22 December 2008

Milk Calendar Mondays

Well here we are...the final Milk Calendar Monday. I'd like to add "ever" to the end of that last sentence, but who knows, it may come back...but not for a long, long time.

The new calendar arrived a few weeks ago and I do admit that, at first glance, the recipes look more interesting via Indian, Thai, Greek and Vietnamese influences, but it also keeps some of what really bugged me in the 2008 calendar--I don' think anyone will successfully convince me that adding three cups of milk to a curry is a good thing.

The final 2008 recipe is their Almond Cranberry Loaf. Gosh, it looked pretty on the calendar...and it was marginally seasonal--cranberries always get me into a Christmassy mood. The recipe read well enough, and as usual the "for the adventurous" recommendation of adding dried apricots and substituting hazelnuts for almonds made me sigh...heavily.

Here, I admit to a couple of changes, to suit what was in my pantry. I'd actually run out of milk the day I made this, so instead I used the equal amount of yoghurt. I also was in the midst of fruitcaking (yes, I am a charter member, founding president and chief fruit macertator of the Fruitcake Liberation Front), so I was up to my elbows in pecans and chucked them into the bread instead of almonds. But I did use the apricots as recommended for the adventurous.

The bread itself wasn't too bad--a bit heavy, and I do like my fruit breads fruitier. Overall, a mostly inoffensive cake.

For those of you who want to relive my pain, here's a link to all the Milk Calendar Monday adventures.

I don't know about you, but I think I deserve a mug of heavily cognac-ed egg nog after this year-long adventure.


cheers!
jasmine




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6 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

You deserve all good things Jasmine. Cheers to a year of the Milk Calendar.
Merry Christmas.

K and S said...

looks great, Happy Holidays to you :)

Anonymous said...

Fruit cake liberation - love it! Have a happy holiday. : )

Jenny said...

For some reason, I didn't end up with one of these this upcoming year, but I'm in no hurry to go find one either.
Thanks for testing it all out for us. I don't have any egg-nog or congnac here but do have lots of good dark rum if you need a drink. :-)

NKP said...

Congratulations on completing MCMs. You, my dear lady, do indeed deserve your heavily alcoholized egg nog, as well as foot massage and a good winter's nap! (Doesn't that sound good?)
I noticed that the latest Food and Drink mag came with a Mott's Clamato Caesar calendar. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Elizabeth said...

You deserve much more for having persevered, Jasmine. Several medals and trophies, and at least a month's worth of really good food and drink without any mention of "and for the adventurous".

For the first time in years, we do not have the milk calendar on our kitchen wall - it is the wrong shape for the space.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Elizabeth

P.S. There's a calendar in the current Food & Drink, Natashya? How did I miss it?