Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
Sitemap ·
Our Recipe Book ·
Steven's Recipe Book ·
Ann's Recipe Book ·
Meal Ideas ·
Copied Recipes
Random ·
Random Links
Home > 80
KitchenKatalog: Blog 80
Friday, January 01, 2021, 12:24 PM
Meredith made Liège Waffles from Smitten Kitchen (LOCAL) for New Year's Day brunch. She followed the recipe with an overnight rest in the fridge. The problem was, Smitten Kitchen makes no mention of warming up the dough so the timing was all off. The plan was to do this for breakfast but it took a few hours on the counter for the dough to come to temperature! Hence, these became brunch.
After making them all (which took over an hour and a half), Meredith put them in the oven to stay warm. She had tasted a few of them before and thought they were a bit dry. The keeping-warm in the oven did not do them any favors.
Other than a bit dry, they were quite tasty! They had a nice crunch from the sugar and pretty good flavor!
But between the lack of information about the dough; it being a bit dry; and how slow it was to add the butter, this will not be our go-to recipe in the future!
For brunch we also had Poinsettias (with a splash of Triple Sec) and mimosas. We made Caroline a virgin mimosa with orange La Croix. We also served some cheese, crackers, ham, and fruit
Thursday, December 31, 2020, 08:37 PM
Meredith made a double batch white bean chicken chili from Eating Bird Food. She ran out of chicken Better than Bouillon so she had to use veggie. It was still very good, though not quite as good as last time. Maybe it was the broth or something else.
We also added 3 tiny1 bell parties.
not “mini” or “petite” but tiny. Walmart gave us the tiniest little peppers and we’re not sour about it at all ↩
Thursday, December 31, 2020, 03:10 PM
I made the Taste of Texas Pecan Pie for New Years.
I used Trader Joes frozen crust and it was miserable! As you can see from the pictures, it all broke into strips. I had to lay it into the pan and press it together. Far from ideal.
I cooked it for about 1:45 at the 300°F (though I did closer to 310°F) and then I meant to turn it down but I honestly can't recall if I did or not. Either way, I did another 45 min at whatever temp I used.
I made one big one (with about 10-12 oz pecans) and then four littles. The last little one, I did the liquid first then the pecans since I didn't want to go to a fifth one! You can kind of see that in the photo. It was, the back left in the oven and I think the back right in the cooked photo.
They really puffed up but eventually settled down when cooling. Actually, a bit more than I would have liked but they still came out pretty good.
I was not overly happy with the result. First, it was super hard to cut. That may have been because there were too many pecans and they weren't chopped. It was around 12oz whereas the first time, I used about 8.
And the crust kind of came apart. And finally, it may have been a bit over cooked. Not 100% sure.
I added the note to the page, but you MUST put something under the pan if using the spring-form! It was such a mess and filled the kitchen with smoke the next day! I ended up using the steam cleaner on it.
Monday, December 28, 2020, 05:16 PM
I used leftover ham, an onion, and green bell peppers to make a Denver scramble (a la a Denver Omelet). I lightly sautéed the stuff then added 6 eggs and lots of cheese.
It was surprisingly good!!!
So good in fact that we made it the next day for breakfast! (The photo is from breakfast)
Monday, December 28, 2020, 12:11 PM
Meredith made her new favorite Asian Chicken Salad (aka Redemption Salad). It was delicious as last time!
Also, Meredith used peanuts instead of cashews.
Saturday, December 26, 2020, 08:28 PM
Meredith made a Peppermint Bark Yule Log for Christmas. The recipe was based on Joy the Baker (LOCAL) but with peppermint instead. She used the cake recipe as it was but made the whipped cream with vanilla and peppermint extract (to taste) and chopped up peppermint bark. She also didn't use gelatin as the ones we had smelled off.
It did crack but you couldn't tell at the end. She topped it with coconut to make is "snowy"
The whipped cream with the little chunks were really good! And the whole cake was nice and delicate but also really good.
Meredith also made cranberry crumb bars. They were good as usual!
Saturday, December 26, 2020, 08:26 PM
We were pretty full from all of the Christmas Breakfast (sticky buns and armadillo eggs) so we pushed Christmas Dinner to the next day.
I made the gravy and that was it. I just did it with onion, scallion, (homegrown) sage, butter, and flour. I did end up adding some cornstarch after it was too thin. I kind of read the Serious Eats notes but not really.
Other items were:
I tried to do the ham on the grill to make more room and I was not thrilled with how it came out. It was hard to cook evenly! I would not do that again
Dessert gets its own page
Friday, December 25, 2020, 12:10 PM
Meredith made Ginger Bread Sticky Buns/Star with a Brown Butter Cream Cheese Icing.
For the dough, she used Joy The Baker King Cake recipe with the following notes:
The filling and frosting were from Gingerbread Brioche Cinnamon Rolls from Half Baked Harvest (LOCAL). She added a 1/4 tsp clove to the filling.
She did half as normal buns and then did the other half with the star Shape from Better Homes and Garden (LOCAL). It was not nearly as hard as it looked.
They came out good though the star got overcooked. The icing was delicious!