Yesterday was my aunt Mary's birthday. We colored Easter eggs and I made a Ice Cream filled German Chocolate Cake. I took my Betty Crocker, Bake-n-Fill pan, using the dome pan and insert. Then I filled it with chocolate chip cookie dough, cool whip, and banana pudding mix. It turned out really good.
I covered the cake in all sorts of different cake toppers that were in a bag at home. there was everything from cows to footballs on the cake. The picture is sideways, but it is AMAZING! For Christmas I got a creme brulee set with a torch. I sliced a banana, dipped it in sugar, and caramelized the tops with the torch. On top of the bananas I put a few scoops of cookies and cream ice cream...to quote Rachael Ray, "Delish!"
My sister wanted to have some meringue so we decided to find a recipe to make a pie with a meringue...It was really, really good! My meringue didn't work perfectly, but it was my first time to make one so I am cutting myself a little slack. You can find the recipe at foodnetwork.com
I was watching Rachael Ray one day and she was making Juevos Rancheros and well...it looked REALLY good so I attempted it. The first time I made it, it quickly became one of my favorites. In the picture below is a layered mix of...
While there are lots of ingredients, I think it is a very comfort foody dish for me and I love it!
When thinking about possible dishes to fix for new years celebrations, the idea of tamales ran across someones mind. That sounds good I thought! That will be fun!........ but was I wrong...
We decided to start a few days early to make sure we didn't have a lot of work. We started by cooking the beef roast in garlic and onions then grinding it up into fine pieces.
More steaming chilies and onions
After they cooked and were rehydrated, they were blended into a sauce...
Ran through a sieve...The chilies made me iffy because I have never used anything like those before. THEY WERE AMAZING!!! The smells made me want to dive into the boiling pot they were so aromatic! I am no longer afraid of using those dried chilies that are in the Mexican isle at the store.
Mixed meat and chilie sauce
Attempting to steam in the oven
It didn't work perfectly...
The final meat mixture turned out really good. The wrapping was something else though. I don't think I wrapped them right but it worked. They steamed very well on the stove top but when you only have 2 stock pots with steaming inserts...that can take some time. We tried to make our own steaming rig out of an aluminum pan and cookie cooling rack...that didn't work good but the broiler pan did do a little bit.
So doing all this once was fun. Then we realized at 10:30 the day before our second party that we didn't have enough from the first party to bring to the second party we had also committed to bringing tamales to, so...all over again in half the time. The night before our second new years party, my mom and myself were up into the wee hours of the morning wrapping tamales over and over again at 5:30 in the morning.
By the end of all of these tamale making incidents...I don't want to see another tamale until next new years week.
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