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santa kisses

Cookies/ Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Santa Kisses

Just about any kind of kiss is a good kiss!

But, for the holidays, these are especially nice and so easy to make, and, for some reason, I keep hearing Marilyn Monroe singing “Santa Baby” —

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me

I’ve been an awful good girl

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight”

(I have some Santa Kisses for you!)

Find a you tube version of this song — you’ll love it!

 

I remember when I was a kid my grandmother would buy these certain peppermint sticks that my grandfather liked. I think the brand was Bob’s and they were twisted sticks and they were so much fun to twirl in your mouth until you had a really sharp point on the end of the stick. My grandmother always seemed to like the peppermint balls that kind of melted in your mouth. And, my little brother use to love peppermint canes and sometimes at Christmas we would try and buy the biggest stick we could find and I’m sure it took months for him to eat the whole thing.

I made this recipe for two parties I catered this season and will be making them for my family as well.

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Dessert/ Desserts/ Ice Cream

Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

Chocolate and peppermint for Christmas!

If there are two things just made for each other it has to be chocolate and peppermint; just think of peppermint bark, peppermint hot chocolate, York peppermint patties, and even those thin mint Girl Scout cookies and you will be wanting to make this dessert.

A friend, Miggie, recently told me her favorite ice cream was HEB’s Creamy Creations Mexican Hot Chocolate and it got me to thinking about my Santa Kisses cookies which are meringue cookies with thin layer of chocolate on bottoms and dipped in crushed peppermint. So, I’m immediately thinking about pavlovas (dying them pink) and making them into shells dipped in chocolate and crushed peppermint candies and topping with a big scoop of the Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream and garnishing with some more crushed peppermint. So that is exactly what I made for a recent dinner party and everyone loved them. Thanks Miggie for the recommendation.

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Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Garnish

Smoked Cured Egg Yolk

A new culinary adventure!

Ok, so this isn’t much of an adventure but more of a “what else do I have to do with my time anyway” now that Thanksgiving is over and you are sick of looking at food.

My son, Scott, is always sending me some interesting food recipes to try; like his 24 hour No Knead Breadb or gravlax and now these cured egg yolks.

Like Scott, I didn’t want to waste a bunch of eggs the first time I tried making this yellow ball that looks like a dried apricot when you are done with it at the end of a long week. So at the end of this week, I had only one yolk to show for my 168 hours of watching and waiting and I grated it carefully not wanting to waste one speck of this yolk over some smoked salmon and sour cream that I put on top of my Herbed pizzelle. I can’t say that I thought it tasted any different than an egg but it was so pretty grated; like a big puffy pile of yellow.

Salt curing is the oldest method of food preservation that simply involves covering food with mixture of sugar and salt to draw out the moisture of the food. This method changes the egg yolk to a firm little flatten yolk that has the consistency of parmesan cheese; put it on your veggies (I tried some roasted asparagus), salads or spaghetti carbonara. Maybe put the grated yolk in your compound butter or wouldn’t it be wonderful on top of some avocado toast.

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Food Stories

Southern Inspired Meal

First we eat, then we play!

My husband and I were born and lived the first 21 years of our lives in the “bootheel” of Missouri. We were just across the Mississippi River from Tennessee and on the border of Arkansas so we feel like we have always been “southern”; maybe not deep south but we definitely claim southern roots.

Southern cooking runs in our blood, bacon wrapped everything, cornmeal battered, deep-fried, fresh from the local farmers market or your own garden. Some of our southern favorites growing up were fried chicken, black-eyed peas (any kind of pea), gravy (mostly milk gravy), fresh-side pork (pork belly), smothered everything. Talking about food always brings up memories of “my mother made this, or my grandmother made that”.

Since everyone, even if not from south of the Mason Dixon line, seems to have a love affair with comfort foods, we decided to do a modern take on some down home favorites for our annual Friday night Feast meal after Thanksgiving. Most of our meal was inspired by things we all remember whether you are from Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana or anywhere in between.

So, our meal started off with an amuse bouche (my dish) of buttermilk soup with cornbread. For me, that brought back memories of my grandfather drinking (or eating) buttermilk with cornbread crumbled up in his big goblet glass.

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desserts

Cakes/Frosting:

Almond Cornmeal Cake w/Sour Cherry Sauce and Goat Cheese Topping

Amalgamation Cake

Autumn Apple Cake

Blackberry and Raspberry Upside Down Cake

Blueberry Lemon Cake

Brown Sugar Heath Pound Cake

Cafe Beaujolais Marble Cake

Caramel Apple Cake with Rum Sauce

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Chocolate Cream (Dream) Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Drunkened Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

Fresh Peach and Raspberry Cake

Green Velvet Cake in a Jar

Heart Shaped Devil’s Food Cake

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Lemon Coconut Cake

Lemon Pudding Cakes with Preserves

Lemon Raspberry Pound Cake

Mama’s Butter Cake

Mini Double Chocolate Berry Cakes

Mocha Chocolate Ice Box Cake

Orange and Almond Angel Food Cake

Pink Lemonade Cake

Raspberry Applesauce Cake

Snowball Cake

Sugar Plum Cake

Very Berry Cake

Vienna Sacher Torte

Whipped Cream Frosting

Coffee Cakes:

Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake

Butter Scrumptious Coffee Cake

Lemon “Goat” Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Candy:

Almond Joy Candies

Bacon and Eggs

Chocolate Beer Pretzel Toffee 

Coconut Date Skillet Candy

Date Nut Roll

Honeycomb Shards

Migas Bark

Pecan Divinity

Princess Marshmallows

Purple Kiss

S’more Chocolate Bark

Pies/Tarts:

Angel Mango Pie

Cherry and Peach Strudel

Chocolate Angel Pie

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

Chocolate Tacos

Coconut Oatmeal Pie

French Apple Tart

Kentucky Walnut Pie(AKA D-E-R-B-Y Pie)

Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Tart

My First Summer Fruit Galette

Raspberry Cheese Pie

Rustic Citrus Almond Tart

Tropical Rum Cream Pie

White Chocolate Key Lime Pie

Other Desserts:

Almond Cherry Clafoutis

Amaretto Date Shake

Apple Fritters with Creme Anglaise

Bananas Foster Napoleon

Banana Split Dessert

Blackberry Creme Brûlée 

Blackberry Cobbler with Cream and Pistachio Dust

Blackberry Peach Bourbon Cobbler

Brown Butter Pecan Bark

Cannoli

Caramel Nut Ice Cream Dessert

Chambord Ganache Raspberries

Chocolate Banana Quesadillas

Chocolate Martini Blox

Chocolate Mint Brownie Dessert

Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Chocolate Pecan Cobbler

Chocolate Tacos

Chocolava

Christmas Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Dreamsicle Cupcakes

Eton Mess

Floating Island (Eggs in Snow)

Frozen Fruit with Hot White Chocolate

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Grilled Pineapple Dessert

Irish Cream Cheesecake

Julia’s Berry Clafoutis

Kahula Coffee Shake

Key Lime Crunch Snack Mix

Lavender Peach Cobbler

Lemon Sorbet with Mint Marigold Syrup and Meringue Bark

Nutella Cherry Dumplings

Nutella Strawberry Banana Crepe with Chocolate Sauce

Mandarin Orange Napoleons

Mile High Berry Dessert

Mocha Chocolate Icebox Cake

Oatmeal Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

Orange Tian

Pavlova with Fresh Fruit

Peach and Raspberry Enchiladas with Creme Fraiche

Peach and Strawberry Crunch

Peach Tart with Raspberry Sauce

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Peppermint Delight

Princess Marshmallow S’mores

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Pumpkin Walnut Squares

Quick and Easy Banana Pudding

Raspberry Ciabatta Bread Pudding

Raspberry and Pistachio Cobbler

Roasted Pecan Dip with Fruit

Salted Caramel Beer Sauce Waffle Dessert with Bacon

Snowball Cake

Strawberry Shortcake

Summer Fruit Shortcake

Tiramisu

Tropical Key Lime Cheesecake Sticks

Tropical Rum Cream Pie

Very Berry Breakfast Pudding

Very Berry Cake (Cobbler)

Wine Poached Pears with Almond Cream

Cookies & Stuff:

Almond Butter Cookies (Gluten Free)

Babe’s Pumpkin Cookies

Baby Button Cookies

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies

Chocolate Espresso Pizzelles

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Coconut Shortbread

Cowboy Cookies

Crisp Lavender Cookies

Espresso Almond Meringues

Frosted Molasses Cookies

Gingersnaps

Homemade Graham Crackers

Hunka Hunka Love Cookies

Key Lime Crunch Snack Mix

Linzer Heart Cookies (with Chocolate)

Marvelous Macarons

Peanut Butter Shadow Cookies

Pumpkin Biscotti with Chocolate and Pumpkin Seeds

Sable Cookies with Flowers

Santa Kisses

Toasted Coconut and Lime Shortbread Cookies

Watermelon Cookies

White House Cookies

Bars:

Breckenridge Bars

Cheesecake Brownies

Coconut Chocolate Raspberry Bars

Lemon Raspberry Bars

Nanaimo Bars

Nutty Toffee Peanut Butter Bars

Pineapple Bars

White Chocolate Raspberry Bars

Muffins:

Banana Rum Muffin

The Best Blueberry Muffin

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Golden Egg Muffin

Mississippi Spice Muffin

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin

Raspberry Chocolate Muffin

Raspberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Strawberry Goat Cheese Muffins

 

Ice Cream/Sorbets:

Amaretto Date Shake

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

Black Walnut Ice Cream

Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

Buttermilk Ice cream with Bourbon Peaches & Friends

Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

Coconut Almond Ice Cream

Coffee and Ginger Ice Cream Sandwich

Ginger Cantaloupe Ice Cream

Lemon Basil and Port Fig Sorbets

Lemon Sorbet with Mint Marigold Syrup and Meringue Bark

Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

Mango Pineapple Sorbet

Peach and Cherry Custard

Peachy Pistachio Ice Cream

Peachy Raspberry Ice Cream

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Popcorn Ice Cream

Raspberry Nutella Gelato

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Strawberry Goat Milk Ice Cream

Watermelon Basil Mint Sorbet

Fruit Desserts:

Blackberry Peach Bourbon Cobbler

Candied Orange Quarters

Coconut Banana Puffs

Frozen Fruit Salad

Oatmeal Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

Peach Melba Crunch

Summer Fruit Shortcake

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Food Stories/ Salads

Michie Feast Day — Hawaiian Style

Aloha, Komo Mai, E komo mai, Mahalo!
Hello (friends and family), Come in, Welcome, Thank you (for coming and participating in our feast).
 
Menu:
 
Sushi Musubi (Spam Sushi)
Corn Crab Bisque
Poke
Hawaiian Coconut Crusted Shrimp with Orange Horseradish Lime Sauce
Bitter Greens with Yuzu Dressing
Pork Belly on Steam buns with Hoisin, scallions and cucumber
Porcini Dusted Sea Scallops with Tomato relish and pea sprouts/micro greens
Kona Pale Ale Basted Suckling Pig served with
Hawaiian Coconut Rice Salad (recipe below) and Papaya Chipotle Salsa
Drunkened Pineapple Upside Down Cake Macadamia Coconut Ice Cream
 
MaiTai Cocktail
Hawaiian Beer
Wine (lots of it)

This was a night of cocktails, food (lots of it), wine, (no hula) lots of fun with family and friends.

We have been doing our Michie Feast Day for about 9 years now. We have done everything from frog legs, sushi, tapas, French Country, Italian, Mexican, oysters 7 ways, New Orleans and this year Hawaiian. This all started when my husband fried our turkey for the first time. After using 3 gallons of oil to fry the turkey, we decided we needed to use the oil again before throwing it away so we bought some frog legs and the rest is history. After that first year we moved on to other themes.

My daughter and her newly wed husband just returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii in November. So, a Hawaiian theme was quite fitting for this year’s feast. We got to hear all about their 27 mile bike ride down a volcano and all about the beautiful waterfalls and the food they sampled while there. My daughter-in-law, Brooke and her friend, Heather, made all our beautiful tissue paper flowers and decorated the tables. We even had a kid’s table with decorations (see pictures below). Our table always looks great when Brooke is put in charge.

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