Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

My favorite time of year!

I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Childhood memories are rich with holiday remembrances--not so much of gifts, presents, or toys. In my old country, the holidays were the two times in the year when imported festive food was bountiful on our family table--apples, grapes, pears, oranges, hot dogs, wafer-thin slices of sweet long cured chinese ham (the ones that hung for months in sack cloths), salami, cheddar and gouda cheese. Then, there are the Christmas Eve meal preparations--creamy potato and chicken salad with mixed fruit, slices of wonderful soft, white bread, cups of hot, steaming chocolate and, the ever present Spanish custard, flan. Long ago, the sight and smells of these foods enveloped me as a child with a sense of content, wonder, and joy. Now far removed in time and space, but ever near to my heart, I re-enact and evoke that familiar sense and feeling with the same ardent holiday fervor when I prepare to cook for the holidays.


Please share some of your holiday cheer here.

My favorite and go-to desserts for the holidays

Flan--this tops my list and goes back to the old country, as far as I can remember. For my impoverished family, FLAN was served on special and most festive of times--I learned how to make flan from my aunts, steamed on the stove, and watched over lovingly so that it cooks to perfection.

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Great thread! Let me look through some pictures of last year that will work! ~JaNan

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

We don't cook for Thanksgiving, we go for a hike and have a picnic up on the rocks instead! Nick, the dog on the right was one of our fosters that's no longer with us.




Then a little playtime at the beach on the way home! :)

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

[i] love a good prime rib for are gatherings !!!!!!!! :woohoonaner::woohoonaner::woohoonaner:

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Yum!!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Nothings better to me than dessert. Cheesecake, custard, anything like that. I also love shrimp :)

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

I keep forgetting that US Thanksgiving comes in November... Waaaay on back in October I was making Pumpkin and Sweet Potato pies, Death By Cheesecake, Flanarama, and Butter Tarts.

And nothing says Christmastime to me the way Turnips mashed with Potato, Carrot, a little Leek, and Cheese do.

MJ, are you from the islands originally?

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Kibbe nayeh is my all time favorite food!!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Yep, the Philippine Islands.

here 'ya go!

raspberry cream pie


serving size flan


kibbe nayeh [i found this image of this specialty food--raw beef, like beef tartar]]

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

My faves are (of course) the turkey & dressing, the tortes, and Black Forest cheesecake! Saw that fantastic prime rib earlier, Cherokee Greg, looks like pure joy! But my all-time, 24 hour fave is definitely, the cookie jar!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

People say "you don't always have to have turkey for Thanksgiving", so last year I made a excellent prime rib. I missed my turkey though so I just bought one - haven't had roast turkey for 2 years. Sweet tatoes w/ brown sugar & butter, mashed taters w/ gravy, sage stuffing (extra giblets), cranberry sauce & 2 veggies with pumpkin & apple pie! Oooh, can't wait!
mjd, you got a recipe for that flan? I never heard of it :) Looks great.

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Planning my turkey day menu (keeping it real simple this year)

1) Martha Stewart's brined roasted turkey (turkey is "soaked" overnight in brine solution of water, salt, seasoning, diced celery, carrots, leeks, onions, etc.); stuffed, covered with cheesecloth and basted with butter/wine broth every 1/2 hour in 350 degree oven for 4 hours.

I've served this turkey 2 years in a row, this will be the 3rd year; it comes out picture perfect (i'm talking magazine cover caliber), so succulent that if you squished it, juices would squirt and absolutely delicious. Leftover slices retain its juices.

2) giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, sweet potatoes

3) cranberry and orange marmalade; cranberry relish

4) flan and/or pear and almond cream tart

5) fresh brewed coffee

Gobble, gobble!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

By the time I get out of this thread, I'll be eating in my sleep! I'm definitely with Patty in Wisc on that Flan. Looks great and I'd like to know too!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

here's one i grabbed off the internet--it's pretty simple, and one that i use.


Ingredients

* 2/3 cup white sugar
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1 cup milk
* 5 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

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

2. In a small nonstick saucepan, heat the sugar over medium heat. Shake and swirl [swirl, not stir] occasionally to distribute sugar until it is dissolved and begins to brown. Lift the pan over the heat source (4 to 6 inches) and continue to brown the sugar until it becomes a dark golden brown. You may slightly stir while cooking, but continually stirring causes the sugar to crystallize.

Pour caramelized sugar into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish or a large loaf pan, and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan evenly. [for single servings, use small sized ramekins]

3. In a blender, combine sweetened condensed milk, cream, milk, eggs and vanilla. Blend on high for one minute. Pour over the caramelized sugar. [i pass mine through a sieve just 'cause i like the flan real smooth]

4. Place the filled casserole dish into a larger pan and add 1 inch of HOT water to the outer pan. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until set. [it's done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean]

Refrigerate to cool thoroughly.

To unmold, run a knife around the edge, then flip the flan over on a serving plate; the caramel-colored bottom should be on top.

Serve with your favorite topping--whipped cream, fresh fruit, etc.


*the tricky part is getting the sugar caramel just right; slow and easy does it; if you burn the caramel, just start over.

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

I gotta try that this winter. What is that sauce - looks like dribbled over it?

If anyone wants a fool proof roasting directions for a prime rib, let me know & I'll post it here. Perfect every time!
I'm so hungry now, I'm chewing my arm :)

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Traditionally that will be more caramelized sugar syrup and fresh shredded coconut.

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Thanksgiving 2008

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

My Christmas board of fare will be the following, since my Turkey Day was back before All Saints'

1. Drunken Turkey with Walnut-Mushroom Brandy Stuffing- the bird is cleaned, plucked, and placed in a pail large enough to accomodate it, then covered in Aguardiente for at least 2 days if not a week, then drained and roasted with butter, sage, parsley, cilantro, and slices of anise bulb. The stuffing is a family secret.

2. Neeps a'Mashie

3. 7-leaf salad with mustard-soy dressing

4. Green Potato Salad (it's not what you think it is.)

5. Flan

6. Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Pies

7. Red Bean Buns

8. Pedehe (although these actually count as breakfast, there are always leftovers to be browned in butter with red onion)

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Thanks Mjdsinsacto! That's really sweet of you!
Thanks Patty in Wisc! If you post that recipee, you'll save another arm, mine :D!

Re: Here come the holidays: share your favorite food, drink, home decoration
 

Thanksgiving08 slideshow by chebaby77 - Photobucket

Ok - It's not super fabulous & decorated for the holidays - I make good food, but I'd be broke trying to make it look like Martha Stewart does...:)

The bird is a 23-24 pounder as most of my turkeys are.
And a huge ham, with copious amounts of gravy for both!

Steve was gone last year, so I had my girlfriends Michelle & Alicia(whose hubbys were deployed too),
my BFF Rebecca & her husband Scott & thier son Jake, my MIL/FIL, my 5 kids & ex-husband. Everyone was full!
I didn't show all the desserts, there wasn't enough room on the table.

Hope you enjoy! :) ~Cheryl