The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Movie Edition-Week 6

The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Movie Edition-Week 6

It's a Wonderful Life

I knew I wanted to feature this movie in this year's movie project, because you can't do Christmas movies without it, but there wasn't a lot of options to choose from for food. We never quite see what George and his dad are eating before the school dance, and we don't know what dessert Harry has on his head, either. I don't drink, so I couldn't focus on the alcoholic beverages mentioned. The roast chicken Mary makes in the fireplace was impossible to recreate. And the salt, bread, and wine aren't much to go on. But then I remembered it, one of the iconic lines from the film: "Say brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from?" I happen to love coconut, so I decided to make it the focal point for this week and it did not disappoint. If you are a coconut fan, this week is for you!

First up, though the second in order of what I made this week, was my entree: Brazilian Chicken With Coconut Milk. This was a recipe I've had for a while but have put off because I always get a little intimidated with peppers, but this turned out great!

The ingredient line-up.

The spice blend. This is a really good one!

I sliced two chicken breasts in half because they were really big. It allowed me to put more seasoning on all of it.

Here is the chicken post-browning.

And the aromatics ready to saute!

Post-saute!

And now for the tomatoes.

All cooked down.

It says light coconut milk but all I had was the full-fat kind. As long as you don't indulge too often, it's not too bad for you.

Cooking down a bit.

With the chicken added and sauce cooked down more. I added more of the spice blend to the sauce and a bit of salt just to get the seasoning right.

Here's the final product. This was amazing! It's not too spicy but you do hit little bits of spice from the seasoning and jalapeno and ginger. I think this is going to taste even better tomorrow once the flavors meld even further. 

I was really impressed with this. It looks so fancy but it was quite easy to make, actually. It's one I can see myself doing more often, but maybe with the lower-fat coconut milk from now on!

Next up, is dessert. I actually made this Friday night after work, before we lost power in the wind. I gave half of it to my parents, because there's no way my sister and I could eat an entire cake. Or should. And I have to say, even though my sister is a non-coconut person, she liked the cake and has had a few slices of it over the weekend! My parents approved of it as well.

I tried to find this on the Taste of Home website but had no luck. This is so old it's from the actual magazine I used to get way back in the day. It's from the Feb/March 2004 edition. Since the entree had coconut milk, it was only right that the dessert have actual coconut, and this does not disappoint!

Cranberries soaking in orange juice

They really do suck up all the juice! It makes them easier to chop when they're like this.

Here is the filling, ready to go.

And the batter, almost ready to go.

Here is the batter with the coconut flakes added. I used really fine flakes, unsweetened, so it just almost dissolved into the cake. I'm not a big fan of the large shred, sweetened kind.

Building up the layers...

And the final layer. Ready for baking!

I found it took around 70-75 minutes to bake this in my oven.

Out of the pan and dusted with powdered sugar.

 

And ready to serve! This was good like this the first night but it started drying out by the second day and I found cool whip helped after that. 

This weekend was a celebration of coconut! I'm really happy that both the recipes were successful because I love coconut and wanted these to be winners! The cake is very autumnal, perfect for this time of year. The chicken you could do all year round, if you wanted.

I highly recommend these recipes, and I think George Bailey would enjoy being able to imagine far off places if he'd eaten these too!