(Oscar) Party Plan

Come Sunday, the women of Hollywood will be corseted and poured into gowns. Their hair will be teased, sprayed and coiffed, their faces painted, their nails shellacked. They will be stunning, breathtaking, works of art. They will probably also be hungry. And uncomfortable. I will not have these problems. My Oscar night party (for one) will involve my sofa, a sloppy ponytail, very comfortable pajamas and food that is most certainly off limits to the good ladies of fashion - teriyaki chicken wings. I will think of them with pity as gnaw on these delectable bites.

Whether you are having an ultra-exclusive party like mine, or one open to your friends, surely everyone will enjoy the freedom to make a mess while enjoying food you can sink your teeth into. Extra bonus - you can do a lot ahead. Make the sauce whenever you have time, then all you'll have to do is cook off the wings.

TYLER'S TERIYAKI CHICKEN WINGS
very slightly adapted from Tyler Florence - this goes really well with Cold Sesame Noodles (which can also be made ahead)

INGREDIENTS:
For the wings -
6-8 wings per person - if you are staunchly anti-wing, try drumsticks, they'll just need to cook longer
salt and pepper
olive oil

For the sauce (I halve Tyler's when cooking for the two of us. It's enough for the wings, and some left over) -
1/2 C soy sauce
1/2 C grapefruit juice
2 T hoisin sauce
2 T ketchup
1 1/2 T rice wine vinegar
2 T brown sugar
1 t sambal (more if you like things fiery)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1" piece of ginger, minced

gluten-free note: You'll need GF soy, GF Hoisin (Premier Japan is GF), GF ketchup

DIRECTIONS:
If you're cooking the wings at the same time as you're making your sauce, preheat your oven to 400F.

To make the sauce:
Chop the garlic and ginger and toss in a small saucepan. Add all the other sauce ingredients, stir and heat over medium low. Cook for 20 minutes stirring periodically or until thicker and tasty. For the love of Mike do not leave this unattended. You will not appreciate cleaning up the mess.

To make the wings:
Cover a baking sheet with foil. Salt and pepper your wings and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes. Coat in sauce, tuck back in for 10 more minutes. Toss in remaining sauce. Serve.

So, I usually make the sauce ahead. But if you were so inclined, get the sauce started right as you start the wings in the oven. The sauce should finish cooking right about when the wings need saucing.

Cold Enough For You?

Generally speaking when you have absolutely nothing to say to another person, you talk about the weather. I know this not only because I am relatively socially awkward, but also because my building is equipped with the world's smallest, slowest elevator. It is very, very uncomfortable to stand in silence when you are less than an inch away from another person, especially when you see this person on a semi-regular basis. This winter though, the weather has done its damnedest to keep things interesting for those of us forced into frequent small talk. There's the snow, the ice, the lack of parking available due to the snow and ice, the treacherous nature of brick sidewalks especially when coated with snow and ice. And when we've enjoyed a break from the joys of precipitation there has been an undue amount of cold, punctuated by blistering, bone-rattling wind, intent on making sure that cold is blown directly into the very core of your being.

And this soup is for those of you who have been suffering this winter. It will absolutely warm you up, even if you're at the point where you're pretty sure you'll never be warm again. It won't make you think of tropical beaches and bikinis but it will coat your insides with a nice little fire. Feel free to tinker with the recipe, I certainly did.

ASIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
I found this delicious recipe over at Lady Gouda and modified it slightly, but it should be fully acknowledged that she is the brains behind this.

INGREDIENTS:
1-2" piece of ginger, peeled and minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 T veggie oil
1/2 C onion diced finely
roughly 2 C sliced shiitake mushrooms (I used the whole package I bought)
3-4 shredded carrots (I julienned mine but I highly recommend using a mandolin)
2 C cooked chicken - I wasn't thrilled about the chicken, I felt I could have skipped it
5 C chicken broth + 1 C water - my broth was homemade and very rich so it could stand up to the supplement of water, I highly recommend using all broth.
3 T soy
2 t sriracha - this made for some seriously spicy soup, a plus in my book, but dial it back if you're wary of heat (but also don't expect it to warm you up as much either!)
3-4 heads of baby bok choy, white super crunchy bits trimmed off and well rinsed (they can be sandy).
3-4 scallions, sliced very thin (and on the diagonal)
3-4 oz rice noodles, cooked

gluten-free note: Get gluten-free soy sauce and check labeling, but sriracha should be gluten-free as should be your rice noodles.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large pot, over low heat, saute the garlic and ginger and onion until soft. Add the mushrooms (I think you could add the carrots here too, I added mine at the end with the bok choy and they cooked fully). Add the chicken, the soy and sriracha. Toss well until everything is coated. Then add the stock. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 15 minutes. While it's cooking, prepare the rice noodles according to the box - my box offered a choice of soaking them for 25-30 minutes which I really didn't have time for and boil them for 4-6 minutes which I did. My other bag has no English on it except for the words "rice noodles". Toss in the bok choy (the carrots too if you didn't add them earlier) and the scallions. Cook for about 2-4 minutes until the bok choy is wilted and tender. If you did as I advise below, add the cooked rice noodles.

A note about rice noodles: I cooked mine separately. I've had to overcook pasta before because I'd added it to cook directly in the soup and then the soup wasn't ready and the pasta ended up gross. I will not be burned again. I boiled my rice noodles separately and added them in cooked at the very end. Do whatever you think is best.

A further noodle note: I chose rice noodles because they were the only one of my several types of Asian noodles that advertised on the box that they can be used in soup. I had (very thin) soba noodles and mein noodles too. I'd planned to try all different ones but when I realized I would be the only one home for dinner my motivation disappeared. I would love to hear about further noodle experimentation.

Crummy

If you want romantic and cute this Valentine's Day, please, immediately click over to one of the plethora of food bloggers peddling adorable, sexy holiday treats.

I've got none of that. I am heading into this holiday with all the joy and anticipation I imagine most people feel prior to a root canal (having never had a root canal this is purely speculation on my part). Why so bitter? Am I not happily married?

I have in fact spent the past 8 Valentine's Days with my husband. We're not big celebrators, but most of the time I try to do something to make the day, a little special, a little like what I'd want it to be. But I'm out. I completely forgot to make any type of specially themed goody. It was all I could do this weekend to rustle up dessert, to say nothing of something that would communicate endless love for my spouse.

Instead I made a very crummy chocolate cake. I wanted to make Debbie's Chocolate Yogurt Cake. But I was lazy and a fool and instead I made the Chocolate Honeycake I found in the back of my Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook. Big mistake. Huge mistake. I am now out a half a cup of store-brand (but still overpriced) honey, and I possess a cake that tastes more than a little nasty. I should have gone to the store for yogurt. Then at least whilst I wallow in my anti-Valentine's misery I could be eating something I like.

Insert Pig Joke Here

A few years ago when we had that whole swine flu scare, I ended up in a very serious pig-based discussion with my third grade class. My contributions were limited to helpful observations such as: "Um, we're calling that H1N1 now." and "You know you can't get it from eating pork or bacon or ham right?" As the children paused to reflect on these pearls of wisdom, S, a terrific kid with impeccable timing said (and I quote!) "I just love pigs..." then she sighed audibly and added, "they're so adorable...and they taste delicious!"

I could not agree more. However, I am married to one of the many people out there who does not eat pork. You could say it's because he's Jewish (he is, but it's not) or because he's Muslim (he's not, so it's not) or because he's watched Pulp Fiction too many times and over associates with Samuel L. Jackson's character (although he hasn't and he doesn't). The fact is, it doesn't matter why he won't eat any tasty swine products, all that matters is that he won't.

And of course, I'm the one who suffers. Oh sure, I buy poultry sausages and I eat turkey bacon now without too much complaint. If it's hidden in a recipe, it usually won't pain me too much. But as much as turkey bacon is a cheap and slightly sad substitute for bacon, it's just painful to use it in place of pancetta. So I've been suffering along (in silence, I promise) until something better came along.

And that something better is... duck bacon. Okay, so it's pricey. But duck bacon is actually delicious. And gives off delicious fat just like pancetta would. And has a texture that is pleasing and not sort of leathery. It's not for every day, but if you've got a dish where the pancetta should shine and you're pigless? Duck bacon.

I made this Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks with turkey bacon the first time, but it is far more delicious when made with duck bacon. I can only dream what it would taste like with pancetta.

PASTA WITH DUCK BACON! AND LEEKS
adapted from The Pioneer Woman
serves between 2-4 depending on how hearty your appetites are - we had a fair amount left over

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz farfalle
4-5 slices duck bacon
2 leeks, sliced and properly cleaned (cut into rings, push rings apart with your fingers, soak in cold water, lift out the rings leaving all the sandy ick on the bottom of the bowl) - use only the white to light green parts, don't use the thick dark green leafy parts
1/4 C vermouth
1/4 C light cream (Oh for crying out loud, I usually add a smidge more. I'm a bad person)
1/4 C - 1/2 C parmigiano-reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish.
reserved pasta water

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Chop your duck bacon into small tasty bits. Drop them into a large skillet and cook on medium-high until cooked (5-7 minutes). They will give off tons of fat, so you won't need any other oil/butter nonsense. Add the leeks and cook 8-10 minutes. You do not want them to crunch (well, I don't anyway). I like them nice and tender. They will likely not stay a pretty green like on Pioneer Woman. They are cooking in a pan full of delicious duck fat. They will become golden. Add the vermouth. Cook 1-2 minutes. Add the cream, toss well to combine. Add the pasta (I did say a large skillet). Add the grated cheese and toss. If it seems dry, feel free to add a bit of reserved pasta water, or some more cream (come on, I'll never tell). Serve and garnish with some shaved parm (use a potato peeler for pretty curls). Be very grateful that being pig free is no longer a hardship.

Third Time's A Charm

I have been neglecting this blog. I can be honest. I am stressed and anxious and busy and this is the thing that has fallen by the wayside. In part because there has been no food in my house. It is incredibly hard to blog about cooking when your meals consist of things like the heel of a loaf of bread with some peanut butter on it. But I was determined to fix this, to cook something tasty, to have a worthy post. So to that end I planned and grocery shopped and tried out not one, not two, but three new recipes on Saturday night.

Most unfortunately the main result of this was me realizing just how much I can hate trying out new recipes. I tried making roast chicken with bacon and brandy, inspired by Nigella and Tyler Florence. It came out distinctly uninspiring. Also dry. But I'm blaming the meat thermometer for the dry part. I made these fancy shmancy potatoes that I once saw on Cooking for Real. They only took an extra 30 minutes to cook. Let me be real with you, I do not have an hour and a half to spend on something that looks like an armadillo and tastes exactly like a normal baked potato. Oh hell no.

It was no small blessing that dessert turned out tasty. If it hadn't there's no telling what would have happened over here. The applesauce cake is simple, old-fashioned and easy. A definite winner.

SPICED APPLESAUCE CAKE
from SmittenKitchen who is clearly better at recipe writing and testing than those suckers at Food Network

INGREDIENTS:
2 C flour
2 t baking power
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon (SK used 3/4, but I'm a cinnamon kind of girl)
1/2 t ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
1 stick butter (I almost always use salted butter, which is NOT ideal for baking, but then I omit the salt from the recipe, things usually even out)
1 C light brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 large eggs (that's 1/2 C eggbeaters for those watching their cholesterol)
1 C unsweetened applesauce

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the eggs, mixing between each one. Then add the applesauce. Again, mix to combine. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Stir to combine. Add in small batches to the wet ingredients, mixing between each addition until all are incorporated. Grease and flour a round cake pan (I'm not a square kind of gal). Pour in the cake batter. Bake for 30-45 minutes (mine took 30 flat). Remove carefully from pan and set aside to cool. Frost when cool.

FROSTING

INGREDIENTS:
5 oz cream cheese, softened (cream cheese has these awesome lines like butter so you can cut it right, who knew?)
3 T butter, softened
1 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
1 C confectioner's sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Whip together the cream cheese and butter until uniform. Add the vanilla and give it another whip. Sift the confectioner's sugar and cinnamon into the mixture. DO NOT skip on sifting because you are lazy. It will result in little lumps like I had. I don't do frosting really, so this was a learning experience for me. I realized as poured in the sugar that I was being an idiot but it was too late for me to do anything. Save yourselves. Make nice smooth pretty frosting. Sift in the stupid sugar. Beat again then frost the cake!

Pickin' Your Chicken

Look, I've been keeping something from you. Nothing exciting sadly, but something potentially very helpful. And that something is my breaded chicken recipe. I make it at least twice a month. Sometimes more. So why I haven't I shared? Pure and shameful selfishness. I usually make it when I'm tired and overworked. Which means that I put absolutely no thought into it. I eyeball everything. I time nothing. So I haven't written it up for you because I knew it would be a pain in my delicate spoiled little rear to have to write down what I do and how I do it.

BUT. I'm having this recent spate of altruism where I'm feeling all sharey so I figured we might as well get this out before I go back to being self-involved. Author's note: There has been a 4 day delay between the writing and posting of this post. I am not only self-involved but flighty.

The best thing about breaded chicken? It's incredibly versatile. You can top it with fresh avocado and tomatoes and a drizzle of balsamic like I did. You can make it plain and put a little honey on the side for dipping. Mmm. Honey. You can add Parmigiano-Reggiano to the bread crumbs, delicious. Or you can make it my mother's way with a bit of thyme in the bread crumbs. It's like having 4 whole different dinners. All with one simple recipe. You can manage that. I have faith in you. Walk away from the Shake and Bake aisle. This will taste better. And eventually you will be able to throw it together without thinking like I do. Which is really helpful when you're unsure whether or not you have any brain cells left.

VERSATILE BREADED CHICKEN
serves 2

INGREDIENTS:
for all three variations you need
3-4 Tablespoons Vegetable (or Canola or Olive) Oil
2 chicken breasts
1/8 Cup flour
hefty pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper
1 egg plus 1-2 Tablespoons Water
1/4 Cup store bought plain breadcrumbs

for breaded chicken with avocado and tomato with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar you need
1 avocado (if you're making this for 1 person, squeeze a bit of lemon over the spare half and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap to slowing browning a bit)
1 C chopped tomatoes (or a few slices off a nice ripe one)
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar per breast

for breaded chicken with parm
1/8 to 1/4 C grated Parm (how much is dependent on how cheesy you like things)

for breaded chicken with thyme
2 teaspoons dried thyme

for plain breaded chicken with honey to dip
a few tablespoons of honey in a bowl for dipping.

DIRECTIONS:
Remove the chicken from its packaging. Rinse it and pat it dry. Trim off any nasty bits of fat or tendony parts. Keep the chicken on a cutting board and cover it with waxed paper or plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin or flat bottomed pan to pound the chicken (as in this recipe). Remember your goal is even thickness. Then prepare your breading station. I have no counter space, so mine is cramped. But you need to put the flour (1/8 Cup) on a plate and add the salt and pepper. You need to put the egg in a shallow dish with a tablespoon or two of water and use a fork to whisk it like it's scrambled eggs. You need to put the breadcrumbs (1/4 Cup) on a final plate. For breaded chicken with parm: Add the parm to the breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly. For breaded chicken with thyme: Add the thyme to the breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly. Get your pan heated up. Put the vegetable oil in a pan and make sure the bottom is well-coated. Put the heat to the high side of medium high. You'll know it's hot enough when a drop of water flicked in the pan sizzles and dances.

Okay, step one in breading: Take the chicken and dip it in the flour, until both sides are coated. Give a little shake so the extra flour falls off. Do both breasts. So you have this:

Next check your pan. You want to put the breaded chicken directly in it, so make sure it's warm enough. If it is, finish breading. Step 2 in breading: Dunk the chicken in the egg mixture. Get both sides covered. Then press it into the breadcrumbs, flip it over and press it in the breadcrumbs again. Make sure there are now blanks spots. Then put the chicken in your pan. It should make a satisfying sizzle (wear long sleeves, your oil may spit). Cook the chicken for 4 minutes on this side. Then flip. Pretty, see:

Allow 3-4 minutes on the second side, lower the heat if necessary. If you want to top it with avocado and tomato, now is the time to slice your avocado and chop/slice your tomato. When the chicken is done (I promise you'll get to know how this feels), remove it from the pan.


Now, if you like, serve it with a side of honey. Or top with the avocado and tomato and drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar over the top. Or just eat it. It's nice to have choices, isn't it?

How to Cook a Chicken Breast

No seriously. Today I'm giving out step-by-step, I honestly hope they will be easy enough even for beginners, basic chicken breast cooking directions. Yes, these days I am the very image of domesticity, but back when I first graduated from college I couldn't really cook. I could make a few very specific things (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here that I got invited to late-night after parties in college more for my ability to make Kraft mac and cheese from a box than for my sparkling personality). But actual dinner every single night? No way. I was crap at getting a decent dinner together when no one was around to monitor what I made and ate. Heck, I still am. But I did learn to cook, with no formal training and surprisingly less swearing than I would have predicted at the outset. So if you're feeling like you need to add a basic dish to your repertoire, or maybe that you should have a dish in your repertoire, here we go. Chicken with balsamic and mushrooms, the baby steps version.

CHICKEN WITH BALSAMIC AND MUSHROOMS - THE (ILLUSTRATED) BABY STEPS VERSION
This recipe is to serve 2 people. It can easily be cut in half if you're only cooking for one, or increased if you're cooking for many.

INGREDIENTS:
1 small chicken breast per person
2 Tablespoons flour (substitute brown rice flour if you want to make this gluten-free)
3-4 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves
4 oz sliced mushrooms (the containers you get at the grocery store are usually 8oz, so use half of one of those - buy pre-sliced if you are lazy, it will save you a step. If you don't know what to do with the rest, you can toss some on salads, or cook then in a little butter and fold into an omelet).
1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar (balsamic comes in different degrees of fancy, don't get the cheapest, but don't buy really expensive stuff either).
3/4 Cup chicken stock (the rest can be frozen)
1 tsp dried thyme (it will keep forever, don't worry about owning a jar)
salt and pepper

EQUIPMENT:
1 large frying pan, hopefully non-stick
a cutting board
1 knife
tongs, hopefully with the plastic part covering the ends, not metal which will scrape your pan
an oven proof plate (you can use a cookie sheet if you can't find an oven proof plate)
a liquid measuring cup (for the chicken stock) and measuring spoons
something heavy like a rolling pin or the frying pan
plastic wrap or waxed paper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Turn your oven on to its lowest possible setting.
2. Clean your mushrooms by rubbing with a damp paper towel and slice, you can skip this if you buy pre-sliced.
3. Peel the garlic cloves and cut off the crusty bit at the base and discard. Chop the garlic up very fine.
4. Set the garlic and mushrooms aside in bowls ready to go next to the stove.
5. Take the chicken out of its package. Rinse it off in the sink and dry it using paper towels. There may be some fatty bits around the edges which you can trim off, and there's also a sort of gross tendony bit towards the fatter end which you can cut off. Discard the ooky bits.
6. Put the chicken on a cutting board and cover it with either plastic wrap or waxed paper. You are going to pound the chicken. See how its thick at one end and thin at the other? That will make it cook unevenly.


7. Use a rolling pin or the bottom of a flat frying pan to pound the chicken. You'll need to hit reasonably hard, but make sure your focus is on keeping it uniform in thickness. Your finished chicken may not be as pretty, but no worries, we're covering him in flour. Here it is flattened:
8. Throw out the wrap and put the rolling pin in the sink. Wash your chickeny hands.
9. Put the pan on the stove and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter (butter sticks have tablespoons marked on the wrapper). Turn the heat to medium high/high.
10. Mix the flour together with a half teaspoon of salt and a few good shakes (or grinds) or pepper. Then you can sprinkle the flour right over the chicken. I poured the flour on a dry surface (I used my cutting board, but if it isn't completely dry it will be gross and clumpy, so don't do that) then made sure I coated each side of the chicken.
11. Keep an eye on that pan. The butter can get a deep golden color but you don't really want it to brown. The pan is hot enough when a droplet of water flicked into the pan sizzles and spits. Stand back when you test it like this.
12. When the pan is hot enough, pick up the chicken breast(s) and give a good shake so the extra flour falls off. Gently place in the middle of the pan.
13. Cook for four minutes. Then use your tongs to flip. Lower the temperature to medium.
14. Cook for four more minutes. The chicken will feel much firmer when it is done. Chicken must be cooked all the way through, no pink, so check by cutting open if you're paranoid and new to this.15. Remove the chicken to the oven proof plate and place in the warm oven, remember the temperature is on keep warm or whatever your lowest setting is.
16. Okay your chicken is in the oven and your pan is empty except some leftover oil and some brown crackly bits. Reduce the heat to low. Toss in the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Add the chicken stock and balsamic vinegar. Use your spatula to scrape the good brown bits off the bottom of the pan and mix in with the mushrooms and sauce. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the mushrooms are all tender and glistening like here:17. Turn off the heat and stir in 2 more tablespoons of butter. Yum.
18. Take the chicken out of the oven (and turn the oven off). Put it on a plate and gently spoon the mushrooms and sauce over top.

See, that wasn't terrible, was it?

Snow Day Provisions

I tend to feel that certain things are best marked with celebratory snacks. Snow days are definitely one of them. I don't know about you but to me snow days mean cocoa. Today while I was making the requisite cup, I started eyeing my mini marshmallows. Adorable, fluffy, cottony little bits of sweetness, they were calling out for something bigger and better than a slow melting demise on top of the cocoa. And so, rocky road cookies.

But here's the rub. I got a new silpat for Christmas and so I was able to rotate pans while baking. I baked half the cookies on my old mat and an old black standard lipped cookie pan. I baked half the cookies on my new mat on a shiny flat silvery cookie sheet. They turned out totally different. The ones on the old mat and pan were fat and plump (as well they should be, little mounds of chocolatey, nutty, marshmallowy goodness). The ones on the new mat and sheet were spread very wide and flat (still tasty but more regular chocolate between bites). What the heck happened? Clearly something mat/sheet related right? All cookies were baked for the same amount of time. They were alternated in the oven, so it wasn't like the plump ones baked up first or anything. Where the frick is Alton Brown when I need some food science answers. Probably off eating his own, non-tempermental rocky road cookies. Bastard.

ROCKY ROAD COOKIES
This recipe probably needs a bit of tinkering with given its tempermental nature. I'm thinking of cutting back on butter and sugar next time, so feel free to try doing that yourself. Less butter because I'm blaming it for the over spread, less sugar because when you're adding chocolate and marshmallows you don't need the base to be as sweet.

INGREDIENTS:
2 C flour
3/4 C cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 t salt
2.5 sticks unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 C sugar
3/4 C chopped pecans
3/4 C mini marshmallows - halved if you can stand it, full size they stick more and compromise the structural integrity of the cookie a bit
3/4 C chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix well. Add the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add slowly, a cup or so at a time, mixing in between additions.
Add the pecans, marshmallows and chocolate chips and stir gently but thoroughly so the mix-ins are evenly distributed. Using an old black cookie sheet and your old silpat mat, put heaping tablespoons of batter on the sheet (I may have rolled mine, I'm weird like that). Leave some room for them to spread, a lot if you fear they'll bizarrely flatten like mine. Bake for 7-9 minutes, no more than 9 though. Leave to cool 5 minutes on the pan before removing to a wire rack. Try any sooner and you'll have serious cookie carnage.

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.

Been An Angel All Year...

Well not quite an angel, but Santa (erm, my parents, Ryan and friend L) certainly hurried down the chimney with lots of kitchen goodies.

1. & 2. Reusable sandwich and snack bags - no more using up ziplocs at an alarming rate, these cute little bags will keep my lunch together and do the environment some favors in the process.

3. A three piece glass food storage set, because even though I have BPA free plastic, it's still plastic and eventually they're going to find out that plastic turns you into a newt or something.

4. A tiny dish for my salt and pepper mills to sit on so they don't shed salty and peppery bits all over my counter.

5. Itty bitty portable utensil set, so I can stop eating with a spork. Because the cafeteria only gives out sporks.

6. Nigella Express - you've already benefitted from her cheddar risotto, just think of all the other delicious recipes!

7. New candy thermometer (so meat thermometers no longer need to be inserted in white chocolate).

8. A second silpat mat! I can actually prepare a second batch of cookies while the first is still baking! More cookies! More cookies!

9. Everyday French Cooking by Christian Constant. I have been kicking myself for not buying this ever since Ryan and I left Paris (a few years ago?) We loved our meal at Cafe Constant, particularly the duck (which sadly isn't in the cookbook). It is not for the faint of heart though, it has a somewhat unthinkable number of foie gras recipes.

10. Digital meat thermometer - my current meat thermometer and I often have differences of opinion. I'm hoping I get along better with this one.

11. Empanada maker - this sucker is sweet! You use the bottom to cut your circle of dough, stick the circle on top, drop in some filling, and smoooooosh! Empanadas. Turnovers. Handpies.

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