Christmas dinner?

[Guest]

Hello everyone! So, what people like to cook for the holidays? For us this time of year, we like homemade pierogis.

[Overland]

Those look fantastic.

We make biscochitos, lots of them, and use the same dough for my infamous roasted red chile cherry pies 🌶 🍒 🌶  (this one I made half regular cherry for a couple delicate tongues we’ll have for dinner tomorrow.)

 

[rideandfly]

Wow, the  pierogis and pies look wonderful!!!!! 

Debbie has been cooking this afternoon! We will be having shrimp, grits, collard greens, spaghetti squash, and Key Lime Cheese Cake tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Guest]

Wow Overland! That pie looks incredible! And I would love to finish up with some Key Lime pie, rideandfly 😋.

[SeaDawg]

Christmas goes on for several days in our family. 

Christmas eve day brunch included ham, fruit, smoked salmon, eggs, and vaffler, those norwegian heart shaped waffles that we all love.

Dinner used to be traditional fish, or oyster stew. This year, prime rib on the smoker, perfect medium rare. Tomorrow,  brunch/early dinner at my Florida sister's. I'll bring the quiches. We'll not do lutefisk and lefse, but I'm sure that's on my Minnesota sister's menu .

We feel blessed to enjoy tradition and new, and, more importantly,  enjoy the company of family and friends. 

[topgun2]

I assume that the pierogis are filled with mashed potatoes?  Nicely done no matter!

Like a bunch of "Bills" cherry pie is one of my favorites but I'm not so sure about that "roasted red" side.  Perhaps with enough wine during the main course I'd be right there with the best of them?🤩

We could not find a nice ham locally for Christmas dinner tonight - so - we bought and will have a nice beef roast instead.

January is going to be painful as it is then I will be paying the price for eating too much!

Bill

[rideandfly]

Could not take a photo until today, shrimp, grits, collard greens, squash spaghetti, and bacon! Finishing off with Key Lime Cheese cake and Hot Cinnamon Spice tea!

[Overland]

Looking good. I do like a symmetrical plate. 😀

[Guest]

Bill, we filled a third with a potato mixture, a third with sauerkraut, and a third with a roasted beef/pork mixture. 

Ride and fly’s plate is very well presented. Nice colors and agree with Overland, nice symmetrical plate. 

[2008RN]

We area little boring I smoked a citrus turkey that I soaked in a Citrus Brine.  Started smoking a midnight last night and pulled it off at Noon.   My wife made a Pecan pie, loaded with Pecans, with a snack of smoked cheese, sausage and smoked candied Pecans. 

[Patriot]

We mesquite smoked a brined and lemon pepper dry rubbed 7# roaster in our Traeger pellet grill. Enjoyed a few sides and I actually skipped desert which was a pumpkin cheese cake. 

Oh the crispy bacon!

[2008RN]

Looks great,  I love the addition of the bacon.

[dewdev]

All those pictures make my mouth water. They all looked great.

We cooked Lobster and shrimp for our Christmas eve dinner. Cooked two extra lobsters, so we had lobster sandwiches this afternoon.

Chocolate and cheri cupcakes with ice cream on top for desert while play cribbage. 

[Guest]

Dewdev, 

It’s hard to beat lobster!  Sounds great. 

[thompsonkd]

Hey Overland! Would you mind sharing the recipe for the pie? 

[Overland]

2 hours ago, thompsonkd said:

Hey Overland! Would you mind sharing the recipe for the pie? 

Sure thing:

Taoseño Pie

Roast, peel, seed and chop:

3-4 medium red chiles

Mix in saucepan:

2 T cornstarch

¼ cup sugar (none if using sweetened cherries)

 

Add and heat until thick:

Juice from 2 cans of cherries (preferably dark unsweetened)

Add: 

½ t almond extract

2 cans drained cherries

 

Line pie or tart pan with dough from biscochito recipe, add cherry filling, decorate with biscochito shapes. 

 

Bake on convection at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

 

Biscochitos

Cream: 

1 cup sugar 

1 cup lard plus 1 cup butter

 

Add:

2 eggs

4 t Cointreau 

2 t vanilla extract 

Zest of one orange

 

Mix separately, then slowly add:

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

2 t cracked or whole anise 

6 cups unbleached all purpose flour

 

Roll to ¼”, cut into shapes, and bake on convection at 350 for 12 minutes. 

 

The biscochito recipe is pretty standard, but you can look online for variations.  If I’m making them just for me, then I’ll use all lard rather than half butter, but some people don’t like that flavor and half and half still gives a good texture.  I usually sneak in a little extra anise for me as well.  The pie is my own invention - I call it Taoseño Pie because I like saying Taoseño  …Taoseño…  Maybe they’ll name something for me one day.  You’ll find plenty of green chile apple pie recipes around NM but I’ve never seen cherry and red chile, which is odd to me because roasted red chiles, especially the native NM varieties, have really strong cherry notes, imo.  So I think you’ll find that the flavors meld really well, and to me has just the right amount of heat.  Pair it with some vanilla ice cream if you want to cool your tongue.  I’ve also made it with a few spoonfuls of green chile added in but that ups the heat considerably.  So, experiment.

bon appetit 

[thompsonkd]

Thanks Overland! I like the idea of anise; the more the merrier in my opinion. Cherries, chilies and anise?-very unusual. Maybe we can call it Overland Pie? 

[Boudicca908]

Overland Pie!  

[Overland]

Lol, well it does travel well, but I’ll decline the honor. I can teach you all how to make a Snowball cocktail though. 🍸😂

[thompsonkd]

Okay, how do you make a Snowball Cocktail? Maybe we should call the pie Snowball Pie? And, would  the pie and cocktail go well together?

[topgun2]

12 hours ago, thompsonkd said:

And, would  the pie and cocktail go well together?

If you have enough of the cocktail prior to the pie then what does it matter?🤩

[SeaDawg]

54 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

If you have enough of the cocktail prior to the pie then what does it matter?🤩

Maybe if you get a set like Ina Garten's lockdown shaker and martini glass?

[Overland]

21 hours ago, thompsonkd said:

Okay, how do you make a Snowball Cocktail? Maybe we should call the pie Snowball Pie? And, would  the pie and cocktail go well together?

Probably not, since it's citrusy.  But cognac pairs well.  It's pretty snooty pie.

To make a Snowball and impress your friends:

1. Make one of these.

2. Insist that its original name was a Snowball...which it was.

In a pinch, you can make it with Disaronno instead of orgeat, since the latter is impossible to find.

[SeaDawg]

1 hour ago, Overland said:

Probably not, since it's citrusy.  But cognac pairs well.  It's pretty snooty pie.

Pretty cocktail, but I think I'd enjoy the cognac, more. 🙂 

 

[SeaDawg]

So, tonight my neighbors brought me a most unusual Christmas gift, a Swiss two tiered raclette grill. I've never seen, nor used one, but I  think it will be a fun new Christmas tradition for our families to enjoy together. (She was born in France, but her mom has lived in Switzerland for many years.)

If any of you have great recipes or ideas to share, I'd love to see them.