On Twelfth Night I threw a party, as I do every year. The Christmas wreath comes down and Carnival (Mardi Gras) decorations go up. I bake a King Cake in celebration of Three Kings Day, also known as The Epiphany.
Most people are confused with the Christian holiday that commemorates the biblical story of the three wise men, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, who followed the star to Bethlehem. They brought gifts to the Christ child.
Continue reading On the Twelfth Day of Christmas…
Traditionally, Christmas morning at our house meant breakfast in the midst of opening packages. We’d eat pull-apart cake, sometimes called Monkey Bread, with juice and coffee.
The night before the kids would shake pieces of biscuit dough in a brown paper bag filled with a mixture of brown and white cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts. Did this put visions of sugarplums in their heads. No. They simply piled the pieces into a tube pan and I added melted butter.
In the morning, the dish was placed in a pre-heated oven and when baked, inverted onto a serving plate. The golden sticky cinnamon bun-like breakfast bread was torn apart by little fingers. Looked pretty and was caramelly luscious, but rather messy.
Toward the end of the gift giving extravaganza, I would sneak into the kitchen and bake a quiche or sausage strata, also prepared the night before,and serve with fresh fruit salad and Mimosas.
Continue reading Breakfast Fritatta
Thanksgiving brings the tantalizing aroma of down-home cooking: the woodsy blend of sage and thyme in the bread stuffing, the sweet scent of cinnamon and nutmeg in the pumpkin pie and the I-can’t-wait mouth watering smell of a roasting turkey.
Continue reading My Thanksgiving: Pickled Watermelon Rind and Herbes de Provence