USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Looks like I will be baking a ham for Christmas. Question is, how do I want to do it?

[bueller]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Looks like I will be baking a ham for Christmas. Question is, how do I want to do it?

Hit up Snyder's Market for a double smoked ham and go from there.

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Hit up Snyder's Market for a double smoked ham and go from there.

I'm going with a Creswick Farms ham and I'm going to roast it with a maple-orange glaze. Now for sides, I'm thinking bread, mashed sweet potatoes, and a vegetable, along with a chocolate dessert.

[DisplacedCornellian]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Christmas cookies made so far: cranberry-cherry pinwheels, cranberry orange, cherry oatmeal, chocolate peppermint pinwheels, butter rum butterscotch pecan, and peanut butter maple. Still making eggnog thumbprints and candy canes in this round. Chocolate raspberry thumbprints, brandy snaps, cranberry pecan bark, and dark chocolate buttercrunch a little later.

Peanut butter maple may be my most favorite cookie ever. Holy cow. It's even better than I thought it would be.

Are you freezing and thawing later? I've always intended to do that...never gotten around to it.

Can you share the recipe for the peanut butter maple? That combo just sounds phenomenal.

[DisplacedCornellian]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Looks like I will be baking a ham for Christmas. Question is, how do I want to do it?

Alton Brown's City Ham recipe is pretty tasty. Plus you get to put bourbon in a spray bottle. That is always fun.

[leswp1]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Christmas cookies made so far: cranberry-cherry pinwheels, cranberry orange, cherry oatmeal, chocolate peppermint pinwheels, butter rum butterscotch pecan, and peanut butter maple. Still making eggnog thumbprints and candy canes in this round. Chocolate raspberry thumbprints, brandy snaps, cranberry pecan bark, and dark chocolate buttercrunch a little later.

Peanut butter maple may be my most favorite cookie ever. Holy cow. It's even better than I thought it would be.

Here I thought I was starting early by making my dough and freezing it. I second the request for the peanut butter maple cookies!

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Are you freezing and thawing later? I've always intended to do that...never gotten around to it.

Can you share the recipe for the peanut butter maple? That combo just sounds phenomenal.

Here I thought I was starting early by making my dough and freezing it. I second the request for the peanut butter maple cookies!

I donated about 30 dozen last week and am freezing the rest. Donating about 15 dozen more in 2 weeks, the rest are for friends and family. I think I ended up with about 700 cookies in that round.

Here's the Peanut Butter Maple cookie recipe. I used Mighty Maple Peanut Butter from Peanut Butter Co. and also added KAF's Maple Flav-R Bites to add more maple flavor. I think the maple peanut butter made a huge difference - not sure about the maple bits. I've used them in other things and they weren't that noticeable.

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

My Christmas dessert is going to be a bread pudding. Now I just need to find a loaf of challah, brioche, or Pannetone to make it nice and rich.

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Finishing up the cookies/candy this weekend, except for the brandy snaps.

Also planning on soup for gifts: wild rice with chicken (the Mystic Lake Casino recipe - one of my mom's favorites, although she says Turtle Lake is better), lasagna soup (maybe fattened up a little), and tomato lentil for the vegetarians.

[DaveStPaul]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I was going to go old-school last night and make a salmon loaf. (That can of salmon had been around too long!) Then I saw somebody on Chowhound suggest making croquettes instead. It's the same recipe, just divide the loaf mixture into 8 big meatballs, roll in breadcrumbs, and put them into a cupcake pan. It made an unglamorous dinner seem fun! Tasty, too, with mashed potatoes. (Also, there wasn't the frying fish smell throughout the house like you normally get with fish cakes/croquettes.)

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Seeing as my stepdad is a diabetic, I'd like to start baking with stevia. The internet isn't very helpful and I'm wondering if anyone here has tried baking with it.

[bottomdweller]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Annual BD Xmas party is this coming up Saturday. Going with a southern BBQ theme with a menu that will consist of:

Brisket
Pulled Pork
Smoked chicken
Cocoa chili (recipe from http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com...-chili-recipe/)
corn bread (regular and jalapeno)
home made BBQ sauce (habanero)
and then sides of coleslaw and potato salad.

[hockeyplayer1015]

Annual BD Xmas party is this coming up Saturday. Going with a southern BBQ theme with a menu that will consist of:

Brisket
Pulled Pork
Smoked chicken
Cocoa chili (recipe from http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com...-chili-recipe/)
corn bread (regular and jalapeno)
home made BBQ sauce (habanero)
and then sides of coleslaw and potato salad.

You forgot to list the directions to your house

Sounds awesome, there isn't much that beats a great BBQ spread.

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Seeing as my stepdad is a diabetic, I'd like to start baking with stevia. The internet isn't very helpful and I'm wondering if anyone here has tried baking with it.

I asked my old baking instructor, my old dietitian, and the Team in Training nutrition coach, and they all told me the same thing: don't bother. If he wants dessert, he can just enjoy whatever's offered in moderation.

[DaveStPaul]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Brisket / Pulled Pork / Smoked chicken / Cocoa chili / corn bread / home made BBQ sauce / sides of coleslaw and potato salad.

Uh . . . bbthpehtpp . . . I . . .

You forgot to list the directions to your house

What he said!