I didn't have time to go through and take step-by-step pictures of all the foods I made for Christmas. But I did get some good pictures of the foods I made. Enough for a food porn post.
The first thing I made were truffles. I followed this awesome recipe for Cookie Dough Truffles from a FoodBuzz friend Kristen King or user KrisKishere.
Then I made a batch of Bourbon Pecan Truffles. I put so much Buffalo Trace bourbon in them, I thought the ganache wouldn't set enough for me to form in to balls and dip in chocolate. But I learned a good lesson that you can never use too much bourbon. A recipe that called for 2 tbls. of bourbon was amped up with nearly a full cup!
Then I made Pumpkin Pies with Toffee-Walnut Topping. I made these pies before and they are really good and rich. It's exactly what you want for Christmas.
Then I made the stuffing. Originally I was going to make smoked oyster stuffing. But when I went to make the Sweet Potato and turkey bacon stuffing, it yielded me two large and very full 9x13 pans worth. Naturally I nixed the oyster stuffing. The stuffing was awesome. It originally called for bacon, but they folks I was making the stuffing for, the head of household doesn't eat bacon. But she is quite fond of turkey bacon. No problem at all in substituting. I also added fresh sage to go with the fresh thyme the recipe called for.
And lastly, I made Pfeffernusse. A German black pepper spice cookie. These are so yummy and fabulous they should be made all year round. I even had them a few days after Christmas with hot mulled cider with rum. They are wonderful. There are many variations to this cookie. I have used this recipe several times now and it's just fine.
And that was my contribution to Christmas. The only thing missing were chocolate cupcakes. The head of household requested a chocolate cake of some sort. As I went to make them, I discovered I had no more cocoa powder. Had plenty of hot fudge for frosting, but no cocoa powder for the cupcakes.
Just because I lied. I messed up my own URL (failsauce). That blogspot blog is someone else's. This is mine.
http://forpublicconsumption.wordpress.com/
Posted by: kat (thryn) | 01/26/2010 at 04:17 AM
I love oyster dressing -- but dressing posts always remind me of this from a couple years back, and because it kicked ass, I share:
One stick of butter
Two cups chopped pumpkin
Fourish cups of stale cubed/crumbled cornbread
Half a medium red onion
A cup or so of slice Baby Bella mushrooms
Two tablespoons fresh parsley
Two tablespoons fresh chives
One tablespoon ground sage
Two tablespoons rosemary
Two tablespoons tarragon
A bit of salt
A bit of cracked pepper
Half a cup of vegetable broth
Melted butter in skillet. Sauteed onions for a while. Added mushrooms and dried spices. Sauteed more. Added pumpkin and mixed it around. Poured into big bowl and mixed it up with the salt, pepper, fresh spices and veggie broth. Returned the whole concoction to the skillet, covered it and baked at 375 for 40 minutes. Removed foil and baked for another 10 minutes.
Tastiness ensued! The result was both sweet and savory.
Posted by: kat (thryn) | 01/26/2010 at 04:15 AM
Reliving all the Christmas eating with these pics...
Posted by: The Duo Dishes | 01/10/2010 at 02:27 AM
Your truffles are beautiful! Cookie dough truffles are exactly the kind of thing I will be eating this month when everyone else is dieting and starting on their gym memberships!
Happy New Year :)
Posted by: Erika from The Pastry Chef At Home | 01/05/2010 at 06:16 PM
Perfect recipe!!!
Recipes with chocolate is my favorite...
Posted by: dokuzuncubulut | 01/04/2010 at 06:28 AM
wow everything looks spectacular!!!!! bravo!!!!!
Posted by: pegasuslegend | 01/03/2010 at 04:33 PM