scenes from the holidays 2022

One of my daughters worked in a bakery while in college and she made this massive GF scone. The blossoms are also GF made by my youngest daughter but I had to break it to her that the Cookies N Cream kisses were not GF. Either way they tasted great and I would not have even known they were GF.

The shortbread is from Mimi's recipe in the 2022 Christmas Cookie book. Charc boards creative team effort of my girls. I threw in the air fry paper because I have been wanting to try it for months and finally got the chance for our Christmas Eve fish fry. Works great. (I peeled and deveined 6lbs of shrimp and while it was really great results I won't be doing that again next year.). The air fryer was secondary use and this year we tried something new and used the Instant Pot crock pot as a fryer. It gets up to 400 and we had it at 375. The heat stayed way more consistent than when we used a dedicated fryer (super messy) last year. I was impressed.

And my absolute favorite: I've been asking my sister for months for my Grandma's Magic Bar recipe and she won't share so I got the Borden's version of the recipe and it came out great thanks to my youngest daughter.

Oh my - so many wonderful successes! congrats to you and your children! As for frying in an instant pot - so smart! I've never used air fry paper but we bought a silicon insert for our latest air fryer and it works beautifully!

Bravo to the entire family--well, except your sister. NO ONE should ever horde a family recipe from family members.

I have to be quick because I've lost internet AGAIN for the past 5 days (may a POX visit upon ZITO media) and I'm running off my phone as a hot spot. Just missed you guys! Happy New Year!

deb-in-mi said:

Oh my - so many wonderful successes! congrats to you and your children! As for frying in an instant pot - so smart! I've never used air fry paper but we bought a silicon insert for our latest air fryer and it works beautifully!

Click to expand...

to be clear the Instant Pot is the new thing they have. It is a really nice enamel Dutch Oven/ slow cooker. I don't think it says anywhere in the instructions to use it as a deep fryer but I got the idea and tried it out and it worked great. You have to fidget with the manual mode to get it up to temp.

Paul, what a wonderful array of savories and sweets! Plus what good memories cooking and baking with your daughters. My belated holiday wishes to you and your family.....Wigs

6 lbs of shrimp IS daunting!! What tool did you use? This is the best in the business and costs a dollar most places.

charley2 said:

6 lbs of shrimp IS daunting!! What tool did you use? This is the best in the business and costs a dollar most places.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D463GZC/?tag=osn

Click to expand...

I used a small curved pair of scissors designed for this purpose. They feel like they are upside down when you are holding them properly but it makes sense when you are using them as intended. They actually work great but it is still tedious and messy business.

Wow, what a wonderful spread! How fun when everyone gets together to cook. I’m with Marilyn though, one doesn’t keep a family recipe from another family member!

Paul said:

I used a small curved pair of scissors designed for this purpose. They feel like they are upside down when you are holding them properly but it makes sense when you are using them as intended. They actually work great but it is still tedious and messy business.
View attachment 2273

Click to expand...

I looked these up and see how it is done. I think it requires "working" the scissors.
I promise you--or anyone else looking for a shrimp tool--get the one I pictured. You put the end in the vein and just push. The shell is ripped off and the vein pushed out in one thrust. I have watched women in a fish house shelling mountains of shrimp with that tool. I did 4# at christmas in about 30 minutes.
The one I pictured was ridiculously expensive--they are at most $2. But the main thing is that they are so good. Just a FYI for anyone interested.