(Family Features) La elegancia de las fiestas comienza en la mesa con comidas, postres y bebidas compartidas con los seres queridos. Este año, deje que las uvas añadan una elegancia fácil a sus recetas de temporada como un ingrediente exclusivo y perfecto para ocasiones especiales.
Como una adición muy versátil a los aperitivos, refrigerios, platos principales, guarniciones y postres, las uvas son un ingrediente esencial para tener a mano. Gracias a su delicada dulzura y jugosa textura, las uvas de California pueden ser la estrella en el centro de la mesa acompañando comidas especiales y sabrosas, como las chuletas de cerdo estofadas con miel y uvas servidas con sidra de uva con especias para una refrescante bebida para adultos.
Termine la celebración compartiendo una tarta de queso con uvas al estilo vasco, donde se usa un delicioso jugo de uva fresco en la masa de la tarta de queso para darle una dulzura natural que rezalta el sabor. Decore la parte superior con uvas frescas y jugosas para darle un toque final festivo.
Prepare el ambiente para una reunión deliciosa sirviendo un aperitivo fácil y atractivo como esta bandeja de fiesta de uvas, con uvas frescas, prosciutto, quesos, pistachos y otras delicias favoritas para las fiestas. Las uvas son fáciles de incluir, ya que ofrecen una variedad de diferentes colores, formas, tamaños y texturas, lo que las convierte en un refrigerio ideal y saludable o como ingrediente en sabrosas recetas.
Chuletas de cerdo estofadas con miel especiada y uvas
Porciones: 4
4 chuletas de cerdo gruesas (alrededor de 3 libras)
4 cucharadas de harina
2 cucharadas de mantequilla o margarina, derretida
1 1/2 tazas de uvas de California, rojas o negras, enteras
1/3 taza de miel de abeja
2 palitos de canela pequeños, rotos
3-5 clavos de olor
1/2 cucharadita de jengibre molido seco
1/2 cucharadita de sal
1/4 cucharadita de pimienta negra
1 cucharada de menta fresca picada (opcional)
Precaliente el horno a 325 F.
Caliente una sartén o cazuela pesada con tapa a fuego medio-alto. Espolvoree las chuletas de cerdo con harina y dórelas lentamente en mantequilla derretida. No deje que la harina se queme.
Retire la sartén del fuego y agregue las uvas, la miel, la canela, los clavos de olor, el jengibre, la sal y la pimienta. Cubra y coloque en el horno. Estofar lentamente de 50 a 60 minutos, o hasta que el cerdo esté tierno. Retire la carne de cerdo de la sartén y manténgala caliente. Retire la salsa de la sartén del exceso de grasa. Coloque las chuletas de cerdo en una bandeja de servir, vierta la salsa y espolvoree con menta picada, si lo desea.
Información nutricional por ración: 569 calorías; 54 g de proteína; 41 g de carbohidratos; 21 g de grasa (33% de calorías de grasa); 9 g de grasas saturadas (14% de calorías de grasas saturadas); 33% de calorías de grasa; 165 mg de colesterol; 407 mg de sodio; 1,6 g de fibra.
Tarta de queso con uvas al estilo vasco
Tiempo de preparación: 15 minutos, más enfriamiento y refrigeración Tiempo de cocción: 40 minutos Porciones: 12
2 tazas de uvas verdes de California, divididas
1/4 taza, más 2/3 taza, azúcar granulada, dividida
2 1/2 cucharadas de maicena
2 pizcas grandes de sal kosher
21 onzas de queso crema, a temperatura ambiente
1 taza de crema espesa o crema de leche, fría
4 huevos grandes, a temperatura ambiente
2 cucharadas de licor de naranja (opcional)
Caliente el horno a 425 F con la rejilla en el centro. Use una hoja de papel pergamino de 12 por 16 pulgadas para forrar un molde desmontable de 9 pulgadas en el centro. Presione el papel en el borde inferior de molde y alise las arrugas alrededor de los lados. Coloque el molde en una bandeja para hornear poco profunda.
En una mini licuadora o procesador de alimentos, mezcle 1 taza de uvas, 1/4 taza de azúcar, maicena y sal a velocidad alta hasta que quede suave, aproximadamente por 1 minuto.
En un tazón de una batidora eléctrica equipada con paleta, bata el queso crema y el azúcar restante hasta que quede esponjoso, 1-2 minutos. Con la batidora a velocidad media, vierta gradualmente la crema espesa; raspar los lados y batir a alta velocidad hasta que la mezcla parezca crema batida suave, aproximadamente 1 minuto. Batir los huevos, uno a la vez, raspando cada vez que incorporas uno. A velocidad media, agregue gradualmente la mezcla de puré de uva; raspe y mezcle hasta que esté bien mezclado, por 1 minuto.
Vierta la masa en el molde preparado, llévelo al horno y hornee de 38 a 40 minutos hasta que la tarta esté inflada y la parte superior esté dorada como caramelo. Aparecerán grietas alrededor de los bordes y la tarta se tambaleará cuando se toque suavemente con el dedo. Coloque el molde para tartas en una bandeja para hornear sobre una rejilla para que se enfríe. La tarta se hundirá a la mitad de su altura. Enfríe a temperatura ambiente, 1-2 horas, luego refrigere sin tapar. No saque la tarta del molde hasta que esté bien fría, al menos 5 horas o toda la noche.
Corte las uvas restantes en mitades o en rodajas. En un tazón pequeño, combine las uvas con el licor de naranja, si lo desea, y reserve.
Cuando esté listo para servir, retire el lado de la sartén. Retire con cuidado el papel pergamino arrugado del costado de la tarta de queso y luego pásela a un plato para servir quitando el papel del fondo de la tarta y debajo del molde mientras tira suavemente de la tarta hacia el plato y fuera del papel.
Adorne la parte superior de la tarta de queso con la mezcla de licor de uva, si lo desea, o con uvas frescas. Corte la tarta en triángulos con un cuchillo delgado y afilado.
Nota: La tarta de queso se puede preparar hasta con 2 días de anticipación. Una vez que la tarta esté bien fría, cubra el recipiente con una envoltura de plástico hasta que esté lista para servir.
Información nutricional por ración: 350 calorías; 6 g de proteína; 25 g de carbohidratos; 26 g de grasa (67% de calorías de grasa); 15 g de grasas saturadas (39 % de calorías de grasas saturadas); 135 mg de colesterol; 200 mg de sodio; 0 g de fibra.
Sidra caliente de uva con especias
Tiempo de preparación: 20 minutos Tiempo de cocción: alrededor de 1 hora Porciones: 4
5 tazas de uvas rojas de California, más adicionales para decorar, cantidad dividida
3 tazas de agua
1 cucharada de miel de abeja
1 canela en rama
2 anís estrellado (opcional)
1 naranja grande
6 onzas de ron ámbar
En una cacerola grande, mezcle 5 tazas de uvas con agua, miel, canela y anís estrellado, si lo desea. Lleve la mezcla a ebullición a fuego medio-alto, reduzca el fuego a medio-bajo, cubra y cocine a fuego lento hasta que las uvas estén tiernas, 50-60 minutos. Deje enfriar por 15 minutos.
Coloque un colador de malla mediana sobre el tazón y vierta la mezcla de uvas. Presione suavemente sobre los sólidos para extraer el jugo de la fruta de aproximadamente 2 tazas de sidra de uva.
Con el pelador, pelar una tira grande de cáscara de naranja y añadirla al zumo caliente. Dejar enfriar, tapar y refrigerar.
Cuando esté listo para servir, caliente suavemente la sidra a fuego medio. Vierta 1/2 taza de sidra en cada taza. Agregue 1 1/2 onzas de ron y decore con un toque de naranja y una brocheta pequeña de uvas.
Información nutricional por ración: 170 calorías; 0 g de proteína; 18 g de carbohidratos; 0 g de grasa (0% de calorías de grasa); 0 g de grasas saturadas (0% de calorías de grasas saturadas); 0 mg de colesterol; 5 mg de sodio; 0 g de fibra.
Visit our Food & Drink section to get the latest on Foodie News and recipes, offering a delightful blend of culinary inspiration and gastronomic trends to elevate your dining experience.
How Pecans Became a Holiday Staple: 8,000 Years of American Pecan History
Pecan History? Discover the 8,000-year history of pecans—America’s only native major nut crop. Learn how pecans evolved from wild, overlooked trees to a beloved holiday staple found in pies, pralines, and more.
How Pecans Became a Holiday Staple: 8,000 Years of American Pecan History
Shelley Mitchell, Oklahoma State University Pecans have a storied history in the United States. Today, American trees produce hundreds of million of pounds of pecans – 80% of the world’s pecan crop. Most of that crop stays here. Pecans are used to produce pecan milk, butter and oil, but many of the nuts end up in pecan pies. Throughout history, pecans have been overlooked, poached, cultivated and improved. As they have spread throughout the United States, they have been eaten raw and in recipes. Pecans have grown more popular over the decades, and you will probably encounter them in some form this holiday season. I’m an extension specialist in Oklahoma, a state consistently ranked fifth in pecan production, behind Georgia, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. I’ll admit that I am not a fan of the taste of pecans, which leaves more for the squirrels, crows and enthusiastic pecan lovers.
The spread of pecans
The pecan is a nut related to the hickory. Actually, though we call them nuts, pecans are actually a type of fruit called a drupe. Drupes have pits, like the peach and cherry.Three pecan fruits, which ripen and split open to release pecan nuts, clustered on a pecan tree.IAISI/Moment via Getty Images The pecan nuts that look like little brown footballs are actually the seed that starts inside the pecan fruit – until the fruit ripens and splits open to release the pecan. They are usually the size of your thumb, and you may need a nutcracker to open them. You can eat them raw or as part of a cooked dish. The pecan derives its name from the Algonquin “pakani,” which means “a nut too hard to crack by hand.” Rich in fat and easy to transport, pecans traveled with Native Americans throughout what is now the southern United States. They were used for food, medicine and trade as early as 8,000 years ago.Pecans are native to the southern United States.Elbert L. Little Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Pecans are native to the southern United States, and while they had previously spread along travel and trade routes, the first documented purposeful planting of a pecan tree was in New York in 1722. Three years later, George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon, had some planted pecans. Washington loved pecans, and Revolutionary War soldiers said he was constantly eating them. Meanwhile, no one needed to plant pecans in the South, since they naturally grew along riverbanks and in groves. Pecan trees are alternate bearing: They will have a very large crop one year, followed by one or two very small crops. But because they naturally produced a harvest with no input from farmers, people did not need to actively cultivate them. Locals would harvest nuts for themselves but otherwise ignored the self-sufficient trees. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that people in the pecan’s native range realized the pecan’s potential worth for income and trade. Harvesting pecans became competitive, and young boys would climb onto precarious tree branches. One girl was lifted by a hot air balloon so she could beat on the upper branches of trees and let them fall to collectors below. Pecan poaching was a problem in natural groves on private property.
Pecan cultivation begins
Even with so obvious a demand, cultivated orchards in the South were still rare into the 1900s. Pecan trees don’t produce nuts for several years after planting, so their future quality is unknown.An orchard of pecan trees.Jon Frederick/iStock via Getty Images To guarantee quality nuts, farmers began using a technique called grafting; they’d join branches from quality trees to another pecan tree’s trunk. The first attempt at grafting pecans was in 1822, but the attempts weren’t very successful. Grafting pecans became popular after an enslaved man named Antoine who lived on a Louisiana plantation successfully produced large pecans with tender shells by grafting, around 1846. His pecans became the first widely available improved pecan variety.Grafting is a technique that involves connecting the branch of one tree to the trunk of another.Orest Lyzhechka/iStock via Getty Images The variety was named Centennial because it was introduced to the public 30 years later at the Philadelphia Centennial Expedition in 1876, alongside the telephone, Heinz ketchup and the right arm of the Statue of Liberty. This technique also sped up the production process. To keep pecan quality up and produce consistent annual harvests, today’s pecan growers shake the trees while the nuts are still growing, until about half of the pecans fall off. This reduces the number of nuts so that the tree can put more energy into fewer pecans, which leads to better quality. Shaking also evens out the yield, so that the alternate-bearing characteristic doesn’t create a boom-bust cycle.
US pecan consumption
The French brought praline dessert with them when they immigrated to Louisiana in the early 1700s. A praline is a flat, creamy candy made with nuts, sugar, butter and cream. Their original recipe used almonds, but at the time, the only nut available in America was the pecan, so pecan pralines were born.Pralines were originally a French dessert, but Americans began making them with pecans.Jupiterimages/The Image Bank via Getty Images During the Civil War and world wars, Americans consumed pecans in large quantities because they were a protein-packed alternative when meat was expensive and scarce. One cup of pecan halves has about 9 grams of protein. After the wars, pecan demand declined, resulting in millions of excess pounds at harvest. One effort to increase demand was a national pecan recipe contest in 1924. Over 21,000 submissions came from over 5,000 cooks, with 800 of them published in a book. Pecan consumption went up with the inclusion of pecans in commercially prepared foods and the start of the mail-order industry in the 1870s, as pecans can be shipped and stored at room temperature. That characteristic also put them on some Apollo missions. Small amounts of pecans contain many vitamins and minerals. They became commonplace in cereals, which touted their health benefits. In 1938, the federal government published the pamphlet Nuts and How to Use Them, which touted pecans’ nutritional value and came with recipes. Food writers suggested using pecans as shortening because they are composed mostly of fat. The government even put a price ceiling on pecans to encourage consumption, but consumers weren’t buying them. The government ended up buying the surplus pecans and integrating them into the National School Lunch Program.Today, pecan producers use machines called tree shakers to shake pecans out of the trees.Christine_Kohler/iStock via Getty Images While you are sitting around the Thanksgiving table this year, you can discuss one of the biggest controversies in the pecan industry: Are they PEE-cans or puh-KAHNS? Editor’s note: This article was updated to include the amount of protein in a cup of pecans.Shelley Mitchell, Senior Extension Specialist in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Oklahoma State University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Unwrap the Holidays: Whataburger Launches 12 Days of Whatacheer With Daily App Deals
Celebrate the holidays with Whataburger’s 12 Days of Whatacheer! Discover daily in-app deals, exclusive to Rewards members, from December 12–23. Unwrap new menu favorites, BOGO offers, and festive savings—only on the Whataburger App.
As the holiday lights go up and the year winds down, Whataburger is serving up more than just its signature burgers—it’s delivering a sleigh-full of savings and cheer to its loyal fans. For Rewards members, the season just got a whole lot tastier.
12 Days of Whatacheer: Festive Deals for Rewards Members
From December 12 through December 23, Whataburger is rolling out a new holiday tradition: the 12 Days of Whatacheer. Each day, Rewards members can unlock a fresh, exclusive deal in the Whataburger App—think crave-worthy classics, “buy one, get one” surprises, and complimentary add-ons that make every meal feel like a celebration.
Whether you’re craving a hot Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit to start your morning, a classic Whataburger for lunch, or a sweet Strawberry Shake to cap off your evening, there’s a daily treat waiting to be unwrapped. Just sign in to your Rewards account, check the app, and claim your deal to add a little extra joy to your holiday routine.
How It Works
Who: Whataburger Rewards members (sign up in the app if you’re not already!)
When: December 12–23, with a new offer every day
How: Open the Whataburger App, claim the day’s deal, and enjoy with your next order
A new reward pops up each morning—so there’s always a reason to check in, tap, and treat yourself. According to Scott Hudler, Whataburger’s Chief Marketing Officer, “12 Days of Whatacheer is Whataburger’s way of celebrating the season with a bit of holiday magic and special savings just for our Rewards members.”
Holiday-themed graphic reading ‘12 Days of WhataCheer’ on a red background with white dots. Below the text are images of Whataburger menu items: a Cinnamon Roll, Onion Rings, a Whataburger, a Whatafresher, a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit, and a Strawberry Shake.
Why Join the Whataburger Rewards Fun?
It’s not just about the deals (though those are pretty great). It’s about celebrating the season with a brand that’s been a community favorite for 76 years. With over 1,100 locations across 17 states, Whataburger’s family members serve up more than just food—they deliver hospitality and hometown spirit.
Plus, the Whataburger App makes it easy to order, customize, and save—right from your phone. If you haven’t joined the Rewards program yet, now’s the perfect time to start.
Get Started
Ready to add some Whatacheer to your holiday countdown? Download the Whataburger App on iOS or Android, create your Rewards account, and get set to unwrap a new deal every day. For more details, visit Whataburger.com.
Wishing you a season of flavor, fun, and festive deals—see you in the drive-thru!
Pumpkin spice may be all the rage this time of year, but don’t forget another fruit that’s sure to please: sweet, delicious apples. For an ooey-gooey breakfast, office snack or potluck dessert, turn to this Apple Spice Cake.
(Family Features) Pumpkin spice may be all the rage this time of year, but don’t forget another fruit that’s sure to please: sweet, delicious apples. For an ooey-gooey breakfast, office snack or potluck dessert, turn to this Apple Spice Cake that looks and tastes like it’s made for the season. Visit Culinary.net to discover more recipe inspiration.
Peel, core and chop apples into bite-sized pieces. In bowl, mix apples with brown sugar, cinnamon and flour, if desired, which helps keep apples from sinking to bottom. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl, mix spice cake mix, butter, eggs and milk. Mix in apples and pour into 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cool.
To make glaze: Mix powdered sugar and milk; pour over cooled cake.
