Post Christmas

Our Christmas happened later as usual, on the Sunday after Christmas.  This year it was just the four of us;  Kim and I and my daughter Vanessa and her husband Chris.  Or five of us if you want to count the baby boy.  (Which I do of course!)

(We're all soooo tired!)

Scarface continues to enjoy the Christmas tree.

Food was eaten.   I won't give you the full run down this year.  I made all appetizers again, it's one of my favorite meals.  And the winner was.......Endive Petals with Rosemary Chevre.   Delicious.  You can find the recipe here.  I wanted to use the red endive but it wasn't available.
Here is a super easy recipe for the candied pecans.

Another hit was the White Chocolate and Raspberry Trifle Cake.

Here's the recipe.  It's a Donna Hay recipe but I couldn't locate the exact recipe at her website.  It calls for sherry but I didn't want to buy any and we don't usually keep sweet wine around the house.  I ended up using hazelnut coffee flavoring, the stuff they use at coffee shops.  I diluted mine just a bit with some water,  I was afraid it was going to be too strong.  But everyone loved it.

A big disappointment was Brownies a la Resolution.  You can find the recipe here.

The recipe sounds delicious, but it was a bit too cake-like for me.  If you try it I suggest you don't do as I did and follow the instructions to bake "until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean."  In my experience that's always a mistake when baking brownies, the toothpick should come out with some clinging crumbs.  But that's me and I wish I had followed my own advice.  On the other hand, if when eating these brownies you tell your brain "Cake!", they taste just fine.  

Hope your holidays have been great.  We're looking forward to a new year.  Another new grandchild in March, more knitting, more Montana visits, and perhaps Seattle to see this sweetie?  I sure miss my granddaughter and her parents.

And I think Scarface is telling us it's time to take the tree down.

And Here Come the Holidays

Well, goodbye Halloween;  welcome November.

Or, more to the point:

Actually, I don't mind all the Christmas decorations in the stores.  That's probably because I don't have to do much shopping so my exposure is limited.  (But I admit, I do love the glitter of Christmas decorations.)

Anyway, I'm sticking with the November/fall/autumn theme a bit longer.  And here are some great new recipes I made last week.

Who doesn't love a stuffed pumpkin?  I made two of these "veggie" per the recipe and cooked up some sausage to add to the other two for the meat eaters.

I substituted small pie pumpkins for the carnival squash in this recipe.  It worked great, just extend your baking time a bit.  And try to find pumpkins of all the same size.  (Hint;  I didn't)

My daughter brought over some appetizers that we consumed while waiting on our pumpkins to finish up.

And for dessert, Italian Spiced Chocolate Cream served in tiny espresso cups.  It was yummy.  I smeared corn syrup on the lips of the cups before I dipped them into the Demerara sugar because my DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT and I didn't want to risk raw egg exposure on her.

Oh, did you catch that?  Yes, MY DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT!
I'm going to be a Grandma again, and I can't wait.  They're having a boy and he is due in March.

And if when reading this you said to yourself, "Just exactly what is Demerara sugar?" Well, here you go;   "Demerara is a light brown, partially refined, sugar produced from the first crystallization during processing cane juice into sugar crystals (this process is similar to what happens with naturally evaporated cane juice).  Unlike brown sugar, which has the added molasses flavor, Demerara has a natural caramel-like flavor that hasn't been refined out.  This lends warm caramel notes to whatever you add the sugar.  Also, Demerara sugar is also referred to as Turbinado sugar in many markets, which has more to do with how the sugar is processed in turbines, than where it originates."  

You can read more about Demerara sugar here.

And if you know me, you know I nearly always make two desserts.  I blame that on the chocolate lovers versus the people who aren't in love with chocolate.  (Yes, I know!  Turns out they DO exist!)

Anyway, I tried this new bread pudding recipe and we all loved it.  One thing I would do next time;  double the apple topping.  And maybe serve it with just a bit of whipped cream on top.

I didn't get a photo of it, but believe me, it's worth the effort.

And I'll end this post with some pictures of my friend Jeanne's Halloween display.  I did make it to her house and it was worth it as usual.  You can see some of her creative process here.

And my granddaughter and daughter in law - Curious George with Professor Wiseman.

August Dinner

We spent another great evening last night with family and friends.
And since it's late August, and tomato time, our entree was Tomato Cobbler.

I've made this dish before and it's always a big hit.  If you have lots of tomatoes as we do, then don't hesitate to try this.

Here's the recipe:  (click to enlarge)

Note:  Cherry tomatoes are not a requirement;  just chop up whatever tomatoes you have on hand.  Remember, this is a "cobbler", you wouldn't put cherry sized peaches in a peach cobbler.


Keeping to a late summer theme I also made this apple salad.

Dessert was super easy;  this frozen lime terrine is much easier than it looks and makes a good impression.  Be sure to unmold it before your guests arrive, sometimes it takes a bit and you'll be standing around waiting on it to defrost enough to come out of the pan. Unmold it onto a plate and put it back in the freezer until you're ready for it.

The recipe calls for blackberries but the store was out so I substituted raspberries instead.  No problem.

What have you been making with your tomato crop?

Let's Eat Oranges

It's all about orange today.

But orange in recipes.

I love to follow a theme when I cook.  (OK, just sometimes).  It's not like I think of myself as another "Martha".

But when I buy a bag of oranges it's fun to use it up in all kinds of recipes.  Here are some of my favorites.

For the main course Orange-Braised Chicken hits the spot.  This recipe is easy.  I left the prosciutto out because I'm not a big red meat eater, but I'm sure if you added it in the flavor would possibly improve.

Not a chicken lover?  Go with Orange Shrimp instead.  The salsa really makes this dish.

Here's another token orange flower.

Let's move on to dessert. 

This Orange Pound Cake is delicious.  Just be sure you follow the directions and use something like a wooden skewer (a toothpick just isn't long enough) to make holes in the top of the cake before brushing on the glaze.  I used a toothpick and the glaze only went halfway through.  (You can see my note to self in the lower right.)

Or try this Orange Almond Upside Down Cake of which I actually shot a photo when I made it.

The one change I made to this cake was to double the sugar glaze.  Doing so made the cake extra moist.  Don't be afraid to leave the orange peel on the orange slices.  But I would recommend using organic oranges.

Print off these recipes and have fun.

"Post" Christmas post

I hope everyone's Christmas/Holidays were great.  You'll have to forgive me, we just had our "official" Christmas dinner December 30 so I'm still in "the mood".

I notice I've been ignoring my blog (and everyone else's) lately.  I hope everyone else is doing the same.  As the holiday season swells and then ebbs I plan on getting back into the flow of following my online friends.

So I have a few recipes I'd like to share.

I started off our Christmas dinner with two appetizers because my son, Casey, is always ready to eat when he walks in the door.  (He's a fitness buff and is always looking for food.  He's one of those annoying people who are happy when they put weight on.)

First:  Prosciutto Rolls with Arugula and Figs.  Pretty easy.  Just make sure, as the recipe says, that you don't get the prosciutto sliced too thinly.  I had to use toothpicks to keep mine together but that didn't seem to matter.  I think these would also be good without the prosciutto;  if your arugula leaves are large enough you could smear the cheese mixture directly on the leaves, then sprinkle on the figs and lemon dressing.  I tried one this way and thought it was great.

Second up:  Baked Goat Cheese with Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion.  This is basically a dip you serve warm with veggies, bread or crackers for dipping.
I also liked this one.  It can be prepared partially in advance then slipped into the oven when your guests arrive.  One change I made is to mince the onion, not slice it.  When it is sliced the onion tends to pull up from the dip in something that looks stringy, not attractive at all.  This doesn't deserve a photo but here is the recipe.

Our main meat course was Pork Crown Roast, again. You can find the recipe (and picture) for it here.
This is one of my favorites to serve (even though I don't eat it) because it serves a crowd well and is easy to prepare and cook.  Also it turns out very pretty and it's also simple to carve;  you just slice the chops and voila! 

To accompany the roast I went with  Sweet Potato Roulade.  Everyone liked this and most of us had second helpings, always a good sign.  Don't worry if your roulade splits in places when you unroll/roll it back up at the end.  Just press those spots together using the filling as a sort of "glue" and probably no one will even notice.

My one complaint with this is that I thought it looked a little plain, maybe just a tad unappetizing.  Maybe next time I'll use yams instead of sweet potatoes, the brighter color might help.  I used the Edam cheese called for in the recipe but I think any shredded cheese would do.  I also didn't go to the bother with whole allspice berries and used ground instead.

That brings us to dessert.  And if you know me, you know I always make two!

The chocolate one:  Chocolate Cranberry Poinsettia Cakes.  I wanted these to be small individual sized cakes.  I managed to make them too large.  Sigh.  Oh well, there's always next time.  I should have made them closer to petite four size, which would have involved cutting my layers in halves.  Anyhow....these were tasty, the cranberry filling and chocolate ganache-type frosting really makes the cake.  But they were just too big for one person, each couple ended up sharing one cake each.

I made the white chocolate leaves called for in the recipe but couldn't locate any lemon leaves (I didn't look real hard) so I used a (new, clean) small paint brush and free-handed mine.  They turned out OK as long as you don't compare them to the ones in the recipe.

I made six.  And yes, I ran out of leaves.  The middle one on the left is the best looking.  I stopped trying to stack my leaves at that point.  Stacking them as they appear in the recipe photo just didn't work.  Gotta go with what works.  I was happy enough with these.

The non-chocolate one:  Poached Pears in Red Wine Sauce.  I think this one was everyone's favorite.  After a heavy dinner this dessert seemed light and refreshing.  What I liked about it;  most of it can be made the day before since it is served chilled.  Be careful not to cook the sauce too long when you're at the part of reducing the sauce.  I did and had to warm it up to bring it to a liquid again for pouring on the pears at the end.  I also planned on just one half pear per person so I cut them in half and cut out the core before serving.  I left one whole to stand up and look pretty.

One more recipe to mention.  On Christmas day I made Phyllo-wrapped Salmon with Leeks and Red Bell Peppers for Kim and I.  We both just loved this.  Kim had the inspiration to use simple blue cheese dressing as a final dipping sauce for the salmon and it was the perfect touch.  I didn't take a photo but here's the recipe.

Kim and I made it to see the lights at the Idaho Botanical Garden.  Always worth the trip.

And all of us at dinner.  It was great.  I love my family.

I'm ready for 2013 and a great new year!