Christmas Cheer

I hope that all of my readers had a wonderful Christmas day, remembering the reason for the season - the glorious gift of salvation given to us by our blessed Savior.

We had a great day, quiet and peaceful. We made phone calls to loved ones and had a wonderful dinner with my parents.

Our menu was:

Peach Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham - this ham is from Burger's Smokehouse in California, MO, a City Ham. They do great hams and bacon.

For the peach glaze, I combined a can of Delmonte Harvest Spice peaches, drained, approximately 1/4 cup country Dijon mustard, about 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar. Pop that in the blender and then spoon over the ham while baking. (sorry for the pic, I forgot to take pictures until AFTER we ate - duh me!)


Winter Salad Supreme - just a nice green salad - I used mixed spring greens. Then top with Ranch salad dressing, some dried cranberries, tiny dice of swiss cheese and some caramelized almonds.

To make the caramelized almonds in a saucepan melt 2 Tablespoons butter. Then add 3/4 cup of sliced almonds. Stir and toast for about 4 minutes. Then add 3 tablespoons of sugar. Stir and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Dump onto foil to cool and break apart into little clumps.

No picture here as I used all the lettuce! Mandarin oranges are nice with this, instead of the cranberries - or use a vinagrette dressing.

Delmonico potatoes - I was looking for an Au Gratin recipe and stumbled across this. Very nice, we all loved these. From the Taste of Home Recipe book.

Makes an 8 x 8 pan.

5 medium potatoes

Scrub potatoes well. Place in pan, cover with water and cook 30-40 minutes or until fairly tender. Do not peel, do not cut. Drain potatoes and cool overnight in refrigerator. Take potatoes out, peel and shred coarsely. Grease an 8 x 8 pan. Place potatoes in pan.

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Place milk, cream, salt and spices in sauce pan and heat gently. When bubbles appear around the edge of the pan, stir in cheese. Stir in until good and melty. Pour sauce over potatoes and stir a bit.

Bake at 325F for approximately 50 minutes. I topped it with french fried onions for the last 10 minutes or so. Very moreish!


I believe next time I will stir in just a bit of lemon zest, spark it up a bit.

Brioche rolls - this is the recipe I posted earlier, please see the side bar under breads. Light and fluffy, smeared with real butter, a gourmet's delight! Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of these.

English Trifle - this is just my regular trifle, if you will scroll down in my side bar, I did a couple of posts on trifle earlier in the year. Homemade almond pound cake, sandwiched with seedless strawberry jam, sprinkled with Amaretto syrup. Then sliced strawberries (frozen) with sugar poured over top. Homemade trifle custard, flavored with a bit of rum extract on top of that. Then topped with homemade chantilly cream, some of my caramelized almonds and chocolate flakes. Can we say to die for?



All in all, a simple, yet quite tasty meal. As most of the prep work can be done the day before, very easy to execute also! I made the rolls, cake and trifle custard the day before. Also cooked my potatoes. The ham is as easy as taking out of the packaging, putting in a pan and baking, then glazing. The trifle just needed to be assembled. The salad was washed and put in a bowl, then toppings passed, as they were optional. That gave me plenty of time to enjoy the day with my family.

I hope each and every one of you had as good of a day!

The Little Things 2

Little. Tiny. Minute. Miniscule. Small. They all mean the same thing - not big. Not huge, gigantic, enormous.

Little things mean spending a little extra time. Going the extra mile. Staying up a few minutes later to finish. Getting up a little bit earlier to get it all done. Maybe not getting something you wanted so you can give something to someone else. Baking a cake instead of buying one from the local bakery.

I believe that if we will forget the big things for a while, concentrate on the little stuff, that the big things will not seem so important after a while. I have always had a dream of travelling to Europe. A big dream and I still have that dream. But I know that it will not be possible until I get some bills paid. (unless I have a rich relative somewhere that I don't know about!) But instead of bemoaning the fact that I can't go for a while, I am enjoying the simple pleasures, the little ones that don't cost. Watching the humming birds zip past. A cup of tea in the afternoon. Snuggling with my kitty. A library book.

I really think a lot of the pleasure that we get out of simple things is all in a mindset. You have to let yourself enjoy those things. Not take them for granted, or count them as nothing because they are not what you ultimately want. Still have dreams, yes, but do not let your dreams get in the way of enjoying every day life!

Now to trifles. I think what makes the trifle is the custard. Not too sweet, smooth, creamy, delicately flavored. So without further ado, I am giving you this practically fail-proof recipe for custard.

Trifle Custard
Makes 4 cups

2 cups whole milk (or as I used 1 cup 2% milk and 1 cup half and half)
2 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks
6 ounces granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon rum extract

Put milk and cream in a saucepan and bring just to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornstarch until smooth and pale. SLOWLY pour the hot milk/cream over the egg yolks, whisking all the time to temper the eggs. Return the mix to the saucepan, then cook over a gentle heat, whisking or stirring with a spoon until it thickens sufficiently to coat the back of your spoon. DO NOT BOIL. This does not get quite as thick as regular pudding. Pass through a fine sieve and refrigerate. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the surface of the pudding all around. Then cover with another sheet over that. Best to make this the night before. Now, for the best flavor, stir in your vanilla extract after sieving, while it is still warm. Add rum extract just before using, after cooling overnight.

Pour custard over top of fruit in trifle bowl.



Refrigerate.

Whipped cream

1-1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 1/4 cup sugar, superfine

Place cream in bowl. Add extract. Beat with electric mixer until frothy, then gradually add sugar in, beating all the while. Beat until fairly firm.

Cover top of trifle with whipped cream. You can decorate the top with whatever you like, I did not decorate mine this time.

Also, I did not manage to get a picture before the hungry horde at my house had devoured most of it!!



This was greatly enjoyed by everyone. So get out today, enjoy some little things!

The Little Stuff

Little stuff. Sometimes it means a lot. Read the fine print. Don't take the little things for granted. In our busy world of today, many times, the little things get overlooked. As for me, I appreciate the little touches. That little bit of extra effort makes everything worth while. A smile on a rainy day . . . a single rose . . . a cup of tea in the afternoon . . .a thoughtful note from a friend. They are certainly little things, but they mean so much.

I certainly can't afford the big things in life, so I try to make what little things I can afford really mean something. I try to put my personal stamp on whatever I make or do for someone, to let them know that I took a little extra effort. A little thing, yes, but I know that I took that extra time to make it special for someone. When I make something, I make it with love. If all I can afford is to make someone a meal for their special day or event, it will be all homemade and of the very best quality I can find.



I like little things. Miniature things seem to fascinate me. Little teapots and teacups. Little trinkets. Miniature roses. And I would much rather receive a few little things than one big thing. Just my nature I guess.

Little things are often called trifles. This term is often used disparagingly, as if the object being referred to is not worthy of notice. Well I happen to like trifles, so I am going to share with you a trifle that I made recently. In fact, this trifle was so big that I am going to give you the cake part today and the custard part tomorrow. I made this trifle by request for my mother on Mother's Day.

Right Proper English Trifle
Serves 12

Almond Pound Cake
2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter
3 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract



Cream butter and sugar in large bowl. Add sour cream. Combine flour and baking soda. With electric mixer at low speed, mix in alternately flour mixture and eggs, beating well after each addition. (1 egg, beat, 1/2 cup flour mixture, beat, etc.)Stir in almond extract. Pour into a greased and floured pan (Bundt or I used 2 loaf pans). Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour, 20 minutes or until tests done.

When cool, slice about 1/2 inch thick or so with a sharp knife.



Then spread half the slices with seedless raspberry jam and make miniature sandwiches with it.



Put the "sandwiches" in an attractive pattern in a clear glass bowl.



Now, most trifle recipes call for using sherry, but I don't like the flavor. So I used some Da Vinci amaretto syrup. Just a couple or three soup spoons and drizzled it over the cake.

Then top that with fruit. You can use what you like, fresh, frozen or canned. I had some lovely sweetened frozen strawberries that I used, probably about a quart or so. They were still slightly frozen when I put them on.



Now tomorrow, I will take you thru the homemade custard and then the whipped cream.

Note: I only used 1 of my loaf cakes to make a fairly big bowl of trifle. I also used only about half of the custard recipe, so you can easily half this and still serve probably 8 people at least.