frou-frou grilled cheese with bacon, apples and onions

is it fair to try to re-create at home something amazing you had at a restaurant? because i'm obsessed with "the harvest" grilled cheese from house in media. so, umm, i tried to make it at home with some (read: huge) success.

ingredients:

• 3 5x5 ciabatta rolls (i actually used 1 1/2 5x10s from trader joe's)
• 4 ounces sharp cheddar, sliced
• one apple, peeled and shaved into strips
• bacon, ummm, i think it was like 1/2 a pound?
• 1 medium sweet onion, sliced and sauteed in the nearly-clean bacon pan (oh, yeah)
• butter for greasing OR a panini press

prep:

• make your ingredients look like this:

(cooked but not ALL THE WAY to the point of crispiness)

actual cooking:

• put one side of the bread face-up on a lightly buttered largish frying pan or griddle
  

• add cheese, apples, onions, bacon and a little more cheese

• put the top on and press down
  

(maybe put a preheated cast-iron skillet on top. maybe. but best to slightly grease the bottom first. trust me.)

• cook until the cheese is ooey-gooey, or toss it in the oven after a brief grilling so it gets melty while you make the next one. NOM.

meatloaf for comfort

i've tried a few different methods for meatloaf (my mother-in-law does hers in a crockpot, i think my mom used to-- or still does-- add beans, mainly i just try to copy other people's recipes while dumbing them down to half-assed when at all possible.) and this is by far the easiest and best. it'so easy, in fact, that i made it last night after i had surgery on my arm. okay, THAT was a shameless, exaggerated ploy for sympathy. ihad an out-patient procedure at my dermatologist's office, but STILL. it huuuuuuuuurts.

ahem. meatloaf. i meant to make-ahead this one but after seeing saw vi on sunday i was reall in no mood to handle raw meat.

ingredients:

• ground beef (or "meatloaf meat") about 1 pound for every 4 people
• 1/2 a can of tomato paste for every pound of meat
• 1/2 a white onion for ever pound of meat
• 1/2 tsp italian seasoning for every pound of meat
• 1/2 tsp salt for every pound of meat
• 1 egg for every pound of meat

prep:

• dice onion in about 1/2 inch chunks
• preheat oven to 350*

actual cooking:

• combine ingredients (i use a mixer, ina garten uses a fork, you can feel free to use your hands, but, gag.)
• (if your meat is very, very lean, lightly grease the bottom of your small roasting pan)
• form into a loaf, wider than it is high
• bake for an hour

ceviche

holy shit i fed my family raw fish. no kidding.

okay, it's chemically cooked or whatever but this is a big step for me: i touched it. to be perfectly honest, i was near tears the entire time, but uncle jim came through big time for me because the stuff still had skin and that was really more than i was prepared to handle. by the way, bill suggests that it is perhaps not encouraging to say things like, "i can't believe that's food" to the people you're cooking for. noted.

ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh key lime juice from fresh key limes that you juiced (or that your husband and brother juiced)
• 2/3 cup clam juice (from a bottle, THANK GOD)
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup matchstick-sized strips red onion
• 1 1/2 tbs fresh ginger (peeled)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 1/2 pounds cubed mahi mahi, tilapia or chilean sea bass fillet
• 6 tbs fresh cilantro
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 minced aji chilis

prep work:

• juice key limes
• chop & measure everything
• peel, cube and mince
• seriously, everything

actual cooking (eh, it's relative):

• toss lime juice, clam juice, celery, a bit of red onion, the ginger and the garlic in the blender
• add a small handful of fish (1/2 cupish), 4 tbs cilantro & 1 1/2 tsp salt
• puree. a lot.
• strain the world's grossest milkshake into a glass bowl, pressing down on solids
• add the remaining fish, cilantro, salt, chili and red onion
• cover and chill for 2 hours, stirring occasionally

this recipe is both easier and harder than it looks. frankly, it's a whole hell of a lot of prep work, but then, it just sort of... happens. the fish was visibly cooked within an hour in the juice. (it was opaque, that's how we knew.)

i hope at this point columbus was turning little flip-flops in his grave. otherwise all my hard work and squeeming was for naught.

baked falafel

i've made falafel from a mix before, all re-hydrated and deep-fried (and kosher!), but this recipe for falafel that was baked instead of fried intrigued me. besides, i'm totally ready to amp up my game. and... my food processor was still on the counter from a fight i had with some blueberry bars last weekend.

um, and then i read the read the recipe beyond its title and saw that it does take a little pan-frying, but also bakes, which calls for a cast iron skillet, if you ask me.



ingredients:

• 1 can (15-16 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbs flour

prep:

• preheat oven to 400*
• chop your onion & garlic, but don't go crazy because you're putting them in the food processor, jackass
• rinse & drain your beans

actual cooking:

• pulse beans, onion, garlic, parsley, spices, salt & baking soda in the food processor until combined but still a little grainy (i went past this and my falafel had the consistency of... i don't know what. toothpaste. spicey toothpaste.)
• stir flour in by hand
• form into four patties and let them rest for fifteen minutes
  

• (this is a good time to put your cauliflower in the oven, generously sprayed with olive oil, and start your israeli cous cous going on the stovetop.)
• spray cast iron skillet with olive oil and set heat to medium-high
• fry patties about 2 minutes on each side
  

• transfer skillet to the oven and bake for 10 minutes
  
  
  

cookies 'n cream cake

it remains unclear exactly WHO gave my BABY brother permission to turn eighteen, but there is one thing we do know: there was no road test.

whilst enjoying kevin's chocolate cake with coffee frosting in june, i asked leonardo what his preference would be. "well," he said after some consideration, "i can't ask for this again, so... something cookies 'n cream."


the body of the cake is comprised of two textures-- unfortunately this part needs some tweaking, but i'll get to that-- soft white cake and brownie. the frosting was a white "cream filling" butter cream, colored with wilton "white-white" and flavored with clear vanilla artificial flavoring. a bit of granulated sugar gave it that slightly gritty texture. wilton cookies n' cream sprinkles added, ummm, more cookiness. originally, the second texture was going to be a chocolate cookie, but the logistics were fuzzy and an obligation to school and my waistline prevented me from experimenting beforehand. so i did something possibly incredibly stupid: i left one egg out of the brownie layers hoping for a crumbly, cookie-like layer. this may be what propted anna to ask, "is this... toffee?" um, crumbly? not so much. imbued with a facinating tar-like quality might be closer to the mark.

everybody liked it though, especially greg, who ate twice as much as everyone else in a fraction of the time. boy, if you ever need to feel good about something you baked, call greg.

so, moving on...

brownie layer ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 cups butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 (or 3) eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour

cake layer ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (softened to a mayonaise-like consistancy)
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup egg whites
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring

frosting ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tbs artificial (clear) vanilla
• liberal splash of "white-white" to preferred color
• about a tablespoon of milk

prep:

• warm everything up to room temp, or as specified
• grease 8" pans (or foil linings of said pans)
• preheat to 350*

actual cooking:

• nuke chocolate & brownie butter for 2 minutes
• stir until chocolate melts
• add sugar, eggs & vanilla
• add flour
• divide between pans
• bake for 25 minutes
• remove and cool
• preheat to 375*
• grease & flour pans
• combine dry cake ingredients
• add egg whites, vanilla, milk & butter
• beat until combined
• pour into two pans
• bake for 20 minutes
• remove and cool
• whip frosting butter until creamy
• SLOWLY add confectioner sugar
• add granulate sugar
• add vanilla flavoring & "white-white"
• add milk until desired consistancy is reached
• frost & decorate cake

happy



birthday

simba!

rhubarb pie

now, i'm not one to go BUYING strange, red celery with poisonous leaves (seriously-- don't. eat. the. leaves.) but we got my parents' csa share this week and i definitely AM one to freeze up when i'm doing something new and refuse to deviate, so... the rhubarb came home with us. what do you DO with rhubarb, i asked myself, and then i remembered little house on the prairie -- only the actual story probably came from the first four years or those happy golden years -- and bought a prefab pie crust.

ingredients:

• frozen pie crust
• 4 cups (a regular bunch that you'd see at a store) rhubarb, cubed
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup flour

prep:

• preheat oven to 450*
• defrost pie crust (or make your own... whatever)
• cube rhubarb (which the joy of cooking only BARELY deigns to call "fruit")

actual cooking:

• unroll first crust into pie plate, perforate with a fork
• combine sugar, flour and rhubarb in a bowl
• pour filling mixture into pie shell
• unroll top crust over filling, crimp & perforate
• bake (on a cookie sheet-- preferably rimmed) at 450* for 10 minutes
• decrease heat to 350* and continue baking 35-40 minutes

it's tastes like cherry pie-- honest! sugary and tart and pretty delicious.

chocolate cake with coffee frosting

kevin's birthday cake was a bakers chocolate one-bowl chocolate cake. it took, frankly, too damn long. in the future, i'll probably stick with the joy of cooking's "lightning cake" (or blitz-cake, as we call it).

ingredients (cake):

• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter
• 6 ounces (1 cup chips) semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups water

ingredients (frosting):

• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1/8 cup instant coffee
• 6 cups confectioner's sugar
• 3/4 cups (1.5 sticks) butter, softened

prep:

• grease & flour 2 8" circle or square cake pans
• preheat over to 350*

actual cooking:

• in a small, microwave safe bowl, nuke frosting milk for 1.5 minutes
• add coffee and stir until dissolved
• set aside
• in a large, microwave safe bowl nuke cake butter & chocolate for 2 minutes
• stir until melted & combined
• add sugar
• add eggs & vanilla
• add 1/2 cup flour, salt & baking soda
• add remaining flour & water (alternating)
• pour batter into cake pans
• bake for 35 minutes
• combine softened butter and confectioners sugar
• add coffee-milk by the tablespoon until desired consistency is reached

easter pie OR pizza rustica OR calzone

we call this dish calzone-- but we say ghav-uh-zoon-- and we pretty much live for easter so we can have it. we love it so much we'd make is other times of year, but you can only get basket cheese at easter, so we can't. because of the magnitude of this project, we have to do it at my mother's house where there are three ovens, and the occasional excitable teenaged brother willing to forgo book learnin' to get elbow deep in family tradition for an afternoon.

dough ingredients:

• 20 cups of flour (plus more for dusting)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• 2 tbs salt
• 6 cups vegetable shortening ("crisco: it's digestible!")
• 19 eggs
• 3/4 cup ice water
• egg wash (milk & 2 beaten eggs)

filling ingredients:

• 3 pounds sweet italian sausage, out of the case, browned
• 3 pounds ham, diced
• 1 pounds soprasotta, thick-sliced, diced
• 1 pound proscuitto, thick-sliced, diced
• 1 pound ricotta cheese
• 1 basket cheese, diced
• 20 hard boiled eggs, diced
• chopped fresh parsley
• 6 eggs

prep:

• hard boil 24 eggs, chop 20 of them and set aside
• brown sausage
• dice meats & basket cheese
• combine meats
  

• combine dry ingredients for dough

• blend in shortening
  

• add eggs & water
• blend thoroughly
• turn out and knead (or massagia)
  
  
  
• add basket cheese & parsley to meat
  
  
  
• preheat oven(s) to 375*
• break for a lovely lunch of egg salad sandwiches (those last 4 eggs!), carrots and limeade. it's traditional.
  

• add hard boiled eggs to meat
  

• add raw eggs & ricotta to meat
  

actual cooking:

• roll out dough into large circles

• paint egg wash around edges
• pile half with filling
• fold other half over
• crimp edges
• move to a greased baking sheet
• brush with egg wash
• vent

• bake at 375* until browned and bubbling
• cool for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size) on the sheet
• move to a rack to cool completely
• serve lukewarm or cold
  

this recipe made 2 extra larges (about 16"x8"), 7 larges (about 10"x5") and 6 smalls (about 8"x4"). that's a lot. but somehow, we always need as many as we make. they freeze so well that we usually have one in january to hold us over.

blue ribbon lamb cake

this is a molded easter lamb cake baked in a blue ribbon bakeware easter lamb mold using the blue ribbon bakeware lamb cake recipe. the mold belonged to my great grandmother, and she used this same recipe (which came with the mold). last year i tried to use a joy of cooking white cake recipe and it turned out really hard and dry, so this year i'm using the recipe that's worked for 60+ years because, to quote the recipe, "in all our testing and use there was no leakage of batter-- no breakage of the nose or ears and the cake was removed very easily."

ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk

prep:

• grease & flour mold
• preheat overn to 375*

actual cooking:

• combine flour, baking powder & salt, set aside
• cream butter
• add sugar
• add eggs & vanilla
• add dry mixture alternating with milk
• place mold on edged baking sheet
• pour batter into the front side of the mold
• place the back side on top
• bake for 45 minutes
• remove mold, back side first and allow cake to cool upright
• frost & decorate

because i hate coconut, i frost the cake with white frosting (after an attempt at boiled butter cream & regular butter cream yesterday, i settled on duncan hines fluffy white for this) and sprinkle green sweetened coconut around it. you could, instead, gently press the coconut into the frosting. i made the lips with 1/4 of a pink jellybean and the eyes with a split black one, but the traditional decorations are 1/2 a cherry and 2 raisins.

batter poured into the face side of the mold

back side of the mold on top

cake removed from mold (face-up)

the bow is at one end of the ribbon and secured to the other end with a dot of frosting

hearty banana muffins

this is a huge cheat of a recipe since the main ingredient is a banana bread mix. but, LO! some lady made a damn fortune writing books about making box cakes, so bear with me, k?

ingredients:

• banana bread mix (mine was trader joe's, naturally)
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup egg whites OR 2 large eggs

prep:

• none, this recipe takes ten minutes
• oh, and preheat to 325*

actual cooking:

• combine ingredients in a bowl
• spoon into lined muffin tin (i did 12 regular-sized muffins)
• bake for 30 minutes

the recipe on the box (with eggs & oil) makes nine servings at something like 370 calories each. my recipe make 12 at 175 each. good deal, right? plus, mine have way more fiber since neither eggs nor oil have fiber, but applesauce and oat sure do. but i didn't do that math.

fastnachts: mardi gras pennsylvania dutch style

mardi gras, fat tuesday, fatty/fattening tuesday, shrove tuesday, pancake day, fastnacht day or paczki day is the day before ash wednesday when, depending on your language and tradition, you use up all the "luxurious" ingredients in your pantry before lent starts and they all go to waste, by making doughnuts, pancakes, crepes or parade floats. you know, those luxuries like eggs, butter and sugar.

the pennsylvania dutch call their doughnuts fastnachts (yeah, that means "fast night" as in "fast and abstain" not "i blacked out!" that's more mardi gras...) and make them without holes and out of potatoes. i didn't really make fastnachts. i made doughnuts without holes. close enough.

i started with the black & white donut hole recipe from williams-sonoma. then i doubled it and cut the bullshit.

ingredients:

• 7 cups flour, plus 1/2-1 cup for dusting
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups sugar (2 for the dough, 2 for coating)
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (half a stick or 4 tbs) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
• vegetable oil for deep frying

prep:

• sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon & salt
• beat eggs until frothy
• add 2 cups sugar to eggs and beat until lemony-yellow
• add buttermilk & butter to egg mixture
• pour egg mixture into the center of dry mixture and combine to form a very soft, sticky dough
• roll out to 1/3 inch on a generously floured board
• cut out 3-inch circles & 1-inch circles
• refrigerate overnight

actual cooking:

• heat 3 inches of oil in a large saucepan or deep fryer if you can get your hand's on one (thanks mom!) to 380*
• fry doughnuts in small batches

• turning frequently until golden (about 5 minutes)
  

• remove from oil with a skimmer
• deposit on paper to drain
  
  
• put remaining sugar in a paper bag
• drop in warm doughnuts & shake to coat
  
  
• wake up your loved ones
  
  

i started frying at 3:45 this morning, had my doughnuts packed up for delivery (3 1/2 dozen regular ones + a few dozen little ones) by 5. i was eagerly greeted at the door by della, dottie & ginger (the dogs). ginger even mustered the strength to jump from the floor to the dining room table without a chair stop-over for the first time in her 12 years to snag a bite. everyone seems pretty happy with the results. as a matter of fact, the only person who got doughnuts that i haven't heard from today is anthony.

super-brownies

i made these in miniature cupcake pans for bill's office farewell party today. you could probably make them as regular brownies, but i think it would take longer... like 35 minutes? not sure.

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 7/8 cup flour
• 1 tbs instant coffee powder
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• baking spray, shortening or butter for greasing pan
• (about 1 tsp cocoa & 1 tsp powdered sugar for decorating)

prep:

• preheat oven to 350*
• grease pan (or use paper liners, but they stick!)

actual cooking:

• put butter & baking chocolate in a micro-wave safe bowl & nuke for 1 minute or until butter is melted (1:50 for me, but my butter was frozen)
• stir until chocolate melts
• add sugar, coffee powder & cocoa, combine
• add eggs & combine
• add flour & combine
• fill mini muffin tins about 2/3 (i put the batter in a heavy zippy bag & cut off a corner and pipe it in)-- makes about 48 which is TWO pans, so either have two pans or chill the first one in the fridge for 10 minutes in between batches
• bake for 15 minutes
• remove from tin after 5 minutes, allow to cool at least an hour
• (dust with cocoa & powdered sugar, or both)

next time i make these, i think i'll try some mini chocolate chips-- ideally dark chocolate! i don't have a report from the office yet, but bill, kevin & anthony agree that they're AWESOME.

recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one chicken

ingredients:

• one whole chicken (i paid ~$9)
• 1 bag frozen veggie blend (i paid ~$2 for tj's organic foursome)
• 3 potatoes (i paid ~$1.15 for huge ones)
• 1 stick butter (negligible, i guess it cost me ~$0.75)
• 1.5 cups flour (negligible)
• splash of milk or cream (whatever you have)
• mirepoix (i paid ~$3, or you could chop up your own onions, carrots & celery)
• 1 pound egg noodles (i paid ~$1)
• vodka (or ice-cold water... you see where this is going right?)
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper

(see, i paid about $20, give or take, for the ingredients to feed us dinner for a week. recession-friendly! we also spend about $20 a week on produce and $15 on lunch-foods.)

prep:

• chill 1/2 the butter and the vodka/water

actual cooking (meal 1):

• roast the chicken, seasoned with s&p and rubbed with butter for 20 minutes per pound at 350*
• cube & boil 2 potatoes, skin on, until softish
• drain potatoes
• add 2-3 tablespoons butter & milk to potatoes, mash
• season to taste with salt & pepper
• nuke 1/3-1/2 the frozen veggies

actual cooking (meal 2):

• heat chicken drippings & 1/2 cup flour on medium heat, whisk until smooth, add hot water to desire thickness
• pick carcass of usable meat, set aside
• use carcass to make broth
• use chilled butter, 1 cup flour and chilled vodka/water to make pie crust
• nuke 1 potato, chill & cube
• combine gravy, frozen veggies, cubed potato, 1/3-1/2 the chicken pieces in a lightly greased casserole
• cover with crust, pierce & bake at 375* until golden brown

actual cooking (meal 3):

• use mirepoix, broth, noodles, remaining chicken & remaining veggies to make soup

meal 1 is a one-shot deal. meal 2 we haven't eaten yet, but we expect it to last 2 or 3 dinners. meal 3 should also last 2 or 3 dinners. of course, this is all dependant on how much you eat. it's not magic, ya know.

editied to add:

with the addition of a very hungry j to our meal 2 dinner, it lasted one night, and i would have known that if i hadn't blogged this meal right before we had the idea to invite him. but... since i hadn't added the rest of the frozen veggies to the soup (because i hadn't thought of it yet) and we had an onion, rice & eggs laying around the house, i managed to squeeze another pantry meal out with some yum veggie fried rice, with frozen egg rolls (also a stock pantry item in my home... don't judge).

chicken noo-noos

this recipe was developed for j, who says that chicken noodle soup is "THE DEVIL" and has some choice things to say about chicken broth in particular, i believe.

ingredients:

• 1-4 chicken breasts, depending on how into meat you are
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• mirepoix
• 1 pound egg noodles, medium or wide, but not small (and, seriously, you can't just throw pasta in there and call them noodles. NOODLES are not PASTA.)
• sea salt & ground pepper
• 1/8 cup cold water
• 1/8 cup cornstarch (or flour, i think flour might work)

prep:

• boil the chicken in broth until past done
• chill until cool to the touch
• (chop up a large onion, a couple carrots and some celery if you didn't buy your prechopped mirepoix from trader joe's)
• shred chicken with fingers or forks

actual cooking:

• lightly saute mirepoix in the bottom of your soup pot
• add broth and bring to a boil
• add chicken & noodles (yup, all of them)
• boil as long as the noodle package says to (8 minutes, i think?)
• season to taste
• mix together cold water & cornstarch (this part is key-- it won't work if you just dump them both in the pot! and make sure it's not lumpy... nobody wants a lump of cornstarch.)
• add water/starch to boiling soup and stir
• boil for at least 2 minutes or until soup reaches desired thickness

this will be even thicker the next day-- more like a casserole than a stew. in fact, i won't blame you if you want to bake it with some breadcrumbs or crushed chips on top. yum.

pork with a pineapple-ginger sauce

ingredients:

• pork medallions, pork loin or pork chops (or ham, or chicken)
• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

prep:

• cook meat however you like, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper

actual cooking:

• while meat is cooking, combine other ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat
• simmer until liquid is reduced to almost nothing
• remove from heat & allow to sit uncovered until meat is ready

so. freaking. easy. i served pork medallions with israeli cous cous and steamed snap peas. it was a hit. the only real problem is... i don't eat ginger, so it's possible they were lying to me. but they did continue to eat the sauce after the meat was gone, so that's something.

duck a la' half-ass

"i think," i said, possibly before i even really had the thought, "i'll make a duck for christmas!" and then... it was. that was sometime in mid-november. i ignored the plan for about a month and then decided it was time to purchase the duck. (duck? is expensive. wow. the little 6-pound bugger i bought ran me $18! and you gotta figure, with a duck, about two and a half pounds of that was fat the just dripped off. but i digress.) so, i went to the "real" supermarket-- which is less intimidating than a butcher or a farmer's market where i might see feathers or something-- and snagged a frozen duckling.

all eating ducks are apparently ducklings. i discovered that in my internet research after the joy of cooking offered options for trussing and de-boning "the bird." also? they're mostly farm-raised, to the extent that you could call a thing that lived on average eight weeks having been raised. because they're mostly farm-raised, they're mostly not super fatty like wild duck, if you buy them frozen in the supermarket, at least. because they're not super-fatty, you do not have to prick the skin, no matter what your grandmother insists.

so, this is how i cooked the duck.

ingredients:

• a duck
• oil spray
• salt

prep:

• defrost the duck
• dump the blood, guts, neck and orange sauce packet out of the duck
• (call somebody to brag that you just handled duck guts on freaking christmas!)
• place duck breast-up on a roasting pan
• spritz with oil, sprinkle with salt
• preheat the oven to temperature prescribed on duckling packaging

actual cooking:

• put the duck in the oven
• follow directions on duckling packaging
• cook until duckling reached 180 degrees in the thigh joint
• warm up orange sauce
• move duck to a new plate and cut into edible pieces (note: the wings aren't worth a damn and the legs aren't worth much more. also: the whole damn bird is dark meat.)
• serve with orange sauce (the one that came out of the duck's, ahem, cavity.)

a duck, as a main course, will serve about a person and a half, maybe two. i served duck alongside ham, garlic smashed red potatoes, cornbread stuffing with onions, lima beans, roasted broccoli & cauliflower, brussel sprouts with bacon and rosemary bread.

christmas cookies 2008: finale

(sorry for the picture... i had a much more dramatic one planned, but for some reason blogger & i don't agree on how the picture should be oriented. and the sideways-cookie thing was not doing it for me. at. all.)

so... funny thing. when you're spending every free moment baking, it's hard to find a moment to write about baking. to sum it all up: they were wonderful. had i gone through it blow-by-blow, you can bet i'd have been singing a different tune. i was, in fact, in my kitchen, and it was a pretty bawdy tune. with crying. but i learned some things.

1. i need more flour-- like, twice as much.
2. vanilla does cost just as much at trader joe's as it does for the store brand at the supermarket-- the difference is, tj's bottles are twice as big.
3. it's difficult to buy chocolate when you boycott nestle and hershey's... trader joe's to the rescue!
4. the broiler won't just melt the jam... it'll burn the shortbread.
5. a candy thermometer makes all the difference.
6. a quarter of an inch is a lot thicker than i think it is.
7. a little less flour makes the dough softer. ummm, duh?
8. too much water will ruin gingerbread.
9. expensive non-stick baking sheets really are non-stickier than the regular ones.
10. wilton sells no-taste red food dye.

i made everything i was supposed to make, pretty well, plus some extra fudge for gifting. i had a couple mishaps, too, like when i broke the christmas tree plate for my cookie press with my super-tough dough. i overdid it, of course, but i'm sure the recipients of the extra bags don't mind-- and let's face it, everybody has a lonely, old neighbor who will appreciate being thought of (though, perhaps not as a "lonely, old neighbor"). now i have some new cookie recipes and ideas to work out before next year. maybe then, i'll get through it with a little less crying.

cooking-related christmas gifts: a pastry workshop (on sunday!), subscriptions to bon appetite and martha stewart's everyday food and a giant cupcake cake pan.

cooking-related new year's resolutions: cook one thing from each magazine and bake cookies year-round-- not just christmas!

oh, and one final thought:

christmas baking is not complete without a nice set of... giant chocolate chip cookies.

christmas cookies 2008

on the first day of modern christmas, also known as black friday, i hit the stores like every other nutcase. only i had them almost all to myself. i was at the grocery stores.

i went to the local supermarket first, hoping to buy everything in one shot. i was mostly prepared. i had edited last year's list (removing cookies that didn't work out, adding some new ones, changing amounts) and mapped out the recipes on my christmas cookie spreadsheet. what, you don't do that? huh.

i estimated, generously, how much i'd need of everything and prepared a comprehensive list of things i needed to buy. it is as follows:

• rolled oats
• 10 pounds flour (i already had 5)
• 1 bag confectioners sugar
• 10 pounds granulated sugar
• 4 pounds brown sugar
• 24 teaspoons vanilla extract (who said my system is perfect? i bought two bottles of the store brand and i hope it's enough. if not, i think trader joe's brand is cheaper, actually.)
• almond extract
• 18 ounces of milk chocolate chips
• 48 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips
• 28 ounces of white chocolate chips
• 1.5 cups slivered almonds (i take the shortcuts as they come)
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1.5 cups unsalted macadamia nuts
• 2 cups dried cranberries
• 3 chocolate-orange cake mixes
• a lemon
• candy canes
• peanut butter
• seedless raspberry jam
• 13 pounds of butter
• 4 dozen eggs

so, i bought nearly all of it at the supermarket and then moved on to trader joe's. there i bought the butter (because it was, like $1.30 cheaper per pound, and that adds up when you're buying thirteen!), the almonds, the macadamia nuts, the eggs ($1.50 cheaper, at least, i forget the exact amount), the white chocolate chips and the milk chocolate chips (i try to avoid buying either hershey or nestle for political reasons. i bought store-brand semisweet.) and tried to buy the chocolate-orange cake mixes. but they didn't have them. so i might have to actually make my biscotti dough, which might mean more flour and definitely means a trip to the supermarket for orange essence.

there was other stuff, too, of course. stuff i already had (mostly not shown):

• instant coffee
• 3 ounces semisweet bakers chocolate
• molasses
• light corn syrup
• decorating sugar
• vegetable oil
• cream of tartar
• anise seeds
• cinnamon, cloves, ginger
• gluten-free flour

and stuff i wasn't sure would keep until i had that confection scheduled, namely, heavy cream. which i can buy next door or at any supermarket/grocery/dairy store. so i'm not worried.

i also picked up some decorating frosting in little tubes and what appear to be markers for use on... food. creepy. but possibly very useful for the making of gingerbread people with a four year old. and a boneless turkey breast-thing, a box of stuffing and a ritter sport bar (totally for bill)

cookie-related shopping came in about $14 under budget (without the cake mixes and heavy cream, though) and $11 over estimate (so far). but really, good enough for me!

next up, look for springerle cookies (which i've actually already baked) and 4 batches of peanut butter cookies (which i'm baking tonight as soon as i get the pretty-bottomed glass from my mom-- i'll explain later).

squash'd tomato flor-n-bean

this soup is one of the varieties i call "veggie sludge." it's thick, flavorful and easy to make. generic veggie sludge is really easy to make, but if i don't feel like thinking about what veggies to use, i go with this insanely simple one.

ingredients:

• 2-3 yellow squashes/zucchinis
• 1 can of tomato paste
• frozen spinach
• 1 can of white kidney beans
• mirepoix (chopped celery, carrots and onions, which i buy prepared from trader joe's because i'm lazy and it's good)
• veggie broth (a quart? or chicken, i guess, or ham would probably be tasty)
• olive oil

prep:

• chop your squash into, eh, chunk-sized chunks
• rinse the beans

actual cooking:

• coat the bottom of your (not huge) pot with olive oil
• add mirepoix and stir
• give that a minute
• add broth
• add spinach, beans, tomato paste and squash
• simmer for 45 minute to an hour, depending on how sludgy you want it (i want to be able to eat it with a fork, so 45 minutes mostly covered and 15-20 uncovered to boil off the extra water)
• salt & pepper to taste

this soup is delicious alone, over chicken, as a pasta sauce, with some grated cheese, with some melted cheese, hot, cold, whatever. it's good.

cheese ravioli filling

okay, i made these several weeks ago with the intention of boiling them, dipping them in egg wash and drenching them in breadcrumbs, then toasting them on a lightly greased baking sheet sprayed with olive oil (on top). instead i just bagged them to be eaten when we felt like raviolis.

i'm a little lazy, so for the actual pasta recipe, go to my turkey florentine ravioli recipe. i'll wait.

so, for a regular cheese filling, you kinda just bullshit around a little bit.

ingredients:

• ricotta cheese (the not-huge size)
• 1 egg
• chopped fresh basil
• a dash of garlic powder
• about 1/4 cup scratch cheese

then i mixed them together and filled my raviolis. ta-da! delicious. and easy. i'm pretty sure this made about 25 large triangles (they were supposed to be appetizers, remember) and 15 or so small (1.5") squares. i also got a little tricky with the filling-- i used a pastry bag. next time i probably won't bother with a tip, because who cares if it looks pretty? no one will see it.