Raincharm’s Weblog

We had a group over for Chinese on Christmas Adam. It was a good time, with talk and good food. And there are enough leftovers to last us to the new year I think.

We had prepared a few appetizers and a dessert. The appetizer was based on a suggestion of an acquaintance. A wreath made of hummus, decorated with parsley, cherry tomatoes, red and green peppers, and some crackers.

Dessert was another thing altogether. I had a recipe and all of the ingredients. However, there were issues in the building.  First of all, I was picturing puff pastry, but what I had was phyllo dough. I had not worked with these separating sheets. The recipe called for two sheets, to be cut and placed atop one another. The sheets were so thin, especially compared to the puff pastry in my head, I decided to use more than two sheets. I proceeded down this path, although they did not seem to fully cook through with the 8 or so layers that I had settled on. So I was splitting the piles and continuing to cook some. In the meantime, I was attempting the custard. Parts were coming along fine, but I think the recipe called for  too much cornstarch. I ended up with a lumpy, sort of concrete like mixture. I tried to rescue it by hand mixing, using an electric beater, but finally decided it was a lost cause. I used the interwebs to find a different recipe for custard.  Same ingredients, but different proportions.

So unsure on the phyllo dough, two tries to get custard. The raspberries were from our summer garden, so I was a bit reticent to use them with the failings.

In the end, the “Napoleons” of a sort were well received. Topping them with chocolate covered a lot of faulty construction.

The dinner and dessert used most of our silverware, dinner and dessert plate settings, soup bowls, serving pieces, etc. So we used the dishwasher! This was the 20th use since the 2016 remodel. I know that because we used the last of 20 pacs in the bag. Unfortunately, for the first time, some water leaked out onto the kitchen floor. No damage, but an area of the floor that is much cleaner than the surrounding area. We will have to run it again to try to deduce the problem.

Christmas Eve included  a walk to and through Candy Cane Lane. Today, it didn’t rain! (It is supposed to be a gully washer tomorrow) So off we went. It was lovely and fun.

Now to spend a quiet evening at home.

This entry was posted on December 24, 2024 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.