Cooking for the holidays

[samhexum]

For the first time ever, many Americans will soon be able to order Popeyes’ annual Cajun-Style Turkey for delivery in honor of Thanksgiving 2022. If THAT doesn't raise the mood of the country, nothing will.

Online pre-orders can be made on Popeyes’ special website – thecajunfix.popeyes.com – which is open to residents in the U.S. who aren’t living in Hawaii or Alaska. Poor Sarah Palin!

Popeyes says doorstep deliveries will take one to three days once dispatched.

Popeyes Cajun-Style Turkey is marinated in a signature blend of Louisiana-style seasonings, slow-roasted and flash-fried. The turkey only needs to be thawed and heated before it’s served. Sounds yummy!

🤢🤮🤑🥳

Cajun-Style Turkeys that are set for doorstep delivery are priced at $94.99 and sales tax might apply depending on state laws, Popeyes’ Cajun Fix website notes. Shipping is included in online orders.

The cost of a Cajun-Style Turkey that’s picked up from a participating Popeyes restaurant starts at $49.99, but pricing varies by location, and that Cajun-Style Turkey purchases don’t include side orders.

[Rudynate]

We like to make fruitcake for the holidays, but sometimes we make other stuff.  Several years we've made Stollen.  A couple years we've made Panettone.  Last year we made an English Christmas cake.  This year, after binge watching a Spanish series on Netflix, we're going to make a Spanish King Cake.

[BSR]

In our family, ube halaya was the traditional Christmas specialty.  Since back in those days ube jam was quite expensive and difficult to get, we made ube halaya only once a year.  Nowadays, you can find frozen ube (much better for halaya than ube jam) for a very reasonable price at the local Filipino supermarket.

For those unfamiliar, ube is a purple yam grown in the Philippines and Indonesia.  Ube halaya is a dessert made with ube, condensed milk, and either evaporated milk or coconut milk.  Pictures of the raw yam & the finished dessert:

[BSR]

6 hours ago, Rudynate said:

We like to make fruitcake for the holidays, but sometimes we make other stuff.  Several years we've made Stollen.  A couple years we've made Panettone.  Last year we made an English Christmas cake.  This year, after binge watching a Spanish series on Netflix, we're going to make a Spanish King Cake.

Best of luck with your roscón de reyes.  Here's a great recipe and video done by a guy who's been making roscón since he was a little kid.  It looks a bit messy if you're kneading the dough by hand; probably much easier if you have a stand mixer.

PS:  what series featured roscón?  Velvet?

 

[Rudynate]

2 hours ago, BSR said:

Best of luck with your roscón de reyes.  Here's a great recipe and video done by a guy who's been making roscón since he was a little kid.  It looks a bit messy if you're kneading the dough by hand; probably much easier if you have a stand mixer.

PS:  what series featured roscón?  Velvet?

 

Thanks for the recipe.  Yep - Velvet.  Terrific series.

[Rudynate]

2 hours ago, BSR said:

In our family, ube halaya was the traditional Christmas specialty.  Since back in those days ube jam was quite expensive and difficult to get, we made ube halaya only once a year.  Nowadays, you can find frozen ube (much better for halaya than ube jam) for a very reasonable price at the local Filipino supermarket.

For those unfamiliar, ube is a purple yam grown in the Philippines and Indonesia.  Ube halaya is a dessert made with ube, condensed milk, and either evaporated milk or coconut milk.  Pictures of the raw yam & the finished dessert:

We bought some purple yams once - I don't remember where.

[samhexum]

3 hours ago, BSR said:

ube is a purple yam grown in the Philippines and Indonesia.  Ube halaya is a dessert made with ube, condensed milk, and either evaporated milk or coconut milk.

If you'd ever had Prince over for Thanksgiving, you could have served him that veggie and dessert. 

[Rudynate]

35 minutes ago, samhexum said:

If you'd ever had Prince over for Thanksgiving, you could have served him that veggie and dessert. 

It's reputed to be a Superfood - don't remember why.

[Epigonos]

My mother's family originally came from Scotland. Eventually they moved to Northern Ireland, Virginia, Kansas, Utah and after my mother and dad married they moved to Southern California. Accompanying them on that long time, long distant journey came a recipe for a prune cake. It's really a type of fruitcake but without all the candied fruit and citrus peels. The primary ingredients are prunes (stewed and crushed), raisins, and chopped walnuts. It is incredibly rich and includes two cubes of butter. For the last few weeks I have been buying and storing all the necessary ingredient so I will be ready to start baking immediately after Thanksgiving. Each year I make between twenty and twenty five of them for family and friends (including Oliver). Each cake bakes for one hour and forty-five minutes so while one is baking I have time to get the next one ready to pop into the oven. Baking them is one of my most treasured Christmas tasks.

P.S., If anybody would like the recipe P.M. me and I will be happy to send it to you.

[Rudynate]

7 hours ago, Epigonos said:

My mother's family originally came from Scotland. Eventually they moved to Northern Ireland, Virginia, Kansas, Utah and after my mother and dad married they moved to Southern California. Accompanying them on that long time, long distant journey came a recipe for a prune cake. It's really a type of fruitcake but without all the candied fruit and citrus peels. The primary ingredients are prunes (stewed and crushed), raisins, and chopped walnuts. It is incredibly rich and includes two cubes of butter. For the last few weeks I have been buying and storing all the necessary ingredient so I will be ready to start baking immediately after Thanksgiving. Each year I make between twenty and twenty five of them for family and friends (including Oliver). Each cake bakes for one hour and forty-five minutes so while one is baking I have time to get the next one ready to pop into the oven. Baking them is one of my most treasured Christmas tasks.

P.S., If anybody would like the recipe P.M. me and I will be happy to send it to you.

What sort of batter?  The fruitcake recipe I have used for years is basically a pound cake with lots of dried and candied fruit added.

[Rudynate]

We spend Thanksgiving with friends in Northern California. One of them is pre-diabetic and is working very hard at maintaining a low-glycemic diet.  When thinking of a potluck dish to bring, I have never really considered his special needs - I just thought if it doesn't work for his diet, he doesn't need to eat it.   I've started thinking I'll be more supportive - he would do the same for me - so I'm bringing a keto-friendly side-dish  - cauliflower au gratin. - made with gruyere and imported parmesan.

[pubic_assistance]

19 hours ago, Rudynate said:

The fruitcake recipe I have used for years is basically a pound cake with lots of dried and candied fruit added.

A real fruitcake should be as dense as a brownie...not fluffy like a cake

[samhexum]

5 minutes ago, pubic_assistance said:

A real fruitcake should be as dense as a brownie...not fluffy like a cake

And, right on cue, tonight's GOLDEN GIRLS quote:

Sophia: Hey, I got an idea. We got all these fruitcakes from this Christmas, last Christmas and the Christmas before that. Why don't we gather them all up and...
Dorothy: And what? Build a bomb shelter?
Sophia: No. We can unload them. I mean, bring 'em to the church for dessert.
Rose: Well, actually, I think that's very nice. Like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy!

 

[Rudynate]

2 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

A real fruitcake should be as dense as a brownie...not fluffy like a cake

Correct - a pound cake is made from a very dense batter.  The main function of the batter in a fruitcake is to bind the fruit and nuts.  Our recipe also has a fair amount of spice.  Believe me, if you ate a slice of this fruitcake you would agree that it is a real fruitcake.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Rudynate

[Rudynate]

2 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

A real fruitcake should be as dense as a brownie...not fluffy like a cake

If you want to experience a REALLY dense fruitcake, try a slice of Italian pan forte sometime.  I know don't about your part of the country, but it's become trendy here in California.  I've been thinking about trying my hand at it, but haven't yet.

[Luv2play]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:36 PM, Epigonos said:

My mother's family originally came from Scotland. Eventually they moved to Northern Ireland, Virginia, Kansas, Utah and after my mother and dad married they moved to Southern California. Accompanying them on that long time, long distant journey came a recipe for a prune cake. It's really a type of fruitcake but without all the candied fruit and citrus peels. The primary ingredients are prunes (stewed and crushed), raisins, and chopped walnuts. It is incredibly rich and includes two cubes of butter. For the last few weeks I have been buying and storing all the necessary ingredient so I will be ready to start baking immediately after Thanksgiving. Each year I make between twenty and twenty five of them for family and friends (including Oliver). Each cake bakes for one hour and forty-five minutes so while one is baking I have time to get the next one ready to pop into the oven. Baking them is one of my most treasured Christmas tasks.

P.S., If anybody would like the recipe P.M. me and I will be happy to send it to you.

I'd rather you just send me the cake. Lol.

[pubic_assistance]

12 hours ago, Rudynate said:

Correct - a pound cake is made from a very dense batter.  

Thanks. But I am aware what a pound cake is. 

I was explaining that a fruit cake is more dense than a pound cake 

I'm sure your cake with fruit is delicious even though it's not the traditional recipe . 

Jokes are made about building forts with uneaten fruit cake because it's so dense. 

 

 

[Rudynate]

51 minutes ago, pubic_assistance said:

Thanks. But I am aware what a pound cake is. 

I was explaining that a fruit cake is more dense than a pound cake 

I'm sure your cake with fruit is delicious even though it's not the traditional recipe . 

Jokes are made about building forts with uneaten fruit cake because it's so dense. 

 

 

It is a traditional recipe - there are dark fruitcakes and light fruitcakes - this is a light fruitcake.   I'm surprised you think of pound cake as "fluffy."  Sponge cake or angel food cake are "fluffy" - pound cake is rich and dense with a fine crumb - the batter is full of butter and eggs.  It doesn't sound like you have ever made a fruitcake. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Rudynate

[pubic_assistance]

19 hours ago, Rudynate said:

It doesn't sound like you have ever made a fruitcake. 

I know that Americans stick some dried fruit in a pound cake and call it a fruit cake.

Ends up tasting more like a Pannetone ( which are delicious too ).

My family have German Lutheran and English Quaker heritage so more accustomed to the authentic thick / dark / rich fruitcake that many Americsn people make fun of .

Edited October 24, 2022 by pubic_assistance

[Rudynate]

Pannetone is a sweet yeast bread - it isn't poundcake.  Most people who say they don't like fruitcake have only been exposed to the ones in the christmassy-ooking tins that you see stacked in drug stores and grocery stores around the holidays. And that kind of fruitcake deserves all that jokes that are directed at it.

I have never encountered a poundcake with raisins in it that was called fruitcake.  The only fruitcakes I have ever encountered are fruitcakes - some inedible ones from stores and some the food of the gods made by home bakers.  The thing that makes the fruitcake is the fruit and the nuts and the ripening.   A month old fruitcake is an entirely different thing from what it was the day it was baked.  You can age fruitcakes for several years if you want to. 

I have seen sources on the internet that make designer fruitcakes that cost in the range of $200.  I imagine a 200.00 fruitcake could be pretty good.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Rudynate

[craigville beach]

3 hours ago, Rudynate said:

Pannetone is a sweet yeast bread - it isn't poundcake.  Most people who say they don't like fruitcake have only been exposed to the ones in the christmassy-ooking tins that you see stacked in drug stores and grocery stores around the holidays. And that kind of fruitcake deserves all that jokes that are directed at it.

I have never encountered a poundcake with raisins in it that was called fruitcake.  The only fruitcakes I have ever encountered are fruitcakes - some inedible ones from stores and some the food of the gods made by home bakers.  The thing that makes the fruitcake is the fruit and the nuts and the ripening.   A month old fruitcake is an entirely different thing from what it was the day it was baked.  You can age fruitcakes for several years if you want to. 

I have seen sources on the internet that make designer fruitcakes that cost in the range of $200.  I imagine a 200.00 fruitcake could be pretty good.

i happen to like a small piece of Christmas fruit cake in the afternoon with a cup of strong coffee.  a little piece goes a long way 

 

[Rudynate]

31 minutes ago, craigville beach said:

i happen to like a small piece of Christmas fruit cake in the afternoon with a cup of strong coffee.  a little piece goes a long way 

 

It's a great treat - It's really rich - small pieces and strong black coffee.

[+ azdr0710]

uh oh....things getting a littlest tense around here re: fruitcakes!!......some levity......

 

[Rudynate]

2 hours ago, azdr0710 said:

uh oh....things getting a littlest tense around here re: fruitcakes!!......some levity......

 

You know how people get about tradition around the holidays.

[pubic_assistance]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:52 AM, Rudynate said:

Pannetone is a sweet yeast bread - it isn't poundcake.  Most people who say they don't like fruitcake have only been exposed to the ones in the christmassy-ooking tins that you see stacked in drug stores and grocery stores around the holidays. And that kind of fruitcake deserves all that jokes that are directed at it.

Yes. We have both at holidays. The market at Eataly ( NYC) has some incredibly good Panetonne. The pistachio creme filled and sour cherry were particularly memorable.

I do agree that most people dislike fruit cake because they've never had a good one.