Christmas Archives - Page 2 of 3

Fat Substitutions For Holiday Baking (pdf “Free Gift” download)

At our Facebook listing, there’s now a “Free Gift” option you can click on. It is located in the left hand column. Look for the grey box with a white “star” in it that says “Free Gift” and you’ll find it is waiting for you. The “Free Gift” is available to anyone who has chosen to press the “LIKE” button for the Sensory Nutrition page on Facebook.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION MENU IDEAS

(“Merry Christmas with Santa Hat” Embroidery Design Image Courtesy of www.soniashowalterdesigns.com) This year’s “Christmas Menu Ideas” list contains some hot links to many of the recipes, just in case you might be interested in any of those. Italians also typically keep fruit bowls and also nut bowls around at holiday time with seasonal favorites. The fruits will often be citrus in skins or intact other varieties, while the nuts will be “in the shell” with the metal nutcracker and nut pick handy for shelling a couple or few at a time…

Roasted Chicken or Roasted Turkey Breast w/ Pan Drippings Gravy

There are many ways to Roast one or two (~ 7 lbs each) Roasting Chicken(s) or a similar size Turkey Breast for Thanksgiving (these are alternatives to cooking a whole turkey, or doing Cornish hens, etc., of course). The choice is yours as to what you choose to roast, and several possible approaches to roasting any poultry, including using a metal rack inside any poultry cavity exist–see which approach you prefer! Luckily, excellent information exists on the www from many reliable sources to guide you through safe preparation of any frozen and then thawed, or fresh poultry product so that you can

Bulgur Winter Wheat Stuffing

This Bulgur Stuffing, originally published by the American Institute for Cancer Research, may be a little hard to read in the copy found on the www, so I have re-typed it for you below.

Baked Savory Bread Stuffing

Years ago, various types of poultry were literally stuffed until almost bursting for an upcoming Thanksgiving feast, and unless one was very careful, the potential existed for serious issues with food safety. Today, to discourage unwanted food safety issues, we discourage packing a bread stuffing inside of any poultry cavity as the poultry cooks. It really is unnecessary to place stuffing inside a poultry cavity to achieve good flavor in the stuffing, and the risk of food safety issues is just too great to take the risk at home and try to stuff a very large turkey to the gunwales!

Sweet Potato-Apple Stuffing

The inspiration for this soft, moist stuffing came after reading a recipe where the ingredients were originally destined to become a soup, but I thought, why not a moist, flavorful stuffing instead?! Sometimes you can “re-purpose” a recipe and this is an example of that concept.

Three Rice Pilaf Casserole

By mixing several types of rice together, you get a pleasing mouthfeel, taste and visual appeal with this rice pilaf dish.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes were made for baking as their flavor intensifies inside their jacket skins as they bake. It is your choice how you chose to bake them. Some folks like the convenience of using the microwave; others prefer to have them in a conventional oven, and some even like to use a potato baker on the cooktop. In a warmer climate you might even be able to grill them at Thanksgiving time.

Cranberry Relish or Jellied Sauce

Even fully ripe cranberries that ripen between September and November in North America (ripe color range is from bright to dark red–actual colors depend upon the variety) in and of themselves are not naturally sweet. In reality, they are quite bitter, and unripe pale ones are especially bitter and shouldn’t be eaten. To prepare a tasty relish or sauce with them, you need to add something more.

Winter Baby Spinach And Mandarin Orange Salad

Sometimes, it is the inclusion of just one little something different as an unexpected ingredient in a recipe that gives that recipe a little “zing” it otherwise would not have had. For example, there is one ingredient you cannot leave out of the dressing for this salad, because without it, the interplay of flavors will change and that “little something extra” that would then be missing would be noticed! That ingredient happens to be a little bit of beef flavored bouillon granules! For a pleasant holiday twist, top this simple salad with a few maraschino cherry halves as desired just before serving.