"Dutch Goose", Hog Maw, or whatever else you want to call it but it's still Pig Stomach

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day together. Started off at church and then home to do some cooking.

Here is the Colonel Mustard making a Grilled Crostini with Brie, Prosciutto, Arugula and Figs.

We made the bread earlier - an italian bread called pugliese. We started Christmas eve making the biga and finished it in the morning before church. Very good.

He made a few with a pesto brie (that I had gotten at Jungle Jim's) and the rest with regular brie, and truthfully I didn't like the pesto brie, so I won't be trying any more fancy bries - give me plain and I will dress it up myself or eat it by itself.

I made soup, a spinach tortellini soup. I made the tortellini Christmas eve, so it was pretty easy to throw together. The broth was just a boxed broth labeled tuscany broth, but it was very good and then I just tossed in the tortellini and topped with parsley. Delicious.

Vanilla Bean made a "dutch goose" or hog maw or whatever you want to call it. Straight up it is stuffed pig stomach. We have been talking about having pig stomach for Christmas dinner for a number of years so strange as it may seem, it was with great excitement that it was served up this year. It was good and served with a gravy and garnished with parsley, cranberries, and orange slices. Tasty.

We had gotten it pre-stuffed, and decided sometime we will have to stuff it ourselves. This stuffing had sausage, potatoes, onions and bread stuffing, which I think I would prefer it without the bread, so some day we will try it ourselves and I think I will try it with cabbage too.

Mom fixed a rhubarb raspberry roly-poly and english custard sauce. Fabulous.

Dad meticulously made red velvet cake, which he cut into 4 layers and frosted with a delicious buttercream frosting. Decadent.

The first course of soup and grilled crostini.

Second course of stuffed pig stomach.

Third course of Red Velvet Cake and roly-poly with custard sauce.

And for something different a little chai bubble tea.

Cow Goes Up the Mountain....or something like that

I had the wonderful opportunity around Thanksgiving to get together with some friends of mine from all around the world and enjoy a special Cambodian meal. The khmer title is translated something to the tune of "cow goes up the mountain" or "cow went up the mountain". You use a special pot which has a space in the bottom for coals and then a moat around the outside of the pot for broth - where you make soup, and peak in the middle - where you cook the meat.

Hot coals ready, now for the food - oh yeah it is a little different in Ohio in November when you can't be outside, we had to keep some windows open - since we were doing one of those taboo activities of grilling inside. Cambodia never gets quite this chilly, so they can always be outside to enjoy this meal.

The above picture shows Lok getting things started. You can see some of the various items we cooked throughout the evening, greens, mushrooms, watercress, and noodles for the soup, beef and pork to cook on the "mountain." Throughout the meal you add items to the pot and then take them out as they are cooked and you are ready to eat. There is a spoon for the soup, but the meat is all chopstick work. Then of course there is also rice.

Cooking and eating. From the bottom left the group included Lionel (Brazil), Andrea (lived in Cambodia for 4 years), Lok (Laos), Marlin (I believe he works for MCC - the organization who does IVEP), Albert (Kosovo), Wilmer (Guatemala), Emily (recently returned from several years in Turkey), Gloria (Dominican Republic), and Susan (China), and just out of the picture Ronnie (Ukraine) and Holly (Ohio). We had a good time, not all of us were as good with chopsticks as others, but we all had plenty to eat.

Thank you Andrea, for cutting up all that food and inviting us over, as well as providing the pot and "recipe". I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to get to know so many wonderful people from all over the world.

Persimmons...

Regardless of the lack of posting here, I haven't starved, in fact I have tried some new recipes and enjoyed some cooking adventures.

Last year was the first time I have ever had a persimmon, and I find I really like them, maybe someday I will have a persimmon tree next to my blueberry bushes :). In case you are wondering I don't have the blueberry bushes yet either, but one can dream. Well, I somehow got it in my head that I wanted to make persimmon cookies, so after a trip to Cincinnati to visit my sister and a stop at Jungle Jim's I headed home with 4 persimmons, plenty enough for a batch of cookies....and boy were they good, or at least I thought so.

A ripe Hichiya Persimmon for anyone who is curious, make sure the persimmon you set out to enjoy is ripe ..... or you won't like the experience.

The persimmon puree ready for cookies.

The finished cookies, they also had craisins and pecans in them, but I made a few without the extras and I liked them that way also.

My desire to try a persimmon, came mostly from my Great Aunt Anna, who was known to climb out on the porch roof to pick persimmons from her tree even in her nineties. I always admired her and still miss going to visit her now that she has gone to be with the Lord.

Great Aunt Anna showing me how her nut cracker worked. Here she is at 97, she shelled 40 lbs of pecans for people that Christmas.