I posted these over in the What’s For Dinner Thread for the month, but in the spirit of sharing:
Christmas Eve I was solo, so I tried out a new to me steamed fish in banana leaf recipe, Patra ni Muchchi, which was excellent and I ended up making a whole little feast for myself with saffron rice, roasted green beans, and a tomato and cucumber salad.
Christmas Day was just my mom and me and she actually wanted Chinese-American style take out, so that’s what we had. She very much enjoyed it and took home a bunch of leftovers. I adapted this Cupcakes For Two recipe for dessert. The timing on the recipe is entirely wrong. The cupcakes need 20-22 minutes to cook at 350F. I used almond extract in place of the cherry one called for. I turned out to be out of regular, unsweetened cocoa, so subbed in Ghiradelli’s drinking cocoa. The back of the canister actually gives directions for how to swap for baking, so I used two tablespoons of that cocoa in place of the one and cut the sugar in half. Brewed coffee in place of the “reduced-fat chocolate milk”. A pinch of salt added to the batter. I made a bittersweet chocolate ganache that I sprinkled with sea salt in place of the “1 tablespoon of semisweet chocolate” that you’re supposed to spread on the finished, cooled cupcakes. An improperly tempered chocolate topping on a cupcake for my mother? On Christmas? I’m not a monster. The cupcakes were wonderful and BF expressed jealousy from his parents house in Florida, so they will get made again soon.
I hope all that are celebrating this or any other December holiday had or are having a wonderful, restful time with their loved ones!
