BS: Holiday Eating

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Hollowfox
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 03:53 PM

My family fruitcake recipe thanks you, Kim C. Long ago, I stopped using the little squares of sort-of candied fruit peel in mine. Instead, I get every kind of dried fruit I like that I can from, dried apricots to banana chips, and set the kids to work cracking a huge variety of nuts (don't even go there, 'Spaw). Then we put 'way too much of both into the family batter and bake it nice and slow. Solid, Jackson. Even teenagers love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 03:28 PM

The highlight, oddly enough, is not the Christmas dinner for us. We started before we had kids and we still do the same every Christmas morning. Karen makes a "Bubble Ring" which takes a good bit of time for raisng and such, so we get up real early. Bubble Ring is basically a cinnamon roll of sorts....sweet dough balls (about an inch in diameter) rolled in butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, then layered into a bundt pan and baked. I build a fire, the house smells great, and the kids get up and we have coffee and milk with the Bubble Ring down by the fire and the tree while we open presents.

Somehow this little tradition has surpassed any dinners for us. New Years has become the big dinner day with us and we include "luck" foods from places we've lived and friends who come. Its become one helluva' monster anymore and pretty diverse with Pork Roast and kraut, blackeye peas, turnip greens, crab cakes, etc.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Kim C
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 03:26 PM

There are some good fruitcakes out there, usually the homemade kind.

This weekend, I make plum pudding and hard sauce. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: kimmers
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 03:25 PM

I make fruitcake from English recipes; does that mean that mine may be acceptable?

Spaw, sorry, but you'd better do what your cardiologist sez. Can't help you there! Physicians are as vulnerable to holiday gluttony as everyone else; we just try not to get caught by our patients (such as when I have the grocery cart loaded down with wine and cream and butter and cheese and bacon and chocolate...)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Jim Krause
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 03:07 PM

I'll have seconds--no thirds, please.

And as far as fruitcake goes, the American version may be inedible, but my dear sainted Mother's Boozebread is to die for, not because of. It is flat Good! Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: MarkS
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:59 PM

Mrs MarkS makes homemade fruitcakes every year and sends them to one and all. Oh well, I still love her, she puts up with me!
MarkS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:46 PM

kimmers....You're a Doc aren't you? If so, I have to say, you're my kind of Doc!!!! Could you have a word or two with my cardiologist? I tell him the same thing and he doesn't seem to get it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: kimmers
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:38 PM

I will say, though, on the inevitable subject of calories: Save your calories for the wonderful things. Live it up on the eggnog and pecan pie and smoked salmon and taters and gravy, and ignore the things you can get any old time. Why eat plain bread or dry turkey or ice cream out of a carton or lousy packaged cookies? Concentrate on the special, ephemeral dishes that you won't see for another 12 months; then you'll at least get the most mileage out of your gluttony.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Bert
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:36 PM

Tasty. I'm NEVER tasteful!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: kimmers
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:35 PM

Alex, I think I need to invite you down for dinner. You sound like my kind of dinner guest!

I'll be having the family (both sides) over on Christmas Day for the annual event of gluttony. We're starting with Crab and Shrimp Bisque, made with half-and-half. This will be followed by Virginia ham glazed with honey and mustard, sweet potatoes with praline sauce, greens with garlic and tomato, corn bread dripping with butter, and ending with pecan pie and coffee. No booze, though, too many recovered (and not-so-recovered) alcoholics. Seconds will be enforced, exercise will be banned, and not a single carrot stick or lettuce leaf will be allowed in the house.

Burp.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: MMario
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:26 PM

A Hershey bar never survives long enough in my possession to melt.

bert - was that "tasty"? or "Tasteful"?

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:15 PM

I remember hearing about a family (American) who had a fruitcake made by Great-Aunt Lydia 110 years ago. They put it on the table every Christmas, but everyone's afraid to eat it. Although given the nature of fruitcake, it's probably just as edible now as it was 110 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Bert
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:08 PM

I guess I'm not so tasty since I've been over here.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 02:02 PM

Does it live in the glovebox that's lined with the melted Hershey bar Mario?

Bert, does this explain why you are more aceptable than I am? English Fruitcakes are OK, but American one's aren't? I sense some discrimination here............Come to think of it, where does that leave you as an Americanized English Fruitcake?

Spaw(:<))

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: MMario
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:38 PM

The american version of fruitcake is inedible. I have a piece in my car I use to hammer nails with. SWEAR! I can get people to vouch for that. It's about 14 years old at this point I think - maybe a bit older. Looks the same as the day I was given it.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Bert
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:35 PM

Of course you must realise that the fruitcake warning only applies to AMERICAN fruitcake. If it's an English Christamas cake then eat all you can.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Clifton53
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:34 PM

Very good Mousethief, LOL at the 'Santa cookie' part and the mashed potato volcano. But I would add that no mashed 'tater volcano is complete without an artery clogging glob of butter positioned in the center and then add the gravy boat contents and watch the butter melt before you dig in. Also very important to follow the gravy at all times, making sure you know it's position on the table at any given moment, as well as how much is left inside.

Eggnog is great with Scotch, and I've had it that way a few times, but using Bacardi's 151 is almost an epiphanous event. And of course, the nog itself provides the stomach lining needed to ingest alcohol of such power, so you don't need to eat anything until dinnertime! Just a thought.

Enjoyed your list

Clifton53

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:29 PM

Yum. Yum. Yum. Me too.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Eating
From: MMario
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:24 PM

Amen. Amen. Amen.

What I tell you three times is TRUE

Subject: Holiday Eating
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:12 PM

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

I hate this time of year. Not for its crass commercialism and forced frivolity, but because it's the season when the food police come out with their wagging fingers and annual tips on how to get through the holidays without gaining 10 pounds. You can't pick up a magazine without finding a list of holiday eating do's and don'ts. Eliminate second helpings, high-calorie sauces and cookies made with butter, they say. Fill up on vegetable sticks, they say. Good grief. Is your favorite childhood memory of Christmas a carrot stick? I didn't think so. Isn't mine, either. A carrot was something you left for Rudolph. I have my own list of tips for holiday eating. I assure you, if you follow them, you'll be fat and happy. So what if you don't make it to New Year's? Your pants won't fit anymore, anyway.

1. About those carrot sticks. Avoid them. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnogaholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello? Remember college?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. You can't leave them behind. You're not going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards, mate.

10. And one final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips. Start over. Remember: Cookieless January is just around the corner.

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Alex