Thanksgiving & Christmas recipes

If like me you are diabetic, or like my granddaughter (6 this week) suffer from epilepsy my contribution will be vital -

To make a very low carb, high protein, high/healthy fat, sugar free cake -

Approx -
Melted butter - 50 g
Ground almonds + desiccated coconut + milled flax - 100 g total
Baking powder - 12-15 g
Cake spices - 10 g
Flavourings as required, including non-sugar sweeteners
Mix roughly together
4-5 beaten eggs - about 200 g
Add to mix & beat thoroughly
Check that it is a "dropping" consistency - adjust with nut powder or olive oil
Spread into a buttered cake silicone "tin" about 20 cm square, 2-3 cm deep, or 25 cm diameter
Or individual cup cake moulds
Bake at 160°C for about 25 minutes
Check with knife test - slide a knife into cake & slide out - it should come out clean
While still a bit warm, remove from cake "tin" & allow to cool

Use fresh or keep in a refridgerator (or it will go mouldy after 2 days)
"Ice" with cheese spread & decorate with plastic, not sugar, items

 

I make it 2-3 times a week with variations including - cocoa powder (needs sweetener), tomato paste, grated cheese, grated carrot, ad lib.

 

For as long as I can remember, we always had certain recipes that we made for certain holidays. And we always had the holidays at grandma's house, which my aunt now lives in and is keeping the tradition. For Thanksgiving, I make 7 layer salad (it's really 6 layers because I don't like green onion) and it's made in layers, not mixed. I also make Hello Dolly bars, which is a 5th generation recipe passed to me by my mother-in-law. They are a graham cracker crust with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut flakes, and condensed milk.

For Christmas, we make mini pizzas, a special mix of sausage, Velveeta, and spices on mini rye bread. It works great as a crockpot dip with toasted rye or Fritos. My mom and I always baked tons of different cookies and fudge, and there's a tradition of the baby Jesus cake party. We bake small square cakes per everyone's request and everyone gets to put a baby Jesus in the cake and decorate them with sprinkles and icing and candy and have a great time together. The stipulation is that you have to bring your baby Jesus back with you the next year so you have to keep Jesus with you.

I love cooking and baking and experimenting with foods.

 

None, as do not like it, but will take Custard instead!

 

This holiday season is different. I am overeating and it needs to stop. I am probably still a pound underweight, despite months of overeating, but this needs to stop, and the holidays are bringing it to a head.

Today, I started getting rid of holiday food instead of buying more and preparing to cook. I gave the cookie cutters and frostings and sprinkles to the kids playing outside.

I feel more in control since I removed the food, but also sad. I need to really focus on the religious parts of this holiday this year. Yes, I know that Jesus was not born in the winter, but ... I need to pour myself into my studies, reading and prayers, and also take full advantage of the pause time.

It is cold and dark and silent and I am alone. Food is not going to fill this hunger. There are people that pay a lot of money and travel far away for the opportunity to retreat like this. I want to be a good steward of this opportunity and not blow it. For me, the first thing I needed to do was to put the fancy food away.

This year is different. I cannot believe it has only been a year since I attended a midnight mass in a small Catholic chapel tucked into a back corner of a large shopping and convention complex. How did all those adventures squeeze into a single year.

I hope I am not putting a damper on this thread, I am not meaning to do that. But ... I am just throwing it out there, that maybe this year might be different for others, too. Unless we are fasting, we need to eat SOMETHING.

If I go full steam ahead with the quiet retreat idea, maybe I want to bake a loaf of rustic homemade bread with whole wheat flour, honey, and olive oil.

 

Cornbread Dressing, My Way:

1. In a roaster pan, bust up two loaves of corn bread from a 8 x 8 Pyrex baking dish ( or from a 10" cast iron skillet). I know some folks prefer
a sweet, cake-like corn bread, but don't trash this dressing with
something like that.
2. Saute chopped vegetables - green onions, celery, bell peppers. Use
two or three bunches of onions, maybe 4. I get close to the bulb
when chopping but exclude most of the bulb from the mix.
3. Dump the sauteed veggies onto the corn bread.
4. Add boiled, chopped chicken. (Two or three leg/thigh quarters,
couple of breasts, maybe some wings). Of course you debone the
chicken. I always skin the chicken before boiling it also.
5. Add a can or two of black olives, sliced in half.
6. Pour broth from the boiled chicken onto the corn bread/veggie mix.
Take a long handled spoon (ladle) and thoroughly mix everything.
Add broth until mix is a little soupy.
7. Add powdered sage a teaspoon at a time, thoroughly mixing it into
the dressing. You may want to sample it as you add it. Sage can be
over-powering, but the right amount gives it a nice taste.
8. Add salt to suit yourself. I always get accused of over salting, so be
careful.
9. For the remainder of this experiment, put the lid on the roaster pan
and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. Check on it every 20
minutes and if it looks like it is drying out, add some more broth.
With a lid on it, it drying out shouldn't be a problem. After an hour,
remove the lid and bake a bit longer, maybe another 20 minutes.
Whenever you remove the lid, slide it to the side, keeping your arm
and face clear of the steam rising up from the pan.

I didn't give exact measures here because the cook will ultimately decide on how much bell pepper, celery, or anything else may be adequate. It could take two and a half loaves of corn bread, depending on how much other stuff goes into the mix.

 

Thanksgiving recipe? Hmm,

1 cup granulated thanks
3/4 cup praise, separated
1/2 cup fine articulation powder
1/2 cup sweet benevolence
1/4 cup greated peace
1 tablespoon softened inclusiveness
1 teaspoon ground by-your-leaves
Pinch of salty indignation to bring out the flavor

Combine thanks and articulation powder into a bowl of acknowledgment of the Most High's providence, carefully adding praise, separated from hypocrisy. Add sweet benevolence and softened inclusiveness to seek the poor in your neighborhood and invite them. Combine peace, inclusiveness, and by-your-leaves in a separate generosity bowl and allow them to begin to gel into an honorable proposal before adding them to the rest of the ingredients. Finally, add the pinch of salty indignation of neglect of the less fortunate in our world to bring out the flavor of charity. Now, combine everything into a round pan, with no corners or privileged positions; allow to rise; bake slowly and watch carefully to see that this main course is not overdone. Serve warmly and enjoy.