Secrets of the M*A*S*H Mess

Tasty Tuesday–Festive Feasts and Holiday Baking

Now that Epiphany has come and gone, I guess the holiday season is officially over (I’m still not taking my Christmas tree down yet, though!). Let’s take a look back at the festive feasts and holiday baking we enjoyed during the holidays!

As I did last year, I kicked off Thanksgiving week by making pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies:

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we enjoyed our traditional feast:

And TEN pies (the bonus cookie butter pie was still in the freezer)!

We had chicken döner and gingerbread whoopie pies for our postponed St. Nicholas Day dinner:

And for Santa Lucia Day, we had lussekattes, potato pancakes and kielbasa (a day late), and white-chocolate cranberry cupcakes:

We didn’t have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, but we did have a carrot cake filled with gingerbread mousse:

For Christmas Day breakfast we had our favorite coffee cake:

And the best meal of the year, the pick-out dinner!

I think our M*A*S*H Day dinner counts as a festive feast, because Tony Packo’s was a Christmas gift.

On New Year’s Eve, we had fondue:

And the hot chocolate bar:

New Year’s Day was a full German feast of schnitzel and spaetzle and red cabbage:

With a Black Forest cake for dessert:

We had one more turkey dinner while we waited for the first snowstorm of the year:

And our traditional snow day dinner of French toast the next day:

Our festive feasts always end with Ryan’s birthday dinner…this year, we had chili and fry bread:

And a Frango Mint cake for dessert!

Of course there was plenty of cookie baking, starting with the French Christmas cookies we made in school:

And all of our favorite Christmas cookies!

It made for a beautiful Bunter Teller!

We also enjoyed Christmas Tree Cake treats all season long, including both standard and big cakes, donuts, and ice cream:

And a few festive drinks along the way…wassail and eggnog:

This has been a great season of feasting…now it’s time to give the kitchen a break! (Who am I kidding…I’m already planning the next cake I’m going to bake!)

M*A*S*H Day

Yesterday we had a M*A*S*H Day, where we watched all of our favorite episodes (I wish we had enough time for even more!):

  • “Tuttle”
  • “Dear Dad 3”
  • “Deal Me Out”
  • “Henry in Love”
  • “Crisis”
  • “Adam’s Rib”
  • “Private Charles Lamb”
  • “The Most Unforgettable Characters”
  • “Movie Tonight”
  • “The Smell of Music”
  • “A Night at Rosie’s”
  • “The Party”
  • “Period of Adjustment”
  • “Nurse Doctor”
  • “Dear Uncle Abdul”
  • “The Red/White Blues”
  • “Blood Brothers”
  • “The Tooth Shall Set You Free”
  • “Sons and Bowlers”
  • “Who Knew?”

We also had Tony Packo’s for dinner, thanks to the “Hot Dog Essentials Pack” we received for Christmas. And I couldn’t find grape Nehi locally, but we did have grape soda, and serving it in a martini glass made it feel even more M*A*S*H-like!

For dessert, we made “Adrenaline Rush Brownies” from Secrets of the M*A*S*H Mess:

This was a fun way to spend a day of Christmas break!

M*A*S*H Day

“I didn’t hear you say that. Because it isn’t possible. It’s inhuman to serve the same food, day after day. The Geneva Convention prohibits the killing of our taste buds!” Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H

Happy M*A*S*H Day!

Ok, I made that up. But today is 4/07…and that’s as close as I could get to the 4077th date-wise, but that’s good enough for me! Really, I was just looking for an excuse to make a themed meal from Secrets of the M*A*S*H Mess by Private Igor, I mean, Jeff Maxwell. We started the day with “Klinger’s Section 8 Omelet,” which included spinach, mushrooms, and salami, and was crazy delicious!

For dinner, I made “Fractured Fusilli with Balsamic-Pepper Sauce” which was a nice departure from tomato-based pasta sauces. I think it will make an especially nice, light summer dinner!

For dessert, I made “Charles’ Blueblood Berry Cake with Lemon Frosting.” It’s a classic flavor combination, and it was so delicious!

Secrets of the M*A*S*H Mess is a really fun book. I was super excited when they released a new, updated 50th anniversary edition last year, because I hadn’t been able to find it anywhere. The recipes are fun (and occasionally frightening, like the “River of Liver” and “Creamed Weenies,” both dishes actually mentioned in the show), but the real draw of the book is the letters home from Igor, behind-the-scenes tales, and cast photographs. It’s perfect for a M*A*S*H fan like me!