PORK ROAST, 12-21-08 | RP Secret Santa Party
As mentioned, I made my very first Pork Roast. YAY! It was actually quite simple. I tweaked a recipe I found from Giada de Laurentiis (I love GIADA!!!).
I took a pork loin and seasoned it with some olive oil, sea salt, fresh peppercorn, thyme, Sicilian oregano, garlic, and then layered some clementine peel all around it. I let it sit for approximately 1.5 hours while I was working on my buche de noel.
After letting it sit (refrigerated), I removed the clementine peels and then I cooked it at 475 degrees for approximately 40 minutes. (155 degrees on the meat thermometer) Then I covered it with foil for approximately another 15 minutes. (165 degrees final temp)
I served it with some canned whole cranberries, mixed with about a half a shot of Cointreau and some clementine peels. Delicious when served warm.
Buche de Noel, 12-21-08 | RP Secret Santa Party
I made the traditional buche de noel with a little bit of shortcut steps. Perhaps I should not have, but I just did not have the time to make everything from scratch.
The cake was made from a ready mix cake box. Betty Crocker or something. Vanilla. It was baked over parchment paper coated with flour.
The filling was made from scratch. I made a almond flavored chocolate mousse.
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 shot of Cointreau
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix. Then put it in the refrigerator for about an one hour. Take it out and mix again until it becomes frothy and forms peaks and has a mousse like consistency.
Then I layered the mousse on the cake and rolled it up. I covered the log with some chocolate frosting (ready made). I streaked the "log" with a fork to make tree bark lines. Finally, I decorated it with mushrooms, a santa, and a snowman made out of marzipan.
To make them, I bought a ready made marzipan. Kneaded it to make it a little more pliable, and then formed domes for the mushroom caps and mini cylinders for the mushroom stalks. I "glued" them together with melted chocolate and dusted the mushrooms with cocoa powder to give it a dusty look.
My favorite touch was capping Mr. Snowman with a small strawberry and a dab of white frosting.
XRP '08: Christmas Rat Pakk '08
Fruit Pizza or Tarte de Fruit, 12-24-08 Xmas Eve @ Belhassans
This was extremely delicious and so very easy to make.
I took a store bought Pillsbury sugar cookie mix, rolled it to a pizza pie shape and baked at 350 degrees for approximately 14 minutes. I let it cool for approximately 30 minutes after it was done baking.
While the cookie pizza was baking, I made a cheesecake filling by mixing on medium speed until frothy: 1 package of cream cheese, 1/3 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
During the half hour while the cookie was cooling, I washed some blackberries, blueberries and sliced strawberries, kiwis, and drained a can of mandarin oranges.
Then I layered the cookie with the cream cheese filling and topped it off with the fruit in a beautiful decorative arrangement. I then glazed the entire tarte with a strawberry glaze (store bought). Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Next time, I want to make my own glaze and flavor the cream cheese with almond extract (YUM! I love almond flavor.)
Picture below.
12-26-08
Nick called today while I was out and about shopping with my sister and neighbor, Geoffrey. He is in New York with his family for the Christmas holiday and wanted to make our Coke ribs for his friends. Well, I'm adding it to this post so A. I won't forget about it and B. well, it was made during the holiday season, even though I did not personally make it this time. It's a great big hit. Nick and I discovered the recipe a while back in a magazine and it never failed.....actually, it failed during a few experiment runs so stick to the below directions. (Failing experiments and reason follows the recipe).
Take a rack of ribs and season with salt and pepper. Then bring to boil in a large pot: a 1 liter bottle of coke and a bottle (and a half) of your favorite barbecue sauce. The best one we found was the Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. Once it is boiling, put the ribs in and bring back to a boil. If you do not have a crock pot, lower the heat setting to a simmer and simmer for approximately 4-6 hours (we found 5 hours to be the best).
If you have a crock pot, put the ribs and cover with as much of the sauce as you can possibly fit into the pot. Cover and low simmer for approximately 6 hours. Then take the ribs and grill it or broil it. Delicious!! I also like to add some chilli pepper/sauce for a kick, but I do not do it much as Nick is not a fan of things spicy.
Other versions that failed or was just par:
1. Dr. Pepper - we both love Dr. Pepper. We replaced Coke with Dr. Pepper but found that the flavor was not as good.
2. Hours of cooking in crock pot 2 vs 4 vs 6 vs 10. | 4 - 6 our best. 10 was over cooked. 2 was under cook and the ribs did not fall off the bone.
3. Hours of cooking on stovetop. Only tried 2 vs 4 hours. 2 was too short. 4 was actually not bad.
4. BBQ sauce. Tried several. (ie: Masterpiece, Heinz, etc..but found Sweet Baby Rays the best. Also, the standard size bbq was too little. I like to do a big BJ's size or at least a bottle and a half. (I also like to add a bit of hot sauce with the BBQ sauce)
As mentioned, a GREAT hit. We made it for a football party, Memorial Day BBQ, some potlucks, last Thanksgiving 07 w/help from my cousin Alia, and now Nick's solo Xmas attempt. Always Wonderful!
Happy BBQing! and below are some rib pictures from previous attempts.
Unfortunately, eating ribs makes one very sleepy. Recommendation: nap after ribs.
If you look closely, the ribs are at the right corner of the Memorial Day BBQ table spread.
