posts/2015/12

This was a very thrown together meal. Meredith hadn't been feeling great so I threw together some soup. Our dog sitter left us a vegetable tray. I used the carrots and celery from that. I then used better than bouillon. I also added some garlic powder and soy sauce. The broth actually came out pretty good.

However, I then added some asian noodles (I forget which kind) and then, at the end, I did the egg-drop thing. I think it was all too much as it kind of turned ot mush. Oh well, it still tasted pretty good. Or at least acceptable.

Meredith made this. She essentially made very bulky Tzatziki (lots of cucumbers) and then we added about 12oz of rotisserie chicken¹.

I liked the concept but I actually think it masked the flavor of the chicken. It ended up just being more bulk. I think larger chunks of chicken next time and/or maybe less intense Tzatziki flavors. (Though Meredith prefers the smaller pieces)

We found at Costco that you can buy pre-cut rotisserie chicken breast. It is a bit more expensive but (a) much easier and (b) healthier since there is no dark meat (or skin) ↩

This was nearly a complete repeat of the chicken pot pie (recipe) from last time. I think we even kept most of the changes. We also added a shallot since I thought I was going to have to use them instead of onions but we ran out and got more onions.

I think the only real change from last time was that we used less Franks Red Hot and we actually had lemon juice this time.

I have to say, this recipe is so easy and really good. I think this will become a winter-time staple. I also want to try doing it with Seitan some time (and then I guess Osem to make it vegetarian)

Meredith and I were in India for Thanksgiving and missed it with the family. When we got back, we heard Christmas music on the radio and my first reaction was, "it's still too early!" Then I realized that it wasn't; we just got out of sync by missing the holiday. So we made our own!

We focused on appetizers and the meal while basically skipping dessert (we bought a thing of caramels but fell asleep before we could indulge)

Appetizer Tray

We made this first to eat and snack while cooking the rest. We had (bottom right, clockwise)

Turkey

We wanted real turkey but obviously, we weren't about to make a whole turkey for the two of us. So we basically followed The Kitchn Guide (local) with a dry-brine we got from Serious Eats. We simple used the following (halved)

Unfortunately, I went way too strong. It made for a good flavor but the edges were salty. It was fine since we really don't eat the skin anyway.

We combined it all and then used the mortar and pestle to mix. I coated the breast with butter, then seasonings.

We used the small convection oven and checked the temperature at 50 minutes, 70 minuted, and then pulled it around 75-80 minutes. The final temps were too high in places and about 155 in the middle part. I know they say 165 but I knew it would keep cooking.

After taking it out of the oven, I drained the liquid from under the roasting pan and basted it with it while it rested. I was able to do a pretty good job carving. Some meat was still on the bone but I just ate it off myself (oh darn).

I liked it a lot. I thought it was very strongly turkey flavored (as opposed to salt, water, and/or seasonings) but maybe a bit dry (though most turkey is a bit dry).

How To Cook Turkey Breast (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)

Hasselback Tater Tots

Again, we followed a Kitchn Recipe (local). We followed the recipe as inspiration but did it slightly differently.

We used fingerling potatoes and cut them with small wooden skewers as guides. We just made sure to press where we were cutting down so that the guides would work. Squeezing them did help open them.

Roasting half way, then tossing with olive oil again also worked really well. As you can see, they opened up really nicely. This is a cool trick to get the potatoes to open for you to toss.

We did our own thing with seasoning. I made some garlic oil (low heat garlic and oil for about 5 minutes) with some rosemary. We tossed it with the oil (too much oil) then added some salt and pepper. At the half way (20 minutes), we again tossed with some garlic oil (again too much probably) plus some chopped, fresh rosemary and some parmesan cheese.

At about 35 minutes (15 after tossing again), we upped the heat to 460 and ended up with about another 10-15 minutes. We then tossed them with some more parmesan cheese.

They came out really good! Crispy and flavorful. I couldn’t really taste the garlic and maybe more salt next time, but they were still one of our favorite things on the menu.

Hasselback Tater Tots (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

We used the recipe from 101cookbooks (local) as the main guide. We basically followed their instructions except we added some cheese to the mixture too, used almond milk, and used smoked paprika instead of anise. Adding the cheese was actually, initially, by accident. I mistakenly told Meredith that everything else goes in but I was wrong. We were able to pull out most but actually decided to keep the rest in. Oh, and we used frozen corn (and extra) and regular (non-clarified) butter.

We baked it as per their instructions, but we did this first thing so we let it cool, then reheated it and broiled it with the extra cheese.

Maybe it was the cheese in there, or it would be this way anyway, but it tasted like quiche. You also barely tasted the corn, despite going heavy on it. I wouldn't say it was bad, but not really what we were going for. Oh well.

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash (from 101CookBooks)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)

Cranberry Sauce

Meredith made the cranberry sauce with some inspiration from this Kitchn recipe (local), but it was really her own creation. One thing I really liked is that she used about half as much sugar as it called for making the cranberry flavor stand out more and be less cloyingly sweet.

Essentially, she just simmered it for a while, added the rum, and then let it simmer some more, just until it was the right thickness.

Very Basic Cranberry Sauce (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)

Brussels Sprout

Nothing too fancy here. We halved them, tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. We roasted them with the potatoes so about 425 for 20 minutes, tossed, then another 15 at 425 and then 5-10 at 460 (we took them out before the potatoes).

They were just barely not burned but I think that is about how you want them. They were good. Really, exactly as you'd expect.

For The Dog

Ok, we're not crazy enough to make Thanksgiving dog food, but we are crazy enough to buy close-to-Thanksgiving food. She was ambivalent.

We based it on this recipe (no local link since it really wasn't much). Essentially, we made a turkey sandwich with some fancy mustard and leftover cranberry sauce, dipped it in egg, and grilled it. We let the first one bake a bit in the oven while the other was being grilled, then baked them both in the oven for a bit to try to cook more of the egg

They got a bit too soggy; especially the first one but the flavors were good. I think it is something I would try again, but I would try to use less egg and maybe read some tips on how to do it.

Additional Photos

Anyway, we baked the corn pudding from cold for about 20 minutes at 350. That was enough to get it warm, but it (for better or worse) wasn't too hot. I think if it got hotter, it may have leaked or spilled. I think I may have liked them more tonight, but that could have also just been in comparison to everything else.

We made standard and simple Zucchini Fritters (or Latkes) for Chanukah. Not much to them. The regular recipe but doubled. I tried using some nutritional yeast for extra flavor and that worked ok. I am not sure if I tasted it or not.

Meredith and I had friends over so we decided to make some strange and different foods. They brought the salad which was very good but I do not know what was on it. I talk about the things we made below

Lebanese Moussaka

We made Lebanese Moussaka using the same recipe as last time including those changes (canned chick peas, tomato liquid, extra seasonings including pomegranate mollasses, etc).See note below about pomegranate mollasses.

Other than doubling everything, we stayed pretty true to the recipe. I should note that we didn't have ground all-spice so I ground it myself but they ground easily. We also let it cook for a good, long, while.

The one thing of note though is that I tried to make my own pomegranate molasses. I used this Alton Brown recipe (local) except that I apparently had some trouble. I followed the recipe closely, but I think that I let it go too long (either time or heat). When it cooled, it was like taffy. And made much less than the 1 cup. Then, after it was in the fridge, it turned to a solid block! I was able to microwave it (and turn it essentially molten) and use in. I used the planned amount (roughly double the Moussaka recipe) but note that it was probably even stronger.

I think, in the future, I will not be making it myself. I am sure I saved calories over the super-sweet store-bought stuff, but it just doesn't make sense. The cost of the pomegranate juice plus the time and effort aren't worth it.

Still, I thought the Moussaka came out pretty good. I was worried as it was cooking since it didn't have the full flavor, but as it cooked down, it started to taste great. I think next time, I will see if my Lebanese Cookbook has any different suggestions just to mix it up (though it would probably be less easy then). We served it with a double portion of Cauliflower Rice

Ramen Rice Krispie Treats

Meredith found this recipe for Ramen Rice Krispies on Joy The Baker (local). The broken (junky) ramen noodles are interesting enough, but when you add the furikake (to quote: "sweet/salty/seaweed/umami") seasoning, it gets very, very strange.

Making it was easy enough, though I used my hands to toss (since that is really the only way to do it) and it was HOT!. We just halved the recipe, which made more than enough for us (we only had one pack of ramen).

The only other changes we made were to use pam on the pan, and to use all of the ramen in the mix and just furikake on top.

Meredith seemed uncertain but I really (really!) liked it. I love salty sweets and this was a great example of it. We bought the regular furikake (see pictures below) but they also had others including one with bonito (fish) and one with wasabi. We will not be touching the fish one any time soon but the wasabi could be interesting!

Only thing that would have been better was if they were chewier. They came out hard as a rock.

Somehow I forgot to take photos, but we were going to two different parties so we made more food.

Pimento Cheese:

We made this for our first party. We followed the same recipe as the first time with the addition of green onions.

The flavored seemed a bit off this time but adding more tabasco helped. I still don't think it was our best showing...

Ramen Rice Krispies...again

We actually made two half batches but for both, the biggest change was that we doubled the butter (well, halved everything but the butter). I read on this site that butter makes it softer since they were very crunchy the day before. They essentially have the same amount of dry stuff and marshmallows but double butter. That worked well!

We also experimented. We made one batch with 1 Tbsp tahini to up the sesame flavor. That was a bit strange. I think it added too much toasted flavors and was a bit too rich.

The other batch was with wasabi. We started with about 1/4 tsp wasabi powder and kept going up since we couldn't taste it. We ended with around 1 tsp but still was too weak. So this batch was better but mostly because it tastes regular.

Sadly, this was not a hit at the party. I think in the future, I won't tell people it has seaweed. That got some strange reactions.

Meredith and I made Lighter Lasagna Soup. Like the last time, we used that vodka sauce. Other than that, we really didn't mess with the recipe except to skip the bread and use regular pasta.

We shredded mozzarella from a block. The chicken sausage was a Spicy Parmesan Sausage. We had about a full pound but it was also very, very stuck to the casing so there is no way that much got into the soup.

It was really good. The recipe is pretty easy and doesn't take much creativity, but it's still really good!

We again did what we like to do with leftover pimento cheese (from here), we made grilled cheese. The pan was a bit too hot so it blacked a bit but didn't taste burned at all and was still really good. The pimento cheese was a bit smokier than when we made it other times, but it worked well with the grilled cheese.

We also made Roasted Broccoli Soup. We approximately 1.25x to 1.5x the recipe. Except we forgot the lemon (which we often do).

We used the Vitamix to blend it all (in batches) so it was super smooth. Also, despite increasing the recipe, we only used about 3 oz of cheddar (added grated to the Vitamix to really blend). This worked well enough. We also topped it with cheddar. Also, I added some garlic powder to the broth and, as the recipe suggests, went heavy on the bouillon.

Actually, we made the soup the night before, refrigerated it, and reheated it today. As always, it was incredibly good. I think the broccoli just brings out so much flavor. And it is a pretty easy soup to make which is nice.

And probably other stuff I do not recall. I chopped it all, tossed it with olive oil, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and rosemary.

I roasted it for 20-25 minutes at 425, then added diced chicken sausage, tossed it, and did another 20 minutes.

As usual, it came out very good. Lots of food but no starchy vegetables. It had a kick from the poblanos and the crushed red pepper (something I sadly found out were spicy after a trip to the bathroom....)

Pretzel Turtles

We were at a holiday event and someone brought these. They were so good that we had to ask what they were and how to make them. It turns out that they are made from Rollos. The recipe is super, super simple. Place a Rollo on each pretzel, bake at 350 for 4 minutes, then quickly press on a pecan. Let cool (we used the cool garage).

They were so simple and also really good. Actually, perhaps too good! More than a few people reported that this was their favorite of our candy. And we barely made it.

Oreo Truffles

We made this from this Kraft Recipe (local). We followed the recipe pretty closely except we used Greek Yogurt cream cheese (about the same calories but more protein, less fat). We dipped them in dark semi-sweet chocolate (which we also thinned with coconut oil).

They also came out really good. Easy ingredients but actually pretty labor intensive

Whiskey Carmel

Meredith had made these for me a while ago and they were really good so we decided to try them again. We used the recipe from So How's it Taste? (local). The recipe is actually pretty simple. I think the hardest thing is (a) the temperature adjustment and (b) not stirring the sugar.

On the note of altitude, we followed many guides that said to basically just linearly adjust the temperature based on the boiling point of water. Essentially, just decrease by 10F

They were really good. I think we just have to be more careful about using too much grease on the pan. Also wrapping them is a royal pain. We ended up using parchment and tape to hold it.

Additional Photos

Honeycomb

We love honeycomb candy we used to buy at the grocery store so we decided to make it. We used this Joy The Baker recipe (local) and followed it closely except again the temperature (see above). However, we had trouble with the combination of candy and digital thermometers. Before I knew it, the temp had gone to 300°F (where it was supposed to be if not for the adjustment).

It became really hard to stir and control. I think it was too hard/too hot. It kind of became a sticky mess as you can see from the photos. And a ton left on the pan.

They did mostly work. There was certainly a honeycomb structure but it was smaller than we would have happen. I would try it again but I would be more careful about the temperatures. It goes up in temp really quickly.

Additional Photos

Divinity

We made divinity again like last year. Again, we used the Paula Dean Recipe (local) but I think that was a mistake. It was so sticky. We could barely work with it. It stuck to the parchment paper and everything else. Also, it wasn't as good this year (as our second last year) but that could also have a lot to do with the fact that we made it about 5-6 days before we ate any. Also, we did salt them but didn't use salted nuts. I liked the salted nuts in there too. And, again, as noted above, we adjusted for the altitude.

I looked at some other recipes that seem to use less sugar. I think I would try that in the future. Also, I will lay them out of silpats since they won't tear while peeling them off.

We [tried] to make Rosemary Shortbread again like 2015-11-06 with this recipe. The only difference to the recipe being that we didn't want to use the egg-wash and we went heavier on the rosemary.

However, we somehow really messed it up. While we prepped everything over the weekend, we wanted the cookies to be fresh so we prepped the dough, then refrigerated it for two days. Then we warmed it enough to roll into a log (we wanted to make them round and this is an easier way to cut them).

Well, the combination of the refrigeration and everything must have messed them up because they spread everywhere on the pan. Or, it could have to do with the silpat, but I highly doubt that. The crumbs were amazing though!

Meredith made a frittata for dinner. She followed this Kitchn recipe (we just used the baking instructions so I won't copy the recipe).

This was really pretty good and easy. You really could taste the feta and all of the flavors.

It is nothing like the frittata I am used to thinking of (where you sauté everything and then add egg) but it was much easier and still pretty good. Actually, the recipe calls itself a pie, and not even a frittata but I still liked it! Probably only really works with already soft ingredients like we used. Otherwise, you'd have to sauté ahead of time. (Also, the recipe doesn't call itself a frittata but Oh Well

Cooking Instructions:

Meredith's mom gifted a cooking class at Sur La Table for the four of us (including Brooke).

I am not going to go through all the details since I really just wanted to have a place for the recipes.

We made a New Years Eve party at my Mom's house. The basic cooking, planning, and execution was done by me, Meredith and our friends, Sam and Ron.

We had 10 people (though we really only thought 9 while planning) but still managed to make enough food for 30. The idea was that we would not do a real meal and would instead have tons of appetizers

Below is the list we made to remember everything that had to go out. And, I think we added to this after I took the picture ¹. Again, way too much food.

Cheese Tray

Kale Salad

I made the kale salad similar to 2013-11-09 with the same recipe except that I skipped the rice and (accidentally) skipped the feta. I do think I went too heavy on the citrus. It was super lemony. And I may have gone light on the nuts.

Guacamole

Meredith made a huge batch of her guac. I do not know exactly what she uses but I know she basically does it to taste and includes:

Bean Dip

Meredith made the black-eyed-peas bean dip from 2013-01-25 with the same recipe. Black-eyed peas are considered good luck (in the Southern tradition)² for New Years and apparently, everyone else also knew this since we had a hell of a time finding them. We did eventually find cans of it, but first, bought (and used) a can of Hoppin' John which has the black-eyed peas (and we checked to make sure there wasn't any meat-products in there).

Deviled Eggs

Meredith made two types of Deviled Eggs. I did the boiling (steaming) with this method but I think I took it off too soon. The yolks were just under done. Perfect for eating them but a bit tough for deviled eggs. Oh well.

The others are "Smoky Deviled Eggs with Greek Yogurt & Frizzled Shallots" from The Kitchn (local). Meredith really just used this as a base. Her changes were:

They were pretty good though they came out very salty (maybe in overcompensating for forgetting it with frying them).

The flavor was still really good and this is a pretty easy recipe. Just less salt!

Samosa and Dumplings

These were purchased from Costco. The samosa was just baked but the dumplings took a good bit of labor. They were already made, but we pan fried them rather than steam. I think it made a huge difference and they were much better than they would have been. But also took a lot longer. (Thanks Ron for doing all the work on them)

Other items

The pretzels were a Pretzel Tray from a chain in Philly. They were really good

Dessert Items

We only made one of dessert items ourselves. The "moose" was my Grandmother's fat-free chocolate mousse. My dad made a lemon cake (and biscotti that was not on the list)

Smore Bars

Recipe to follow but you essentially make rice-Krispie treats with Golden Grams and add chocolate. Also, we used extra butter as we discovered in the past to make it more gooey. Sam made them so I will update this with her input when I get it.

I think olives and garlic ↩
So are greens BTW. That is why we had kale salad. But typically it is collard greens ↩

KitchenKatalog

Appetizer Tray

Turkey

Hasselback Tater Tots

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

Cranberry Sauce

Brussels Sprout

For The Dog

Additional Photos

Lebanese Moussaka

Ramen Rice Krispie Treats

Pimento Cheese:

Ramen Rice Krispies...again

Pretzel Turtles

Oreo Truffles

Whiskey Carmel

Additional Photos

Honeycomb

Additional Photos

Divinity

Cookies

Cooking Instructions:

Cheese Tray

Kale Salad

Guacamole

Bean Dip

Deviled Eggs

Samosa and Dumplings

Other items

Dessert Items

Smore Bars