Thursday, December 20, 2018

Mincemeat and More

 I had all this dried fruit leftover from the fruitcake adventures so I decided to try my hand at making my own mincemeat. I usually buy it in the jar but I thought....why not?



Christmas breakfast is always a slice of mincemeat pie and a tangerine. Now that's it's just me eating it, I use these cute little pie and tart pans that I found on clearance at Micheal's a few Christmases ago.



I studied recipes for days. There are two types. Cooked and fermented.



 I went with cooked and subbed out the suet for butter.



 It looked lovely.


 It smelled lovely. I had to send The Mister on an Allspice run. It was the one thing I didn't have on the spice shelf and it made all the difference.


 Since I already had the brandy out I gave the fruitcakes a bath. I also gave them a nibble. Alton was right. His is better. Mine is a traditional brick of a cake. His is light as a feather.



After cooling, the mincemeat got jarred up. Now it will sit until I am ready to make pie.



I also managed to squeak out a pan of Hello Dollies aka Magic Cookie Bars. It was the one and only cookie I ever remember my grandma making and it's a good one. It's The Mister's favorite too and I'm glad. I hate standing in front of the stove baking pans of individual cookies.



Having said that, of course I went and made some "regular" cookies too.



I'll use any excuse to use my new Echo Show thingy to ask for recipes. I love that thing. She even has a cooking music playlist.

8 comments:

  1. It all looks delicious. I have never had mincemeat. It sounds like it could be a sweet dish but I’ve also heard it’s savory.Hmmmm? The cookies look wonderful. I may even try my hand at some myself tomorrow. Blessings, Betsy

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  2. I also use brandy for my fruitcake. And will be cooking minced meat pies on Monday.

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  3. Mom's relish called for All Spice, and as soon as I opened the jar, all I could think of was "It smells like Christmas!"

    your Fruitcake is making me very hungry!

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  4. I'll bet it smelled SO good in your house.

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  5. I LOVE mincemeat! That looks wonderful (and I like that you subbed butter for the suet).

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  6. Your kitchen must smell fabulous after all that baking!

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  7. I could get hungry just scrolling thru your photos in this post. Had never heard magic cookie bars called Hello Dollies. I absolutely love those things but will only make them when someone asks me to bring them for a get-together. Left in my house, I could make myself sick eating them. They are so good and so rich and just habit forming. Bet your house smells heavenly.

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  8. Oh those cookies. THey are darling. Just look at your gingerbread men!

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