MissWattson

Assembling the great Bûche... After I made the double recipe of bittersweet chocolate truffle mouse, the Bûche recipe says to line a jelly-roll pan (just a baking pan with rims) with aluminum foil, like I had done for the Chocolate Soufflé pastry (see previous post), and freeze … [Read more...] about The Bûche de Noël: Alice Medrich’s Christmas Log

Bittersweet Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, Dried Apricot Oatmeal Cookies, and old-fashioned Gumdrop Oatmeal Cookies The Oatmeal Cookies, a family recipe, but if you ask me for specific quantities I'll give it to you. Food should be shared, especially cookie recipes. This is the one … [Read more...] about The Cookies Part 2 – Oatmeal Variations on a Theme

Wow, I made it through all the recipes for savoury dishes at the Great Christmas Party 2009. I even made it through the chocolate soufflé pastry layer to go with the Buche de Noel, but I'll save the stories of the ridiculous amount of meringues that remain for the rest of the … [Read more...] about On to dessert: The Cookies Part 1 – Chocolate and Mexican Chocolate Cookies

The other hot hors d'oeuvre for the Great Christmas Party 2010 were a gourmet take on meatballs. I'm sorry but taking lumps of meat on a toothpick and dunking it in barbecue sauce down-grades the class of a party. That may seem snobby, but meatballs have a time and a place, and … [Read more...] about Indian Lamb Cocktail Koftas (Chhote Kofte): Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking

I should have left the poor baguette alone. I love smoked trout (and smoked salmon, the recipe's substitute if no trout is available), I love dill, I like yogurt, lemon, chives and pepper, but this was gross. 50% of the testers of this spread disliked it violently. I don't … [Read more...] about Disgusting Smoked Trout Spread on Baguette

There are two recipes for Rogan Josh in Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. I've made the first and was disappointed. the flavour was off, and it wasn't as full-bodied and epiphanal as it should have been, despite all the fresh spices. but I love this book and I decided it was worth … [Read more...] about Satisfaction and Christmas Eve Indian: Madhur Jaffrey’s Kashmiri Lamb Rogan Josh, cabbage with peas (bund gobi aur matar), basmati rice and yes, naan

Perhaps I'm being a bit overly ambitious. I am catering my family's Christmas party. This is not chips and dip. This is not even fruitcake and pigs in a blanket. To give you an understanding of what I have to live up to, last year my buffet and hors d'oeuvres menu was grouped … [Read more...] about Great Expectations-Christmas Challange 2010