After Christmas

Well, Christmas is over and the Christmas decorations are down and returned to the attic. Things are getting back to normal again. I cooked and baked my brains out for the past two weeks and much of the fruits of my labor are still in air-tight containers on the kitchen counter.

About a week before Christmas, I began preparing by making the menus for the two big cooking events; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Next, I made photocopies of all the recipes I would need and put them into a loose leaf notebook. I picked up the notebook idea from listening to Mario on Martha Stewart on XM. Then I made my grocery list. Grocery shopping happened in two installments. Gene and I made one trip to Wal-Mart on Sunday evening and then I finished at Publix on Monday afternoon.

On Monday morning I began my cooking by making the cornbread for the dressing, using my mother's recipe. I enjoyed using the food processor to cut the celery and onions! When I cut up the vegetables for Jane to make the Thanksgiving dressing, I didn't have the food processor and did it by hand. The celery and onions were a lot more uniform for the hand-cut batch, but I figure by the time they get mixed up in the finished product, nobody notices. I also made the first of THREE Red Velvet Cakes, and this brings me to the theme of this entry.

I found a recipe for red velvet cake in a church cookbook that I had never used before. The recipe called for oil and the cake was two layers that looked more like a pie. In fact, I stored the cake in an old Tupperware pie keeper. What a disappointment. On Tuesday, I used a recipe from another church cookbook that called for more flour and oil for the shortening. But the recipe called for 3 8-inch round pans. Again, the batter was LIQUID, and the layers were flat. Another disappointment. Finally, on Christmas Eve morning, after doing considerable research, I found a recipe in the Laborers of Love cookbook, published by First Baptist Church in Phenix City many years ago. Ellen Stamp had a recipe that used Crisco for the shortening rather than oil. I expected that would make a difference and I was not disappointed. The three layers were taller and the cake was delicious. I'll stick with that recipe in the future. I might add that Ellen is almost family. Her niece, Lee, is my daughter-in-law. This must mean the that the best recipes are found within the family. Would you agree?

I also baked a caramel cake, using Bobby's (Deen) Caramel Cake recipe that I had downloaded from Food Network. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I never doubted that the recipe was a good one, but since I had never attempted a caramel cake, I didn't have high expectations for my skills. The caramel icing was a little difficult to spread. Next time, I'll monitor and adjust the recipe to make the icing more spreadable.

For those who are interested, Santa didn't come through with the spice rack. That could be because he doesn't read my blog. However, my friend and Gene's high school classmate,Linda Tucker told me that she had one at home that she would let me have. I'm going to encourage Santa to buy it from her as a New Year's gift to me. By the way, Linda is the only person I know who orders more from QVC than I do. Seriously, the brown truck must stop at her house every day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, happy Christmas! And I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!