The Turkey Duck Chicken thing

Well this post really belongs to Himself.  About 6 years ago my husband heard about a Turducken and HAD to learn how to cook one.  For those who are mystified by this term, a Turducken is a whole deboned turkey stuffed with a whole deboned chicken which is in turn stuffed with a whole deboned duck.  The butcher that prepares these for us also uses pork/ham in between the birds and Himself makes up his secret spice mix that he gives to the butcher to put in between all the layers so that the flavours get right through the meat.  This enormous concoction of meat weighs about 9 kg and takes around 6 - 7 hours to cook.   The only problem with this (for me) is that the Turducken takes up the ENTIRE oven, so I am unable to prepare roast vegetables to serve with it.  Luckily we live in Australia, so nobody really minds having salads with their roast Turkey Duck Chicken thing (which is what I call this big bad boy).

We are hosting Christmas Eve this year, so the Turducken will be the star attraction, served with a marinated tomato and bocconcini salad, a pumpkin, avacado and fetta salad with lemon pesto dressing, an asian style cabbage salad and my mother-in-laws potato salad recipe.  We will start with some nibbles which will include olive tapenade (see "Preserving Olives/Black Olive Tapenade" )and a cheese and walnut log (see "Walnuts" April 2011 ).  Then we will move on to cold cooked prawns with fresh lemon and and for dessert we will be having an ice-cream cake and a red fruit salad (remember we live in Australia where it is summer so we don't mind having a cold dessert).

Hope that you have a safe and pleasant time however you celebrate the holiday season.

Coconut Biscuits

Well, the end of the school year is finally here and our son had to take something for a shared lunch with his "buddy" class (which just happens to be his sisters class).  I didn't want to send him to school with a box of cheezels (our daughters suggestion) so instead I decided to make some Coconut Biscuits.

My daughter didn't like them very much, but they were a hit with Himself, myself and our son.  I was told that the teachers enjoyed them, so here is the recipe for the lovely teachers at St Josephs School at Tranmere.

Coconut Biscuits:

Mix 2 cups desiccated coconut, 250g white choc chips, 200ml condensed milk and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder until well combined.  Place heaped teaspoons onto oven trays lined with baking paper, allowing a little room for them to spread.  Bake in a moderate oven for approx 10 minutes (until golden).  Remove from oven and leave on trays to cool.

Enjoy!