A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Easy Peasy Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker for a Crowd

 When it comes to cooking for a crowd, the slow cooker or Crock-pot is my best friend and favorite kitchen appliance.  Nothing is easier to cook in as long as you plan ahead of time and have everything ready to go that morning.  Even better, many dishes can be made a day or two ahead of time so that when I'm entertaining I can finish up cooking the day of the party without spending all day long and all of my energy just cooking.  I've spent too many years being exhausted before company even got to my house to even enjoy them but years ago I figured out I could still cook nice home-made meals without making myself tired, cranky, and crazy.

This recipe for slow cooker pulled pork is great for a crowd of 12-16, depending on how hearty the appetites are, and it goes together in a snap, can be made ahead, and leaves one less thing to have to think about before company shows up. 

Easy Baked Custard with Caramel Sauce

 Baked Custard... one of my top comfort foods since I was a kid.  Baked custard is very similar to the caramel flan found in Mexican restaurants, although good caramel flan usually has a crunchy sugar coating on top rather than a caramel sauce topping.

This recipe is very quick and easy to put togetherr and makes for a great dessert warm or cold. 

Home-Made Buttermilk Herb (Ranch) Dressing

 I know that in some circles "ranch" dressing or dip is considered passe' but, to me, it ranks up there will all my favorite comfort foods like mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, chicken pot pie, and all the rest of the delicious, non-pretensious things that are so lovely and comforting to eat.  I do admit, though, that ranch dressing out a bottle from a grocer's shelf doesn't thrill me but making it home-made with fresh herbs is definitely the ticket! 

It's also much better for you.  Think about it.  Sure, it's a little more work to put the ingredients together but when you make it from scratch, including the mayo, you're talking about eating eggs, cold-pressed oil, buttermilk, dill, parsley, garlic, etc., all whole foods  not tons of chemicals and preservatives. That, and the fresh creamy herby taste make it worth every one of those 15 minute spent preparing it.

Baked Mostaccioli w/ All Day Slow Cooker/Crockpot Meat Sauce

 

 There's nothing like pasta, the ultimate comfort food, to feed a small army of company at the holidays.  It's tasty, it's easy, and it can usually be made ahead, all pluses in my book so that I can serve a delicious meal to my friends and family but also be able to relax on the day of and during the party instead of running myself ragged, cooking. 

Traditionally at New Year's Eve, I make a big lasagna, but this year I went to the same song, different verse, choosing to created a Baked Mostaccili dish instead. 

Several of my guests plus friends on Facebook asked for the recipe, so this is it:  Glenna's Baked Mostaccioli for a Crowd.  Even though the recipe easily serves 8-10, it can easily be cut in half for a family dinner or can be made as a whole and split into two separate baking dishes, freezing one for later. 

   

Celebrating with Baklava

 

 While the entire rest of the food blogosphere posts nice diet recipes for at least the first week of the new year, I'm going to go radical and tempt your tummy with step-by-step photos of how to make the sublime, baklava, my favorite densely rich, sweet, and decadent treat that's a pastry I can only describe to the unititiated as a cross between a bar cookie and candy.  Or as simply "the most yum in a bite I know of!" It's created from layers of paper thin pastry dough brushed with butter and filled with pistachios, walnuts, and almonds, along with warm spices and soaked in honeyed syrup.

Baklava can be traced back to the "cradle of civilization", Mesopotamia (the modern Iraq area), in the thousands B.C. but its most commonly associated with the Ottoman Turkish Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries whose capitol was Constantinople (modern day Instanbul, Turkey).  I'm pretty confident you can consider that a dessert must be good if it's been around for 5,000 years, don't you?

I'll admit that I assumed baklava would be difficult, or at least complicated. to make but the truth is delightfully that it really isn't. There a lot of steps, but most of them are all about the layering of pastry and filling.   For anyone experienced in working with phyllo dough I would consider this easy to make, and even for those who've never worked with phyllo before, I would still say it's only a low medium in difficulty.  The key to the recipe is in the steps and preparing the work space.  Some baklava makers create the pastry first and then make the syrup while baking so that it remains hot. I make the syrup first and set it aside while I make the pastry so that even though the syrup is close to room temp when poured as the final step, the baklava is so hot it quickly soaks in.  Having a little counter space is the only clincher to working with phyllo dough because it's easier to lay it out, then move it in towards you to butter and stack.  You'll see what I mean as you read through the recipe and see the photos.