Donkey God

Here are some ways to dress up the “traditional” favorites at
your Christmas dinner.

PIE CRUST

1. Make your usual pie crust, 2-crust version. Line the pie tin,
put in the filling, and now it’s time to play. Roll out the
second crust and start cutting shapes - using cooky cutters or
free form with a knife. At Thanksgiving, for instance, up at my
son’s house I was stuck without the “necessary’ equipment so I
improvised, just carving out a leaf using one nearby as a model.
First one doesn’t work? Pie dough is very forgiving. Roll it up
and start again. Your “second chances” are infinite. You could
also use something from a child’s coloring book for a pattern.

One idea - cut out 3 rounds for holly berries (use bottle cap or
such if you don’t have small round cutter). Then use knife to
cut out spiky holly leaves. Or use a Santa Claus cooky cutter.
Place these on top of the pie filling and bake away.

If you have the time and the inclination, when the pie is baked
and cooled, then use frosting to decorate your crust decoration.
To save time, use those little tubes from the grocery; no one
cares how it tastes. Licorice for Santa’s belt, etc.

2. Using whatever you have for the top crust - shapes, lattice
or solid, apply egg yolk and then sprinkle w/ colored sugar.

3. Do the usual only very different, i.e., make a pumpkin
chiffon pie. At serving time, crumble candy canes and sprinkle
on top.

CANDY CANES

Candy canes go so well with chocolate. You can make a chocolate
dessert, like that instant pudding concoction, and then sprinkle
crushed candy canes atop.

SWEET POTATOES

Make your usual sweet potato recipe and put it in the Pyrex®.
Then whip up meringue nice and stiff, with lots of sugar. Circle
the bowl with the meringue, and then make dollops on top with
peaks. Then you can (1) sprinkle it with colored sprinkles, or
(2) in the center put 3 maraschino cherries and some pineapple
leaves, like holly. Or put marshmallows around the rim and
decoration in the middle. You can shape the pineapple leaves
with scissors.

BOULE DE NIEGE

Very simple, cheap, elegant looking. Buy ice cream - for
Christmas it could be peppermint, coconut or pistachio. Let the
ice cream soften just enough to work with, and then scoop it
into a round Pyrex® that you’ve greased lightly with Pam®. Put
it in the freezer until well frozen again. Then take it out,
soak the dish briefly in larger bowl of warm water til you see
the ice cream melting on the edges, turn it over on a pretty
serving platter, and out it comes in a dome. Tear strips of
waxed paper and place them all around the plate, under the ice
cream. Now whip cream til stiff, put in pastry bag, use a tip
such as Wilton 2D and pipe, pipe, pipe, little shaped blobs,
each one next to the other till the mound is completely covered.
Gently remove the waxed paper, wipe the serving platter with a
wet rag, and place the ball back in the freezer till frozen.
Once it’s frozen, cover it - I put a stainless steel bowl over
it - and let it stay there til ready to serve.

At serving time you can add some decorations piping colored
whipped cream, or using cherries and leaves again, but my
favorite is to leave it elegantly white. “Boule de niege” is
French for snowball!

BEEF WELLINGTON

Make a mixture of Dijon mustard and those colored peppercorns
that are red, green and white - a “four-color mélange” is
available here:
http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/3-1918.html
. Coat the beef with this before you encrust it. You can also
use this on turkey, Prime Rib, or Crown Roast. For a photo, go
here:
http://www.zinos.com/cool/zinos/author_area/preview_article?;AR00
8410 .

P.S. Be sure and put dough cut outs atop the Beef Wellington,
too!

INDIVIDUAL TRIFLES

Here are some really cute star-shaped Christmas bowls (
http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/1-21856.html
). Make trifle and put them in these dishes. Then smooth over
the top with whipped cream.

MASHED POTATOES

Mash them and put them in a serving bowl. Then sprinkle just
enough cayenne and parsley flakes for color.

PARFAITS

Here’s a super easy, cheap, and very eye-appealing dessert.

Version 1: Fill fluted glasses with vanilla ice cream, or
peppermint. Drizzle green crme de menthe and chocolate over it.
Add maraschino cherry - red or green. If you use red cherry, add
green mint leaf.

Version 2: Use vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce, and
sprinkle crumbled candy cane over it.

TRIFLE

Trifle is, as I’m sure you know, a cold dessert made with
liqueur-soaked sponge cake, layers of fruit, jelly, custard and
whipped cream. It makes a great Christmas dessert because it can
be made well ahead of time, it’s got cheap ingredients, it’s not
familiar to a lot of people and they think it looks intricate to
make, and … the presentation!

For instance since the ingredients are so cheap, why not buy the
Spode Christmas tree soup tureen - “just” $348.95 (instead of
$535.00) at amazon.com kitchenware. j.k.

However, put the trifle in a tureen and then put a layer of
whipped cream on the top smoothing it completely (use a warm wet
flat spatula). What makes it special is people will keep trying
to “pick up the lid” which is the whipped cream, and there are
fingerprints all over it and lots of laughs and “oohs” and
“aahs.”

VEGIES

Put chopped red peppers in among the peas, Brussels sprouts or
broccoli; chopped green pepper in with the tomatoes. Cut stars
out of cheese and place atop casserole.

Don’t do all of these things; that’s too much. Choose one or two.

AND DON’T FORGET TO DRESS THE HOSTESS

A Christmas apron is always fun. Here’s a Santa one with
matching hat: http://avalonusa.com/christmas/aprons.htm , a sexy
Santa girl apron ( http://www.incrediblegifts.com/sagichap .html
), and my personal favorites - affordable white cotton with
ruffles, Christmas tree, gingerbread men, spoon and candy cane (
http://www.asianhomeandcrafts.org/apronbib.html ). For more
sources, go here: http:/ opten.org/public/BI/BI324.html .