A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Artisan Egg Bread Topped with Freshly Roasted Garlic on Steakhouse Night at Home

Juicy Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon, baked sweet potato, a nice deeply rich cabernet, and hot out of the oven home-made bread smeared with soft butter and heaped with sweet roasted garlic, all served on nice linens with pretty stemware--night out at a restaurant? Nope, night in at home. 

 For great recipes and the full explanation behind the method, I highly recommend this book and its sequel Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (whole grained recipes). I was given these books as gifts (Thanks, Ann!) and they've quickly become two of my favorites. For years, I kept angel biscuit dough in the fridge so we could have fresh bread with dinner every night and/or kept frozen dinner roll dough in the freezer for the same reason. One of the things I like most about this book and its concepts are being able to make a week's worth of dough at one time and just pull off as much as I want to bake at one time, whether it's a small loaf or several dinner rolls. 

There is something so homey, cozy, and comforting about the smell and taste of warm fresh home-made bread that nourishes like nothing else. The ultimate topping? To me, that's a  little olive oil or butter, and either bitingly fresh minced garlic or its smooth and suave cousin, the sweet and mellow roasted garlic.  Directions for roasting garlic follow the bread recipe--such and easy thing to do while waiting for bread dough to rise! The reward is VERY worth it, and a plus side is the leftover garlic freezes beautifully to be used as needed in other recipes.

Appetizers with Style: Christmas Tree Veggie Plate

My friend, Jennifer, sent me a pic of the appetizer plate she made for a Christmas work party. I LOVE this!  What a great way to turn a simple veggie tray into a festive wrok of art!

It's as straight-forward as it looks: She halved one broccoli spear, leaving about 3 inches of "trunk" and then laid in bite-sized floret bites to form the tree itself.  Next she decorated with yellow pepper slices for garland and then added cherry tomato ornaments. The final touch is a treetop star cut out of yellow pepper using a small cookie/hors d'oeuvre cutter.

Thanks for sharing, Jenn!

 

 

 

Christmas Food Gifts: Curry-Honeyed Almonds

I only have one thing to say about these:  Gene asked when I was making more.  That says it all! 

Christmas Food Gifts: Chai-spiced Pretzels

A friend, Dianne, gave me some yummy nummies similar to this that got my little brain working overtime and my hands experimenting in the kitchen.  I love iced chai tea in the summer but there is nothing better than those spices warmed in a cup for winter or baked onto pretzels for anytime.

The other night when I made this final rendition of the recipe I knew I had it when our friend, Corbin, ran by the house and he, Gene, and I ate handfuls and handfuls of these.  They were definitely a winner so I sent home a bag of these, along with home-made cocoa mix, and other treats, with Corbin for his family.

Then I sealed up the rest so Gene and I wouldn't make ourselves sick on them!  I'll be making these again and again: to give away, to serve as an appetizer, for weekend movie nights, etc. I used two different kinds of pretzels: the sourdough chubbies and the waffle pretzels.  While the chubbies should win my heart from the name I just assigned them, the waffled ones are my fave because of all the yummy sugar and spices that get caught in the holes.

EPIC FAIL: Martha Stewart's Bacon Jam

I made a pledge on Facebook that I would concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas this year by only giving small heart-felt gifts this year.  Why Facebook?  I was using the theory on myself that if I announced it to everyone I know then I would keep myself accountable to my pledge and NOT wimp out and suddenly go on a huge shopping spree out of last-minute desperation.  Believe me, my friends live to give me hell so they were/are still watching me, ready to pounce, and that's what I love about them!

True to my word, I have knitted and sewed and crafted and now I've started cooking.  I decided to take some old recipes that my mom made when I was a kid for food gifts and update them.  I also picked out a couple of new recipes that intrigued me.  The first of those is this bacon jam from the Martha Stewart web site. The web site says to spread it on bread as an appetizer. In my mind I could also see it served over cream cheese with crackers, or as a meat chutney to go top of ham or beef, maybe even as a filling for phyllo appetizers or baked on top of brie.  It's an intriguing recipe.  The combination of ingredients looked to produce something sweet and savory and wonderful, a unique gift, as well as an appetizer for our family Christmas get-together. I still believe that, but in this case, either the bacon or the crockpot decided to go all Stephen King on me and produced this malevolent mess.

Speaking of giving me hell,  I'm just waiting for Auntie Miranda to speak up.  I'm known for not being a Martha Stewart fan. In reality, I love her ideas, but something about her bugs the crap out of me when I watch her show. Shudder.  It's the same thing that makes me turn the channel when Sandra Lee comes on.  In theory, I like them both and their ideas, for different reasons of course, but watching them sets my teeth on edge. I don't know why, it's just a personal thing. 

Snack Time: Seasoned Oyster Crackers

 

Having a couple of bags of oyster crackers leftover from Halloween chili, I decided to play a little. I've tried hot, sweet, salty.... but my all time favorite has turned out to be this recipe.  Not only are the great as a handful straight out of the bag, we've now topped more chili with them, potato soup, and stew--all delicious.  I also crushed 2 cups of them and topped a ham/potato casserole one night for the crunch--yummy!  They're yummy, cheap to make, and versatile. They've also stayed fresh in a gallon zip baggie with as much air removed as possible each time we get into them.  This is a keeper.

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

 

Nothing says summer like tomatoes off the vine...and I couldn't wait so I actually pay way too much for vine-ripened tomatoes at the grocery but they were worth it!

Night Shift Birthday Party: Jessica's Cucumber Sandwiches

 

One of the great side effects of work birthday parties is getting to taste new recipes like these pretty open-faced cucumber sandwiches our friend Jessica brought in.  Easy to make, they were delicious, so good Carrianne and I ate almost a container of them by ourselves (luckily, there were three containers so others could indulge too).

By the way, I'm going to start adding Cook's notes to recipes with "use this...or that..." and I've set up a new category to reflect recipes that take substitutions well.   So many times recipes can be equally good using several different ingredients and it can all depend on what you have in the pantry or what you need to use up from the garden.  Not all cooks are adept at making those substitutions the way I was taught growing up in my mother's kitchen.  Quite frankly, we were very poor and running to the grocery store for a $5.00 ingredient was rarely an option so my mother became extremely proficient at still trying new recipes while also still using her pantry items on hand.  For example, most recipes that call for asparagus taste just as great substituting broccoli when asparagus is out of season, zucchini for eggplant, or in this recipe Cavender's Greek Seasoning is a great substitute for fresh dill when you don't happen to have fresh from the garden on hand.

Baked Chicken Wings with Anheuser Busch Wing Sauce

 

Nieces Jordan and Sydney came over one night last week and while Jordan (thank you, Girlie!) mowed the lawn, Sydney made baked chicken wings for dinner. Honestly, out of all the things I've cooked over the years that most people never have, one of the things I've never made that most people have is chicken wings.  We just got a not great blood report back on Gene so we're steadfastly back on the heart diet, trying to eat less refined carbs and less fat so I also was going for baked wings rather than fried.  Sort of a two-for one experiment.

   One of the interesting things I found out about Sydney is maybe a clue to how she learns. We all learn better one way or the other:  verbally or from writing. I think Jordan is more of a verbal girl but what I didn't realize until that night was that Sydney is more of a reading/writing girl.  Sydney was a couple of months premature (ruptured membranes and other complications) and spent a week on a vent in our NICU. She has residual hearing loss and learning challenges from her birth.  One of her weaknesses is short term memory loss especially when following multi-step directions.

I had the coating bowls set out in order but only three: milk, whole wheat white flour mix, egg/water, so she had to go back to the middle for another dredging of flour before laying the wings on the baking sheets.  It really threw her.  She couldn't remember the fourth step. I tried verbally cueing her "1, 2, 3, 4, and in the pan" and she remembered better but still not enough to finish all the wings without prompting.  On a hunch, I grabbed a pad of sticky notes and a magic marker and labeled the bowls "1", "2, 4", "3".  From then on she had no problems remembering the steps and finished getting the rest of the wings on the pans.

It was a beautiful "AHA!" moment!

Jordan got to be our first taste-tester but it was a chore for her in between us yelling at her to eat it so I could take pic and her complaining "But it just came out of the oven--it's hot!"  Geez, such a little thing. Doesn't she know she's supposed to be willing to burn herself for my blog?  The blog is ALL IMPORTANT!~  Hehehehe

Thanks for being our taste-tester, LoLo!  You were a good sport!

Promises to Keep by Jane Green and Fish Balls Recipe served with my Mother's Homemade Tartar Sauce

 

Promises to Keep by Jane Green  

I read this novel recently and enjoyed both the story and the recipes included in the book.  It's the story of a young chef sorting her life out on all fronts: romantically, professionally, and her place within her family.  The town Stephanie moved to reminds me a bit of Eureka Springs, AR so the book felt cozy and homey and like getting to know people I would like.

I'd definitely recommend the read and the recipes.  Gene and I both enjoyed the Fish Balls (although I flattened mine out slightly and added my mom's homemade tartar sauce) for dinner last night and the Gingerbread Trifle is next on my list to make. I'll be storing the book with my cookbooks for sure.