Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas



Merry Christmas! I hope yours is a blessed one. We have fresh snow for a white Christmas.



Santa brought me mostly sewing stuff, but I also got a new cookbook too. I'll skim through the Cook's Illustrated 2010 Annual today.

I wanted to make Christmas gumbo, but settled on Christmas chili instead. Of course there will be cornbread.  I'm also going to attempt to make some sandwich bread today, since I forgot to buy some yesterday.



Happy Holidays!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

A Keeper

My aunt found this recipe for carrot soufflé. It is now a family favorite. I didn't start dinner until 7 something Sunday night and I had a gang of stuff to do. My goal in life was to make this as quickly as possible using as few dishes as possible. Here's how I did it.

Chop a pound of carrots. This was my lazy cooking night, so I started by breaking them down.



Then, I let Miracle do the work. I put the carrots in a 2-qt pot and added enough water to barely cover them. I know. I know. I've preached about my preference for roasting instead of boiling veggies. Again, I made it to the kitchen around 7 on a Sunday night; boiling was faster. Don't forget to add salt to the water.


Hot fresh carrots! Now, we need to cool things down. Here's where I veer from the recipe. Blend the butter and carrots. My aunt uses a blender; you can mash by hand if you want. I planned on using the FP for as many steps as I could. 


Now add the sugar and blend. Don't forget to scrape the bowl.


By now, the mixture should be cool enough to keep from scrambling your eggs and stealing your vanilla flavor. Add both of those now and blend.


Add flour, salt, and baking powder. Blend some more.


Everything should be all smooth. Pour into a greased baking dish. Is CorningWare French White the official bake ware of America?


Bake for 45 minutes. Isn't it pretty?


Look at that texture. And the taste? Oh man ... You won't believe how good this is! Whenever I run across a killer recipe, I file it in my "Husband-Only" cookbook. I'm single now, but when he finds me, he'll eat well! This one made it in with a gold star.


Tools of the trade: