A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Celebrating James' Birthday with Auntie Miranda's Grapefruit Cake

(Photo below: James demonstrating his "Dexter knife skills".)

 

After tweeting one night that grapefruit-flavored cake sounded "awful", as usually happens with my crazy family of foodies, the decision was made that we had to make it, bake it, and try it.  Auntie Miranda volunteered her time and James volunteered his birthday--win/win!

After reading through several recipes, Auntie used her own baking skills to create her own version based on elements from different recipes and her own experience.

Our prounouncement:   Delicious!  Just like orange, lemon, or lime, grapefruit is just a twist, so to speak, on the citrus genre.

Thanks, Auntie, for introducing us to this new dish and for sharing your recipe!

 

 

Note: Please excuse the phone pics--forgot my camera.

Happy New Year: To Resolve or Not to Resolve

I've spent so many years making huge, multi-page lists of goals, breaking them down all Franklin-Covey-ish into smaller goals, and those into smaller goals...and lasting the first few weeks keeping all those rules and regulations I've laid out for myself. And then I stop and feel the guilt, chastising myself to no end...that ends this year.

The one biggest goal for myself that has always rolled over each year is to publish. I have sold some short stories, a few craft patterns to magazines, etc., but with publishing the NICU knitting book I feel like I can relax. Not that I won't continue to write or knit, just that I can take the pressure off myself of that goal.  It was a personal milestone and now I can continue on, creating and writing and dreaming new projects.

Between that and all the personal things I've learned this year, I decided to make up a much easier goal list this year, the kind of resolutions that will be no problem to accomplish and that will generally give me a little slack to be kinder to myself. I think  that's the key. I've learned this year to be a little kinder to myself.

This is what I've learned in 2011:

Just because someone asks me to do something, I'm not obligated to to say "yes". A favor always has at least two answers:  "yes" and "no" and variations in between.  Saying "no" does not make me a bad person, nor is it a measure of my friendship or love.  Saying "no" does not mean I have a bad attitude, am selfish, or that I'm not a "giving" person.  However, on the heels of that, another thing I learned this year is that if I say No and the other person gets mad or demands to know why I can't/won't do the favor, that's a measure of THEIR friendship to me.

There are friends in my life that I get to spend relatively little time with due to family, jobs, distance, and life in general.  It doesn't mean I love those friends less or that our friendship is any less strong  because we're busy with the minutia of life.  On the other hand, there are acquaintances who I think of as friends who are only around when they want something from me or I'm convenient for them.  I have learned to trust my instincts.  The heart knows the difference between the two.

I cannot take on the world or be all things to all people, nor can I fix anyone else's life, especially when I can hardly cope with my own sometimes.  I have learned that when people talk to me about their problems what they mostly need is just someone supportive to listen, not someone to jump in and fix everything for them or to take on their problems.   I no longer feel like Atlas.  (No wonder I had back problems--the world is a heavy load!)

And the last thing I learned this year is that I really don't need to know everything bad about anybody. I don't even need to know everything at all about anybody. I've found that I really like relating to people at face value without gossip or negative thoughts rolling around in my head--it's so much more pleasant to assume everyone is nice and exactly what they appear to be, especially people whom I'm not particularly close to.

That's a lot of education that's been going on in my brain this year.

For 2012 my resolutions for my personal happiness are:

10)  Take longer baths.

9)  Smile at drama that plays out before me without becoming one of the cast.

8)  Knit more things for myself.

7)  Remember that two negatives only make a positive in multiplication.

6) Sleep in more, with no guilt.

5) Not give a crap at least twice/week about things that I have no control over.

4)  Take more walks.

3)  Share more time with family.

2)  Curse more creatively.

and 1) Eat more bacon.

 

 

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. 

Halloween Food: Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats, Devil's Eye Eggs, Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, and I See You Meatballs

Bwahahahaha! Halloween--my very favorite holiday!  And a family favorite as well. No matter how old "our" kids get, this will always be our tradition: get together at Aunt Gonnie and Uncle Gene's house, eat great creepy food, dress up or dress down, take any little ones trick-or-treating the neighborhood and just hang out..

This year our creepy food was all eyeball in theme. We didn't really plan it that way but as the eyeballs piled up we just kept running with them it:  Gummy Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats,  Devil's Eye Eggs,  Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, I See You Meatballs, and just for fun, the un-eye-ball Mexican Villa Cheese Dip and Chips. There was also two crockpots full of chili and a few others goodies on the table like spinach dip, witch's pretzel/candy fingers, etc.    

 

 And now for recipes....

2011 World Series: Yay Cardinals! (And Bumstead's in Nixa reviews)

We watched and celebrated the game last night with good friends Jeff and Dee McKeel down in Nixa at Bumstead's. All of those things together made for a fantastic night!  Great friends, great food, great drinks, great GAME! After the win, champagne was passed out to all the patrons and the owner (?) jumped up on the bar to lead a toast to our favorite red birds.

 

 We all enjoyed being at Bumstead's. At first we thought there was no way we'd be able to get a table but we lucked out to spend a relaxed happy evening together. We'll definitely be going back!   Check out the MENU

 

 

Timpano di Maccheroni: The "Mythic Pasta Dome"

  

This recipe was so much fun to make!  I'd seen it years ago, a classic Italian dish made famous by Stanley Tucci's movie "Big Night" , the story of two restauranteur brothers (Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, more recently starring as Adrian Monk) whose fortunates are on the wane.  In a last mad dash, they have one "Big Night" extravaganza to save the restaurant and this is one of the dishes they served.

I served it our Dexter Dinner group to celebrate the season six premiere of Dexter. We gathered for Timpano, Death in the Afternoon cocktails, and Dexter (Apple) cake. Everything, including Dexter, was delicious!  This recipe is definitely a showstopper and very flexible. I'll be serving it again.

Several years ago, I had planned on making it for my pasta-lovin' niece Jordan's birthday party as a truly celebratory entree but at the last minute I flinched, afraid I would leave the whole family in the lurch if I messed it up, and simply served baked mostacciola instead. While the dish does have several steps, almost all of them can be made ahead and the whole dish can easily be finished early on the day of serving and baked a bit before serving.  Actually, with at least a half hour cooling time it's a great dish to take to a potluck or to serve at an open house. I only made a 2qt bowl full and not only was it plenty of food for the four of us watching Dexter that night, there were leftovers, and during the dinner, the dish was still warm to the touch 45 minutes after cutting.

As much as I sort of dreaded and anticipated and was scared and excited all at the same time about preparing this dish, it really is much easier to make than it looks! I promise.

Dexter Dinner: Timpano, Dexter Cake, & Death in the Afternoon Cocktails

 

Dexter premiered season six last night and we were there! Last year, my cousin, James, came over to the house on Sunday nights so we could all watch Dexter together since we were all huge fans.  We adopted Auntie Miranda into the cult and have been a Dexter Dinner foursome ever since. We always meet at Gene's and my house and I make dinner, usually using them as guinea pigs to test new recipes.  It's a win-win for me and for them and the safety net is that if it's ever is a win-lose, there's always pizza that can be delivered.

 

Literally, for years I've been wanting to make Timpano, the classic "mythic dome pasta" (Mario Batali) dish made famous by the movie Big Night from 1996 where Stanley Tucci, as one of two restanteur brothers (Tony Shalhoub is the other) makes this dish for their "big night" make it or break it extravaganza.  My understanding is that Tucci himself came up with the idea to use this recipe in the movie since it's one that his family actually makes for special occasions in real life. In 1999, following the popularity of the food from the movie Tucci's mother and the chef who consulted on the film authored a cookbook "Cucina & Famiglia: Two Italian Families Share Their Stories, Recipes, and Traditions" by Joan Tropiano Tucci and Chef Gianni Scappin.

This week I'll be blogging my version of the Timpano recipe starting with a 15 hour slow cooker meat sauce for pasta, Auntie's fruited salad and vinaigrette, the apple cake with caramel apple filling, and Death in the Afternoon cocktail created by Ernest Hemingway using Absinthe which is now legal in the U.S. again.

Let's begin with the meat sauce...

Nieces and Nephew Summer Slumber Party: Easy Cheesy Mac for a Crowd

 

Once a year or so we try to have a big slumber party with all three of our nieces and our nephew.  Two of them live here in town but the other two live about an hour away with their mom. Just because of work, school, life in general, we don't get to see them as much as we would like but we all know how it is, right? But we do try to have an overnighter when we can so that we can do an Aunt Gonnie and Uncle Gene and the kids thing where it's more about hanging out and catching up with what's going on in their lives.

One of the things I've learned over the years is to try to put aside the OCD "party" definition in my brain that tends to make all things including food and house cleaning into a spectacle so big that by the time my guests/friends/family arrive I'm so tired from over-working myself that I didn't use to enjoy the "together" part of getting together as much as I should have.  These guys are my nieces and nephews. They know I'm not a perfect housekeeper and they don't want a meticulously Martha Stewart set table or gourmet food so this family casserole my brothers and sisters and I were raised on is perfect fare for the occasion: quick and easy to make and yummy to eat. I even made it up the day before so that all I had to do was slip it in the oven when I went to pick up the kids at my brother's and then my sister's house.  We grew up with Mom (Karen) calling it "goulash" but it's not the traditional Hungarian dish of chunked meat with vegetables, it's an Americanized version from the 50's, I believe, that's made with hamburger, macaroni, and a tomato sauce.  Gene's mom had a recipe for it in her recipe box called "Chuckwagon Macaroni". The recipes follows the jump, along with lots of fun dorky pics.

Happy Mother's Day....to me too!

 

My wonderful niece Jordan surprised me this year with both this gift of a ladybug planter (a favorite of both of ours since she was a little girl) with a peach miniature rose in it.  Along with this Facebook status update:

MY mom knows she is my mom and I love her for having me. HOWEVER, My Aunt has had a hand in raising me as well and should be honored for it so give up to all those "OTHER MOMS" who don't have kids of their own but help raise kids. Thank you Aunt Gonnie!!! Love you!

You have no idea how much both of those meant to me Jordan. I know we were all in a hurry because I had to go to work but I smiled all night long thinking of how sweet that was of you to gift me with both of those things. I love you too, Baby Girl! You will always be my Sunshine!

Life as a Failed Easter Dessert

 

After hours, over half the day actually, of planning, mixing, kneading, chilling, boiling, dyeing, more rolling, more chilling, resting, mixing, rolling, filling, spreading, moving, shaping, pre-heating, cutting out decorations, egg washing, and sugar sprinkling, I slipped my multi-pound  humongo Easter masterpiece into the oven for it's hour-long bake and slumped down into my chair to watch TV and knit for my little Littles a bit while anticipating every sweet decadent pastry bite following Easter dinner.

And that's exactly how it would have ended in a movie, with a perfectly made up, but with just enough dusting of flour on one perfectly blushed cheekbone to let us know how HARD Julia Roberts worked in creating that amazing pastry using no experience and only the drive of personal willpower all the while squeezed into a niney minute framework as she pulled out the glorious, perfectly browned orgasmic dessert from her fake movie set oven.

Well kids...I ain't Julia Roberts. Nor am I Martha Stewart.  The reality in my life turned out to be that fifteen minutes after turning over my baby to that monster freak called my oven, I physically followed a slightly acrid and puzzling scent into my real working kitchen to see black smoking pouring out of the oven vent and opened the door to see my creation melting and dripping everywhere like the Wicked Witch of the West after a shower.

Pissed off? You betcha.  All that work and money for ingredients wasted, but the more than that, my hope was mocked. That's what hurt the most.  I was hugely disappointed but--evenutally--after releasing my annoyance with a good slam of the oven door, stomping out of the kitchen, and crying like a big baby in my bedroom for fifteen minutes,I could also see that as many things that do go well for me in the kitchen even when attempting dishes I've never prepared before, the Vegas odds are there's going to be a few failures along the way as well. When I had a chance to stop and think about it objectively, I realized that the bigger truth in this is that through this kitchen disaster I've learned more unforgettable baking lessons in one afternoon than I've learned in the last year from my successes.  That is the definition of experience.