Christmas dinner...

My body decided that I needed to be sick this year during Christmas. :( So even though I didn't feel too great most of the day yesterday, we still enjoyed a Christmas dinner at David's parent's house.

David's mom made these little penguins out of olives, carrots, tooth picks and tofu cream cheese filling. Very cute and very yummy too! In our family we have 3 veggies, 1 vegan and then the rest eat meat so we had quite the variety of foods for everyone.

 As Sabbath was ending, David's mom lighted the Menorah to close this special Christmas Sabbath. We prayed and sang Christmas songs with one of our friends playing the guitar. A very beautiful ending to the day.

And then we opened up gifts.... :)

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Recipe of the Week - Pie

Let there be pie! My husband's favorite dessert is pie. I probably don't make them as often as he would like however. My grandfather requested a special pie for Christmas this year; Raisin pie. David had never had a raisin pie before so I was hoping he would like it. He did, so now he joins the few of my family who do. So if you have never tried raisin pie before, here is a very easy recipe for you to try! Be sure to link up your favorite pie recipe below and include a button from my Recipe of the Week Link Up page. Be sure to spread the word about this link up!

Raisin Pie

 

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cold water

2 cups raisins

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)  

In a saucepan, stir together sugar and flour. Add water and mix well. Stir in raisins, salt and cinnamon; cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Pour into a pastry-lined pie plate. Top with lattice crust, or cover with top crust and cut slits for steam to escape. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown

So what is your favorite pie? Have a recipe for it? Share it on your blog and link up! Please only link up if you are posting a recipe, this is not a regular blog hop link up. The link up in open from today until Tuesday night at 11:59pm

Enjoy!

Christmas in Tennessee

This past week David and I drove to visit our dear friends Mike, Sarah and their children Hannah, Nathan and Rebecca. Sarah has been my best friend for about 10 years now! We actually met online, at a Christian girl's online community that was started by a mutual friend. Sarah also author's her own blog Sarah's Heart's Home.

We left on Tuesday morning and arrived at Sarah's house around 3:30pm. My dad was nice enough to watch the dogs for us while we were gone, so we didn't have to worry about them. This was my first time meeting my newest niece, Rebecca. She is such a sweetie.

We opened up Christmas gifts next. The kids were really excited to see what they got from Auntie Heather and Uncle David. ** Click on each collage to see them larger **

On Wednesday we visited the Smokie Mountain Knife Works store and then went out to eat at a really neat place called The Apple Barn.

On Thursday we just hung around Sarah and Mike's house visiting and ordered Chinese food for supper! We also went out to see some Christmas lights! The kids enjoyed doctoring Uncle David as well.

We had such a wonderful time with them, it didn't last long enough! :( On Friday before leaving for home, we drove through the Smokies and Cades Cove. It was a beautiful day and the mountains were covered in ice!

Thank you Sarah and Mike for a wonderful week! We had a great time!

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Banoffee Pie



mouthwatering banoffee

 With a name like Banoffee, people often imagine this dessert hails from Ireland.  But no, it is a thoroughly decadent creation dating back to 1972 when it was introduced in 'The Hungry Monk' pub in East Sussex in the UK where it achieved immediate success. It consists of bananas and toffee, hence the name, but the key ingredient is a tin of condensed milk. Without this, you can't make it.  Unfortunately it isn't available here in Turkey but if you can get hold of one, I do recommend this desssert as it's a real crowd-pleaser, finger-licking good, ideal for those with a sweet tooth!

ready to go

 A few days ago I took the opportunity to check out some banoffee recipes on the internet. I had a special request to make one for Christmas Eve, you see. It seems that the traditional way to make the toffee filling is to boil the unopened can in a saucepan of water for two or three hours. My eyes were standing out on stalks when I read this and one of the comments caught my eye: someone wrote that her mum tried this about ten years ago. She went off to dry her hair and promptly forgot all about it. The pan boiled dry, the can zoomed out, made a hole in the kitchen counter, the lid came off and the toffee spurted out all over the ceiling and took weeks to clean off! This struck me as hilarious but, being a cautious type, I thought no way am I going to try that.

Then I saw a video clip of how to make banoffee pie. By this time, I was really curious about the toffee so fastforwarded to that part. I saw this earnest cook pouring the condensed milk into a rectangular pyrex dish, covering it with a double layer of foil, then putting it in a large baking tin surrounded with water. The whole thing went in the oven for again about two and a half hours. What a laborious procedure, I thought! No way.

Finally, logic prevailed: I went to Carnation's own recipe and here it is:

Ingredients

use a 20cm/ 8'' loose-bottomed cake tin, greased

Serves 10-12

Base

100g/ 3 1/2 oz butter, melted

250g/ 9oz digestive biscuits ( I used Eti Burçak)

Filling

100g/ 3 1/2 oz butter

100g/ 3 1/2 oz dark brown soft sugar

397g can Carnation Condensed Milk

Topping

4 small bananas

300ml carton double cream, lightly whipped (I used 1 packet Tikveşli krema)

grated chocolate

Method

•  Crush biscuits in a food processor. Stir in melted butter. Press the mixture with your fingers into the base and 4cm/ 1 1/2'' up the sides of the tin. Chill the base while you make the filling.

making the biscuit base

• To make the filling: place the butter and sugar in a non-stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Add the condensed milk and bring gently to the boil, stirring continuously. When the caramel has started to boil, remove from heat and pour over the biscuit base. Cool, then leave to chill for about 1 hr, till firm.                      
• To serve: remove pie from tin and place on serving plate. Slice the bananas, fold half of them into the softly whipped cream and spoon over the toffee base. Decorate with the remaining bananas and finish with grated chocolate.

caramel cooling in the tin

Tips

1. The internet is useful for photos as to how the final banoffee should look. Personally I like this one which is how the Carnation recipe presents it. 
2. I didn't remove mine from the tin before adding the filling as the logistics of getting it to its final destination were tricky. So here you see mine with the filling still in the tin. I removed it once there and it was fine. 
3. I actually baked my pie crust in the oven 180C/350F for 10 mins before cooling and adding the filling. 
4. Some recipes advocate using 2 tins of condensed milk. I think that would be too sweet for words.

          Deeply satisfying, highly calorific, extremely easy to make: the ultimate in indulgent desserts!

Eucharistic Ministrations on Christmas

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be a eucharistic minister during Christmas Mass. Every time I do that I get choked up for some reason or another. I can't explain it and I didn't expect that when I started, but it just happens. Yesterday my wife and I served at a different Mass than usual and there was a larger than normal choir. Communion was out of rhythm - it was like square dancing with a new partner. It didn't seem like Communion was going to have the same emotional pop as usual because of the confusion. That is until the very last fellow came up to me.

He was a big, rugged man carrying his son who looked to be about 2 years old, maybe 3. I was serving the wine. The man took the chalice from me with a hearty, "Amen." His son watched him with a look of pure innocence, pure concentration and pure love. It was a beautiful, Norman Rockwell scene and I got to be a small part of it.

That was all it took. Another glorious, unforgettable moment. Thank you, God, for letting me be a part of that.

I hope your Christmas day gave plenty of the same kind of memories to you.