I assumed it was the same as our shrimp ring ... couple dozen shrimps arranged on a black plastic ring with a tub of cocktail sauce in the middle that you buy during the holidays and hope that it thaws by the time that you get it to your friend's party, a friend, incidentally, that you like very much, but one for whom you weren't willing or able to cook something better yourself.

I just made my first shortcrust pastry last week. I was pretty pleased. My mom used to make it sweeter, I think by mixing some sugar into the flour before cutting in the Crisco, which she always used. Next time, I guess.

A "cider crust" substitutes chilled cider for the ice water. And there's a lot to be said for 'fridging the mixing bowl. This works best with a massive crockery one, but it's helpful even with a stainless bowl. Everything goes in cold.

There's a lot of lard around town. Think I'll try that method sometime.

And fruitcake has to be 1) drunken, and 2) properly handled to keep it properly moist during its ageing process.

Stained-glass fruitcake is an excellent way to go: far more candied, boozed fruit than rich damp cake, of which there should be only just enough to hold the fruit together. That is a fruitcake that would change even Radar's mind.

Quite right. I've heard before that what we call prawns, you call shrimp.

UG, I cooked shortcrust pasrty for years - NEVER liked it, although other people didn't complain (I admit this may just have been courtesy). I'm not a huge fan of other people's either, I admit. It had to be present in very small quantities - compared to filling - for me to enjoy.

Flavoured pastries are the exception though (tomato, cheese, olive etc) so maybe I'd go for cider pastry. I assume it would have to be scrumpy though, to be flat?

Pastry with sugar sounds like crumble. Now that I could handle - haven't had a crumble for years! Damn, wish I'd thought about this when the blackberries were out. Apparently you can buy them frozen now, but it's not the same - part of the pleasure was that we were eating nature's bounty. Blackberries from The Field (now built on) and apples from Mrs Fox (now dead). Time is fleeting.

I always put sugar into a shortcrust pastry for sweet pies and tarts.

If it's savoury I leave the sugar out.

Not really a Christmas food per se, but we had a lot of this around the holidays in my family.

Cheese Dip
1 jar Kraft Old English Cheese
1 package Cream Cheese
1 tbsp milk or cream
onion powder or grated onion

Set the cream cheese out to soften a bit. Cream together the Old English, cream cheese, and milk or cream in your mixer. Scrape the beaters and hand mix in the onion powder or grated onion to taste. Hand mixing keeps it from getting bitter.

This recipe has been popular in my Mom's side of the family since the 30s.

sounds a bit like how you make french onion dip using packet soup mix. I don't know what old english cheese is, but we do have kraft cream cheese in a jar. I'm guessing it's fairly similar.

It's a spreadable cheese in a jar with a sharp(ish) cheddar flavor.

Oh, Christmas cake.

Our version is a variation of the german Stollen, but with more candied fruits instead of nuts, and a darker dough. Here's a recipe in English

We just resort to buy it in the supermarket since we're not that talented at cooking in my family. It's always good anyways, even the cheaper stuff.

I haven't had proper german Stollen. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of nuts, but I guess it would be well worth a try. Maybe for a better year. :)

Cider here is neither fizzy nor alcoholic :(

http://www.beiersdorferorchard.com/images/cider.JPG

click pic for more info ;)

Depends.

Cider, and hard cider, in American parlance. Doubt it would matter in the quarter-cup quantities typical for a double-crust recipe (top and bottom crust). Sounds like SG just really never got into piecrust -- one of those things.

Cider crusts play well with fruit or apple pies.

How are you on graham cracker crusts or gingersnap crumb crusts, SG?

Now me... one of our treats as kids was eating the raw piecrust trimmings when Mom made a pie. Cain't tell me not to like piecrust!

Flew up to Denver to visit Mom over the weekend. Made a lemon meringue pie per the recipe in the Latest Recipe Thread, using lemon and lime juices squeezed from the fruit and not out of a bottle. Everyone including my younger brother's Significant Other (they flew in from Maui for the same weekend) AND Mom raved over it. I think the mantle is passed to me.

I just made the easiest chocolate fudge recipe ever...and it tastes great too.

Here it is.

INGREDIENTS


450g dark or milk chocolate, chopped
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter


METHOD




Lightly grease a 20cm square cake pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.

Combine all ingredients in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Cook, stirring, for 4-5 minutes until smooth.

Spread chocolate mixture into prepared pan. Chill for 3 hours or overnight, until mixture is firm. Using a hot knife, cut fudge into small squares.

Keep fudge chilled in an airtight container.

Today I made all the lollies I'm going to make.

Finished doing the rum balls last night as mentioned elsewhere. Today it was chocolate fudge, coconut ice and white christmas.

I've got some nuts in shells to have fun with on the big day. I just have to get a couple of nut crackers in the mean time. I also have a bag of pistachios which Aden really likes and a kg of Jelly Belly jelly beans for the table snacks.

I think that's enough table snacks.

I've got a few bottles of sparkling grape juice for me and the kids. Some champagne and other wines for the drinkers and I'm going to make up some jugs of lemon, lime and bitters.

I bought a turkey the other day, so that'll be the roast meat along with the ham, cold prawns and oysters (dazza says he's going to make some into kilpatrick for me, so that'll be nice), salads and a bowl of roasted veges.

I think I've got it all sorted.

:confused: What's a kilpatrick?
And how many dozen people are you expecting at Christmas dinner??!