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Monday, December 20, 2010

A 'Comfort-Foods' Christmas

It seems I've been having a lot of early celebrations this year; I have.

Last night, David and I threw a pre-Christmas "holiday party" at our apartment with a few close friends. Here's some of what we had:



Jane's Spiced Mixed Nuts, with pretzels


David's mashed red potato quesadilla strips with ham and scallions


Fabiana's (fabulous) chicken liver and foie gras pâté


Libby's Mexican Wedding Cake cookies


Peppermint-crumble brownies (amazing!) with peppermint extract


And last, but not least, Devil's Fruitcake

(Also on the menu: meatballs with cranberry-blackberry dressing and pimento cheese and pumpernickel sandwiches...)

I must say that I was quite surprised by how much my guests were 'swooning' over my devil's fruitcake! I thought only one or two would try a slice (and I'd get to keep the rest), but everyone was so intrigued by my brandied fruitcake and wanted to try some. I told them all how to make their own devil's fruitcake plus a couple of tips I'd picked up since originally posting the recipe:

  • If you have a time limit for preparing your devil's fruitcake, you can water the cake daily, but no more than four days.
  • When the cake begins to resemble a "moist cake" and loses its original firmness, it's ready--don't water it anymore.

To my (bittersweet) surprise, at the end of the night only one slice remained. I guess to quote Cynthia would be correct:"What dessert wouldn't taste good soaked in brandy?"

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