Food pics #31 - YouLookFab Forum

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Food pics #31

Runcarla

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December 1 means it’s time to ramp up baking! No more peanut butter, chocolate chip, or oatmeal cookies in the cookie jar. It’s time to pull out all the stops! I make double or triple batches of dough, bake half, and freeze the other half for another time. Family favourites are Empire Cakes, Sugar Cookies (Betty Crocker - 1950 recipe), Holiday Spice Cookies, Millionaire Shortbread, And Peanut Butter Balls.

My favourite holiday treat is fruitcake, but NOBODY in the family likes it, and it is something I’ve never made. DS#2 is working as a ‘mixer’ in an industrial bakery that makes many kinds of cake, including fruitcake. They had a one day sale of cakes that didn’t meet QA standards for appearance (nuts uneven across the top, irregular shape, etc.) so DS brought home 10lbs (there was a 50lb limit for each worker!)

Tomorrow no one is allowed in the kitchen after 1 pm, since I am doing a ‘rehearsal’ for our Christmas Eve dinner. I’m making my first ever duck! I am doing a recipe from a magazine called ‘Scandinavian Fruit-Filled Roast Duck.’ The recipe sounds kind of like fruit cake to me!

So, what are you up to in the kitchen? What are you eating? Fruitcake ‘yay’ or ‘nay’? Please share your stories and photos.

#1 Empire Cakes
#2 Sugar Cookies
#3 what 10lbs of fruitcake looks like
#4 coffee art from a local cafe (I love coffee art!)

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20 replies

Latest reply was from Runcarla

rachylou

Veteran

I made another pumpkin pie last night at midnight

I was thinking about looking for my Christmas cookie cutters and making iced sugar cookies this year. I normally do alfajores.

Staysfit

Veteran

It all looks tasty to me! I’m making pistachio lime shortbread cookies and candied pecans. Fortunately no one is allergic to nuts, but one person I know eats no dairy, and another is gluten free.

cjh

(website)

Veteran

I love fruitcake! Unfortunately I don’t enjoy baking enough to prioritize the activity, even for Christmas season. I might have to rethink this year, since my MIL, the source of cookies for the past 20 years, now lives in assisted living, with no access to kitchen.

If I motivate myself to make a couple of her old traditions, my favorites are date bars, cutout sugar cookies, Chinese noodle and chocolate clusters, and fudge. My own traditional cookies included gingerbread cutouts, 7-layer bars, and Rolo-pretzels.

When my girls were at home, we’d make up plates for the neighbors and have tons for ourselves. Then when we were just about sick of sweets, DD2 had to have a birthday cake! Good sugary memories.

1,2,3. Recent meals, and the table set for friends/company a couple weeks ago.
4 and 5. Thanksgiving buffet, including fruit tray on a lovely embossed metal tray with glass insert, which was a wedding present to my FIL and MIL 70 years ago. And my place at the dinner table that day.
6. Last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. It was kind of a shepherd’s pie idea, which turned out kind of gloppy but yummy.

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Glory

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I baked two squares last night as a trial for an upcoming cookie exchange. Total disaster from a visual and taste POV.
I’m back to the drawing board now slightly regretting that I accepted the invite . Thankful that I did a trial run:)

Anonymous

I hosted a cocktail party this past weekend, and it was a mix of catered and made-by-me stuff. I LOVE baking , especially at Christmas, but have trouble getting things to cut/slice/plate nicely so I've kind of given up and buy most dainties/goodie things from bakeshops. And I LOVE fruitcake. LOVE it. No one in my family will touch it, but I still buy one special chunk of it every year and eat it all myself. And I'm good with that I shared this quirk with my mother, and that makes me happy at this time of year.

Oh, and I also LOVE Imperial cookies - Empires to you Ontarians . I bought some Imperial minis from my fav bake shop and had those on hand at said party too. All gone

Runcarla

Veteran

@racheylou - pumpkin pie is my Favourite! Another thing I don’t make, because DH is allergic to pumpkin. Can I come over to your house?

@staysfit - does the shortbread take on a green cast from the pistachio and lime?

@cjh - you ‘do’ a lovely table! Did you make the place mats? We all do our thing, and I’m a Mad Baker. Since I’m in charge of goodies for our Tuesday night bridge group (mostly store bought, but supplemented with home made) and have two sons still at home and they bring friends over, I have an excuse to bake a lot. If it was just me and DH - it would be the Empire Cakes and Spice Cookies (which get better with age) and that’s it. I like eating other peoples’ baking, too.

@Glory - does it have to be a bar? Some cookie recipes (chocolate chip, oatmeal) can be baked in a cake pan and cut up into squares like a bar. That is how I make my oatmeal cookies. Good luck with your project!

@lisap - Yay team fruitcake! Confession: I eat it for ‘breakfast’ before I go swimming at 5:30 am. I’m doing an extra half hour of laps on top of my regular this month - LOL, No photos from your shin dig?

cjh

(website)

Veteran

Carla, yes, I’ve made lots of quilted placemats. I have two sets of woven blue ones that are over 35 years old, but I usually use my quilted ones.

Thanks for compliments on the table settings. That is one thing I love to do, though not super fancy. I have lots of pottery dishes and serve ware, some made by my brother who is a potter. Some I’ve bought at art fairs or farmers’ markets. I also love my old blue stoneware every day dishes, even though it doesn’t match everything. For Thanksgiving, I got out my wedding china for once, but I don’t use it often.

Helena

Veteran

Oh yum yum yum!! I love fruitcake too with sickly sweet almond icing ... The old school Irish kind. Delish! DD and I usually do some baking but it will probably wait until a few days before Xmas so they are fresh for Santa. I am hoping my Dad will have another crack at making my Mom's famous raspberry trifle too - he did a smashing job at Thanksgiving. But if he's not up for it I'll take a crack at that, too. My kids won't stand for Christmas without it

Anonymous

No photos - never though of it! I was pretty frazzled by show time on Saturday and not likely the most pleasant person to be around. I had worked all day and seriously underestimated what I had left to do for when I got home . Every time, I tell you.

Kathie

Veteran

I love fruitcake!! And, I love baking, but have never done much for the holidays. Two relatives send us chocolates for our Advent calendars, and there’s only so much sugar I want to put in my DSs. Or, at least, that’s my excuse. Your cookies look so good!

AJ

Veteran

I make pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Had to add this cut pic of the Thanksgiving dinner that DD made for her hamster, Bo. It was fun to have him at the table with us!

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kellygirl

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Omg, AJ. That is the cutest thing ever.
I LOVE fruitcake. I don't know anyone else who likes it. Last weekend I baked 28 loaves of pumpkin and banana breads to distribute at work. This weekend I'll be doing apple and buttermilk cakes for some of DH's customers. I like leisurely baking--this is more like work and isn't very fun. The only thing that keeps me doing it is the appreciation that people seem to have for home baked goods--it's surprising to me. I thought everyone could cook/bake but apparently, that's not the case.

Your empire cakes and cookies look good enough to be in a fancy bakery! I bet they taste as good as they look!

Molly Mac

Veteran

I love to bake but usually save my holiday baking for closer to Christmas. My holiday specials are chocolate pecan squares, peanut butter blossoms, and my husbands favorites, snicker doodles. My Mom makes amazing Chex Mix that everyone fights over. Like Carla, I am trying to put a little more time in at the gym to keep things balanced.

nemosmom

Veteran

You know, I don't think I've ever had fruitcake... I've heard about fruitcake, but I don't think I have ever eaten it.

My boys and I usually do cut-out sugar cookies (in Star Wars and dreidel shapes), but they haven't seemed as interested this year. My dad used to make a cheesecake with a cherry topping that was pretty good; I'll have to see if he will send me the recipe!

rachylou

Veteran

AJ, hamster Thanksgiving is the cutest!

Lol. I tried to get Lilypup to sit at table with me, but her manners are too good for that. She removed herself off the chair and away to a proper distance. Lol!

L'Abeille

Veteran

Tomorrow I will "stir-up" the fruitcake I have made every year since my mom and I discovered the recipe back in the 70's: it's a a light fruitcake with golden raisins, pecans, and orange liqueur.

I have a too-long list of Christmas bakes that I WANT to make, but my now-grown kids have pointed out there isn't even time to eat it all. Especially because the Big Days have their own customary desserts: a Buche de Noel (Yule log cake) on Christmas eve when we go all traditional French Canadian with a tourtiere (meat pie), and plum pudding on The Day when we do traditional English goose or turkey.

But my must-have list includes shortbread cookies (bought or made by me) and something ginger. This year, my mom and sister are coming, plus 2 nephews, but only 1 of my own kids will make it home from across the country. So I'm hoping people will eat the cookies... I have asked my mom to bring her traditional German Lebkuchen, if she is up to baking. And sis is doing keto, so after some googling of recipes and obscure ingredients, I then started googling local bakeries that would do keto sweets... The ginger balls appeal to me the most, but I'm sure she would go for chocolate. Anyone have experience or recommendations?

Some of my fondest memories are of the girls rolling out and decorating sugar cookies (which always look way better than they taste), and any year I have made or eaten Rugelach, which uses cream cheese instead of butter...yum.

Oh, and English style mince pies (mincemeat tarts)

OK this is why my kids told me to just stop.

rachylou

Veteran

Ok! I made lussekatter instead of cookies!

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JAileen

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This is what I make: caramel corn. I also made World Peace Cookies (Dorie Greenspan). I wish I had taken a picture. A friend said they were the best cookies she had ever had!

My son and his girlfriend are visiting, so I have to stop watching Inspector Morse. We watched several episodes of the British Baking Show which is very nice. Then we started watching Nailed It on Netflix. This is not to be missed. The contestants make me look like a pro. Very very funny.

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Laurie

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Made so much food this year, but no pictures because we were so busy!
I used to bake a ton at the holidays (pecan tassies, russian tea cakes, sugar cookies, chocolate dipped shortbread, biscotti), but have all but given it up. I did walnut squares (the Pecan Square recipe in the old Silver Palate Cookbook - 3 sticks of butter! I like it better w/walnuts). My son did gorgeous sugar cookies and brought a few home. But, we focused on the Christmas Eve and Christmas night meals. Christmas Eve for 11 guests included citrus salad with seared scallops, stuffed shells with meat sauce and meat balls, spaghetti with calamari sauce, broccoli with lemon and oil, and cranberry cheesecake. Christmas night, and homage to Hanukkah, was brisket, scalloped potatoes, and green beans. Danny made challah, and we had challah french toast yesterday morning. He is a truly fabulous chef, and we work really well together. We divide and conquer. I cannot believe I used to do these meals alone, frankly. It's a full time job for both of us for 2 days.
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Runcarla

Veteran

Update:

#1 Christmas Eve - homemade scotch broth with homemade bread
#2 traditional Christmas dinner - ham, pineapple, mashed potatoes and green veg.

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