Freelance Foodie

Holiday Meal #2

I went very simple for Christmas Eve. For lunch, we had sandwiches with various deli meats, chips, and fruit salad. For dinner, we had Baked Ziti , salad, and garlic bread. Cookies for dessert. MIL brought some cookies of her own, fudge, and Reindeer Bark, a very WTC (White Trash Christmas) type of dessert. Odd, but strangely compelling to me. They're like shrimp or jalepeno poppers...I just can't let one sit there w/out eating it. I don't even really like white chocolate.

Reindeer Bark

Melt 1 package of almond bark
Mix in crushed plain Pringles and cocktail peanuts
Drop by tablespoonfulls onto wax paper and let sit for a while

Give most of these away and save just a few for yourself.

Holiday Meal #1

Done! It was a very simple meal, but I got lots of compliments. I can't go too gourmet with either of our families, so it definitely makes things easier. Yesterday, we had Christmas with my mom, stepdad, and two younger brothers, who all drove up from Dallas for the day. Here's what we ate:

Pot Roast

I used a very easy method, thanks to my Louisianan friend, Tanya. I simplly rubbed crushed garlic all over the roast, poured on a bottle of Tiger Sauce and baked it at 350 for a few hours. Next time, I'll make it in the crock pot b/c the sauce burned a bit and roast got a little dry. The flavor was just yummy, though.

Egg Noodles

Honey Butter Carrots

Another simple prep...just put a 1 lb. bag of carrots in a pan with 2 TBS butter and 2 TBS honey. Cover and cook on low heat til cooked. We all like our carrots on the raw side, so it only took about 20 minutes.

Salad
Bread from Albertson's
Cookies from cookie party

Easy!

Cookie Party

If you have a lot of friends, do yourself a favor next year and host a holiday cookie exchange. Oh, the comraderie, the scrummy-ness. Here's how it works: you make a lot of one or two types of cookies (we said 4 dozen each). You set out about a dozen for noshing and then put out the rest for everyone to take home. You end up with an amazing variety, which makes for a lovely holiday cookie platter. I had a database for ours, which is a little OCD, but that meant that we had only one batch of each kind of cookies.

The haul:

Forget Me Nots (created by Emeril or by Courtney's mom?)
Chocolate-Orange Lingers
Monster Cookies
Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Filling
Chocolate Peppermint Swirls
Gingersnaps
Gluten-free Sunshine Drops (We saw the Clabber Girl factory while we were in Terre Haute, and I really wanted to visit, for some strange reason. The gift shop looked too cute, and I liked how the factory was still right in the downtown area.)
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
Snickerdoodles
Gluten Free Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Chip with nuts
Mint Chocolate Chip
Rugelach (Oh, I'm so excited to find that Mollie Katzen has a site online!)
World Peace Cookies (a lovely chocolatey sliced cookie)
Sugar star cookie sandwiches with orange cream filling and dipped in chocolate. (Tanya, you must make more of these next year!)

I made sugar cookies with buttercream frosting and cranberry pistachio cookies. Sugar cookies are a must-do around here for the holidays. My mom always made them, but we never frosted them. We'd just sprinkle them with green and red sugar. I think my mom must have used a recipe out of Betty Crocker. I had tried many different recipes over the years, but my favorite by far is this one, originally made for me by a student's mother my first year of teaching, 9 years ago. I begged Amy for the recipe for the rest of the year, and she finally came through sometime that spring. I make them every year without fail. Aidan's been helping since he was 2. They come out very sweet, not too crispy and not too soft. Very buttery and almondy.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
.5 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp cream of tarter
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

1. Cream soft butter and sugar in mixing bowl.
2. Beat in egg and flavorings.
3. Sift in dry ingredients.
4. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
5. Roll on floured surface and cut out using cookie cutters.
5. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes.

I make these with a buttercream frosting that's usually for a cake, from the back of the C&H box. I don't like the crunchy weirdness that makes the typical meringue-type flooded sugar cookie so pretty. Using an offset spatula makes them look a little neater, but we're going mostly for taste here. I stopped dying my frosting b/c I can really taste food dye when it's used in that way, and it freaks me out a bit. I use colored sprinkles on white frosting instead.

I also made Pistachio-Cranberry cookies, which I've been wanting to try for myself since my friend Vivian (a wonderful cook and hostess) served them at her Christmas dinner 2 years ago. I think she got the recipe out of the LA times. I love the sweet/salty flavor and the texture is just awesome.

Pistachio-Cranberry Cookies

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shelled salted pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Stir together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer til smooth. Blend in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in dry ingredients until well mixed. Stir in cranberries and nuts.
3. Drop by tablespoons onto baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each. Bake at 375 until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

The Art of Cookies

I've learned, though trial and error, some tips about cookie-making over the years. Of course, some recipes are just bad...too much butter, not enough flour, etc, and not amount of technique could save them.

1. Use good ingredients. Vanillan (artificial vanilla) is a by-product of the paper-making process. Ick. Use the real stuff! A little goes a long way. This year, I used Trader Joe's Bourban Vanilla, and it definitely added a little extra something to each cookie. You can buy good, natural flavorings from Frontier, a good cookware store, or a health foods store. Using real, unsalted butter makes a big difference, too. (If you're dairy-free or vegan, try Earth Balance, the only decent margarine out there.) Using butter instead of margarine or (eek!) butter-flavored Crisco will produce a cookie that has a nice "mound" to it.

2. Use parchment paper. Easier clean-up and nice browning.

3. Cool on pan for just a few mintues, then move to a cooling rack. My cookie-making experience was a lot easier once I got myself one of these. Cooling on a rack makes for a great all-around texture.

4. Don't put those babies to bed til they've had lots of time to cool and air-dry. Meringues probably have their own set of rules, but I'm too scared to try!

5. For roll-out cookies, the dough must be extremely cold. Work with small chunks of dough, and after you cut out one set of cookies, put the scraps back into the fridge to cool again instead of trying to roll out the dough a second time.

6. Use a very thin metal cookie spatula to transfer cut cookies and cooked cookies. I got mine from Pampered Chef.

7. For drop cookies, use a cookie or ice-cream scoop for uniform cookies. Kids love to use them, too.

8. When you have made a batch of cookies to share, don't drop the whole thing on the floor during your party like I did. Thankfully, most of my friends didn't seem to care. (My floor had just been cleaned an hour before anyway.)

Next year, I want to explore buying some natural food colorings and some better sprinkles and sugars. I also want a decent cookie tin. My friend Stephanie has a really cute carrier from The Mart of Darkness. I may have to break the boy*cott to go get one.

I'll leave this post on a realistic note. This is how my baking scene typically looks:

Too bad you can't see the egg dripping off of the countertop.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Wow, this is a cool cookbook! I'd been hearing about it for years, but never thought I'd need to invest in such a big veggie cookbook. I was inspired by the bounty of my CSA the past few weeks to want to seek it out from the library and try a few recipes. Yesterday, I made a fritata (my own method) along with the cookbook's version of Date Nut Muffins. Yum! It helped that I had some really good vanilla from my recent trip to Trader Joe's.

Tonight, we had a feast. My sampler pack of local beef included short ribs, which I had never cooked before. The Slow-Cooked German Short Ribs recipe was delish, but I wasn't liking the fact that I ended up with lots of fat, bone, and not a lot of meat. I don't think it's a cut I'd seek out on my own. The sauce was fab, though. Along with it, I tried the recipe for spaghetti squash from Madison's book. OMG, the butter, the squash, the 5 bucks of gruyere! Heavenly! I'll reprint this one here b/c it's too good not to share.

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Gruyere and Parsley

1 spaghetti squash, about 3 lbs, punctured
1 cup grated Gruyere
2-4 Tbs butter
1/4 cup parsley chopped with 1 clove garlic
salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375. Make sure to puncture the squash well or it will explode. Bake the squash whole for about an hour.
2. Slice squash in half and scrape out the seeds. Drag a fork through the flesh, pulling the strands apart.
3. Toss them with the parsley, cheese and butter. Season to taste.

Bok Choy

I confronted this CSA veggie with some trepidation. I've never really liked cabbage, and the two monstrous specimen I got as part of my bag last week were just intimidating. I put off cooking them all week, but this meal turned out much better than I expected. I found a recipe for Pork Chops with Bok Choy and Rice Noodles. I haven't found a good source for organic, pastured pork yet, so I used some mahi mahi I had in the freezer instead. The plain, pan-fried mahi mahi was outstanding just by itself, and so were the noodles. I usually don't like rice noodles, but the vermecelli rice noodles from Thai Kitchen were awesome...not mushy at all. Next time, I'll double the ginger and the garlic.

Perfect Fall Meal

Yes, our table usually has assorted crap on it during dinnertime. Gotta work on that one. Wine is Two Buck Chuck Carbernet Sauvignon. I know nothing about wine, but we enjoyed this a lot when we lived in CA and had access to Trader Joe's. Scored another case while we were in Michigan a few weeks ago. I'm enjoying leftovers of this meal right now (a week later! hope that's okay!), minus the wine as it's only 11am.

The bread, a recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, was first made for me by my friend Betsy, and I still use the recipe card she wrote out for me. When I score fresh dill, like I did last week from my CSA, the first thing I think about is making this bread.

Yogurt Herb Bread

1 c white flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
5 Tbs melted butter (or oil)
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey or sugar
2 Tbs minced dill (or 2 tsp dried)
1 tsp each oregano, thyme, basil (I used dried)

1. Grease medium size loaf pan and preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
3. In separate bowl, mix yogurt, butter, eggs, and honey.
4. Pour wetties into well, along with herbs, and mix until well blended.
5. Spread into pan, bake until knife comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
6. Let sit for a bit. Cut and enjoy!

The soup is from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, a gift from Matt two Christmases ago. I had forgotten all about it til I read a recipe in Happy Foody and realized that it might be a book I need to take more seriously if I'm going to ever use up all of my CSA veggies.

Winter Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and thinly diced
4 cups veggie stock
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
salt and pepper

1. Saute onion and celery in oil in large skillet, about 5 minutes.
2. Transfer cooked veggies to 4-6 qt. slow cooker. Add all other ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
3. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, working in batches, or directly in the slow cooker using an immersion blender. (This recipe gave me a great idea to add to my xmas list.) Taste to adjust seasonings and serve hot.

Pastured meat goodies!

As of tonight, I should be graced with about 10 lbs. of pastured, locally grown beef and a 10 lb. organic, free range turkey. The beef is only $4 a lb., as opposed to the $8.99/lb the health food store is charging for pastured beef from Wholesome Harvest. I'm not sure if the turkey is local, as I'm buying that one from the local health food store. Thank goodness my friend Jean has a little space in her deep freeze for me, but I need to work on cleaning out our freezer, too. Doesn't help that I've made huge batches of soup and beans recently. Do beans even freeze well??

Too funny!

Was this in reponse to the KFC announcement about eliminating trans fats? LOL!

BTW, I've tried nearly all the health food store tortilla chips, but none really hold a candle to Tostitos!

Roasted Chicken and Pears

We had this on Saturday Night. Chicken from Horn's Family Farm in Cordell, OK. We probably shouldn't buy one very often...he had to double his price b/c he was forced by The Man to send his chickens out of state for processing. I left out the parsnips b/c I didn't have any.

This recipe is from Everyday Food, to which I subscribed last year. I'm not renewing b/c I haven't been that thrilled with it, but this was really good.

Roasted Chicken and Pears

Ingredients

Chopped:
1 large parsnip
1 large turnip
2 small red onions
2 Tbs fresh parsley
3 firm, ripe Bosc pears

2 Tbs red-wine vinegar
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 lbs chicken (I used a 4 lb. whole chicken, split)
1 Tbs honey

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375. Toss veggies with vinegar, 1 T oil, and 1/2 tsp thyme; season with salt and pepper. Put on large rimmed baking sheet. (I love the one I got from Chicago Metallic)
2. In a small bowl, combine parsley and remaining thyme; season with salt and pepper. Carefully slide fingers under chicken skin to loosen; spread parsley mix under and on top of skin. Push veggies to edge of baking sheet; place chicken in center, and roast 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine honey and remaining oil. Remove baking sheet from oven; add pears and toss with veggies to combine. Brush top of chicken pieces with honey mixture; roast 30 minutes more or until an instant read thermometer inserted in thickest part of theight (avoiding bone) registers 175. (It took my chicken another 30 minutes or so,so 1.5 hours total of roasting).

CSA goodies

We've been wanting to join a CSA for years, but never found one that fit. Thanks to my friend Sandra, who knows everyone in the natural food scene, we finally found one. We've gotten food from Nuyaka Natural Farm for two weeks now. On week 1 we got:

green beans (these rotted b/c I forgot about them. Huge bummer!)
apples
sweet potatoes
huge bag of cooking greens
huge bag of salad greens (including spinach, I think) **I had a hard time identifying all the greens
turnips
tomatoes
sweet peppers
spaghetti squash
cabbage

Week 2's take:

green beans (cooked them the first day. awesome!!)
garlic
romaine lettuce
red leaf lettuce
beets
cabbage
tomatoes
apples
sweet potatoes
sweet peppers
dill

In the past 2 weeks, the only conventionally-grown produce I bought was 1 bunch of cilantro. I bought oranges, tangerines, pears, celery, carrots, and onions from Dodson's, one of our local health food stores. I bought red onions, bananas, avocado, and butternut squash from The Earth, a very small more hippy health food store. I bought grapes and green onions from Super Target.

I'll be posting about our CSA-inspired meals soon!