alternative: using less regular flour and adding a bit of cornstarch. That brings the protein level to that of cake flour, and makes quite a light cake in the process.
Tres Leches Cake w/ Coconut
My husband says a cake can use a fancy name, to distinguish it from any average cake. Of course, a good recipe helps too! There are a lot of recipes for this type of cake, but I wanted one that wouldn’t leave me with pools of leftover Tres-Leches liquid. Yes, we managed to gag down…
German Potato Salad (Good Starch?!)
I always figured potato salad wasn’t exactly healthy. But what if it WAS? Turns out, cold potato starch (along with other “resistant starches”) can improve gut health, which can help with obesity, inflammation, mood (etc., etc.). Wow–sign me up, right?! Not only is potato salad a great comfort food and party food, to get scientific, cold potato starch contains certain “prebiotics”, which are highly beneficial. Hooray- a superfood for the digestive system, that tastes awesome!
Christmas Party Ideas: Yankee Swap/White Elephant with a Twist
We wanted to do something different for our New Deli Annual Christmas Party- there would be so many of us! So we played a new style of “Yankee Swap”. Each person had to follow specific directions- it was a blast!
