A yummy Christmas dessert!

The big finish from my family's Christmas dinner!

Recipe was from Southern Living, can be found here:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1940908

I made a different frosting for my cake. Mine was a white chocolate buttercream.

Update on my last post...

The to-die-for recipes are now up at Rachael Ray's magazine:

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/rachael-ray-30-minute-meals/Eggplant-Parm-Bread-Pizza

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/rachael-ray-30-minute-meals/French-Onion-Mac--n---Cheese

YUM.

I made my pizzas a bit differently- instead of canned tomatoes, I used thin slices of fresh roma tomatoes. And for my own pizza, I used slices of hard salami.

Still cooking.

Just haven't posted much lately. I've been trying out several recipes. I found two really good ones in the latest Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine- French Onion Mac and Cheese, and an Eggplant Parmesan Pizza. They should be up on the website in a couple of weeks, so I won't post them here. I will say that both are keepers- the Mac and Cheese is to die for. It's my new favorite pasta dish. It's just what it sounds like- French Onion soup flavors in pasta form, with carmalized onions and Gruyere cheese (I also used ordinary Swiss).

The pizzas were thinly sliced eggplant and fresh mozzerella cheese on chibata bread, with fire roasted tomatoes. I used French bread instead, and for the non-eggplant loving members of the family (me), I used salami.

I love this magazine!

Mom gave me a new cookbook- Swedish cakes and cookies. There are some very interesting recipes in it. I gave the "Princess Torte" a try:





It's a layered sponge cake with custard and whipped cream in between the layers, covered with a thin coating of tinted marzipan. Fairly simple- any recipe for sponge cake and custard could be used for it.

Pie!

I tried this recipe out yesterday. I love chess pie, but I've never made it.

Classic Chess Pie

from Southern Living Comfort Foods

½ package refrigerated pie crusts
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup milk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 425°. Fit piecrust into a 9-inch pieplate. Fold edges under and crimp.

Line crust with aluminum foil, and fill with pie weights or dried beans.

Bake at 425° for four to five minutes. Remove weights and foil, and bake for two more minutes until golden. Cool.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Stir together sugar and next seven ingredients until blended. Add eggs, stirring well. Pour filling into pre baked crust.

Bake at 350° for 50 or 55 minutes, shielding edges with foil after ten minutes to avoid excessive browning. Cool completely. Serves 8.

I think the cornmeal is what makes this pie so amazing. It rises to the top of the filling to make a sweet crust.



My dad couldn't wait to try it!



Inside the pie- a nice, smooth, golden custard.




http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Living-Comfort-Food-Delicious/dp/0848732669/ref=sr_1_71?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253406329&sr=1-71

Yum. Comfort food.

Hash brown casserole...easiest thing in the world- thrown together, really.



Pre-heat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, stir together one bag of shredded hash browns, 1 cup each cream of mushroom soup and sour cream, 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and one cup of sliced onions and bell peppers (more onions than peppers). Pour into a lightly greased 13x8 inch glass casserole dish, and bake at least an hour, or until edges are brown and crispy.

Oops. I've neglected this blog again.

I had family in from out of town this week, and had to cook for everyone. One night I made choucroute garnie- an Alsasian dish served in Germany, France, and Eastern Europe. It's a dish with no real recipe- but always has sauerkraut and several types of meat. Mine had pork chops and four different kinds of German sausages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choucroute_garnie

I browned the meats, and then put them in a crockpot covered with sauerkraut. I added a bit of white wine, and just let it cook all day!

I personally don't like the dish, but everyone enjoyed it.

Cocktail time.

Mom had a party last weekend, and this drink was the big hit of the night: Bananas Faster. It's basically a Bananas Foster in drink form!

It's from In the Land of Cocktails by Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan.

For one cocktail:

2 packed teaspoons dark brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 orange wedge
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
2 ounces dark rum
1 once créme de banane (we couldn't find any, so we used banana rum/banana schnapps)
1/2 banana, peeled and sliced lengthwise

Combine one teaspoon of the sugar and the cinnamon on a saucer and mix well. Wet the rim of a brandy snifter with the orange wedge and dip the rim into the sugar mixture. Set aside.

Combine the ice cream, rum, créme de banane, banana, and remaining sugar in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds.

Pour into prepared glass and serve immediately.

This drink is addictive!

Lemon Cake!

Adapted somewhat from The Cake Mix Doctor.

1 package lemon cake mix
1 3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 12 ounce can 7-Up

2 jars of lemon curd.

This is where I changed things...they call for homemade pineapple curd, but I didn't have time to do that! Lime or cranberry curd would be good, too.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans and set aside.

Place cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, and 7-Up in a large mixer and beat on low speed for one minute, then scrape the bowl down with a spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 or 3 minutes more. Divide batter among the pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cakes pull from the sides of the pans.

Let cakes cool completely. When cool, spread lemon curd on each layer, and cover the whole cake with more curd.

Should serve about 12. Really good served with a berry sorbet or chocolate ice cream.

I meant to post this last week.

This was dinner on the day of the Kentucky Derby!

The Hot Brown

6 tablespoons butter
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups half-and-half
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup sweet sherry
2 egg yolks, beaten
4 toast points
½ pound turkey breast slices
4 strips crisp cooked bacon
2 trimmed and fluted mushroom caps
4 tomato slices

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter. Sprinkle on the flour and stir constantly until the roux is golden and dry. Stir in the half-and-half and the cream. Cook several minutes, or until the flour taste is gone. Stir in the cheeses. Add the sherry and continue stirring until the sauce is thin and the cheese is melted.

Strain the hot sauce into a bowl. Add the egg yolks and blend well. Preheat the broiler. Line 2 ovenproof single serving dishes with 2 toast points. Top with slices of turkey and a generous portion of the sauce. Broil until the sauce is lightly browned on top. Remove and place 2 bacon slices, tomato slices, and 1 mushroom cap on each. Garnish with parsley.

Leftover lamb!

Easter dinner with lamb and ham means great leftovers. I used up a leg of lamb by making pita sandwiches with Tzatziki sauce. I made up my recipe on the spot, but it's pretty basic (everyone has a similar recipe):

One cup of Greek yogurt (ordinary plain yogurt will do in a pinch)
1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeds removed, chopped, excess liquid squeezed out
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped mint (traditional, but I use basil if I'm out of mint)
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve cold. Drizzle on lamb or falafel in pita sandwiches. Yum!

I sliced up the lamb and pan fried it in a bit of olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. When cooked this way and served with the tzatziki in a pita, it tasted just like the gyros from any good Greek/Mediterranean restaurant.

Of course, I made spanakopita this year like always, and as usual, they didn't last long!

This year, I didn't do anything special with the leftover ham. I just fried slices of it and served it with scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

Book sale= cooking magazine treasures!

My mom brought home a huge stack of magazines from the library book sale. Many back issues of Cook's Illustrated, Taste of Home, and Cook's Country. I'm having fun going through them all, and finding great recipes to try out.

I have a subscription to Every Day with Rachael Ray now. I love it.

Slow cooker revolution?

I picked up Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook at the library recently. Crock Pot cooking has come a long way from the days of just pot roasts and chili! This book has a ton of recipes- from soups and stews, drinks, appetizers, desserts, entrees...and yes, pot roast and chili. Some recipes I definitely will try out.

A fake recipe and a real one...

This is not a real recipe! I sure wouldn't want to try it! I found this posted on a message board:

Popcorn Dressing:

Turkey Dressing
2 cups dry bread, chunked
l tsp. Sage
¼ tsp. Rosemary (ground or leaves)
l/2 tsp. Pepper
¼ tsp. Salt
2 cups Popcorn (uncooked)

Combine ingredients and place in cavity of
Turkey. Bake in 350 oven, allowing
Approximately 20 min. per pound.
Turkey is done when popcorn
Blows ass off the bird.

For one thing, the oven temperature isn't hot enough to pop the corn. *lol* And the the final line seals it! Though it does sound almost like the "beer in the rear" chicken grills...

Now for a real recipe- today is my nephew's birthday, and he wanted to go to a local French restaurant for lunch. I had to have their onion soup. It was fabulous, and now I want to make my own. So I found a recipe I liked here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Onion-Soup-Gratinee/Detail.aspx

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 sprigs fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 thick slices French or Italian bread
8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
4 pinches paprika

Directions:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.

Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.

Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.

Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyere cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.

Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. Serve immediately!

I'll give this one a try the next time I want French Onion Soup.

Once again, I've neglected this blog...

And I do have recipes to share, but tonight is Super Bowl Sunday, and I'm otherwise occupied. :p

As I'm watching the game, I've been reading what online friends are having for snacks. One suggestion: Atomic Buffalo Turds.

http://www.bamaque.com/webstat/abts.htm

Merciless gods, they like to use habenera peppers. Otherwise, those sound good...if you like a lot of smoked meat and hot peppers!

From the link:

"ABT's (atomic buffalo turds) are large fresh jalapeño peppers sliced in half lengthwise with the seeds and white membrane removed. Stuffed with cream cheese a little smoky sausage and wrapped with a piece of bacon and held together with a tooth pick while cooking."

I went the boring route and ordered a Hawaiian-style pizza from a local chain.

Tomorrow, I'm sure there will be recipes for fried Cardinal, because that's how the game is going for them....:(