NuJoi's Kitchen Diary

Bah. Humbug. Ooo! Tasty!

2011-12-25T19:39:00.000-06:00

I've been the unreformed Grinch this year. I just couldn't get into the Christmas spirit. It's the first year I didn't put up a tree.

I planned a haphazard dinner -- I was thinking fried chicken and my favorite roasted butternut squash ravioli. Coconut cupcakes and Brussels sprouts were late entries. Damn, I forgot to list the dressing, just like I forgot to put it in the oven before 6. It was from the Thanksgiving batch.

So when I got home from church, I had good intentions. I made my ice cream base (more about that in another post). I roasted my butternut squash, I brined the chicken. By then, it was nearly dark and what little enthusiasm I had for cooking left with the sunlight. What's a girl to do?

Ta-Daaaaaa! All the flavors of the ravioli without making pasta by hand.

Start with roasted butternut squash. Make sure it's caramelized.

In the meantime, mix heavy cream and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Season with salt, cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg. Add sprigs of time and rosemary. Simmer and reduce.

Boil some pasta. Orecchiette is great choice.

Slosh in some sauce.

Garnish with toasted pecans, rosemary and sage. Delicious!!!

One final note. I have an announcement to make. I believe in pretty chicken!

I'm going to kick back now and finish my glass of screw-top wine. (I'm running a quality establishment over here.)

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Ode to Vermont and Canada

2011-12-23T11:07:00.000-06:00

I'm so not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I want a shirt that says, "Bah. Humbug." However, the bright sunny morning cheered me a little and I decided to celebrate the first day of me not checking my Blackberry all day with some scones. Not just any scones -- maple-glazed pumpkin scones to be exact. I wanted to make these over Thanksgiving, but a family emergency kept me from my kitchen most of my time off.

You've seen the scone recipe before, so let's get to it. It starts pretty much the same; pulse dry ingredients in the food processor. Add cold butter.

Here's the departure: make Trader's Joe's Pumpkin Butter your friend. Y'all might even be best friends after this :-)

Mix it into the cream really well. Instead of a full cup of cream, I used 3/4 C. Add the cream to the flour mixture.

CI has you do this by hand, I just added mine to Miracle and pulsed until it formed a dough.

Now comes the messy part. Dump the dough on the counter. Knead very gently to incorporate all the dry bits. Form a ball or two, depending on how you will shape your scones.

I made two balls because I used a 6" cake pan so I could have mini scones.

Press the dough into the pan.

Invert.

Slice (do a better job than I did.) Remember to press straight down. I'll show you what happens later when you don't.

I did better on the second round.

I started with refrigerated instead of my usual frozen butter, so I parked these in the refrigerator while I took a bacon detour.

I did say MAPLE pumpkin scones. No way I was going to have a hot oven, maple syrup on the counter and bacon in the refrigerator without making maple-glazed bacon again.

Back to the scones. I heated some butter and maple syrup together.

I gave the scones a beautiful brush-on tan and to the oven they went.

Here's what I got.

Absolutely delicious! The texture was closer to a biscuit or even cake. I prefer my scones on the drier side, but the flavor made up for the break with tradition. The pumpkin butter was pretty sweet, so I would knock out some of the sugar when I try these again. The maple syrup kept the outside of the scones from getting hard, so next time, I'll make half with the glaze on before baking and put the glaze on the other half after baking to see which I like best.

With Teavana's English Breakfast Tea, these made a wonderful morning treat. On a side note, here's another vote for Silpat -- the burnt syrup just flakes off. Easy cleanup.

Remember my note to press straight down when cutting? Here's what happens when you don't. He's all crooked :-( I'm working on a granite counter, so I use my bench scraper to cut dough. Moving to a cutting board so I can use my knives is too much work. And even still, I think it's just the way I cut and lack of wrist strength. I sometimes have lopsided biscuits too.

Tools of the trade

And So It Begins

2011-11-22T11:40:00.001-06:00

Got a pound cake in the oven and the sweet potatoes are scrubbed and ready to go. I was so proud of myself because I thought I had finished all of my grocery shopping yesterday around five. Some kinda way, I only purchased 6 pounds of sweet potatoes. Grrrrrr. Luckily, I have a three-pound bag of garnet sweet potatoes stashed away. I was using those for the candied yams. They will be conscripted into pie service; I have only one guest coming this year and I don't have to have candied yams, so I'll just make yams for one with a few of those.

If You're Going To Do It, Do It Right

2011-03-13T20:55:00.001-05:00

Today, my church fasted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. No biggie. Much improved over last year's monthly 25-hour fast. However, I remembered we were fasting around 7 this morning. I had been up since 5:00 and I was ready for breakfast. This was going to be a long day.

After service, I spent the afternoon watching TV in bed; I had to conserve my energy (and I wouldn't be tempted to snack). Around 6, I hit the kitchen with my mind set on two things -- chicken and waffles and sweet potato chips. Okay, that's three things, but chicken and waffles kinda count as one. If I was only getting one meal today, it was going to be a meal to remember. I was actually going to fry something! Weight Watchers be damned!

I knocked out the sweet potato chips first. I got up on my step ladder and hauled down what I now affectionately refer to as The Beast - my De Buyer Professional Mandoline. I may have used this thing five times in the 10 years I've owned it. But today, I took it out of its case for a single sweet potato ...

WA-Fa thin!

Get thee to some hot grease and grab a spider.

I am a firm believer that at all times, sweet potatoes should taste like sweet potato pie. (This time with pronounced salt and pepper.)

Sweet potato chips fry up dark. God bless those caramelizing sugars.

Ooo wee! I had to move these outside of my reach so that I would have some left for dinner. Sweet potato chips had been on my mind for a couple of weeks. I had some at work and I knew I could make them better. I'm going to cut these a hair thicker next time and they will be perfect.

Now for the chicken and waffles. These are my tried and true recipes.

Seasoned meat, seasoned flour, seasoned buttermilk (including hot sauce). Dry-wet-dry to coat. If you have the time, coat twice and let it air dry for a while. Please start with brined chicken. Add to hot grease.

Waffle recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Bake and assemble including maple syrup and hot sauce.

Yes Lord! I had homemade ginger lemonade too.

Now I have the itis, so I'm going to bed. I'll correct the typos later and add my Tools of the Trade. Shout out to my cast iron skillet!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T08:27:00.000-06:00

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!

A Keeper

2010-12-11T10:14:00.001-06:00

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:

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-26T07:50:00.001-06:00

I rolled out of bed around 5:30 yesterday morning. Before 9:30, I was snacking on cheese, crackers, roasted butternut squash seeds and chilling with a glass of wine.

Let's start with the seeds. Pat them dry and concoct a tight spice paste with olive oil. I used my favorite combo: cumin, chili powder, coriander, black pepper and kosher salt.

Add the seeds and toss to coat.

Roast in a shallow pan (I used an 8" skillet) until the seeds are dry. When you shake the pan, the seeds should move easily. Munch on!

At 2:30, I had another glass of wine and homemade, hand-cut pasta. The pasta was the scraps from my ravioli. I had a pot of boiling salted water, so I couldn't resist. I gave my feet a rest for more than an hour while I blogged about Tuesday's and Wednesday's efforts in the kitchen. Clearly this was going to be a very leisurely Thanksgiving. I didn't eat my meal until 9:05 p.m.!

Blame it on the turkey I was too tired to brine Wednesday night. It didn't get its fragrant bath until 6:30 Thanksgiving morning. Blame the rest on the Dallas Cowboys! During the third quarter, I got tricked into thinking we were going to win. This completely distracted me and I totally forgot about oven management (you know when you shift the turkey to make room for the sides). After we lost, I started reading a book (you have this luxury when it's just you at dinner.)

The best part about all of this is that because I took my time, cleaned my kitchen as I went (the dishwasher and I did five rounds of dishes) and wasn't on my feet until I could no longer stand -- I didn't have a huge mess staring at me after I passed out from the food-induced coma. I even managed to put away all but two of the side dishes before I fell asleep. Final clean up will be a breeze in a couple of hours.

About the food: I vowed to sew instead of cook this year, but I caved at the last minute. I'm quite proud of the restraint I showed this year regarding the number of dishes: turkey ($4 for a 12-pound bird) butternut squash ravioli, creamed collard greens, dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, yeast rolls and sweet potato pie. These are all TNT (tried and true) recipes for me. The butternut squash ravioli took forever to make. I've added a ravioli maker to my wish list.

Since I don't have all of my turkey how-to tips in one post, I'll do so here.

Oops! No pics of the brine this year. This is from last year. Brining is your friend. Embrace your friend. I tried this brine from Emeril once and I've never looked back since. You're supposed to brine the bird for 12 hrs. Since I started the day of, my turkey had a nine-hour soak.

After brining, here's where you get to know the turkey in an intimate way. I love the result, but I hate the process -- compound butter under the skin. You can take advantage of your spice rack and use a dried mix of poultry seasoning if you like. Do NOT add salt.

After you get the butter on there, pat the skin dry. Rub the outside of the bird down with butter or olive oil and season. Use dried herbs here. Do NOT use any salt. I like to use poultry seasoning that isn't finely ground into dust (the powdery kind is fine for dressing.) Grab your pepper mill.

I made a conscious effort to do two things this year: let the turkey sit out a while before baking and not stuff the cavity. I kinda cheated on the first because although I took it out of the fridge, I left it in the brine. This was a generic bird and I wanted it to have as much contact with the brine as possible. Here's what I've noticed with generic birds: no flavor difference, but look for extra feathers. One of the wing tips was missing too.

I roast my birds breast side down first. You get this:

And this:

Usually, I don't get the pan marks, but the Cowboys had me distracted and I didn't flip the bird soon enough. Here's my finished product:

I can never seem to insert the thermometer correctly to take the temp of the thigh or the breast, so here's how I know if a turkey is done:

1. Check the pan juices. Are they clear?

2. Shake hands with your turkey. Are the limbs loose?

That, my friends, is how you make a foolproof turkey.

Here are the ravioli and greens in pictures. Blogger is not working with me today to get two small pics on the same row. Inserting pictures is the one thing I hate with Blogger; it's so frustrating!

Butternut squash ravioli

Creamed collard greens. One recipe note I will add, sautéed and creamed greens should be a sinus-opening adventure; reach for the cayenne.

I didn't arrange everything artfully on my plate for a final pic. I can tell you that it was all good! Hope your Thanksgiving was a blessed one!

Sides for Sale

2010-11-25T15:12:00.000-06:00

I received a wonderful offer to prepare the Thanksgiving sides for a family: macaroni and cheese, greens, dressing, candied yams and rolls. This was a challenge because It was for eight people, plus leftovers and I'm not a big fan of traditional mac and cheese and greens. Let me clarify that; I love traditional mac and cheese, but I never make it (I stepped up my game years back) and I'd rather have sautéed greens with a ton of garlic than greens floating in pot liquor.

Here are the highlights:

I do have to say that I did put my foot in those greens! I grabbed a forkful the next morning and they were delicious. After cleaning eight pounds of them, I would have been sorely disappointed had they turned out otherwise. I guess I should give you some sort of recipe.

1. Cover meat, meat onion and garlic in cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the meat floats. Make sure you salt the water. I use extra meat because I use turkey instead of pork.

2. Add the greens and cook until beyond tender (I'm Southern and we don't abide al dente greens when pot liquor is involved.

3. Remove the bones and grab some cornbread. I do a final seasoning check and add some heat, white vinegar and Tony Chachere's. What really sets them off is if you can get your heat and vinegar in the same bottle. I'm the oddball in the family (surprise) because I like a little raw chopped onion on top. I have also been known to eat them with my fingers ... (you gotta mash them up with the cornbread). As I'm writing this, I'm thinking I should have kept some of those greens for me. I did buy a pound for myself, but those have been creamed. (Yes, I picked a total of nine pounds of greens for Thanksgiving. I must have done four pounds Sunday for dinner with friends. I will not be cooking greens again until Easter!)

Mac and cheese. I used Cook's Illustrated's recipe for Classic Macaroni and Cheese. It was good, but it wasn't slap-yo'-mama-good. (I have standards.) I need to find a killer recipe for creamy regular-folk mac and cheese. Back in the day, I was content to layer cheese, noodles, eggs and Pet milk. I might have to revisit that. I don't like the consistency of the roux-based white sauces. They are smooth, but I can feel the flour. This does not bother me with gumbo and etoufee, but I think it's the reason I don't like gravy.

I digress. Here are the pics:

Mac (two boxes)

and cheese. I shredded a block of colby-jack, cheddar and fontina. I added eight ounces of shredded cheddar.

Starting the roux.

Milk, cheese and extra seasoning.

I poured the sauce over the pasta, stirred it up and put in in a baking dish. I sprinkled cheese on top and let it cool. It will get baked today when it's heated up.

Candied yams. My peeler got a workout! 10 pounds of sweet potatoes! I have learned my lesson from years past and now put the peels in the garbage instead of feeding them to the garbage disposal. Yeah; they got all over the floor.

Now they are all ready to go.

Layer with cinnamon, nutmeg, butter and sugar (a mix of brown and white). Cook on low. I remember Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet being amazed at how "blacks cook candied yams." That's right, no water.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish, but hopefully, you've seen candied yams before. Now for the dressing. I take no shortcuts. You've seen it before. I'm glad you've seen it before because I forgot to take pictures!

Yeast rolls. As I write this, I'm making my third batch for the holiday. Here are yesterday's:

Ooo wee!

I par-baked them. They looked great when I took them out, but then they started to fall a little.

I threw in a sweet potato pie and cranberry sauce on the house. Oh, how I love homemade cranberry sauce.

I was exhausted after I finished yesterday; I think I'd been in the kitchen for 11 hours, plus the evening before. Only six hours were spent chopping, dicing, standing over the stove, etc. The rest went to all the dishes and cleaning up.

Speaking of which, I need to tackle the current mess. This will be my fourth cleaning of the day. This is one of the reasons I actually like doing Thanksgiving by myself - no pressure. I can take my time and eat at 7 pm if I want to (which is usually the case). I might take a nap after I start the dishwasher :-)

If I don't post again today, Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for the opportunity to continue family traditions, knowing my way around the kitchen and my dishwasher. Of course, there are family and friends whom I'm thankful for. I can't call them now because they're eating and when they call me, I'll be eating or asleep. It's the game we play every year. Go Cowboys!

I'm Makin' Waffles!

2010-11-06T11:31:00.001-05:00

I loved when Donkey said, "I'm makin' waffles!" in Shrek. Good times. Anyhoo. I was unable again to pass up buttermilk in the store, so now I have to use it before it goes bad. I've had it for a week and I can't remember why I bought it.

Use #1: Cook's Illustrated's Buttermilk Waffles for Two

You see before you AP flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. There's buttermilk (of course), melted butter, and a separated egg. The egg white has a pinch of cream or tartar.

Now, get to combining. Whisk all of the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

Beat the egg yolk and add the melted butter. Whisk together and add that to the buttermilk.

Whip out your hand mixer and attack the egg white. Sparkle performed nicely. You're looking for stiff peaks.

Fold the liquid in to the dry ingredients. Please don't over mix. Looks like a sticky biscuit dough, huh?

We've gone through this before, but it bears repeating. You must make a sacrifice to the mixing gods. Take about 1/4 of the egg white and dump them into the bowl. Don't mix these with wild abandon because you'll jack up the dough. What you want to do is get the egg white incorporated so that it lightens the dough some. The rest of the egg white will live a happier life because of it.

Gently fold in the rest of the egg white.

Hope you were preheating the waffle iron during all of this; I was.

I rarely make waffles without pecans. Close the lid and seal the deal. Have syrup and more butter waiting in the wings.

Yummy!

Tools of the Trade

Glass mixing bowls
Measuring spoons
French whisk
KitchenAid Hand Mixer
Villaware Classic Round Waffle Maker (I hate that my model has been discontinued. I want you to have one.)

Making It Official

2010-09-14T06:57:00.000-05:00

You can tell by my lack of posts in the last year that I haven't spent much time in the kitchen. Even when I do make something new, blogging about it is more of a chore than something fun. My new hobby, sewing, is the culprit. So, until I get more inspired in the kitchen (perhaps a Williams-Sonoma catalog would help), you can read about my life at Seams Enjoiable.

You know there will be some Thanksgiving baking, so stay tuned. LOL

H2-Ohhhh!

2010-08-14T20:03:00.057-05:00

I was so hot last Saturday, all I wanted was ice cold water and watermelon. I had to be hot because I almost always drink room temperature water. I'd been out and about in the heat and in a hot kitchen for four hours.

Anyhoo, I know flavored waters are all the rage. I have to say that my favorite is what I call spa water. I remember people were baffled by the flavor combination in 2001. I had some at a hotel last week and I was reminded of how refreshing it was.

Start here:

Slice the lemon and lime in half. Slice the cucumber. I used about half of that. You're probably supposed to remove the seeds, but I grew up eating the skin and the seeds. I'm way too lazy to remove either as an adult. Pick the mint and basil (yep, basil) leaves and slightly bruise them with your fingers. Layer everything into a pitcher with ice.

Oops. That photo is a little dark. Add your water and give it a stir.

Of course at the hotel, everything was suspended so beautifully in the lemonade jar ... . This will do for just me. Let this sit in the refrigerator for about an hour. Afterward, take out all of the solids or the water will turn bitter. Save them and use them for garnish. Wonderfully refreshing!

Oui

2010-08-08T19:47:00.002-05:00

That's the only word I know in French. But, it did give you a clue about the post, right? I finally made it back into the kitchen -- this time with a French flair.

This was precipitated by the volunteer work I did yesterday. I hung out at a community kitchen, preparing meals for the homeless. The good folks from the Evanston Farmer's Market came by with produce to donate. There was corn, greens (collard, mustard and turnip), yellow string beans, endive, parsley, basil, radishes and mirlitons. It was the last two that got me excited. I didn't know what I was going to do with the mirlitons, but I knew my adopted home status in New Orleans would be revoked if I didn't bring them with me. The radishes were a no-brainer - Ina Garten's radishes with butter and salt recipe. It's funny how a recipe can stay with you for years, even if you've never made it.

Let's start with the appetizer. (I'll do the mirlitons in a future post.) At some point during my childhood, I declared that radishes tasted like fire. I've pretty much avoided them ever since. Well, I eat a lot of things now that I didn't when I was little, so why continue to be afraid of the radish (especially when I could get free ones)?

I have to admit that I felt very fancy and sophisticated once this was plated. It's really easy. Wash the radishes, leave the tops on, but trim the roots. The tops are very gritty, so wash them well. Arrange them on a plate.

Get some French bread, slice it on the bias and lightly toast it.

Now here comes the best part: compound butter. I don't have any pics, but the recipe link has video from the show. I used unsalted butter, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh parsley, dried dill, lemon juice and grated garlic and onion. Let the butter get soft and mash it up with the other ingredients.

Now, I am not a big fan of butter. I'd much rather have olive oil. My aunt says this is because I use unsalted butter. Honey, I almost fell out after I tasted this butter! It was so good. See?

Slather the butter (if you haven't eaten it all) on your bread. Arrange artfully on a plate (to the best of your ability). Add some sea salt to the plate as well.

When I started to eat this, I did my usual thing -- I tried to eat the radish and bread separately. Yep. Radishes still taste like fire. Ina G. said people fed this to their children. Why??!! Then, I did something I rarely do, I took a bite of radish and then a bite of the bread and ate them together. Oh my damn! The French are geniuses! The salt was a waste (please know that expensive Fleur de sel will be put to another use), but the butter took away that irritating burn from the radish. I like spicy food, but raw radishes ain't me.

However, with the butter, I am a proud member of the clean plate club!

Tools of the trade:

Summer Baking

2010-07-17T21:32:00.001-05:00

It was absolutely blazing earlier today. I was slightly miffed because I had to go outside and because I had to turn the oven on. In hindsight, the oven part isn't so bad.

The baking need arose from a container of plums I got from Costco a couple of days ago. I was about to purchase $9 cherries, when I spotted $5 plums. I made a quick switch. Once I got the plums home, I realized that they were extremely ripe. They were so ripe that they tasted a little like pears. These would need to star in a crumble or a crisp real soon.

Once I realized that I wouldn't finish the sewing project I was working on in time, I decided to take a break and head to the kitchen. Here's what I came up with: a plum crisp. I adapted the recipe from Baking Illustrated. If you've read my blog in the past, you know I am an America's Test Kitchen believer.

Starting here was a no-brainer since I had limited time and patience. (I wanted to get back to the other hobby.) This recipe was amazingly simple. I think it went together in less than 20 minutes.

Make the topping first. Flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg (freshly ground, please) and salt go for a spin in the food processor. It's been a while since Miracle and I have hung out.

Add the butter and pulse until you get something that looks like wet sand. Chill immediately. (Not you, the topping.)

Move on to the fruit. The recipe called for sliced fruit, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. I had two of the four. If substituting plums for apples, CI wanted me to have tapioca pudding too. Yeah right.

Since my plums were very ripe (look at 'em; they look like beets), I used about a couple of tablespoons of sugar. For the acid, I thought balsamic vinegar would be hot. Don't sleep on balsamic vinegar and fruit. It will change your relationship with strawberry shortcake forever. I used about 1 1/2 Tbs. I used a tablespoon of cornstarch in place of the tapioca.

Let's assemble. Dump the fruit into a buttered baking dish.

Creatively distribute the topping over the fruit. Ain't that pretty?

Get thee to a pre-heated oven. I let it bake at 375 for 30 minutes and then jacked up the heat to 400 for browning.

Hallelujah!! All I need is some white ice cream (my uncles' term for vanilla ice cream.)

Tools of the trade

The Comfort Of Hot Grease

2010-02-15T20:07:00.003-06:00

There is something magical about hot grease. It can make just about anything taste good. I didn't have to stretch my imagination far because Epicurious.com sent a recipe for Fried Mozzarella Balls to my inbox a couple of weeks ago. I finally made it out to Trader Joe's to pick up the cheese Friday night.

I had a rough night last night. My aunt went back to the hospital for emergency surgery. I stayed up past my bedtime talking to family and then there were a couple of calls in the wee hours for updates. Even when I wasn't on the phone, the worry kept me from getting good sleep.

The surgery was successful and she will be okay. I still feel the stress. You know there was only one place for me to head -- the kitchen. This was the time for gooey melted cheese.

Let's get it.

Start with marinated fresh mozz balls, the little ones. The marinated ones were at least $2.00 more at the store, so I figured I could marinate them myself. (It's a recession.) I kept it basic -- olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. I was going to make these yesterday when I found out about my aunt, so they had a good 24 hrs to marinate in the fridge.

Heat oil to 360. I did whip out my oil thermometer for this. Since I was only doing a handful of balls, I used a 2-qt pot for the oil. Pat the cheese dry.

Dip the cheese into a beaten egg and roll in bread crumbs. Repeat. Let it rest on waxed paper. This is the one time I wished for store-bought bread crumbs. I wasn't able to get mine to a consistent size. They were very light and airy after frying though.

Place the cheese into the oil and fry away. Be careful with the oil. These go quick! So quick that I have no pic. Hey, that rhymes. Back to the food. Isn't this pretty? Not bad for a first attempt.

Now this is what I'm talkin' 'bout! Don't hurt yourself.

Yep. Hot grease makes everything better. Now I gotta figure out what else I'm going to do with this oil. Perhaps I'll try some makeshift hush puppies tomorrow.

Tools of the trade

Crackers - The First Attempt

2010-02-09T07:22:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, my coworker brought in some Cracked Black Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuit crackers. They were unbelievably good. That sent me to my cookbooks and the Web for recipes! I started with Rosemary-Parmesan Icebox Crackers from Williams-Sonoma.

Now for some reason, I didn't take enough "making of" shots or either I accidentally deleted them. However, the recipe is easy so have no fear. In the food processor, combine flour, salt, pepper and rosemary. Now, you know I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I reduced the cheese and amped up the rosemary and black pepper. I used kosher salt instead of table salt. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Add the cheese and pulse twice.

*Imagine shot of mixture in food processor bowl here*

Roll the dough into a log on a lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least three hours.

The rest is easy -- just slice and bake! I need more practice with making even thin slices. I added an extra sprinkle of black pepper before baking. The first batch was baked on a sheet pan with a Silpat.

They came out okay. They were a little soft and not as dry as I would have liked.

I baked the next two batches directly on a baking stone. I used a fish spatula to remove the crackers because they were a bit delicate when they were warm.

I liked these much better, but I suspect it's the cheese that's keeping me from getting that dry, crumbly cracker texture.

I tried some different shapes too.

These had a lot of flavor, but too much salt, even with me cutting back on the Parm. I'll be more careful with my kosher-table salt swap next time. I'd make these again, but they didn't sastisfy my black pepper Triscuit goal.

Tools of the trade:

My Drug of Choice

2010-01-24T19:01:00.000-06:00

I’d like to thank my coworker for becoming my pusher. I was bumming a ride home with her and she asked if I wouldn’t mind making a stop with her. No worries. We walked into Teavana and I felt the cosmos shift.

I stood there amazed by all of the neatly organized tins. I fingered the expensive electric kettles. I was in olfactory heaven when the salesperson let me smell the teas. Of course I got hooked on that first free hit. (My pusher treated me to some Earl Grey.)

I am no stranger to tea. I started with Celestial Seasonings when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, I would get excited when Daddy would bring home sassafras. It made a great tea.

The grownup me had fallen in love with Republic of Tea and Revolution -- all teabags. Although I had a nice teapot and matching teacups, I never graduated to full-leaf teas. (I had the best of intentions.) Enter Teavana and its seduction.

I was back the next payday, eagerly handing over my cash. I decided that I’d eat soup or beans for a couple of meals so that I could get some tea! (It is a recession, you know.) I walked out with Earl Grey, Earl Grey White, Moroccan Mint and Tiramisu Treviso Rooibos. I couldn’t have made better purchases. I’ve already picked out what I’m buying on my next trip! My pusher has hooked others as well. Teavana ain't no joke.

I knew saving my Republic of Tea canisters would come in handy!

Earl Grey is my favorite tea. Bergamot is just amazing. I also have it as an essential oil. I tried many a brand to determine that Republic of Tea was the brand of choice for me. Then, I had a properly brewed cup of Teavana Earl Grey. My Lord … Earl Grey White? The beautiful flavor of Earl Grey in a super healthy white tea? I’m all over it. Everyone should try this.

Here are the Earl Grey teas.

White tea is the least processed and black is the most processed. Look at the difference once they are steeped.

For my green tea, I picked Moroccan Mint. I’m not a big fan of green tea. I’ve tried it flavored and the only one that does it for me is a mint blend.

Red tea – Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways. Red tea is made from Rooibos. Republic of Tea’s Safari Sunset, Red Chai and Good Hope Vanilla are my staples. Let me speak for a moment about this Tiramisu tea. It is the most fulfilling dessert you'll ever have for zero calories! It reminds you of tiramisu (one of my favorite desserts) with a hint of almond. It's so good, you can drink it unsweetened. (Add honey for the full dessert effect.)

Speaking of sweetener, what I use depends on the tea. For my dessert teas, I go with the traditional honey. Honey is also good in black Earl Grey too. My preference for most teas is agave nectar. It adds a very light sweetness that doesn't mask the other flavors. It works extremely well in white tea.

Sipping tea also feeds into my love of kitchen gadgets. You need a teakettle, teapot, strainer and/or infuser. My next kitchen toy will be a Taylor Connoissuer Tea Thermometer and Timer. The different types of tea require different brewing temperatures and brew times. You can burn white and green tea if the water is too hot.

That's all for now. I'll add new posts as I try new flavors and replenish my stash (I'm out of my favorite Revolution tea, Honeybush Caramel. and Republic of Tea's Ginger Peach.

"Unofficial" Pasta Cabonara

2010-01-16T15:45:00.006-06:00

One would think that since I haven't made anything blog-worthy in a while, the "come back" dish would be a sophisticated, technically-difficult something. Well sorry, Charlie. I'm at the point where I hang out in my sewing space until I'm so hungry that when I go to the kitchen, I eat the first thing I see. I've gotten away from meal planning.

Two handfuls of Craisins later, I decided on pasta cabonara – my way. If I'd bothered to look up a recipe, I would have realized that I wasn't too far from the real thing. However you make it, it is simple and delicious.

Let's do it. You'll need some al dente spaghetti. I mix regular with whole wheat. Boil the whole wheat for two minutes by itself and then add the regular spaghetti.

While the pasta boils, fry up some bacon. I'm rolling with turkey bacon. Doesn't that look great?

Try not to eat too much as you chop it up. I was proud of myself – I only had a small pinch. Excuse the blur.

Beat an egg.

The following is not an exciting picture, but it's what I have to show for the next steps. Take a ladle of your hot pasta water and warm a mixing bowl. Pour the water out and get ready to move quickly. This may not be necessary, but this is the way I do it. (I don't want to lose any heat.)

Add the egg to the warm bowl and get the hot pasta in there.

Toss the pasta & egg and watch the magic. First it gets frothy.

Bacon!!

If I were following a recipe, I'd add chopped garlic sautéed in bacon drippings. Since I didn't do that, my next step is to add plenty of black pepper, Italian seasoning and Parmesan. (This was an on-the-fly meal; I didn’t have any fresh parsley.)

Let us pause to thank Italy for its contribution to food.

I mean earnestly thank the Italians.

I leave you now to ponder the goodness of bacon, eggs and pasta.

Tools of the Trade

In Transition

2010-01-09T20:09:00.000-06:00

I'm in the process of moving this blog back to Blogger from Vox. Until the process is complete, you'll see some incomplete older posts. Vox does not have an export function; I have to cut and paste each individual post, add the pictures and then recreate any links.

In the meantime, feel free to take a look at my sewing blog; I've finished moving it to Blogger

Thanksgiving 2009: The Pies Have It

2009-12-20T19:45:00.031-06:00

It's a good thing that I'm still working on the Thanksgiving posts because I'm not cooking Christmas dinner this year. I'll be tackling hobby number two, sewing. I will certainly be in the kitchen New Year's Day, maybe New Year's Eve. Anyhoo. I tried to complete this post earlier this week, only to realize that I'd uploaded the pictures to the other blog's library. Grrr.

So here it is:

Again my sister-in-law's sweet potato pie ain't no joke. It really is the best sweet potato pie you'll ever taste (even without my secret ingredient). I've blogged about this before, but I'm holding to my promise to blog about everything I made for this year's meal.

Here are the sweet potatoes. These are hot from the oven. Yes, oven. Repeat with me, "Roasting intensifies flavors and brings out the natural sugars." Remember that the next time you are getting ready to boil a vegetable ...

Beat these with the paddle attachment. Add your butter a tablespoon at a time.

Add the sweetened condensed milk and sugar. Yes, this pie uses both!

Hook it up with spices and flavoring.

I add the eggs last. As usual, I lightly beat the eggs first.

Pre-made crusts this year :-( Not at all what I planned, but I found myself taking many a nap when I should have been cooking.

No shots of the finished pie. Know that it was delicious!

Pie number two was Cook's Illustrated's Apple-Cranberry Pie. I first made this in 2007. This year's was not as good as that one, but it was still good enough for me to compulsively eat pie for breakfast. That's really sad, I know. Santa is bringing me a new workout game for my Wii as punishment.

Start with cranberries, cinnamon, sugar and orange juice.

Heat it until it's the proper consistency. I didn't let mine cook long enough.

Next up? Apples!

Peel, core and slice. I sliced these a tad too thin. Toss with cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon and microwave. Yep, you microwave these before putting them into the pie. It keeps you from getting that big gap between the top crust and the filling when the pie is done.

Here's my little helper, Livvy.

Let's assemble, shall we?

Now for the apples.

Now for the top crust. There are a few steps here. First, how are you going to vent the pie? I let Livvy go to town with my pie crust cutters. The design below is her artistic brilliance. After you get the crust on, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

See all the leftover cutouts? We put those on foil and put them in the oven for a snack. I forgot they were in there. By the time the timer went off to rotate the pie, they looked like chocolate cookies!

Here's the pie:

Tools of the trade:

-Maybe I'll have this filled in by the end of January!

Inspiration

2009-12-10T20:13:00.009-06:00

So I'm probably the last foodie in the world to see Julie & Julia (at least I timed things well with Netflix). It was so inspirational, so beautiful and so like watching myself talk about and enjoy food.

Yes, I love to eat, but I really love to cook. This is why I'm not breaking down the doors at a new restaurant openings. Although restaurant food may be wonderful, it's only excellent if I can't figure out how to make it myself.

Cooking for me is the same release it is for Julie. I head to the kitchen when stressed -- not to eat, but to bake. The science in baking forces you to focus and is an instant self-esteem builder as you complete each step.

Cooking can do the same, but it takes more effort. The result is often a meal with multiple courses and something that must be plated just so. Coming in and making chili just doesn't have the same effect.

Unlike Julie, I don't have meltdowns, I do have fits of anger. Perfection at all cost!! That is until I realize how silly I'm being. I feel the same horror as Julie when people reach for salt at my table.

Watching the movie helped me realize that your true passion is where you see beauty.

Thanksgiving 2009: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Crispy Sage Brown Butter

2009-12-09T15:33:00.014-06:00

Here's my absolute favorite from Thanksgiving this year -- butternut squash ravioli from Emeril Lagassee. Man he is on it for Thanksgiving; the turkey brine I've been using for years is his too. This pasta is simply delicious.

It's funny because this was made after Thanksgiving; we made it Friday night. I had leftover filling and it was so good, I made it again this weekend (the above pic). I'm still working on shaping the ravioli. I also need to get it in my head that I need a lot of pasta and space for this. Yes, I'm a student of Alton Brown. I remember the episiode when he made ravioli on an ironing board. Mine isn't that clean!

So, it all starts with butternut squash puree. This was simple, I roasted the squash and sweet potatoes for my pie together. Y'all know I'm anti-boiling whenever possible. The oven really intensifies flavors whereas boiling washes them away. After roasting, just store the squash flesh in a plastic bag.

This recipe is really easy. Add the squash and mascarpone cheese to the bowl of your stand mixer. Yep, Old Faithful is doing it big for another Thanksgiving. Season with salt (kosher please) and pepper (freshly ground).

Emeril and I rarely disagree, but here's where I had to improvise. The filling was a bit bland. I ended up doubling the amount of cheese and adding nutmeg.

Let's turn to the pasta, shall we? I've made pasta before. This time I was sharing the magic of it with a seven-year old, Livvy. After I pulled the dough together, it was time for her to rock and roll. By this time, she was right at home in the kitchen.

Here's the beautiful dough. Doesn't that just beg for hot salted water and a drizzle of olive oil?

Let the transformation begin!

This is the only pic I have of Livvy making the pasta, but trust me -- she was all in the mix. After she rolled the sheets, we got busy applying the filling.

Once we got the ravioli filled and cut, We (I) headed to hot salted boiling water. I'm still loving my All-Clad pasta pentola. (Alas, I don't think Santa is brining me any All-Clad this year since I'm not spending my free time selling stuff at Williams-Sonoma this holiday season. I miss that discount!) You know the rules; when pasta floats, it's done.

Drizzle the pasta with a little olive oil and let it hang out while you tackle the brown butter.

Told you I need to work on cutting the ravioli. Livvy did a wonderful job crimping the edges, only one piece wasn't sealed properly. It just kind of hung out at the bottom of the pot.

I didn't read the instructions for the brown butter, but I knew it had butter and sage! The solids are just starting to darken in this shot.

Once it was plated, add roasted pecans. I added rosemary too. 'Twas tasty!

Tools of the trade

Thanksgiving 2009: Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake

2009-12-09T15:30:00.006-06:00

PB280178Every now and then, you come across a recipe that does multiple things amazingly well. This recipe for an Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake from Cook's Illustrated is one of those. This recipe answers that deep need to embrace chocolate. It also is one of those special recipes you file away and whip out only for the most deserving.

Although it's called "old-fashioned," this was not the chocolate cake I grew up with! Part of that was because I used bittersweet chocolate insead of semi-sweet for the frosting. A bite into this cake made you pause. You couldn't keep your eyes from rolling back into your head.

I am pleased to report all of this praise. I think I'd attmpted this cake twice before and I was defeated each time. You think old-fashion would be simple and easy. Notsomuch with this.

Let's do it:

You start out by making a melted chocolate pudding. Double-boiler, chocolate and cocoa powder. That's the above shot. Next, get the dry goods together; mix the vanilla and buttermilk (what good cake ain't got buttermilk?);

Whisk the eggs, egg parts and sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy.

PB280188

Wasn't that lovely? That was an action shot too. Now, add said chocolate to the mixer. Add butter and alternately add the dry stuff and the liquid.

PB280194

Pour into prepared pans and bake.

PB280198

Here's where this gets worrisome -- the frosting. This stuff has to be chilled to a specific temperature and then whipped. It starts with melted chocolate, melted butter, corn syrup and vanilla.

PB280200

Add cream, stir to combine. Place the bowl over an ice bath and stir until it hits 70 degrees. Seriously. Then whip it and get it on the cake. One last pic because I had to really concentrate on this part. Even my little helper got concerned as we waited to get to 70 degrees.

PB280206

Most of the time, I leave you with a parting shot of something plated or plated with a few bites taken from it. Not today; I forgot to take pictures. There is one slice of this cake left in the freezer. Depending on how it looks when it thaws ...

Tools of the trade:

Later ...

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 2009

2009-12-08T15:14:00.003-06:00

I know. I promised sort of real-time Thanksgiving blogging. People, it was just too hard! Now that I'm reviewing everything, I'm happy to say that I may be able to piece together some video for dressing! (It's the little things.) Anyhoo. Thanksgiving was great! We were still cooking Saturday night. (We got to critical mass on Thanksgiving and decided to call it a night.)

Okay, to the subject of this post, my Christmas colors. Y'all know I love a good tree and table setting. This year, I'm going with pink and silver. I actually decide my colors about a year in advance; I get inspired as I put the Christmas decorations away. I'm already feeling purple for 2010, but that means I'd have to buy ornaments. We'll see.

Here's the tree ...

Now you know there has to be a matching holiday table.

Here's the place setting. That charger is so not centered. Gotta remember to fix that. I'm in love with those glass charger (Williams-Sonoma after-Christmas clearance, plus 40% off.) Placemats were scooped at Dillard's years ago on sale. I remember being peeved because the napkins weren't on sale. The runners are from Target. Christmas decorations are all about sales and carrying your vision across multiple stores!

Can't leave the buffet out!

Yes, I know I'm in desperate need of more pink stuff. It's surprisingly hard to find. I've spent many a Valentine's Day and spring sale looking for pink dinnerware, accent pieces, etc. The vase above is from a coworker. When she gave it to me (I think it was still hot outside), I knew I could at least attempt pink and silver without anxiety. Looking at it reminds me I never filled it. Gotta work on that too.

I like to get the most out of my holiday stuff, so the tree went up Thanksgiving night. (I had help from a little elf.) I think I had the table and buffet done by Saturday.

Up & At 'Em!

2009-11-26T05:57:00.004-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I am about to finish everything. Once Chandra and Livvy arrived, Livvy and I decided to play the Wii. She's quite a little bowler! I think we'll be eating around 2, which really means 3. (Why break my record of serving the latest dinner ever?) I have pics and maybe some video from yesterday. I'll try to post later today. I may even convince my pint-sized sous chef to be my guest blogger.

It's turkey time!

Thanksgiving 2009 -- Part II

2009-11-25T20:18:00.001-06:00

The dishwasher is full. The washer and dryer are going and the pound cake is in the oven. Time to take a break.

The Mad Dash

2009-11-25T20:00:00.001-06:00

Usually, a mad dash is a quick trip to the store, running for the car in the rain. Mine is around the house to do some last-minute straightening up before my company arrives. Chandra and Livvy are like family, so museum-quality clean is not required. I'm just doing some touch-up work. I'm not even worried about the kitchen. It reflects what I've been up to today. Speaking of which, I've knocked out dressing, sweet potato pie filling and compound butter. If I start the rolls and clean the greens before going to bed, I'll be a happy camper.

Off to put in my Merry Maids duty!

Thanksgiving 2009 - A Little Progress

2009-11-25T15:38:00.008-06:00

I am a genius! In a stroke of brilliance yesterday, I decided to take a nap at 4:30. I wasn't officially up until 12 hours later! So, I'm a wee bit behind on my schedule, but no worries. Let's recap the progress. My goal is to really blog about everything I make this year; even if I done an entry about it before. Here we go.

First was the cornbread for the dressing. If you're new to the blog, let me tell you now that I'm in love with Cook's Illustrated. Most of my recipes are theirs. They were no slouches with the All-Purpose Cornbread recipe either. This has the sweetness of Jiffy with a better texture and real corn flavor.

First, and this is where my heritage meets the recipe: heat a cast iron skillet so that it's screaming hot. Cornbread should be made in cast iron. There, I've said it. I put the skillet into the cold oven (on the baking stone) and heat it as the oven preheats.

PB240001

Next, process the wet ingredients: buttermilk, corn and brown sugar.

PB240005

Add the eggs.

PB240024

Perfect! Thick and creamy with bits of corn.

PB240058

Before I start with the dry stuff, I take the skillet out of the oven and add canola oil. Do not use butter or extra-virgin olive oil. They will burn. I put the skillet back in the oven while I finish the batter.

PB240054

Now, grab flour, cornmeal and and a scale. (Baking is a science; measuring is necessary.)

PB240047

Add the leavenings and salt. Table salt for baking, kosher for everything else.

PB240048

Whisk together and make a well for the wet stuff.

Grab a spatula and fold unitl moistened. I like to have a few dry bits left before I add the butter.

Bring on the butter!

Get the skillet and plop the batter in there. Hear that? See those bubbles? That's exactly what you want.

PB240079

Smooth out the top and bake!

PB240081

Golden brown and delicious! Just look at that crust! That piece is for the cook and the chili I pulled from the freezer:-)

PB240107

Once cool enough to handle, break it apart and leave it out to dry out overnight.

PB240112

Now for the trukey brine. This is recipe is from Emeril Lagassee.

Grab a stockpot. Orange juice, wine (dry please) start us off. I chose a pino grigio.

PB240089

It is a brine - salt and sugar are required.

PB240092

Add peppercorns, ginger, thyme and bay leaves. Take a moment to rough up the thyme a little to release the flavor. I got lazy and didn't chop the ginger. If I had been putting the turkey in immediately, I would've chopped it. I added the water last.

PB240108

I refrigerated the brine separately. My intent was to add the turkey a few hours later, after the flavors had melded. They certainly melded since I fell alseep and the turkey didn't make the introduction until this morning!

PB250116

Butterball added a gravy packet this year. That went straight to the trash along with the gizzard, heart and liver. I don't like gravy just enough to know it should be homemade. I have to be in the right frame of mind to eat organ meats, especially gizzards. It happens once every few years.

PB250128

Do save the neck and tail. (Butterball didn't think I needed my tail) Use those to make stock for the gravy. This is missing some herbs. I'll add those later. I still have to get some parsley.

PB250130

Tools of the trade:

I'll add these later.

Gasping & Crying

2009-11-25T14:23:00.010-06:00

For me, this is the Thanksgiving of the parsley. I went to one store Friday and three on Saturday (had three separate transactions at one store 'cause I kept forgetting stuff) and yet managed to come home without parsley. Parsley is a must have for Thanksgiving and turkey burgers. Anyhoo, I braved chilly Chicago weather, a full parking lot and a vehicle that really needs to go to the shop for parsley. It's really a longer story that involved tears, but I'll spare you the details.

Before I headed out, I called my Aunt Carolyn who was fixing the first of her two Thanksgiving meals. Today's is for the employees. In mid conversation, she gasped as she realized she had one can of creamed corn and one can of regular corn. This would not do! She quickly got off the phone to head to the store. (She and I like to be done with grocery stores no later than the Saturday before the holiday.)

Just got of the phone with cousin Cheri. Cheri lives and dies by Patti LaBelle's first cookbook, especially Miss Patti's sweet potato pie recipe. I loved Patti back in the day, but she ain't got nothing on my sister-in-law's, Pam's, sweet potato pie. It was the best I'd ever had (until she gave me the recipe and I added my secret ingredient). One Christmas, Cheri showed up with Miss Patti's pie and Pam showed up with hers. Pam's was wiped out and Cheri's was left looking forlorn! Cheri tasted Pam's and then realized why. Cheri called me yesterday and asked for the recipe. I told her I'd email her today.

She told me she made the pies 'cause she couldn't wait on my email. She made five pies! I was impressed. (Cheri was never a lover of the kitchen. She married a chef, so why bother?) She said they were good, but not Pam's. She ran down her list of ingredients and said that the pies were flat. I asked her how many eggs she used. Her answer was three. "Cheri, you didn't use enough eggs." Gasp. Found out she didn't use enough sweet milk either. Gasp again.

She tried to take credit for using sweetened condenced milk instead of evaporated milk. Sorry. No points given, you're supposed to use sweet milk. "I talked to Mom and she uses evaporated."
"Cheri, yo' mama's pies are good, but they ain't Pam's pies." Moan and mumble from her.
"Your pies are probably good, they just aren't perfect like Pam's. Trust me. Whoever you made them for will eat them."

I'm headed back to the kitchen now to marvel at parsley.

Getting Ready

2009-11-23T15:41:00.002-06:00

I did the shopping Friday and Saturday. Got everything except for pecans and parsley. Since I'm feeling especially lazy and it looks like rain, I'm wondering if I can get on without them. Ha! I'll probably make a Wednesday morning run. Hopefully, someone will want a pound cake and I'll need to leave the house anyway.

So here are the goods. The fridge is packed!

PB220014

Check out the herbage.

PB220015

Fruit and veggies: apples and cranberries for the pie (plus cranberry sauce) and lots of greens. There are some carrots and celery peeking out.

Aromatics and potatoes. There are six pounds of potatoes elsewhere in the kitchen.

PB220021

And here's the guest of honor! He'll look much more auspicious on Thursday ;-)

PB220019

Thanksgiving 2009: The Menu & The Schedule

2009-11-22T06:13:00.035-06:00

Alright. Turkey Day approacheth. Since I have company coming, it's got to be traditional. Here's the plan:

Menu

Turkey
Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Yeast Rolls
Candied Yams (for the guests. In my old age, I'm not a big fan of candied yams anymore.)
Greens (traditional, sauteed & creamed) Here's why: Although creamed collards absolutely rock, they are simply too fattening to eat every time I reach for leftovers. I can eat sauteed greens every day, but not everyone embraces the concept like I do. I'll have some old school ones for backup.)
Sauteed Corn
Butternut Squash Ravioli (I have to have at least one new dish! I need the challenge.)
Pound Cake (this goes home with the guests)
Chocolate Cake (I've been beaten by this cake twice, I think. This is my year!)
Apple-Cranberry Pie
Sweet Potato Pie

Schedule

Friday - buy turkey (done)

Tuesday

Brine turkey
Make cornbread
Make ravioli
Make pie crusts
Make pound cake

Wednesday

Air dry turkey
Prep veggies
Make pies
Make chocolate cake
Start Rolls

Thursday

Bake turkey
Bake dressing
Make greens
Bake rolls
Make cranberry sauce
Make tea
Make Candied Yams
Cook Ravioli

I already have plans for the leftovers:

Sweet potato and corn chowder
Turkey noodle soup
Turkey salad
Sweet potato creme brulee

And So It Begins ...

2009-11-21T05:54:00.008-06:00

I'd decided that thanksgiving was going to be rather low-key and simple. Heck, I'd been talking myself into making a pan of dressing and calling it a day. Yep, that's the mood I've been in for a while. Shocking, right?

2009 is the year of the budget. It's the year of balancing two hobbies -- cooking a sewing. Both compete for my time and my wallet. And up until last night, sewing was winning.

What turned me around? In spite of a good friend saying that she and her daughter were thinking about visiting from Cleveland, the Thanksgiving drive hadn't kicked in. Last night, I went out to get the turkey. That's when it hit me!

Getting the last 10-lb turkey made everything kick in. A little over 24 hours later, I have everything I need except fresh parsley and maybe more wine and liquor. I really don't need the wine or liquor; I'll be the only one imbibing.

Anyhoo. And so it begins!

Satisfaction

2009-11-11T18:00:00.001-06:00

I took Thursday and Friday off for my birthday. I ran a few errands, but I spent most of the time and a good part of Saturday behind the sewing machine. I was so happy and I took the time to recognize it. Today started with a rousing church service and then time spent behind the stove. I have been in or near the kitchen off and on since 10:30 this morning.

The blessing is that I was able to flex my culinary muscles a little. This makes two weeks in a row. It was something very comforting in planning how I was going to attack making five complete meals without repeats. And I'm going to bed with a clean kitchen - including a swept floor! I ran the dishwasher three times during the cooking marathon. This is good training for Thanksgiving.

I really am happiest at home. Not in that I-just-want-to-sit-around-all-day kinda way, but I really enjoy doing the things women fought to liberate me from! I say the suffragists fought to give me the choice. Who wants to be told to stay at home and cook?

Well, I've broken another camera. It's being repaired and I should have it back in a couple of weeks. I'm just a little agitated because the repair costs almost as much as the camera. Lesson learned. I have pics from last week, but I'm waaaay too tired to put them into a coherent post. Perhaps by the end of the week.

A Little Taste of Home

2009-09-22T06:55:00.035-05:00

I claim Little Rock and New Orleans as home. Technically, Little Rock is my true home. New Orleans has an equal place in my heart too. I lived there for three years and like most people do, I adopted it!

There are many foods I have to eat when I go to New Orleans, but there are only three restaurants I must visit. I can't remember a place that ever gave me shrimp or gumbo that weren't good, but not everyone makes certain dishes: Cafe du Monde for beignets (you can get those elsewhere, but they don't taste the same), Louisiana Pizza Kitchen for the Greek Pizza and Palace Cafe for Shrimp Tcheufuncte.

This post is about Shrimp Tchefuncte. (I'm so proud I can spell that without looking it up.) I almost died when I saw the Palace Cafe Cookbook at the airport bookstore last year. At long last, I could make this at home! (I never even thought to ask the restaurant for the recipe and I didn't see this book during my French Quarter cookbook trek.)

These are more pictures I found on the memory card in the old camera. I remember that I didn't make the dish perfectly, but it was close enogh to give me some of the flavors. Hence a "little" taste of home.

Well a shrimp dish starts with shrimp, so here we go. Peel 'em and clean 'em.

Don't you dare throw those shells away! You'll need them for seafood gumbo. I think I see a shrimp peeking through the shells.

Now let's work the Creole meuniere sauce. You'll need lemons, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, heavy cream and butter. Here is where I messed up the recipe. I was trying to make a half recipe. I rememembered to do this for everything but the lemon!

I can't really say if there is a difference among hot sauce brands. In New Orleans there are three, Crystal, Original Louisiana (or Red Dot) and Tobasco. Red Dot is the #1 brand in Little Rock. Tobasco is in a different league compared to the other two in terms of heat. You'll want to use a regular hot sauce for this. Add Tobasco to taste later. I can't speak to Frank's or Texas Pete -- I refuse to buy them!

Now, let's move on to the shrimp. Saute chopped garlic in butter.

Cook until the garlic is golden brown. Add the shrimp, sliced button mushrooms and Creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's, please). When the shrimp are almost done, stir in the meunier sauce and chopped green onions.

Cook the shimp all the way through and serve with rice.

Tools of the Trade:

Another One In the Arsenal?

2009-09-15T06:34:00.013-05:00

While I was visiting my aunt in New Orleans, I spent my days watching cooking shows and leafing through her cookbooks and magazines. She has a nice selection of the Cook's Illustrated special publications. In one of these, I found a recipe for a Cold Oven Pound Cake. Me being the lazy person I am decided not to copy the recipe then. I have a CI online membership. Surely, I'd look it up when I got home. So, um yeah, it's not on the website. It's a Cook's Country recipe.

Wouldn't you know it? I had a copy of the recipe anyway. It's in my America's Best Lost Recipes. Silly me. This book takes a slight departure from the regular CI formula. As the recipes are submitted by readers, there isn't the usual lengthy preamble for each recipe. This is the first time I've used a recipe from this book. I'm writing as it bakes, so we'll see how well it does.

I'm slightly worried because I had to violate a specific note in the book. You're supposed to use skim or 1% milk for this. For once, I only had 2% and whole. Oh well.

Let's get started, shall we?

The batter has four parts: wet, dry, fats and leavening. The dry is flour and salt. Wet is milk vanilla and egg yolks. Fats are butter and shortening (these are creamed with sugar). The leavening is egg whites! In a pound cake??! You'll see.

Whisk your flour and salt.

Cream the butter, sugar and shortening.

Whisk the egg yolks, milk and vanilla.

Now, beat the egg whites until you get soft peaks. This is where having two mixing bowls for Old Faithful really pay off. Make sure your bowl and whisk attachment are impeccably clean. I wipe mine down with a little vinegar just to be sure.

Alternate adding the flour and liquid to the fat. Start and end with the flour. Mix each addition just until incorporated.

Here's the batter after the last addition. See the dry flour? Don't let the mixer run until it's fully incorporated. You run the danger of over mixing and creating a tough cake with tunnels in the crumb.

Finish up by hand. Isn't that pretty?

Gently fold in your egg whites. The first batch I fold in are sacrificial; they get stirred into the batter. They are used to lighten the batter so that folding in the rest will be easier. The rest are folded. Here's the finished batter.

Move on to your prepared cake pan.

Move on to your cold oven.

Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degrees. Increase temp to 325 and bake 45 more minutes. Nothing left to do now but wait (and clean up the kitchen).

The cake is done. I am disappointed in the crust, but I take 100% of the blame. I didn't use the right type of milk and I lowered the oven temperature by 15 degrees because my Bundt pan tends to cook quicker than the average pan. I'll go strictly by the book next time and update the post.

Here's the cake - cut into and enjoyed by some What's Cookin' Chicago Meetup members. The flavor was excellent. Just gotta nail the crust.

Tools of the Trade

I've Been Holding Out

2009-09-09T18:54:00.066-05:00

Although the camera had been broken for months, I just threw it away a couple of weeks ago. I was smart enough to take the memory card out of the camera before tossing it. (My brilliance comes in spurts.) On the card, I found pics from the best thing I've ever made in my life - sticky buns. No joke. After I pulled them out of the oven Easter morning, I had fleeting thoughts of not going to church. These quickly passed after I realized I could eat another one in the car.

The recipe is from Baking Illustrated. The recipe was time-consuming and tedious, but I promise it was worth every caramel-oozing bite. ... I just had to pause and gather myself.

Again this recipe is long. Apparently I didn't capture all of the steps. I'm going with brevity here so I can get to the finished product. Start by mixing the dough. The dough is a combination of milk, butter, water, yeast, sugar, eggs and flour.

I know this doesn't look attractive, but keep reading.

The above needs a two-hour rise. While the yeast are doing their thing, move on to the caramel sauce. It looks like I made a recipe detour here. These pics are not the makings of the carmel sauce as directed in the recipe. I was also experimenting with caramel cakes around this time, so I must've found a recipe I liked better. I wonder where that is now ... I digress.

Happy! Happy! Joy ! Joy!! Pour all that lusciousness into a greased 9x13 baking dish.

I know that's a really bad shot. Remember, I do have a new camera now. Anyhoo, why don't we just cover all the caramel with some toasted and roughly-chopped pecans. This is getting better.

I was so tempted to stand over that pan with a spoon and work it out. Back to the dough. I managed to contain myself and roll the dough out into a rectangle.

Well, that's sort of a rectangle. Now, slather the wonderful butter, sugar, cardamom (yep cardamom) and cinnamon filling all over the dough.

Roll it and cut it. Unflavored dental floss was the cutting tool.

Get your cute little buns ;-) into the pan.

I parked these in the refrigerator overnight. I let them do the final rise Easter morning.

Thirty minutes of hot oven time later, you get this:

Now, that might not look all that spectacular to you, but just you wait. Honey, flip that pan and you get this!

Break them apart and you get this!

I heard angels sing ...

Tools of the Trade

Fooling Around

2009-09-07T11:43:00.012-05:00

I'm trying to figure out all the possibilities with my new camera. I had to laugh at myself after trying to figure out how to change the aperture and shutter speed. (Those functions aren't available on this camera. Guess that will have to wait until I hit the lottery and get a Sony DSLR.) Hmmm, I suppose you have to actually play the lottery to win.

Anyhoo, I made a cake over the weekend. I started to write the post, but it required too much thinking. I'm out of blogging practice! I made blueberry scones for breakfast this morning and I tried to get better acquainted with the camera. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'll get a real post up sometime this week.

Check out the random shots.

Experimenting with the flash and white balance.

I chose this camera because it had the best macro capabilities in it's class.

I'm struggling a bit with super macro.

Had I gotten the focus right, this would have been my favorite:

I am going to go out on a limb and say this may be one of my last posts in Blogger. This just isn't working for posts with a lot of pictures. Each picture is inserted at the top of the post and screws up the paragraph spacing. Now that I'm trying to maintain two pic-driven blogs, I'm looking for ease of use. I'm testing out Wordpress for the sewing blog and it's great for pics. You can't use third-party widgets, so there is a trade-off. I still need to try Movable Type & TypePad. I'm looking for software that will allow me to host multiple blogs on the same page. I guess I want a website on the cheap.

Almost!

2009-09-04T06:32:00.002-05:00

I thought I would have big news to share last night. Things didn't go as planned, but I'll share today: I bought a camera!!!! A nice intermediate-level camera until I'm blessed with a Sony DSLR. That one is very far out in the future, but I'm happy with my current choice, an Olympus Stylus 1010. So that's the good news. The bad news is that I missed the delivery last night. It absolutely sucks that Olympus Auctions ships to only billing addresses. People work and need to have the option of sending stuff to where they hang out for eight hours a day. I'll find a way to get the camera today, even if it means working from home. I do have a deck to write, so that may not be a bad idea ... Anyhoo, I will not let the missed delivery dampen my spirits. I have a birthday cake request and I'm talking to someone about weekday lunches! The camera will be put to good use tomorrow. The cake is supposed to be a yellow cake with cream cheese frosting. I gotta find a way to dress that up. I'm waffling between pastry cream and buttercream as the filling. We'll see. I'll be out bright and early via public transit to pick up the ingredients. (I'm trying to figure out life with very limited car usage.)

Cookbook Sale!

2009-09-01T06:40:00.001-05:00

Cook's Illustrated is having a 50% off sale! You may want to stock up!

Confession

2009-08-15T18:42:00.003-05:00

I shave come clean. I've added a new hobby to the roster, sewing. It all started when I had to hem a pair of pants in May. I've been hooked ever since. The good thing is I need the camera for sewing too. I've been rethinking my blogging strategy (I'm a marketer too) and I am extremely excited about the new direction. I'm in the process of figuring out domain names and the like. I hope you'll love it when you see it. You aren't missing much in my kitchen. I haven't made a lot of new stuff since there's been a cut to the grocery spending too. Anyhoo, I have a few more things to get for this sewing season. Then, it's all about the camera. I've actually been thinking about what to cook for Thanksgiving ...

Broken Camera

2009-04-25T11:04:00.002-05:00

In an attempt to update the blog, I broke my loaner camera. It fell from the counter to the floor and landed on the lens :-( I have a new camera in mind, but it's not first on the priority list. I'll be back in business by July!

Eat Your Veggies

2009-01-19T12:21:00.015-06:00

Okay. I'm back. The posts have been few and far between because I was sick Christmas and I think New Year's Day. Most importantly, I was without a garbage disposal. Hey, I'm an old-school cook who has to have modern conveniences. That got fixed last week, so I'm back in business.

Given the degree of laziness to which I sometimes own up to, there are nights when I do veggies only. This meal was one. It was cold and I wanted some good fall/winter flavors. Enter sweet potatoes and apples.

Wash, peel and cut your sweet potatoes into coins. Season with kosher salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss everything together.

Heat a skillet and add the potatoes. Cook until brown. Place these in a casserole dish.

Thinly slice an apple. Season with the same stuff you used for the potatoes.

Place the apple on top of the sweet potato. I had some apple cider concentrate, so I drizzled a little of that on top.

Bake, covered, until everything is tender. Add fresh sage and rosemary and give it a quick toss.

Pair this with some sauteed corn and a left over "stuffin' muffin" from Christmas and you got a veggie meal! (Stuffin' muffins are easy to make. Just portion part of your next batch of dressing into a muffin tin, par bake and freeze. Bam! You have individual servings of dressing ready for baking. Rachel Ray was on it with this idea!)

Tools of the trade

Buy The Book #4: Cook's Illustrated 2003 Annual

2008-12-13T12:47:00.017-06:00

Whenever I can knock out a killer breakfast, I am a happy camper. One of the things I do love for breakfast is cornmeal pancakes. Many a day I opened a box of Jiffy for pancakes and not cornbread. That is until I discovered lemon-cornmeal blueberry pancakes in 2003.

This was the year I bought my first CI Annual. If you haven't figured it out, I believe the folks at Cook's Illustrated author the best recipes. Perhaps a third or more of my cookbook collection is from CI. I think this recipe is the one I use most from the 2003 volume. It truly is a breakfast favorite.

Let's get started. This is all you need to make these wonderful pancakes. I would've preferred fresh blueberries, but it's winter. I'll make do with frozen. And yes, the use of prep bowls really does help.

Start by stirring your lemon zest and lemon juice into the milk. Yep. You're making buttermilk. Let it sit for a while to thicken. You can easily use buttermilk and just add the zest. I feel Sunday biscuits coming on, so I'm saving the real buttermilk for that.

Mix the egg and melted butter.

Now, mix all of your dry ingredients. I do this in two stages, cornmeal and flour and then the baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt into the cornmeal and flour.

Dump the egg mixture into the milk and give it a whisk. Next, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix in the milk mixture. I start with a whisk and then switch to a spatula. Please don't overmix. Lumps are okay. Completely smooth batter means tough pancakes and who wants that?

I used a large scoop to portion the batter. I don't care about perfectly round pancakes. This is a good thing because I can't make them! I do have some egg rings that I could use if I needed to impress somebody. After the batter is in the pan, sprinkle the blueberries across each pancake.

I am pining for a Le Crueset double-burner reversible grill and griddle. Until then, a large skillet will have to do. I added a little more oil than I should have and the heat was up a touch higher than it needed to be. Therefore, the first batch fried a little. Once you see the edges of the pancakes start to dry out (you'll see the bubbles), give the pancakes a flip. On my stove, liquids tend to pool on one side, so one pancake got a lot of hot oil. Can you tell which one?

When the bottom side has set, remove the pancakes to a plate and work it out with some syrup and butter. I also had some maple glazed turkey bacon going on the side. Add some rich coffee made from freshly-ground beans and you'd think you're at a fancy restaurant.

A couple of things would've made this better -- breakfast in bed and breakfast before noon! No matter. All was right with the world after the first bite.

These also freeze well. I stack them between parchment paper. I intentionally undercook each batch after the first, so that the frozen ones will be a little more forgiving when reheated.

Tools of the trade:

Buy The Book #3: Baking Illustrated

2008-12-05T21:08:00.016-06:00

So. You know of my lemon bar obsession. I almost threw a tantrum when I found out the McDonald's that sold me the best lemon bar I ever tasted no longer carries them. I was offended because there were Apple Dippers where the lemon bars should have been. When you want butter, flour and sugar, apple slices just won't do. This heightened the urgency for a good recipe. space You remember the previous lemon bar disaster. I now have an important announcement: People, I have found the lemon bar recipe of my dreams. Thank you Baking Illustrated. I wasn't ready to use Baking Illustrated in this series yet, but kick-butt lemon bars warrant you buying this book. The scone recipe is also wonderful, but let's focus on the lemon bars. I promise these will be some of the best you've ever had.

space

Start by preparing your pan. Spray a little cooking spray into a square baking dish. Fold two sheets of parchment paper and place them perpendicular to each other. The papers makes a sling. It will be so easy to get the bars out of the pan.

space

Let's move on to the crust. Take the dry ingredients for a spin.

space

space Add the butter and pulse. Dump the mixture into the dish.

space

Press it evenly into the pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

space

Put the crust into the oven and start working on the filling. The filling needs to go on a hot crust so mind your timing. You'll need lots of eggs, a total of nine. Yes, I too was thinking that for nine eggs, this better be the best damn lemon bars ever. They are.

space

Lightly beat the eggs. Incorporate the sugar. Whisk in lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the butter and head for the stove top. Yes I said stove top. You are actually making a lemon curd.

space

I managed to contain my mess; I'm so proud.

space

Here is where the pics get sketchy because the curd required constant attention. Once the curd hits 170 degrees, strain it, add a little heavy cream and pour it over the hot crust. (Going after the pot with a spoon later was a special treat.)

space

Note how I managed to splatter the lemon curd onto the parchment. I'm quite skilled like that.

space

All done. The filling is opaque and the center is jiggly. Cool to room temperature. Remember the curd splatters? Now they're a problem because as I move the parchment, it flings the burnt curd onto my pretty square of sunshine.

space

Grab a pizza cutter and slice your squares. Garnish with powdered sugar. I sprinkle sugar on the individual squares as I eat them.

space

These were worth every cent, minute of cooking and the cleanup afterward. Please go buy this book for the lemon bar lover in you.

space

Tools of the trade:

Thanksgiving #11: The Greatest Cake In The World

2008-11-28T10:00:00.018-06:00

I know I'm very late with this post, but I'm backdating it to go with the Thanksgiving series. I just couldn't manage cooking and real-time blogging. Maybe for Christmas.

Now, what's Thanksgiving without dessert? Okay, I had two desserts, but who's counting? (You have to have at least one pie and one cake.) This year's cake was a coconut cake. Done right and it is one of my favorites. How do you do it right? Get rid of that 7-minute frosting.

I spend more than $5 a slice for coconut cake from Bloomingdale's. I was determined to recreate it myself and do it better than they did. Tall order. I couldn't find one recipe that did exactly what I wanted, but I could steal bits and pieces from other recipes. The cake and pastry cream come from Cook's Illustrated. The simple syrup is from Bobby Flay and the frosting is from Rosy Levy Beranbaum. It was time consuming, expensive and worth all of it. What really worked out is that the frosting was all yolks and the cake was mostly whites, so there was no waste with the eggs.

I tackled the pastry cream the night before so that it would be fully chilled and the flavors would meld. Boy was it good. So good that I almost came up short because I kept thieving random spoonfuls until I made the cake.

space

Here are the humble beginnings of pastry cream:

Cook on the stove.

Refrigerate. It's not hard at all.

Let's move to the cake. I don't have any "making of" pics. I was itching to use my new Williams-Sonoma cake pans. These babies did not disappoint!

I don't have any pics of it, but I also made a coconut simple syrup. Let's assemble. We know I suck at torting cakes. I actually got it right this time!

After brushing on the simple syrup, reach for the pastry cream.

Cover this with another layer and repeat the process. Your top layer should be a bottom.

Let's get to the icing. I made a half batch of icing, which was almost enough to cover the whole cake. Because I used pastry cream between the layers, I just couldn't see wasting all that butter and eggs for a full batch of icing.

Believe it or not, this was the start of the icing.

space

Now the application wasn't pretty, so there aren't any photos of that. Hey, I was covering it with toasted coconut anyway.

space

This cake was the cause of the five pounds I picked up over Thanksgiving. (Okay, well the dressing, rolls and sweet potato pie helped too.) A bite is heavenly. It was moist and full of coconut flavor. I loved how the different textures worked together. If you don't think you can deal with the temptation, it freezes beautifully.

space

Thanksgiving #10: After The Fact

2008-11-28T09:09:00.008-06:00

I know I'm very late with this post, but I'm backdating it to go with the Thanksgiving series. I just couldn't manage cooking and real-time blogging. Maybe for Christmas.

Anyhoo. Let's finish up the greens. In the last post, we'd gotten up to the boiling. After a 40 minute simmer, drain the greens and try to get as much water out of them as possible. Give 'em a good chop.

Make your cream mixture. This was a recipe departure. I added minced garlic, nutmeg and crushed red pepper flakes in addition to the required salt and pepper. Whoever heard of creamed anything without nutmeg?

I then poured this over the greens. Two things bothered me:

A) Was I messing up some good damn greens? As I poured the cream over the greens, I kept thinking, "This is so wrong."

B) I can't really explain it, but something about the pattern created by the greens in the cream (like the upper right of the pic below) freaks me out. I also don't like the site of dry, cracked earth. I'm sure that I'll one day pay somebody a lot of money to figure that out.

It's important to note that there isn't really a lot of cream in this dish.

I chose to use individual ramekins for this dish. It makes the leftovers so much easier. And yes, I skipped the breadcrumbs the recipe called for.

I baked them at 350 degrees. I'll share the finished pic later.

What else can I show you? The Pioneer Woman's squash. Isn't it pretty? The next time I make this, I won't go for the syrup. The brown sugar adds enough sweetness.

Let's knock out the rolls. I just didn't have the heart or time for my usual yeast rolls. I decided to go with Williams-Sonoma's Sally Lunn Herbed Rolls. No kneading? I'm all for it. The dough was very sticky. It was also more like a batter.

Check out all the herbs that went into these. What else can you expect from an herbed roll recipe?

Here's the dough after the first rise and a push down with a wooden spoon:

Now you have to get all of this goodness into a muffin tin. I used a large scoop to portion. Cover with plastic wrap and let them rise. The tops aren't perfectly smooth because I didn't do the greatest job of greasing the plastic wrap before I covered the rolls.

Brush the top with an egg wash and bake. You're supposed to put a whole herb leaf on the top of every roll. Maybe next time.

The winners this year were really the creamed collard greens, cranberry sauce and coconut cake. The disappointment was the turkey, but I'm blaming that on truffle butter that wasn't what it was supposed to be. I'll do separate posts for finishing the turkey and the coconut cake.

Thanksgiving #9: Turkey & Gravy

2008-11-28T08:28:00.005-06:00

I know I'm very late with this post, but I'm backdating it to go with the Thanksgiving series. I just couldn't manage cooking and real-time blogging. Maybe for Christmas.

space

Y'all know I was stressing over the turkey. Don't get me wrong, I was really excited about turkey with truffle, but I was trying to figure out if I could brine and air dry it too, blah, blah, blah.

space Here's how it went down. I did end up brining the turkey.

I made a killer Crock-Pot stock for the white wine gravy.

space

The cool thing about this recipe is that you browned the turkey parts before making the stock.

space

Isn't it all golden and beautiful?

space

Switching back to the turkey. After the brine, I patted Mr. Turkey dry and placed truffle butter under the skin. In hindsight, I don't think my truffle butter was fresh, so I didn't get the flavor I wanted. I'll be buying it locally next year.

space

Here's the turkey right before the flip -- I roasted it breast side down first and then breast side up.

Here's the finished bird. Look at that crispy skin! Wow.

space

Now for the gravy. I just don't like gravy. I make it every year because I know it's a requirement, but yuck. I did have better hopes for this year's gravy because of the white wine. I have to admit it was better than most gravies.space

Here's what was left in the pan after I took the bird out.

You need a ton of shallots needed for the recipe.

I browned these in a little of the turkey fat.

Next, I deglazed the pan with the wine and brought the wine to a boil.

After the wine reduced, I added the wonderful turkey stock.

After I got this to a boil, I strained it and put it in a saucepan.

I made a past with flour and truffle butter and added it to the then boiling sauce.

Not bad, huh?

I made gravy! I get excited every time I do it correctly. It's such a challenge to cook stuff you don't like.

Thanksgiving #8: Late Again

2008-11-27T13:11:00.004-06:00

Okay. So maybe I'll be eating at 3-3:30. The rolls set me back. I really didn't feel like making my usual recipe. Too much work. I had pretty much decided that last night, but was trying to tell myself that I'd make them this morning. Not. I decided on a Williams-Sonoma recipe instead. The dough is on its first rise. I still need to frost the cake too, but I'm in no rush ... I think I'll take a nap during the rolls' second rise.

Thanksgiving #7: Not Bad At All

2008-11-26T23:14:00.019-06:00

My standard joke every year is that around this time, the night before Thanksgiving, black women across the nation exclaim, "Oh Lord!!!" This happens because we are near exhaustion; it's getting late and we're still up; something didn't get crossed off the list and there's even more to do tomorrow. I was true to form, but my "Oh Lord!" was followed by, "Thank you, Jesus." I'm not exhausted. Tired yes, but not the way I've been every previous year. I took two naps today and several breaks where I put my feet up. That has been the difference between delirium and the calm that comes from managing chaos. I also made sure that I cleaned up after every dish. I mean really cleaned up. Nothing zaps your spirit more than working in a dirty kitchen.

I called an audible today (yes, to myself). I made the cranberry sauce today and left the veggie prep to tomorrow morning. I did stop myself from making a silly mistake I've made before -- icing a cake that needs to be refrigerated when there's no room in the fridge. I wrapped the cake layers in plastic wrap. Hopefully, I knock out the icing in the morning. Here are the pics from today's activities: space

Coconut pastry cream. You wouldn't believe how good this is.

space

After I got the pastry cream into the fridge, I moved on to the coconut cake. My coconut cake is going to be a Frankenstein cake -- cake recipe from Cook's Illustrated, filling (coconut custard) from another Cook's Illustrated recipe, simple syrup from Bobby Flay and buttercream from Rose Levy Beranbaum. This is going to be downright sinful. I'll finish the cake tomorrow. See that kinda bare corner in the toasted coconut? That's where I was sampling. I thought I had done a better job of covering it up.

space

That reminds me. I did not fix myself anything to eat today. My nutrition consisted of a half cup of tea, pie dough, sweet potato pie filling, pastry cream, cake batter, toasted coconut and smoked turkey that I pulled from the wing I used to make the greens.

space

Then there was the cornbread -- another Cook's Illustrated recipe. I had lost the light for the day, so this is the best picture I could get.

space space Next came cranberry sauce. I am a purist. I don't want orange, ginger and nuts in my cranberry sauce. I'm also particular about what type I eat and when. For a full plate, give me homemade whole berry. For sandwiches and the joy of eating dressing by itself, canned jellied cranberry sauce. Slicing it works so well.

space

I got my second wind and knocked out the greens and squash. A sink full of greens gets you enough for about four people!

space

Splitting acorn squash is a lot easier than splitting butternut squash. This recipe is from the Pioneer Woman.

space

Tools of the trade:

I'll do this later. I'm going to bed!

Thanksgiving #6: Keepin' It Movin'

2008-11-26T12:15:00.019-06:00

I've had a pretty busy morning. Had to make an unplanned run to the office, but I'm still in a good spot. As far as the list goes, I should've made the pastry cream and prepped veggies by now, but that's okay.

space

I'll only have good light for pictures until about 4, so I'm taking just a small break now. Here's what's been going on in my kitchen today:

space

Remember Mr. Turkey from yesterday? I took him out of the brine, rinsed him really well and patted him dry. I then loosened the skin and slid truffle butter between the skin and the meat. This is easier said than done! The butter liked to stay on my hands instead of inside the turkey.

space

Here he is all dressed up in my refrigerator. After the butter hardened, I covered the pan in foil. space Once I got the turkey squared away and cleaned up everything that touched the turkey; I had to make my office run. I threw the sweet potatoes in the oven before I left. Here's a pictorial of the sweet potato pie.

Tools of the trade:

Thanksgiving #5: What Had Happened Was

2008-11-25T20:13:00.006-06:00

Whenever you hear, "What had happened was ..." please know you are in for some foolishness. Not one to disappoint, let me tell you about my first day of cooking.

You know I have everything mapped out. Today was an easy day. I got sidetracked and it ended up taking me a lot longer than it should have. Phone calls, a glass of wine ... where does the time go? By far, the biggest loss of time was when I decided to fix my automatic soap dispenser. I refilled it yesterday and today it stopped working. I don't know how long I fooled around with that thing -- I'm all on the Web trying to find the manufacturer's site. I eventually found the answer right there on the instructions I'd already read three times. I think the problem was I tried to fix it after the glass of wine.

Let's get to today's to do list. I started with the brine. I made some adjustments to the recipe.

Here's Mr. Turkey taking a quick shower before he gets his aromatherapy soak. Remember how you always had to stand under that cold sprinkler before you could get into the pool? Or did we only do that in Little Rock? Why do you have to get wet before you get into water? I'ma Google that.

space

I digress. It's not that I mind rinsing the turkey or making the brine. It the clean-up afterward. I'm sure people use less caution trying to disarm a missile. Here's a trick I learned from Aunt Carolyn: if garbage day is too far away, put all of the meat wrappers and whatnot into a plastic bag and freeze it until garbage day. It keeps your trash can and kitchen from smelling like spoiled meat. She uses a grocery bag. I'm using a Ziploc, so I put mine into the trash can.

Anyhoo. I was smart enough to clear space in the refrigerator this year for the brining pot before I made the brine. Now of course when the pot was full, there was no way I could get it on the top shelf without sloshing turkey juice around. I took out the bottom shelf and two of the shelves on the door. (My refrigerator door only opens 90 degrees because it's flush with a wall.)

On to pie crust. I needed to get this right the first time, so I went with the foolproof recipe.

space

Start here.

Ta -da! The shot of my perfectly rolled dough will be more impressive.

space

Next on the list was the stock for the gravy. People, I have a confession to make. I make stock in my Crock-Pot. This is my second time doing it. I dump the stuff in there and when I wake up at some point during the night, I have stock. My Crock-Pot overheats anyway (the food actually boils.) If I crack the lid once the boiling starts, I get the evaporation you'd get from the pot on the stove. I strain it and put in the refrigerator. Once it's cold, I pick the fat off the top.

space

Here are the vegetables going for a swim.

The recipe called for browning the turkey parts beforehand to add additional flavor. You do that that all the time for braising; I don't know why I never thought of it for stock. There was nothing I could do to make this a beauty shot.

space

After everything has browned, deglaze the pan and add that to the stock.

My last task for the day was cubing the bread for the dressing.

See ya tomorrow!

Tools of the trade:

All-Clad Multi Cooker
KitchenAid Food Processor
Crock-Pot (please don't buy this model; your food will boil)
All-Clad Strainer
All-Clad 10" Skillet
Shun Offset Bread Knife
Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
Williams-Sonoma Sheet Pan

Thanksgiving #4: Let's Get Ready To Rumble

2008-11-25T15:11:00.002-06:00

The shopping is done! Headed to the kitchen. Later start than I wanted, but oh well.

Thanksgiving #3: Resting Up

2008-11-24T19:27:00.002-06:00

Nothing big to report today. 2-3 hours of unpacking/cleaning left, which I'll tackle in the morning. The office will have to wait until Christmas! (That room is just plain scary.) Just resting up and enjoying my last night of nothing to do. I actually get to start cooking tomorrow. What if I went to the store tomorrow and there were no cranberries? Tootles!

Thanksgiving #2: Countdown

2008-11-23T13:04:00.005-06:00

It's like a marathon; you gotta pace yourself! Friday

Thaw turkey in refrigerator

Saturday

Review recipes
Figure out wine
Make grocery list
Put away stuff you won’t use
Find the stuff you will use (like turkey baster I use once a year)
Now’s the time for ironing table linen & polishing stemware & silverware (if you’re into that kind of thing)

Sunday

Finish the stuff from Saturday

Monday

Finish the stuff from Saturday and Sunday
Clean rest of house

Tuesday

Last run for groceries

Cube and dry bread for dressing
Make pie dough
Brine turkey
Make stock for gravy
Thaw truffle butter

Wednesday AM

Air-dry turkey
Set out all baking ingredients
Make pie
Prep veggies for dressing
Prep most veggies & herbs
Make pastry cream

Make cake
Start collard greens
Par bake squash
Start rolls
Make cornbread for dressing

Thursday Dinner @2!!! AM

Continue rolls
7:00 Make & bake dressing
8:00 Make cranberry sauce (put backup can in refrigerator)
10:30 Prep turkey
11-1 Bake turkey

Make gravy
Bake rolls
Bake collard greens
Bake squash
Make parsnips

And So It Begins ... Thanksgiving #1

2008-11-22T07:28:00.007-06:00

Well, actually, it began yesterday when I took the turkey out of the freezer to thaw. Thanksgiving is upon us! This is one of my favorite holidays, because it is when I truly challenge my kitchen skills. I wish I could share it with family, but to go home means I would have to compromise my menu (most folks don't appreciate my "weird" tastes) and cook my favorite meal without the kitchen gadgets I love so much. I'm in a quandary -- how exactly to prep the turkey? I have been brining turkeys for years now. (At least ever since the year every chef on the Food Network brined the turkeys for their shows.) My favorite recipe is from Emeril Lagasse. In 2006, Cook's Illustrated presented salting turkeys as a better option for a moist bird with crisp skin. On top of all that, I've been eating peanut butter and jelly; grilled cheese and red beans and rice so that I wouldn't break the bank when I purchased truffle butter for this year's turkey recipe. Last year was the year of the sweet potato for me. This year, I'm in love with truffles! I'm thanking Epicurious.com in advance for what I'm sure will be the best turkey I've ever had. I was so excited when I ran across the recipe.

So, what to do with the bird? It's a Butterball because after checking two stores, I couldn't find a turkey that hadn't been injected. I checked Whole Foods later and of course they would sell me one for $60. Not this year. I've always brined Butterballs anyway. I know you aren't supposed to, but it works for me. Although brining produces juicy flavorful turkey, the skin isn't really crispy. Salting would give me a crispy skin, but I'm afraid to salt a Butterball. Epicurious' truffle turkey recipe requires no brining, but I don't quite trust that.

So here's what I'm thinking (and I will email the foodie community to confirm or deny my craziness):

Brine the turkey
Let it air dry overnight and
Apply compound butter under the skin

I know that's a lot of work, but I'm willing to try it.

Moving on. If you haven't guessed by the title, I'm going to try some close to real-time Thanksgiving blogging this year. You may see random posts about having to clean off the table and digging through cabinets to find pans.

Wish me luck!

Dollar Friendly

2008-11-22T06:29:00.000-06:00

You know from the last post that I'm preparing for Thanksgiving, so I have to pinch a few pennies in order to work the masterpiece I'm planning in honor of the holiday dedicated to food. Anyhoo. I was inspired to bring back my red beans and rice after reading a post about Monday red beans and rice on YatCuisine. I paired that with some cornbread. What makes this blog-worthy is the edition of sweet potato fries to the plate.

This was just an off-chance craving. I usually microwave sweet potatoes and treat them like a baked potato. Visions of the sweet potato fries I had while on a commercial shoot in Los Angeles popped into my head. Don't know why, but the vision hit and I had to act.

I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe as the base. It was pretty simple: toss the fries in oil, salt and pepper; throw them into the oven; handle them with care while they are cooking. How could I mess that up?

Here we go. I started by heating a cast iron skillet in the oven. CI recommended a baking sheet; I knew cast iron would be better for me. Leave it in until it's screaming hot.

I wanted to use my never-been-used-in-four-years French fry disc for Miracle. Note to self: potatoes go in sideways. The potato had to be trimmed to fit the feed tube. This is the one time I wish I had a wider feed tube.

I tossed these in canola oil, kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. I never eat sweet potatoes without nutmeg. (It just ain't right to not pay homage to sweet potato pie.)

Add a little oil to the skillet and arrange the fries in a single layer. Bake until golden brown on the underneath. Here's the tricky part: flipping the fries. You have to use a thin spatula to get underneath the fries and not leave the caramelized portion on the pan. Enter fish spatula.

After you've turned them, throw them back into the oven until done. So simple and so good. Inexpensive too!

Tools of the trade:

Cheap Date

2008-11-14T11:34:00.002-06:00

Here's the deal: You know the economy is tanking; it's getting more and more expensive to be a foodie, and the kicker?!! Thanksgiving is on it's way. Yep. I'm looking for food on the cheap, so that I don't have to sacrifice anything when the Big Challenge (Thanksgiving Day) arrives. With that said, I had to return to one of my childhood favorites: salmon croquette. Inexpensive and tasty. What more could you ask for?

Let's get to it. Start with canned salmon, pepper, salt and Spike.

Move to the veg. Finely dice some celery and onion.

Now for the binders. There are three. First? Crackers.

Next? Flour and egg.

Mix it well and shape into patties. I go an extra step and lightly dredge the patties in flour spiked with Spike. Head for a preheated nonstick skillet. Add just a touch of olive oil.

space

Fry until golden brown on each side, turning once. Add soup and frozen corn and you've got a filling and inexpensive meal. You know my corn and soup aren't just any old corn and soup, I had to go back to the sautéed corn with sage and roasted butternut squash soup.

space

Tools of the trade:

Things Fall Apart (Or Never Set Up)

2008-11-08T08:31:00.019-06:00

Last Sunday was really a great day for me -- figured out how to get to church using public transportation and made it back to the kitchen to rock a four-course meal. I got tired before I finished cooking, but that's not the point.

space

I was most excited about making lemon bars. Think about it: the house smells like cookies from the crust, you get to nibble on the raw dough and the filling -- lemony heaven! Unfortunately, that was not the case with these.

space

I wanted to do another post in the Buy the Book series, so I chose the lemon bar recipe from the Nordstrom Friends & Family Cookbook. Had I just stopped to think, I would've remembered that I really didn't like the lemon bars at the Nordstrom Cafe. I could've used the recipe in Baking Illustrated instead. Not that the recipe in the Nordstrom book is the same as what's in the store, but I dislike the ones in the store so much that I wouldn't have chanced it (had I been thinking). Yes there is really a combination of butter flour and sugar that I don't like. I know it's shocking.

space

Things started off well enough. The dough for the crust came together just fine. I started by creaming butter and powdered sugar.

space

I then added flour.

I ended up with a really soft dough.

space

I got it into the pan and pressed it in as evenly as possible with my fingers.

I moved to the oven. Here is where the problems start. I ended up baking it twice as long as the recipe called for to get the lightly browned color called for. This sent me to Williams-Sonoma later in the week for an oven thermometer. So after 40+ minutes, here's the crust:

space

The crust has to cool completely before you can add the filling. To start the filling, beat some eggs add some sugar and beat until pale and thick.

space

Whip out your favorite lemon-working tools. Mine are a Microplane and a citrus press. Use whatever you need to get the juice and the zest.

space

Add the lemon stuff to the sugar and eggs. The recipe calls for flour and cornstarch too.

space

Pour the filling over the crust and bake until "the filling is set -- firm on the edges, but still a little soft in the middle -- 15 to 20 minutes." Yeah. Not so much.

space

But what good sweets-loving girl would let this deter her? Certainly not me. I grabbed a fork a pressed on.

space

Eeewwww, ick and yuck! These were void of big lemon flavor and too sweet for even me. I couldn't finish a whole bar. Well, I couldn't finish the gooey, runny mess that should have been a bar. I have never been so disappointed. However, the taste was the same as those in the restaurant. Silly me.

Tools of the trade:

Buy The Book #2: Sweety Pies

2008-10-26T08:32:00.016-05:00

I realized that my last post could have been a part of this series. I was too excited about mastering biscuits to think about it. Oh well.

For my second post in this series, I wanted to use one of my newer cookbooks. I was so in love with Sweety Pies last year, I gave it as a gift. I like a good story with my recipe and this book delivers!

space

Let me back up. I was home last week for a funeral and someone brought over a homemade egg custard pie. You would not believe the excitement this elicited from Aunt Carolyn, me and later my big brother. This woman put her foot in that pie! My dessert-loving Uncle Herman later agreed. Needless to say, I was willing to make another attempt at this pie until I got it right. I had a few books to choose recipes from and I chose Sweety Pies because it was newer.

Since the filling was so simple, I tried to go for a more difficult traditional pie crust. I chose the one in Baking Illustrated. Y'all know pie crust has been my nemesis. I wanted to venture away from my beloved Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough. Not the smartest move I've ever made, but practice makes perfect.

space

Pie crust first. The best-tasting crusts have butter and shortening. Make sure they are both well chilled.

Take the flour, salt and sugar for a spin. Add the shortening and process. The mixture should look like wet sand. Evenly distribute the butter on top.

Process until the butter is the size of peas.

We'll now fast forward. Dump the mixture into a bowl and add cold water. Shape into a disc and refrigerate for at least an hour. Roll it out and get it into the pie plate.

Moving on to the filling. Cream the sugar, butter and eggs. I gave the butter and sugar a head start and then added the eggs.

Look at Sparkle go! Don't be confused; you know I named most of my appliances. I didn't call the food processor by name, but you already know Miracle.

Add your flour, buttermilk and extracts. The recipe called for lemon and vanilla. I think I want to go for just the vanilla next time. The buttermilk made the eggs curdle. Curdled batters always make me nervous.

Here's the result -- a little more golden brown than I planned on, but still good. Do you know how hard it was to wait on the pie to chill so I could taste it?!! I had to go to bed to rid myself of the temptation.

Although good in it's own right, this is not the pie I tasted in Little Rock last week. I just called my Aunt Myrt to see if she can get the recipe!

Space

Tools of the trade:

Redemption

2008-10-18T07:57:00.005-05:00

Warning: This is a long post.

Space

For many years, I've lived in fear that someone would come and snatch my Southern card. My shameful secret was that I could not properly maintain cast iron nor could I make biscuits. I could hear Paula Deen and many an unnamed black cook from back in the day making their way to my front door. No amount of sweet tea and fried catfish could save me. Most recently, I had my Negroness questioned because I don't know how to play bid whist, but that's another story. (I stand on the fact no one under 40 knows how to play bid.)

I digress. Lodge threw me lifeline years ago with their pre-seasoned cast iron. To date, I've only messed up one pan and that's because I was using it for something I should've picked another pan for and then I forgot it was in the oven. It was a 6" skillet, so I'm mot even worried. As long as the 8" (cornbread) and 10" (fried catfish and chicken) are okay, I'm cool.

When I bought my pieces, the brand was Lodge Logic. It has become so popular that Lodge stopped making unseasoned cast iron altogether. I think Lodge dropped the Logic brand name and just made the line its entry-level product. I know, too much marketing for a cooking blog. Hey, I do live in both worlds.

Now to the biscuits. For those who live in the South and have been graced by Bojangles, it is the standard to which I hold all biscuits. Even Sunny Anderson had to give it up for the Bo'. These are the fluffiest melt-in-your-mouth biscuits you will ever taste. Back in day in Little Rock, you could get one of these biscuits sliced in half with a spicy chicken breast in the middle. Oh my damn. (And yes, it was way better than the Chic-Fil-A version.) Sometimes, I got a plain biscuit with cheese. Yum.

After many failed attempts, today I achieved biscuit perfection! I can hold my head high as a woman of the South and go back to longer vowels and dropping the g off words! This is truly a momentous occasion. What a wonderful birthday present to myself. I'd like to thank Cook's Illustrated, White Lilly Flour and wherever I read that biscuits needed to be cut thick.

Walk with me now ...

This recipe is from Baking Illustrated. I'll give you some helpful hints along the way. First, start with a food processor. (This was Miracle's first showing in our new home.) Dump in all your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. The sugar surprised me. I figured it was thrown in for moisture and browning. Pulse the stuff a few times to aerate and mix everything well.

A note about flour. White Lilly is the way to go. CI recommended half cake flour and half AP. The AP was for a crisp crust. Who in the hell wants a crisp crust?!! I think that's pure Yankee foolishness or as my quite foolish co-worker would put it, dancing for French fries (don't ask.)

While you're assembling your dry team, preheat the oven and put the buttermilk and flour in the freezer. I like these to be extra cold. Warm biscuit dough, like warm pie dough is not a good look at all. Go ahead and flour your board too.

Cut the butter into cubes. (I always use a bench scraper for this.) Distribute evenly on top of the flour mixture. Toss the cubes in the flour to help keep them from clumping together.

Take everything for spin via a few quick pulses. That looks perfect.

Pour the buttermilk evenly over the top. Pulse it just until you get some clumps. Gluten is the enemy here. Over mixing will give you some tough, chewy biscuits. Dump everything on your board and bring it together as quickly and gently as you can.

I wanted to shape the dough by hand (this had nothing to do with the fact I had no idea where my rolling pins were.) The recipe yield was 12, which certainly calls for more surface area than I had here.

Move quickly! You do not want the butter to melt. My dough was getting warm by the second re-rolling and cutting. For the third pass, I just picked up the scraps and shaped them. Yeah. These are some thick, country biscuits. I can hear folks miles away looking for some sausage gravy!

Y'all know I discriminate against dark-skinned baked goods. These were probably pulled too early for most folks, but this was perfect for me. This also makes sure they don't get too brown when I reheat them. If I had the butter to spare, I would've brushed the hot tops with melted butter.

Something told me this was going to be a triumphant biscuit day, so I rocked some maple glazed turkey bacon and turkey sausage with scrambled eggs. The meat was easy; I cooked it in the oven on the baking stone.

Lightly oil a skillet. Place the bacon and sausage in it. I added a little extra oil to sausage. I made sure my links were well coated. Slather the bacon with maple syrup. Coat the sausage evenly with the syrup. Place on a hot baking stone. Turn the sausage periodically for even browning.

Look at what cha get.

Now that's a breakfast! My Daddy would be proud, as would my biscuit and syrup eatin' uncles. I'm a purist. Unless it's a biscuit sandwich, all I want on mine is butter. Syrup, jelly and gravy (especially gravy) are gross.

And yes, that's sunlight streaming through my kitchen. How happy am I?
Tools of the trade:

I'm Back -- sort of

2008-10-11T09:02:00.030-05:00

I missed this blog! And thank you to those who've been waiting patiently (and not so patiently) for me to update. Well, I'm all moved in, but not unpacked. I do have the kitchen in working order. As soon as I figure out some storage options for the things with plugs, I'll be good to go!

Anyhoo, here is the last blog-worthy meal I prepared in the old joint. I was so inspired by Giada De Laurentiis' Artichoke Gratinata one weekend, I made it that day. I paired it with the best non-cornmeal-fried fish I'd ever made. Here's how I did it:

Lots of garlic. For real. You need it for the both dishes.

Warm your olive oil and sauté the garlic until fragrant. Add the artichoke hearts, parsley, salt and pepper.

Don't forget the red pepper flakes! Spicy is good.

The recipe calls for the artichokes to brown on the edges, which should take about three minutes. A. I had a wimpy stove and B. I wanted more color. Here's my attempt:

Moving on. Throw in some chicken broth and Marsala. I love any recipe with liquor. Aah. The bargain that is Trader Joe's chicken broth.

Now cook all of this juiciness down for a bit.

The recipe calls for transferring to a baking dish. The beauty of my All-Clad Petite Braiser is that it's stove-top and oven ready. You're also supposed to melt some butter and make some bread crumbs. Enter my frozen homemade bread crumbs. I try to always have some on hand.

Toss with some Parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top of the artichokes. Bake until golden.

Giada paired this with cod, so I thought I'd give that a try too. She rocked hers with Lima beans, yuck. My love for anything garlic, capers and kalamata olives goes deep. Why not slide all of that goodness on some fish?

I grabbed a nonstick skillet and added some olive oil.

I seasoned the cod very simply -- Greek seasoning, black pepper and a touch of kosher salt.

Now, I know this makes me suspect, but I love well-done fish. I know the rule says that if it flakes, it's overcooked. My rule is: if it doesn't flake, keep cooking! Anyway, look at that gorgeous color. I browned it this well on one side.

Remove the fish from the pan and get thee to some foil and make a pouch for the fish. Let the fish rest while you prepare the adornment. Here's the fish after resting. See? It wasn't dry.

Using the fishy nonstick skillet, add a little olive oil and sauté the garlic until fragrant. Throw in the olives, capers, a little butter, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Place this on top of the fish, reseal the pouch and get thee to a barely warm oven (225 degrees or maybe I used 300. I can't remember.) Here's what you'll have when it's done. I'm looking at the monitor doing my food dance because I have to admit it looks good. Plate and eat, Baby!

Tools of the trade:

Last Post For A While

2008-09-16T13:16:00.002-05:00

I'm in the process of moving, so my weekends have been and are dedicated to cardboard. My next post will be the second week in October. I miss not being able to cook new things; I keep making the same one-pot dishes. Thanks for your patience!