Holiday Baking

Usually around Christmas, I do a lot of baking of sweets and breads. This season has been COOKIE-MANIA in my kitchen. I started by creating a chewy CHOCOLATE, BUTTERSCOTCH CHIP COOKIE that my family loved. Next, I wanted to recreate one of my childhood favorites...ARCHWAY LEMON FROSTED SOFT COOKIES. I used a copycat recipe I found online but after adding more lemon, the cookies turned out perfect. Then I had the grand idea to make COOKIE BASKETS for friends and family (...and teachers) as gifts. The baskets included my CHOCO-SCOTCH COOKIES, LEMON COOKIES, OATMEAL-CRAISIN-WHITE CHOCO CHIP COOKIES AND SUGAR COOKIES WITH SPRINKLES. After using my 9 year old's mathematical gifts, we calculated approximately 400 cookies total. The weekend scheduled (two Saturdays before Christmas) for cookie baking was a disaster because 4 out of the 6 inhabitants of my household contracted THE FLU. Thank goodness, my oldest and I were the 33% that remained healthy (moms NEVER get sick...maybe because we wash our hands properly??). It was difficult, but I created a fine product in my quarantined kitchen. I even made a beautiful COOKIE TRAY for my hunny's job.

Sunday Meal

My hunny decided he wanted something special for dinner on Sunday...PORK CHOPS WITH GRAVY, MASHED POTATOES AND ANY VEG. Well, I had some frozen pork loin chops (boneless) in the freezer, a bag of potatoes (and a new masher..yippeee) and some fresh brocolli crowns...sounded like dinner to me. I didn't make traditional SMOTHERED PORK CHOPS which calls for a light coating of flour on the meat. I simply seared the seasoned meat over onion, bell pepper and fresh garlic. From there, I removed everything from the pan and constructed a simple gravy utilizing a roux. After place the meat and onions, etc back into the newly-forming gravy, I covered the pan and cooked on low heat for an hour. The results were delicious.

Turkey Enchiladas

It's pretty much a universal notion, that when the breast meat is gone from a turkey, the other (dark) meat is reserved for TURKEY STEW, TURKEY GUMBO, TURKEY SALAD, etc. I tend to make TURKEY HASH myself (just like daddy used to make); this dish consists of turkey meat, smothered potatoes and peas served with cornbread. However, this year I was inspired by a Facebook friend/former coworker to prepare TURKEY ENCHILADAS served with my famous SPANISH RICE and SPANISH CORN WITH BLACK BEANS. On the day of prepartion, I had about 2 cups of turkey meat left, half an onion, half a bell pepper and a few sliced mushrooms. I paired those sauteed items  with shredded cheese rolled in corn tortillas topped with a sour cream sauce and it was ¡Muy delicioso! It fed my  family of six for 2 nights.

Pizzas

After nearly four days of eating Thanksgiving leftovers, my 9 year old was begging for something different..PIZZA!!! Usually I prepare my pizza using store-bought refrigerated pizza dough; however, I'm transitioning to where almost everything my family consumes is fresh and homemade. With that being said, it was overdue time for me to make my own pizza dough from scratch. I have tasted homemade pizza dough in the past and realized that it's usually BLAND as all get out; so, I tried my best to avoid that. It was a very simple recipe that I added garlic and onion powders to the batter in order to kick up the flavor. Typically, I would omit the pizza sauce when making my pizzas because I tended to make huge "pizza pockets" or calzones instead of the traditional open-face version;but, I was making a traditional pizza and I needed marinara sauce.  The sauce wasn't very involved, just crushed tomatoes and spices simmering for an hour. I had a huge steamer plate attachment for a extremely large stockpot I possess  (the thing is so big that baby Maelena sits in it and plays); so, I used the plate (it had holes for steaming) covered in foil as my pizza pie plate (it made a large 12" pizza). The pizza turned out very yummy the first night; but, the crust was still slightly bland. The next night, I put more of the garlic and onion plus a few additional spices in the dough mixture; but, once I rolled the dough out on the plate I sprinkled garlic, onion and a pinch of salt on the dough before adding the toppings. The result this time around was truly amazing. The crust was perfectly flavored but not over-powering to the sauce, cheese and toppings. This pizza is definitely making the cookbook...so eat your heart out big pizza chain because I'm coming for you!!

Thanksgiving Miscellaneous

A few small changes occured or were inspired during my prep for the holiday.
  First, my honey purchased me a new, red, non-stick, aluminum pan that I adore soooooo much. I cooked with it several times and the experience was goosebump enducing. I actually got jealous when my honey asked to use it. I think I will call my pan ALBERT, because he is divine.
  Next, my trip to the farmers' market was very productive. I bought some new honey collected a few miles from my home. I was able to taste the product before purchasing and the experience was nearly orgasmic (tee hee...). This honey was light tasting which was a contrast to its dark coloring; but, the mix of berries and flowers intertwined with honey was mind-blowing.  It made my sweet potatos and rolls amazing. We also purchased some fresh strawberries for the house. Peaches are no longer in season, so I had to settle with frozen.
  My two desserts ended up with some additions not previously thought of until the day of conception. As mentioned in my previous post, I added a topping of candied pecans to my sweet potato pie. I used butter, brown sugar, and ALBERT to make the candy so it would be easy to cut through unlike making the candy with corn syrup. I also got the inspiration to put strawberries in with the peaches to make a STRAWBERRY-PEACH COBBLER. The final result got mixed reviews because the filling was not extremely sweet; however, I prefer my fruit pies/cobblers on the tart side just like my daddy used to make.
  Overall, the newly added changes were accepted and great.

Thanksgiving Day

The day before and the day of Thanksgiving were very exciting. I cooked all the dishes that would taste better the next day, I.e. green beans, sweet potatoes and desserts, on the Eve of Thanksgiving. I also rearranged my home to accommodate for entertaining adult guests and not children. I did have a few hiccups during the process. While making my SWEET POTATO PIES, I accidentally put in 1/2 cup of baking soda instead of 1/2 teaspoon; needless to say, my pies looked like a science experiment...but thank goodness for tasting because those pies hit LA BASURA (the trash) as soon as they cooled. I was able to make one more pie using my homemade, flaky crust and the correct measurements of ingredients. I also caramelized some pecans fresh from my friend's tree and drizzled the candied nuts on top of the pie. My final disaster happened while the turkey was roasting. I tend to roast my turkey overnight at a very low heat (250°) while basting every 2 hours. Well four hours in, I awoke to a semi-smoke-filled kitchen. My oven has a glitched (that was supposedly repaired last month) were the temp increases to about (500°) on its own. Thank goodness the temp had only increased for approximately 30 minutes because the turkey was beautifully golden and juicy...the smoke was due to the drippings in the pan burning. So, two burns on my right hand and several hours later, the gathering was a success. My table was exquisitely decorated by yours truly and the guests loved the dishes that my Honey made as well. After Thanksgiving Day ended, I gave my daughters a break and I tackled ALL the dishes; then, I literally hibernated, reading books for 3 days.

PERSIMMONS

Welp...it has definitely been a very BUSY few weeks for me with the Thanksgiving holiday.
  However, after a little over a month after the initial purchase, my family was able participate in the tasting of the ripened fruit known as the PERSIMMON.
  I will describe the experience to the best of my abilities. As mentioned in a previous post, the persimmon started to turn a deep crimson, orange as it ripened. At the time of our tasting, the skin was actually loosened from the flesh, like the skin on a boiled potato. Once I cut slices out, the flesh resembled that of pumpkin without the strings. Also, very similar to a beet. The minimal amounts of juice were VERY sticky to the touch.
   Considering the size of the tiny fruit, there was not much to share amongst four people...not to say that we wanted seconds after the first bite. The fruit was slightly sweet like a juiceless peach/nectarine. It was like eating honeysuckle fresh from the vine with that small hint of sweet honey flavor. The off-putting part of a persimmon is the texture on the pallet of the mouth. With flesh like a beet, you would think a thin slice would go down easy...NO! It was a VERY GRITTY texture in close comparison to licking/eating a raw/uncleaned RUSSET POTATO (I know you have experienced that failure as a child...or adult). There was no way getting around that AWFUL texture. It literally made us run to the sink or trash can to rid ourselves of the horrid taste.
  Overall, I can understand why this fruit called the persimmon is mainly used in marmalades since it does have medicinal qualities and it has a sweet taste. However, I DO NOT believe I could endure eating it in a pie unless cooking it somehow breaks down the texture.  But as a side note...for a fruit that I barely heard of outside of a street or old lady's name, I have stumbled upon this "rare" fruit a lot in the last few weeks. Also, OPRAH used them in her centerpiece for her Thanksgiving table where they were more inviting to view in vases than on my plate.