Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 

 

 My love for corned beef is deep and verges on tragic. Since Ryan doesn't eat red meat, there is no corned beef here waiting to be the star of a St. Patrick's Day supper.  Honestly, I don't even know how to make one. If it weren't for my mother, I would probably be doomed to a life without corned beef.  Except.  Remember how I said it verges on tragic?  There is exactly one thing that keeps it from being tragic, and that is that I am a cold-hearted shrew. I have taken matters into my own hands and invited myself to my mother's house for dinner.  My poor husband will have to pack himself something to eat if he comes along.  I know I should feel shame at this, but really the only thing I feel right now is hungry.  My mouth is watering just looking at the tender, juicy corned beef in the photos.  Don't you want some?

CORNED BEEF

"Recipe"from my mother.  And you know how her recipes are.  

INGREDIENTS:

1 3-5 lb nitrate-free, organic, corned beef with lots of tasty spices on top(Why nitrate free? Damned if I know.  But I do know that nitrates are essentially saltpeter and my extensive exposure to the Revolutionary War has taught me that you use saltpeter to make gunpowder and there are many, many things I would put in my food before I put an additive that they use to make gunpowder).

water

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 325 F.

Take the corned beef out of its package and rinse lightly. Try not to rinse off all the good spices, you want them to cook with the corned beef.  Find a large pan, hopefully something with a cover, that will also fit a rack to set the corned beef on, and room for some water.  I would do this in my dutch oven, but my mom has to use a pan, which she lines with tin foil and then covers with foil.  You want to avoid this if you can because the brine and tinfoil don't always play nice together and can give you an off flavor.  

So, put your rack in the pan, put the corned beef on the rack and the pour water in the pan up to the bottom of the corned beef. Cover with a lid or with foil as described above, cover tightly, not loosely. 

Pop it in the oven and check hourly, to see how the water is doing.  It's okay if there's more water, because the meat will give off some, you just don't want there to be less water.  That will make the meat dry out.

 

See?  The corned beef shrinks a lot, but it's getting all delicious and flavorful.  You should cook it for about an hour per pound.  At the end you'll get a glorious piece of meat.  Be sure to pick off the green leafy things from the spice mixture, because these are bay leaves and not particularly edible.  

Christmas Eve Chaos

It's possible I have stumbled on a fool proof diet for the holidays. It so happens that I may have made a slight error this year when I was deciding how much I could reasonably bake for Christmas. The result is something in the neighborhood of seven dozen decorated butter cookies and gingerbread cookies. And now I honestly don't even want to look at another cookie ever again. This means that my mother, my aunt, my uncle, my husband and my cousin all need to eat around 17 cookies each. Sounds reasonable to me.

I am not making much (any?) of tonight's dinner though, so I might just undo all the good I'm doing by skipping the cookies. As in years past, we're doing a buffet of appetizers. Luckily by we, I mean my uncle and my mother. That's my favorite kind of we. I'm not even sure of the whole menu, but what I do know, I'm happy to share.

Christmas Eve Menu:
Empanaditas filled with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese
Deviled Eggs
Anne's Stuffed Mushrooms (I was truly hoping to have that recipe for you, but the making of them was snatched out of my hands).
Spanish Tortilla
Chorizo in Puff Pastry
Pork pie - the original version, although I've made it with turkey too.
Shrimp in garlic sauce

Thanksgiving

In all honesty, Thanksgiving fills me with a sense of dread. It's all well and good to fancy myself a good cook from behind the safety of my keyboard. No one ever actually tastes my cooking. Other than Ryan and sometimes my parents and sometimes Stellacarolyn. But Thanksgiving is the time when I feel this incredible pressure to shine. Which is ridiculous, because I'm not even making some fancy gourmet Thanksgiving menu with a special theme (Southwestern! Original Pilgrim!). I'm just trying to get a turkey on the table with a minimum of cardboard flavor and a maximum of pleasantly starchy sides. This should be completely within my skill set. But it isn't. I estimate I've made a grand total of 3 turkeys in my life. I'm no expert. So I have to do something that I have very little practice at and somehow not be awful at it. It's like all my cooking cred is on the line on that day. And then there's the compounding factor that I make Thanksgiving at someone else's house. Which means I don't know where anything is. I'm trying to list everything I'll need in advance so that I'll be as well prepared as possible, but nothing really prepares you for hunting down a cup measurer or a rolling pin from the depths of someone else's cabinets. Then there's the fact that I feel like a total ass when I get stressed out in front of people. So I need to freak out very quietly and inside my head. Ryan knows this and so always offers to make the dinner so I don' t have to freak out, but he just doesn't get how much it makes me feel like a failure to not make the dinner. Right? I'm the one with the stupid blog. I should be able to make Thanksgiving dinner, shouldn't I?

Just in case you're making Thanksgiving dinner, you have my deepest sympathies, and here, some recipes that might be of use to you...you're on your own for the bird.

Starters:
Sweet Potato Soup
Winter Panzanella

Sides:
Cornbread
Dinner Rolls
Gingered Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Popovers


Vegetarian Main:
Stufffed Squash - fine, my recipe calls for sausage, but I make it without about as often as I make it with.

Dessert:
Apple Cake
Apple Turnovers
Sweet Potato Pie

'Twas the Night Before Halloween

You know, I was getting good and riled up about how all the stores want to skip directly to Christmas. I'd been making snide comments about the neighbors that have hung their holiday lights up when it's not even the end of October. But now Mother Nature's in on it all, blanketing the area in wet, heavy snow. Come on! How am I supposed to enjoy fall when even the environment conspiring to brush past fall and bring on the jingle bells?

Well, I'm not going quietly folks. Here's a list of Halloween-y dinner suggestions just in case you want to fight too.

First Course Options:

Sweet Potato Soup - make it cuter and more festive by using a witch on a broomstick cookie cutter to cut pieces of toast. Place on the soup to make it look like she's flying in front of the Harvest Moon.



Creepy Carrot Fingers - from stellacarolyn over at My Family Table.
Just in case gruesome is how you like your vegetables.




Main Dishes (Ranging From Simply Seasonal to Super Spoooooky):

Butternut Squash Lasagna - So delicious and decadent. No tricks here, it's all a treat.



Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese - Worried the kiddos will OD on candy with nary a vegetable in sight? This tastes rich and creamy, there's no need to mention all of the squashy goodness.

Fresh Fettucine with Butternut Squash - Sophisticated and sweet!




Mummy Meatloaf - stellacarolyn always does Halloween right, this time with a recipe from epicurious.





Side Dishes:

Ghostie Potatoes - doubtless the most adorable thing you can serve on Halloween. Another of stellacarolyn's amazing Halloween creations!



Frankenpeppers - stellacarolyn's menacing vegetable and pasta sides.





Dessert:
Eyeball cupcakes - Heading to a school Halloween party? You still have time to whip these up. Boxed cake mix + canned frosting and a smidge of effort will have stellacarolyn's cupcakes making you the hit of the afternoon.



Pumpkin snickerdoodles -simple, homey and perfect with a cup of cider.



Halloween sugar cookies - Not for the faint of heart, these sugar cookies will take up a lot of your time. But they're ridiculously fancy looking if you need to impress.



Tarantula cookies - I know plenty of people who'd leave a party if these were served. Which is fine. More for the rest of us, I say. Another stellacarolyn Halloween treat.

Perfect Anytime Roast Chicken

Two Sundays ago, I made this roast chicken for the first time. I couldn't believe how easy it was, or how well it turned out. Or how much it was exactly as comforting and full of fall flavors as I'd imagined, which is almost never the case with roast chicken which is often dry and lacking a little something. Nope. I overcooked this by a solid 20 minutes and it was still really, really good. And that juicy sauce you see up there? Pure heaven. I mean, it's beer+cider+chicken juice. What's not to like? You may find yourself sizing up possible dipping items, so plan well. Oh, and did I mention it cooks its own vegetables too?

Carrots and parnsips. Which taste like candy and yummier candy. Also, you can use your Dutch oven, not that stupid roasting pan which is stuck in a closet or on top of a cabinet or in some other highly inconvenient location. And it doesn't need a rack. It really is the perfect roast chicken, to be made anytime. Like tonight, if you're still trying to figure out your Rosh Hashanah menu (appley! sweet! double win!) Or on Sunday, when you have the time to roast a chicken. Or anytime! Now if only I can get it to wash its own dishes. Hmmm.

ROAST CHICKEN WITH BEER AND CIDER
from Lidia.

INGREDIENTS:
4 lb roasting chicken
2 tsp kosher salt
2 medium onions peeled and quartered
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into uniform sized pieces. Or a handful of baby carrots. Whatever.
2 medium parsnips, done like the carrots. Oh shut up. You'll like them.
2 T fresh sage leaves
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1.5 C chicken stock
1.5 C beer or ale (make it something you like, and yeah that's a whole bottle)
1 C apple cider

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400. Get out your Dutch oven. Get your onions, carrots and parsnips and toss in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Add the cinnamon stick and cloves and sage. You're making a nest for the chicken, so make sure they're distributed kind of evenly. Prep that chicken, trimming off the nasty bits, removing whatever lurks inside, salt and pepper the whole beast inside and out. Plop the chicken on top of the veggie bits, breast side down. Pour in all the lovely liquids - stock, beer and cider. Stick the whole thing on the stove and simmer 15 minutes uncovered on the top of the stove. Then, flip him over, so the breast side is up. Then you pop it in the oven and roast for 30 minutes, basting at 10 minute intervals. Roast another 30 minutes (if it's getting too brown, cover it with your Dutch oven lid) again basting every 10-15 minutes. Check the temperature at each basting. Poultry should get to 165 but will continue to cook a few minutes after you take it out. Roast another 10-20 minutes if needed - mine never has, but Lidia's did. Remember to watch the top for overbrowning too! When done, remove the chicken and veggies to a platter. Then put the Dutch oven o'juice back on the stove and cook on medium high (a nice boil if you please) until the sauce reduces quite a bit (half mayhaps, if you are patient). You can be carving the chicken whilst the sauce is doing its thing. Serve with sauce. Resolve to make it weekly at least. It's that good and that easy.

Make it gluten-free:  Beer is NOT gluten-free, so you'll need to substitute. I used half cider and half stock to make up the beer amount and it turned out great!

'Tis the Season...For Deviled Eggs

We are currently at a crossroads - smack in between Easter and Mother's Day. Whether you have some left over hard boileds that you're dreading facing or are organizing your brunch menu for next Sunday, it is critical that you be able to devil. Besides shower season is upon us and whether they be bridal showers or baby showers, deviled eggs are always a hit. Even when your tray of them has slid off the seat during a particularly violent braking at a stoplight.* Trust me, a bit of paprika, some cosmetic work with a spoon and paper towel, no one will be the wiser.

*Amazingly enough, while I was involved with the repair work, I was not responsible for the egg accident. I will never reveal the name of Melanie the person who was.

DEVILED EGGS

INGREDIENTS:
6 hard-boiled eggs
4 T plus 1 t mayonnaise (Hellman's is GF)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dijon mustard (Maille is GF)
black pepper to taste
paprika

DIRECTIONS:
Carefully peel the eggs. Slice each egg in half and with a spoon coax out the yolk into a small bowl. When you've gathered all the yolks add the mayonnaise and mustard and mix well. I usually break up the mixture with the tines of a fork, but people who like it smoother may prefer to something else. Sprinkle in the salt and add the pepper to taste. You can pipe the filling in with a piping bag or by filling a plastic ziploc with eggy goodness, chopping off a corner of the ziploc and squeezing it through. I am usually too lazy for these and instead use a spoon to heap the mixture back into the holes. Sprinkle the tops with paprika.

A Sweet Start

It's taken me a week to write this post, mainly because I'm feeling pretty down on this whole New Year's thing. Last year I was whining about New Year's Eve, but this year I'm extending the complaints to the whole concept of New Years. A new year is a pretty arbitrary designation, you know? It's only a new year by the Gregorian calendar, so why do people give it so much weight? The problems that weighed upon me in December are still right here in the New Year. There is no promise of better things.

So where does all this bitterness leave me? Going through the motions. And that I did. Despite desperately wanting to skip on the fancy dinner for New Year's Eve, I managed to make some duck, a pretty little salad and some sweet potatoes.

It's a good thing there were sweet potatoes. I certainly need something to help swallow this start that is so tinged with bitter.

MASHED SWEET POTATOES
adapted from Emeril

INGREDIENTS:
2 sweet potatoes
2 T butter
2 T greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

(See how the ratio is 1 T of butter and 1 T greek yogurt per potato? Go with it. Make as many as you like!)

DIRECTIONS:
Wash the sweet potatoes (you're taking off the skins later, so you probably don't need to be that thorough). Poke the skins with a fork a few times. Preheat your oven to 450 F. But you're not going to use the oven just yet. Instead, stick the sweet potatoes in the microwave and microwave for 1 minute. Then turn them over. Microwave for 2 minutes, then turn them over again. Then microwave them for 2.5 minutes. Now they're ready for the real oven. Bake for 25 minutes at 450 or until the insides are tender and fluffy. Cut open the potatoes, careful, they're hot! Scrape the insides into a big bowl (I used the bowl of my stand mixer). Add the greek yogurt and butter, season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Serve. Allow them to take the bitter edge off whatever you're up against.

This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

I'm not sure it's a good sign that it's 8am and I already can't get the song from Nightmare Before Christmas out of my head! However, if you don't already have Halloween cookies, you may need to start making them now, because in my opinion this is really a whole day affair. Between the mixing of the dough, the refrigerating of the dough, the rolling of the dough, the cutting of the cookies, the freezing of the cookies, the baking of the cookies, the cooling of the cookies, the mixing of the royal icing, the dyeing of the royal icing, the frosting and decorating of the cookies, you can absolutely keep yourself (or your kids) occupied until the witching hour.

I used Martha Stewart's Maple Roll Out Cookie recipe for the dough. It's really delicious, but a the flavor is a bit delicate and I felt it was a bit of a waste on the ghosties who needed to be drowned in royal icing anyway. Far better to save the maple recipe for something unfrosted. Also, and I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before, but your brain is really anticipating "sugar cookie" when you bite into one, so there's always this element of "huh" followed by "Oh yeah! This is yummy!" which is perhaps a bit more mental processing than I'd like with my dessert.

What you need to know about using Martha's recipe:
I know this is probably not going to come as a surprise to you, but the lady is a liar. I made a half recipe, because being a sane rational person who is not giving gift boxes to everyone I'd ever met, I don't need 8 dozen cookies. The half recipe made 2 and a half dozen and it's probable that I rolled them too thin to try to eke out that many. And although this is certainly enough for the two of us, it's possibly fewer than you want. If do you choose to make half recipe, really try to savor the moment where you need half an egg yolk. Afterward, try to figure out who you can feed three quarters of an egg to - my answer? Ryan. You also might want to start with a shorter cook time. Mine took about 10 minutes. Blame my oven or how thin I rolled them - either way we would have been looking at some burnt treats if I'd let it go as long as her.

Colored Pumpkins, oh boy!!:
To get half your cookies pumpkin colored, separate your dough in half. Set half aside for ghosties. Then mix 5 drops yellow food coloring and 4 drops red of McCormick Assorted Food Coloring. You can blend with a mixer a bit, but do finish kneading by hand to get rid of any streakiness.

I am a complete disaster when it comes to royal icing. Seriously. Don't listen to me. I'm not showing you the ghosts that didn't come out well. Also, I made a really small amount because I didn't actually need that much, which meant whipping by hand. Stupid. Update: You'll be a happier person if you check in with Words to Eat By. Debbie knows her stuff.

Royal Icing Advice:
If you're making them for anyone who is squicked out by raw egg, or you know is a child, pregnant woman, elderly person, person with a compromised immune system, use meringue powder. I used the recipe on the back of the meringue powder container. Not fancy, but functional. I piped on details by putting the icing in plastic baggies and poking a teensy hole in the corner. Mix your color in a bowl, not the baggies, ignore anyone who tells you otherwise. They are sadists and are probably cackling evilly as they write that direction. I poured the icing over the ghosts which takes somewhat more icing than you may think. Also let that harden completely before doing eyeballs. It takes a few hours to harden.

Happy Almost Fourth!

Despite years of fabulous fourths, this year I will be sitting home in my city apartment with no view of the fireworks and no one to celebrate with except Ryan. It's a very sad state of affairs. Don't worry it's not like I'm incredibly bitter and self-pitying. Hopefully, you have something more scintillating on the agenda. And just in case your plans require food, here are some of the hippo's best fourth suggestions:

There's nothing that says party to me like fried chicken. Best news, you can totally make this ahead of time, like in the morning before it's too hot to be anywhere near a kitchen.

And where there's fried chicken, there better be cornbread or biscuits.

Need a main dish that's got more kick than the usual burgers and hot dogs, but don't want to slave over the hot oil? Buffalo chicken sandwiches are fast, easy and break with tradition without getting too far away from the junk food feel of the day.

It's not a picnic without potato salad and coleslaw. Just remember your food safety rules and don't leave them sitting out in the hot sun. Two hours is the maximum foods like this can go without being in the fridge.

If you're dying to take advantage of the fresh produce at your farmer's market, try a beautiful tomato and green bean salad.

For dessert, whip up a summer easy and seasonal peach and raspberry tart. Or go all american, and put together some apple turnovers.

Whatever you make, have a wonderful Fourth of July! And for those of you without plans, or trying to hide from unwanted guests, I'll be back tomorrow with a delicious berry tart.

Love Lost

We've never been big on Valentine's Day. I don't want overpriced flowers, and Ryan doesn't want to go out to eat on a night so busy that most of the restaurants premake all the meals and everthing is crazy, crowded and does not live up to expectations. So we usually exchange cards and small gifts, and cook something delicious and fancy at home. This year however, was a total bust. This year, I had the stomach flu. While visiting Ryan's mother. There were no cards and no gifts. Just some chicken soup and whimpering. We promised we'd celebrate the next weekend. He stayed behind in New England on business and I came home. The next Saturday, I was excited. Ryan was flying home and we'd finally get our Valentine's Day. But I couldn't find a single card, Ryan had forgotten entirely, and I went to make these fancy Linzer cookies, and screwed up completely. Evidently, Ina Garten's recipe does not want to be halved, because the dough would not hold together AT ALL. I ended up adding extra butter, and then overcooked the first batch. The second batch was all I could really salvage and scrape together. They were delicious though, so I guess that will have to be enough for me, until next year.

Staying In

It is seriously sad that when I look back and try to think of really special New Year's Eves, I'm left with HIGH SCHOOL. Really pathetic when you think about it. But we had such splendid grown up bashes at a friend of mine's farmhouse, with fancy appetizers and pretty clothes and starlit gravel roads for freezing your ass off wandering down with your crush. I always hoped that when I grew up, I'd be able to throw similar parties. But I'm grown up, and I'm resolutely staying in. Our apartment is neither close enough to good friends, nor large enough for real parties, so it'll just be the two of us. I'll be making Pan Roasted Duck with Individual Potato Gratins and well, something with a butternut squash that I haven't quite figured out yet. To be honest I don't feel like it one bit. It's a bit dismal here with this morning's snow dusting having turned to icy slush. Really, I'd like something like a grilled cheese, Monte Cristo or Welsh rabbit or a fried egg sandwich which could be fancied up a bit if you used good bread, bacon, wilted greens and a drizzle of balsamic. I want comfort food and a favorite movie and good cheer. Most likely my evening will involve some pouting since I don't feel in the mood for fancy and a healthy dose of New Year's Rockin' Eve which is pretty depressing.

Wishing you the best however you're ringing in the New Year!

Christmas Cookies Episode 3: Pizzelles

One of my less endearing traits is a rather stubborn devotion to traditions, especially when it comes to holidays. I like things to stay the way they've always been and even the slightest mention of deviation from these traditions can causing a whining fit that would give a toddler a serious run for its money. But it seems that this year, I'm starting a new tradition, all thanks to a dear friend. You see, my friend is Italian. And in her world, it's not Christmas if there aren't pizzelles. Last year she talked me into joining her and her mother for their cookie baking and next thing you know I was making stacks of pizzelles. No really. I think I made 12 dozen. This year, I was supposed to join her again, but the weather had something else in mind. So I made them myself. Only 6 dozen this time. Most of which will be given away, and not even enjoyed by my family. But now it's a tradition, and I think it will stick. If only I owned my own pizzelle iron...


PIZZELLES
recipe from Laurie

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 sticks of butter
1 1/2 C sugar
6 eggs
1 to 1 1/2 1 oz bottles of vanilla (or anise, or coconut, or whatever your heart desires)
4 C flour sifted

DIRECTIONS:

First, melt the butter in a microwave safe container, all the better if it's a pyrex measuring cup or something else with a pour spout. Allow to cool slightly, so that it's warm not hot.

Then mix together the eggs and sugar until they are light and foamy. Slowly pour in the warm butter.

Add your vanilla (or anise, or coconut) flavoring.

Then, gradually add the sifted flour. Depending on the type of day, humid or dry, you may need less than the four full cups. Your batter should not be as thick as regular cookie dough, but should be a bit less runny than pancake batter.

Next, warm your pizzelle iron. If you have a small ice cream scooper, that works well for placing a heaping tablespoon of batter on the center of each shape on the iron. I use a combination of a soup spoon and a regular spoon. I scoop with the soup spoon and use the other spoon to get the dough off and onto the iron.

Cook until they are the right level of doneness for you. This really depends on your iron, but on the one I used today, two minutes was too long and one was too short. After you've made a few you get a sense of how long it takes and then it's much easier.

Remove and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 6 dozen pizzelles.

Dark Chocolate Almond Bark

Oh. Sorry. The above picture is very much NOT something edible. It's what happens when you take one completely adorable snow-loving dog for a walk in the midst of a winter storm. He gets so cute that he turns into a stuffed animal.

All right, enough with the thoroughly unhelpful pet photos. I assume you're here for the holiday candy-making. I began making almond bark because it's my father's favorite chocolate candy. I'd found a store near me that made it with really dark chocolate and was excited to pick some up for a present last Christmas. Not only were they out, they couldn't tell me either when or if they'd ever have it again. Very helpful. So I figured I could make my own. It's really not difficult, it's just a lot of stirring.


ALMOND BARK
I strongly recommend using a candy thermometer with this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz ghirardelli (or other high quality) chocolate. I use 70% because we like things very dark around here.
almonds - I completely eyeballed it, and then tossed the bag. I think I used a bit less than a cup. It kind of depends what kind of almond to chocolate ratio you prefer.

DIRECTIONS:
Use a double boiler or place a bowl over top of a pot. Use about 1/2 inch of water and if using a bowl, make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Chop your blocks of chocolate into smaller pieces. They don't need to be tiny or anything. Reserve a piece of chocolate that's about 1" by 1/2". Place the chocolate into the top part of the double boiler. Turn on your burner to medium. Turn on your candy thermometer. Heat the chocolate, while stirring, until the temperature reaches about 105 F. Then remove the bowl from the pot and continue to stir. The temperature may increase slightly before it starts going down. Add your piece of reserved chocolate at this point. Continue stirring constantly and keep a close eye on the temperature. When the temperature reaches 88 F add the almonds and stir until they're completely coated. Then using a spatula smear the chocolate almond mixture over a sheet of foil or parchment paper. Many recipes will tell you to premark the area you'll be covering with chocolate first (um, like before you even started melting the chocolate because when it reached 88F you don't want to be messing around) but I'm not uptight like that. You don't want it to be too thin, I think mine covered about an 8 by 8" or 9 by 9" area. Allow to harden. You can allow it to harden in the fridge. If you did the process correctly, you've tempered your chocolate which will keep it from getting to melty at room temperature and from coming off all over your hands. The refrigeration only speeds up the hardening, but you should be able to leave the bark out after that. If you mess up, no big deal. It still tastes good, you'll just have to lick your fingers more.

Aftermath

It's been a week, and I'm still reeling from Thanksgiving. First there's the marathon cooking sessions leading up to the big day (which thankfully, I was spared this year because my mother did just about everything herself), then there's the mad dash to eat, freeze and reinvent all the leftovers before anything spoils. And of course, the rush to post it all here before I forget what the hell it is I'm talking about.

This year my one contribution to Thanksgiving dinner (or dessert rather) was a sweet potato pie. I'd been eyeing it ever since I got my Best of the Best cookbook and the deal was sealed when my mother announced that no way no how was she making a pumpkin pie. I couldn't wait to report back. Then smittenkitchen waxed poetic about it and frankly, I lost momentum. I mean, no one cares what I have to say about the stupid pie, especially not when there are, you know, real food bloggers talking about it.

But it was heavenly and delicious and something I very cheerfully continued to eat in the days after Thanksgiving when turkey was becoming my sworn enemy. It is light and yet cheesecakey. It's really amazing I didn't just eat the whole thing in one sitting.

SWEET POTATO PIE
courtesy of the Lee Brothers, as featured in Best of the Best

CRUST:
Ingredients:
1.5 C sifted all purpose flour
1 T sugar
8 T butter
1/4 cup(ish) ice water

*original recipe called for 4 T of lard and 4 t of butter. I don't do lard, so I used all butter. I use salted butter. The original recipe also called for 1 t of salt. That in combination with the salted butter makes the crust nasty like a salt lick. Then you have to make another crust. Don't do that. If you use unsalted butter you can add a small pinch of salt, but I'd stay away from anything so large as a teaspoon.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325 F. Sift the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into small chunks and cut it in using a pastry cutter or two knives. When the mixture gets a sandy texture like coarse crumbs you can add the water a tablespoon at a time. Make sure it's ice water. Toss with a fork to combine after each addition of water. When the dough holds together, form a round disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until ready to use.

Roll out the dough (use flour as needed) until large enough for a 9" pie plate. Transfer the dough to a pie plate, trim the edges and crimp as desired. Again, refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Prebake the crust. First lay a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the dough and use pie weights (or beans or pennies) to weight it down. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Then remove the weights, use a fork to prick the bottom all over and then bake for 10 more minutes.

FILLING:

Ingredients:
1. 5 lbs sweet potatoes (about 2 medium sweet potatoes), peeled and chopped to a 1/2 inch dice
4 T unsalted butter, melted
1 T lemon juice *
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t kosher salt
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 C sugar
2 T flour
1/4 C buttermilk

*the lemon juice is pretty strong in the pie, the Lee brothers ask for 2 T, and even being a lemon lover that seemed a bit much. I do like how it cuts the richness, so I hesitate to eliminate it entirely.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Pour 1.5 inches of water into a large pot. Insert a strainer and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the sweet potatoes and steam until tender about 20 minutes. Drain them, place them in a large bowl and allow to cool. Then mash until smooth. You'll want 1 and 1/4 C puree, so you can just eat the excess (or make another pie). Add the butter, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Mix thoroughly.

Separate the eggs. The whites can go in the base of your mixer (or another bowl, but I like to do egg whites in the stand mixer), the yolks go in a small bowl. Whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until creamy and pale yellow. Then add to the sweet potato mixture. Add the flour and mix until thoroughly blended. Then add the buttermilk and mix that in.

In your mixer, whisk your egg whites to soft peaks. Then with a spatula fold the egg whites into the sweet potatoes and buttermilk. When well combined, pour the mixture into the pie crust and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool completely on a rack and serve at room temperature or chilled from the fridge. Whipped cream is fabulous on top.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Nana Grenon's Ragout

My nana's mother was by all accounts a lovely woman and very talented at cooking in the old fashioned "a pinch of this, enough of that, cook until it's done" style. My nana was the baby of the family, and for a time after she had my father, she and my grampy lived with her parents. The result of this is that my father was completely beloved and spoiled by his grandparents. Grampy Grenon would wake my father up early and take him everywhere with him. His nana (Nana Grenon) would always cook up my father's favorites. One of his absolute all time favorites is Nana's Chicken Ragout. It also happens to be an ideal use of Thanksgiving leftovers. Nana Grenon is French Canadian, and like many French Canadian dishes this is meant to stretch a meal, with the dumplings being a substantial part of the soup. It's the French Canadian version of chicken noodle soup, and it's perfect comfort food. Feel free to adjust or adapt the ingredients. Think like a grandmother.

NANA GRENON'S CHICKEN RAGOUT

Ingredients:
For the soup -
1 C onion, chopped
1 C celery chopped (I mince mine because Ryan does not like celery)
2 C carrots (cut into disks, coins, whatever you call them)
5-6 C chicken stock (or turkey stock) preferably homemade
salt and pepper
2-3 T olive oil
1 T sage
1 T thyme
approximately 2 C of chopped leftover chicken or turkey. Use what you have. The dumplings will make up for it if you don't have enough. You can use chopped white meat or all the little bits you have, it's up to you.

For the dumplings -
1 C stock - cooled
2.5 C flour
salt and pepper
thyme

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the oil in a large stockpot. Add the onion and celery and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Add the stock, carrots and whatever chicken or turkey bits you're add. Add salt and pepper for taste. This recipe takes a lot of salt, so taste carefully. Bring the stock almost to a boil. While you're waiting for it to boil, make the dumplings. Use a cup of cool stock (I usually set it aside before I start cooking) and mix it together with the flour and about a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper. Add about 2 t fresh thyme to the dumplings if you like. The thyme is completely inauthentic, but it is tasty. The dough will be incredibly sticky and hard to work with. With very well floured hands, roll out the dough very thin. If you don't get it thin you will have yucky gloppy dumplings. Make sure you move the dough a lot while rolling and keep it well floured. When it's thin (maybe less than a 1/4 inch thick?) slice in 1" squares. These can be very irregular, it gives the soup character. When the stock is very hot but not boiling, Add the thyme and sage and throw in the squares of dough and cook for 3-5 more minutes until the dough is cooked.

Birthday Cake

Truth: I have had the same birthday cake every year since my very first birthday.
I have never made this cake myself. My mother does it, with love, as she always has.

It is delicious.

Just as a great birthday cake should be, it is moist. It is not so chocolatey as to coat your mouth (just the cheeks of a one year old). It can be iced with chocolate or as I request now, mocha. It's simple, basic, tasty - what storebought cake mixes are trying so desperately to replicate.
Also, it's incredibly easy.

I'm simply going to pass along my mother's recipe and her comments, unedited, because really, mother knows best.

BIRTHDAY CAKE AND FROSTING
Ultimate Chocolate Cake -
This came from one of those hippie parenting books. It is made in one pan, with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of taste. It was a great book with all sorts of crafts and activities for having fun with kids.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C evaporated milk (no, it is not the whole can; you are just going to have to make two cakes!)
1 t vinegar
4 squares chocolate (1 square = 1 oz) I use a combo of semi-sweetened and unsweetened or whatever I have on had. Who knows what it was meant to be?
1/2 C butter, cut into pieces
1 C boiling water
2 C flour
2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 t baking SODA
1/2 t vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl, combine 1/2 C evaporated milk, 1 t vinegar. In a sauce pan, combine 4 squares chocolate, 1/2 C butter, 1 C boiling water. Stir until melted. Add the canned milk/vinegar. Stir again. Add 2 C flour, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 t baking SODA, 1/2 t vanilla. Beat well with a wooden spoon. Pour into two greased and floured cake pans. Bake 35-40 min at 375 degrees.

Mocha Icing

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C sweet butter (I use regular butter; sweet butter is w/out salt)
2 1/2 C confectioner's sugar
2 T cocoa
2 T hot coffee
1/2 t vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Cream butter. Add sugar gradually, beating well between additions. As it becomes thick, add cocoa. Add hot coffee and vanilla. Continue to beat until light and fluffy and thick enough to spread. Use for filling and to frost top and sides of cold cake.

Do not eat it or there will not be enough to cover the cake.

Butter Frosting (CHOCOLATE!)
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C butter
3 C confectioner's sugar
4 T evaporated milk
3 T cocoa
1 T vanilla

DIRECTIONS: Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat til fluffy.

These (frosting recipes) are from The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedia Cookbook- the new revised deluxe edition. I think you already have a picture of it on your blog. My mother's was bound neatly.Published 1950. Apparently, as in the case of Nana, it was available earlier in segmented sections, including Your Leftovers; Your Canning, Freezing and Preserving; Your Lunch Box; Your Quick Dinners for the Woman in a Hurry. I think the segments were in the supermarket and you could buy one a week or month or whatever and then they sold a wire apparatus so you could clip them into a neat little binder. It was my mother's bible, but then again, she didn't really like to cook!

Christmas in June

One of my absolute favorite Christmas movies is the hard to find Remember the Night. It's rarely shown due to the lack of a pure Hollywood ending and the embarrassing presence of a butler character, Rufus, that by today's standards is pretty offensive.

But still, how can I resist Barbara Stanwyck playing a bad girl to Fred MacMurray's wholesome Indiana farm boy who made good as a big city lawyer? So every single year (I'm not using hyberbole, I'm sorry to say) on Christmas Eve I make my family watch this movie with me.

The movie has two major food moments, one involving sandwiches made by the aforementioned Rufus and the other where Barbara Stanwyck learns to make popovers. I cannot tell you the cravings induced by watching, year after year, as she pops them out of the pan and onto a plate.

At some point, I insisted on getting a popover pan of my own. It's not Christmas, and I'm not trying to win a man's heart by way of his stomach, but I am well prepared should either occaision arise.

popovers shown with baked eggs

POPOVERS
(ingredients courtesy of Epicurious)

INGREDIENTS:
2 large eggs
3/4 C milk
1/4 C water
1 T unsalted butter, melted
1 C minus 2 T flour
1/2 t salt

DIRECTIONS:
Put your EMPTY popover pan in your oven. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (with the pan in it). Mix together the flour and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and water. Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. Add to the liquid ingredients while whisking. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. There will be small lumps, this is okay. Take the HOT pan out of the oven and butter the the pan. I do this by unwrapping a stick of butter, holding it by the wrapper at one end and just wiping inside each popover holder place. After buttering, divide the mixture evenly between the six popover wells. Return to oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove and poke a sharp knife once in each popover's center. They will deflate slightly and some steam with escape. Return to the oven for 10 more minutes. They will reinflate and have a nice crust. You should be able to turn them out of the pan easily with a knife when they're done. Popovers are a bit like a souffle in that they will deflate if you open and close that oven door, so NO peeking.

Cooking by Proxy

In the South, it is traditional to have black-eyed peas for the New Year, black-eyed peas symbolizing luck and prosperity. I don't know about you, but I could sure use some good luck for the New Year. Prosperity wouldn't exactly hurt either. What does hurt is my ankle, which I sprained badly a few weeks ago. I have a lovely cast and a set of crutches. On the upside, I also have a husband who has taken over just about all of my responsibilities, from dog care and plant watering, to cooking. And so, tonight, although the blog post and recipe are brought to you by me, the actual dinner has been provided by Ryan.

NEW YEAR'S DAY BLACK-EYED PEAS AND SAUSAGE
Go ahead, make a double recipe, it takes so long to cook, you might as well have an extra meal to tuck away in the freezer.

Ingredients
1 C black-eyed peas soaked (cover a cup of peas with a few cups of water, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, let sit for an hour. If there's water left, drain it off).
2 T olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 C canned crushed tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced.
1 lb sausage (check ingredient list to make sure it's gf)

Directions
Combine the oil, onion, garlic, carrot and tomatoes in a large oven-proof pot or dutch oven. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place the sausages in a large skillet with about an inch of cooking water. Cover and let the sausages cook for about 15 minutes. Then cut the sausages into disks. It's okay if they're raw in the middle, they have a ton of cooking left to do! Put the sausage disks in with the tomato sauce. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 20 minutes on low with the cover on. Then add the black-eyed peas and stir in. Add enough water to cover. Put the lid on the pot or dutch oven. Cook for an hour and a half to two hours. Check every half hour or so. If there's not enough liquid, add a half cup more of water. If after an hour and a half there's too much water, remove the cover. The black-eyed peas and sausage mixture should be very thick, even a bit thicker than a traditional stew. It's done when the mixture is thick enough and the black-eyed peas are nice and tender.

Christmas Cookies Episode 2: Ginger Crinkles

I know, I know, you have certainly finished all your Christmas baking because you are on top of things. I on the other hand, have barely begun. In fact, the only cookies I have managed are these ginger crinkles. My mother and I had a serious discussion this year about cutting back after last year's Christmas overload. We agreed that for with only four people, we needed less of everything. Fewer appetizers on Christmas eve, fewer presents and fewer Christmas cookies. And so we began negotiating. I declared that gingerbread was essential. My mother felt my father might have a fit if we skipped our bird's nest cookies. Neither of us could fathom a year without bourbon balls. And so the cookie we agreed we could eliminate was the poor, unsuspecting ginger crinkle. Which is too bad really, because it's my grandmother's recipe, and I've always rather liked them. Then, I found out that my mother had decided we could decorate the Christmas tree just fine with no cookies. Clearly she doesn't understand motivation very well. So I whipped up a batch of the ginger crinkles, and good cheer was reestablished. They took almost no time at all, so if you're short on time or patience this year, give them a try. They are sweet, molassesy and somewhere between crisp and chewy.

NANA'S GINGER CRINKLES

Ingredients:
2/3 C vegetable or canola oil
1 C sugar
1 egg
4 T molasses
2 C sifted flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger

1/4 C sugar for dipping

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix the oil and sugar thoroughly. Then add the egg beat well. Add the molasses and stir until thoroughly incorporated.

In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring as you go to form a dough. Get a small bowl and fill it with the 1/4 C of sugar for dipping. Form cookies by making small ball of dough in your hand, then dropping it in the sugar and rolling it until coated. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Leave plenty of room between cookies because they spread flat while cooking. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Honey Cakes

At the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, honey symbolizes the hope that the new year will be sweet. I think that there are a lot of us out there who need to believe that this new year will be a sweet one. And while you're waiting and hoping, maybe some honey cakes will help. These are delicate, light, and just the right kind of sweet without being cloying.

Honey Cakes
from Donna Hay's Off the Shelf

Ingredients:
2/3 C superfine sugar (you can make superfine sugar by putting regular sugar in a food processor and pulsing on high)
6 oz (a stick and a half) butter
3 T honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 C flour, sifted
1 t baking powder

Topping:
whipping cream (the recipe calls for double thick cream which I have yet to see in the US, you can make your own whipped cream using heavy cream, I didn't add sugar to mine, but you may want a tsp of sugar in yours)
honey

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325
Mix together the sugar, butter and honey until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and continue to mix until creamy. Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the eggs and sugar mixture. Mix well. Pour into a greased muffin tin. Bake for 15-20 min. Top with whipped cream and a drizzle of chilled honey. DO NOT drizzle the honey until the last possible moment. As it warms it will squiggle down your cake. Still tasty, but not so pretty for company.