Quick, Easy And Affordable Ways For Making Traditional Christmas
By Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, Fri Dec 9th
Here are some ways to dress up the “traditional” favorites atyour Christmas dinner. PIE CRUST 1. Make your usual pie crust, 2-crust version. Line the pie tin,put in the filling, and now it’s time to play. Roll out thesecond crust and start cutting shapes – using cooky cutters orfree form with a knife. At Thanksgiving, for instance, up at myson’s house I was stuck without the “necessary’ equipment so Iimprovised, just carving out a leaf using one nearby as a model.First one doesn’t work? Pie dough is very forgiving. Roll it upand start again. Your “second chances” are infinite. You couldalso use something from a child’s coloring book for a pattern.
One idea – cut out 3 rounds for holly berries (use bottle cap orsuch if you don’t have small round cutter). Then use knife tocut out spiky holly leaves. Or use a Santa Claus cooky cutter.Place these on top of the pie filling and bake away. If you have the time and the inclination, when the pie is bakedand cooled, then use frosting to decorate your crust decoration.To save time, use those little tubes from the grocery; no onecares how it tastes. Licorice for Santa’s belt, etc. 2. Using whatever you have for the top crust – shapes, latticeor solid, apply egg yolk and then sprinkle w/ colored sugar. 3. Do the usual only very different, i.e., make a pumpkinchiffon pie. At serving time, crumble canes and sprinkleon top. CANDY CANES Candy canes go so well with chocolate. You can make a chocolatedessert, like that instant pudding concoction, and then sprinklecrushed canes atop. SWEET POTATOES Make your usual sweet potato recipe and put it in the Pyrex®.Then whip up meringue nice and stiff, with lots of sugar. Circlethe bowl with the meringue, and then make dollops on top withpeaks. Then you can (1) sprinkle it with colored sprinkles, or(2) in the center put 3 maraschino cherries and some pineappleleaves, like holly. Or put marshmallows around the rim anddecoration in the middle. You can shape the pineapple leaveswith scissors. BOULE DE NIEGE Very simple, cheap, elegant looking. Buy ice cream – forChristmas it could be peppermint, coconut or pistachio. Let theice cream soften just enough to work with, and then scoop itinto a round Pyrex® that you’ve greased lightly with Pam®. Putit in the freezer until well frozen again. Then take it out,soak the dish briefly in larger bowl of warm water til you seethe ice cream melting on the edges, turn it over on a prettyserving platter, and out it comes in a dome. Tear strips ofwaxed paper and place them all around the plate, under the icecream. Now whip cream til stiff, put in pastry bag, use a tipsuch as Wilton 2D and pipe, pipe, pipe, little shaped blobs,each one next to the other till the mound is completely covered.Gently remove the waxed paper, wipe the serving platter with awet rag, and place the ball back in the freezer till frozen.Once it’s frozen, cover it – I put a stainless steel bowl overit – and let it stay there til ready to serve. At serving time you can add some decorations piping coloredwhipped cream, or using cherries and leaves again, but myfavorite is to leave it elegantly white. “Boule de niege” isFrench for snowball! BEEF WELLINGTON Make a mixture of Dijon mustard and those colored peppercornsthat are red, green and white - a "four-color mélange” isavailable here:http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/3-1918.html. Coat the beef with this before you encrust it. You can alsouse this on turkey, Prime Rib, or Crown Roast. For a photo, gohere:http://www.zinos.com/cool/zinos/author_area/preview_article?;AR008410 . P.S. Be sure and put dough cut outs atop the Beef Wellington,too! INDIVIDUAL TRIFLES Here are some really cute star-shaped Christmas bowls (http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/1-21856.html). Make trifle and put them in these dishes. Then smooth overthe top with whipped cream. MASHED POTATOES Mash them and put them in a serving bowl. Then sprinkle justenough cayenne and parsley flakes for color. PARFAITS Here’s a super easy, cheap, and very eye-appealing dessert. Version 1: Fill fluted glasses with vanilla ice cream, orpeppermint. Drizzle green crème de menthe and chocolate over it.Add maraschino cherry – red or green. If you use red cherry, addgreen mint leaf. Version 2: Use vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce, andsprinkle crumbled cane over it. TRIFLE Trifle is, as I’m sure you know, a cold dessert made withliqueur-soaked sponge cake, layers of fruit, jelly, custard andwhipped cream. It makes a great Christmas dessert because it canbe made well ahead of time, it’s got cheap ingredients, it’s notfamiliar to a lot of people and they think it looks intricate tomake, and … the presentation! For instance since the ingredients are so cheap, why not buy theSpode Christmas tree soup tureen – “just” $348.95 (instead of$535.00) at amazon.com kitchenware. j.k. However, put the trifle in a tureen and then put a layer ofwhipped cream on the top smoothing it completely (use a warm wetflat spatula). What makes it special is people will keep tryingto “pick up the lid” which is the whipped cream, and there arefingerprints all over it and lots of laughs and “oohs” and“aahs.” VEGIES Put chopped red peppers in among the peas, Brussels sprouts orbroccoli; chopped green pepper in with the tomatoes. Cut starsout of cheese and place atop casserole. Don’t do all of these things; that’s too much. Choose one or two. AND DON’T FORGET TO DRESS THE HOSTESS A Christmas apron is always fun. Here’s a Santa one withmatching hat: http://avalonusa.com/christmas/aprons.htm , a sexySanta girl apron ( http://www.incrediblegifts.com/sagichap .html), and my personal favorites – affordable white cotton withruffles, Christmas tree, gingerbread men, spoon and cane (http://www.asianhomeandcrafts.org/apronbib.html ). For moresources, go here: http:/ opten.org/public/BI/BI324.html . About the author:(c)Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . Coachingfor all your needs - career, relationship, personal andprofessional development. Check out Susan's eBooks -www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.htm and The EQ FoundationCourse - http://www.webstrategies.cc/EQcourse.htm . Take TheCourse and be ready for the New Year. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.ccfor FREE eZine.
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