Christmas Tins 2010

The first Christmas after we were married, I determined to make Christmas baskets full of goodies every year.  Is it really a loser thing to admit that I look forward to this every year?  Well, I do.

I have made mostly the same things each Christmas, but I wanted to try some new things this year.  In the past I made chocolate raspberry fudge (which I still plan to make), popcorn balls, macaroons, and chocolate Oreo cookie bark.  

I always bought baskets for them up until last year.  I couldn't find any baskets I liked at a decent price so I got goodie boxes instead.  This year, I found some tins.  

Unfortunately, the tins didn't hold as much as I thought they would, so I was relegated to only two items per tin.  (Wow, will I ever get to the food part of this post?)

I made Holiday Biscotti and Chocolate-Dipped Marshmallows topped with Peppermint.

I'm not sure why, but I've always been intimidated by biscotti.  I'd never looked at a recipe for it, but I was convinced it must be difficult.  It isn't at all difficult.

The recipe is extremely straightforward.  I did think it needed more pistachios and cranberries.  I also was a bit shocked by the absence of anise, and to be quite honest it needed anise.  Biscotti is not biscotti without anise.  I followed the recipe this time, but next time it's getting anise.  

It does make a beautiful presentation though with the green pistachios and the red cranberries offset by the white chocolate.  Very impressive.

The chocolate-dipped marshmallows were inspired by something similar I saw at Fresh Market.  Very straightforward idea.  Heat chocolate, dip marshmallows in chocolate, sprinkle with crushed peppermint candy and let cool.  Also a very nice presentation, and very tasty.

I don't have any photos yet of the tins or their contents, but I have one left to do and will take and post pictures.

Christmas Party Fare

Every year, I try to put on a Christmas party--not so much for other people as for myself.  I'm only half-kidding about that.  While I most certainly do enjoy having friends over for the holidays, I really do love putting out a table full of delicious eats.

Because I cannot boast a formal dining room, I decided long ago that rather than having only two or three people over at a time for a dinner I would invite more people for drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

The menu this year was as follows:
Heavyset Cheeseball
Cocktail Shrimp
Olives
Sausage Balls (see my earlier post)
Spinach and Goat Cheese Tartlets
Bruschetta (my own make-shift recipe)
Christmas Stollen (purchased)
and a bowlful of Hershey's Kisses

I also served red wine (Espiritu de Chile 2006 Carmenere), and a Chardonnay (2006 Meridian), and the usual array of soft drinks.

I typically try to do this sort of menu with a mixture of homemade and purchased items to make things a little easier on myself.  This was especially necessary this year since I decided to give my Christmas tins as party favors this year. (See next post).

The heavyset cheeseball proved a crowd favorite.  Everyone was initially awed by the presentation, and then loved the flavor.  The recipe seemed a little light on flavor so I added a good bit more dill and a smidgeon of garlic powder.  It was just right.  For the green garnish, I simply used the extra dill.

I've posted before on the sausage balls, and they were yet again a big hit.

My personal favorite was the tartlets.  In this, I may be biased by my steadfast opinion that there is nothing that cannot be improved by goat cheese.  I also made these for a party earlier this year.  They really are incredibly easy to make.  I do recommend using the pre-made phyllo cups.  They are a huge time-saver.  I also use only one teaspoon of lemon zest instead of two.  The first time I made these, I followed the recipe and they were too lemony.

For the bruschetta, I forgot the basil.  In my defense, I had been running around like a mad woman getting ingredients and doing Christmas shopping.  I realized as I began chopping the tomatoes that I had forgotten the basil, and made a decision to go without it.  I did tomatoes, shallots and garlic with salt and pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Turned out great.  I do highly recommend getting the bakery to slice a baguette for the bruschetta.  I've noticed many places selling pre-made and packaged bruschetta chips/slices, but nothing beats freshly toasted bread.

Everyone gets bombarded with sweets this time of year, so I chose to keep the dessert simple.  Christmas stollen and Hershey's Kisses fit the bill and looked great on the table.

Now to the more artsy side of my Christmas party.  I couldn't find votive holders I liked at a price I could swallow, so I improvised.  I have a collection of ribbon remnants from previous Christmases, so I had an epiphany.  I bought two plain votive holders at $1 each, wrapped a piece of holly and ivy ribbon around them and voila!  Festive candles!

Originally, I had planned to use paper plates and cups for the party, but I decided against it.  I get to drag out my Noritake so rarely, and this would be so few dishes that I had to go for it.  I'm happy I did.  It really added to the ambience.  I also decided against plastic cups.  I did have to buy some goblets but I got them for practically nothing at Ross and I can always use them.  I also bought a pair of foil red serving plates to add a little extra color to the table.

Overall, it was a very nice evening.  Great company and great food.

My First Turkey

This year I cooked my first Thanksgiving turkey.  As any woman knows, this is a rite of passage.  This turkey is unforgettable regardless of how it tastes.  Fortunately, my turkey turned out beautifully, and I won't have to recount any horror stories during future holidays.

Brining has always attracted me.  I chose Emeril's Brined, Herb-Roasted Turkey recipe.

For the turkey itself, I chose a Publix brand, fresh (never frozen), 13-pound turkey.  A huge benefit of a fresh turkey, other than taste, is there is no panic about defrosting the bird.

I purchased a five-gallon bucket from Lowe's for the brining.  I did have to take out my fruit and veggie drawers, but it fit perfectly after that.

The brining process really couldn't have been simpler.  Throw everything in the bucket, cover and let sit for up to 24 hours.  My turkey brined for approximately 14 hours.

I got up early Thanksgiving morning to stuff the turkey and put it in the oven.  I had always been told that a good roasting pan made all the difference.  After conducting some research, I learned the best pan is a Calphalon.  The downside to this pan is that it is over $100.  So I looked for a pan that most closely resembled the Calphalon's v-shaped rack and non-stick pan.  TJ Maxx had a Barenthal for $30.  

To monitor the temperature, I used a leave-in, probe thermometer with a digital reader which stays outside the oven.  (I'm sure there is a more succinct way of describing that.)  It worked extraordinarily well.

The turkey cooked for about four hours, and tasted amazing.  Incredibly moist with great flavor.  I'm not a dark meat person, but even the dark meat was delicious, not greasy or grissly.

There is really only one thing I would do differently next time.  I should have put some of the herbs and seasoning under the skin instead of just inside the cavity.  The breast meat could have used more flavor.

As an additional note, the gravy is great.  I did not chop up the gizzards or neck and add it to the gravy.  I wanted it to be smooth.

Vegan Before Dinnertime: Day 10

My fresh fruit and vegetable intake has skyrocketed. I'm not sure I've ever eaten this much produce in such a short amount of time. And I'm really digging it. Reasons:

1) It's been a whole new experience, walking into a grocery store and restricting myself to the produce section. There's a lot - a LOT - I have habitually overlooked. I have, for example, rediscovered kiwis. I also hope I am slowly learning how to pick out the best and freshest fruit and vegetables. I hadn't realized how much my knowledge in this area was lacking until I took home what turned out to be a very sub-par honeydew melon. Need to read up on how to pick those.

2) As a follow-up to #1, I think spending a lot more time with fresh produce is helping me as a cook. I find myself thinking of ways to use, say, carrots - when I definitely was not doing that before! Either as the main focus of the meal or as a side - I am giving produce much more attention in meal planning than I was before.

3) I suspect my stomach is shrinking a little, which means it's now taking less to make me feel full. I've been slowly moving away, anyway, from 2 or 3 large meals to smaller meals and more snacking, but trying this vegan thing is accelerating that process. I hadn't really realized the extent to which this was happening until Matt and I had dinner at Chipotle over the weekend. My standard Chipotle order is three crispy tacos, and I had usually felt just full enough after all three. This last time, though, I was starting to feel full after the second one, and I had been really hungry when we walked in!

4) It's great not having that post-lunch lag! No more feeling sluggish or comatose in the afternoon after a big lunch. I'm not really eating "lunch" at work - just snacking all day - but nothing I'm eating is heavy and I feel like I gained a chunk of the day back.

5) I enjoy dinner more now - and actively look forward to it - since I know it's my treat. And I don't feel guilty about whatever I'm eating for dinner, even if it's takeout Chinese food or a fried fish and chips basket. Related side benefit - I find myself wanting to cook full dinners a little more often since scrounging in the fridge isn't very satisfying when it's your one "anything goes" meal of the day. So Matt is loving this, since it means he has to scrounge less. :P

6) I don't beat myself up on the days where I don't stick entirely to vegan food before dinner. Last week, for example, I had the rare opportunity to go to lunch with my dad, so I took it. I didn't restrict myself to the salads on the menu, but at the same time the heavier dishes - pastas, etc. - just didn't appeal. I ended up selecting something light but not vegan (fish tacos, if you're curious). So I don't adhere to the vegan dictum perfectly every day - the code is more a set of guidelines than actual rules. But what I want to eat even when I'm not adhering has changed.

7) All this fresh fruit and veggies are giving my intestinal system a good scrubbing. Enough said.

8) I feel better overall. Not in any particularly definable way, but just *better*.

I think I need to do this a while longer before I see any benefits in terms of weight loss. Although I also need to fit exercise into the day more consistently than I do.

Chili

Chili is great and can only be made better by beer, right?  Yes.  

I have never found a good standby chili recipe, but then I haven't looked very hard since Richard doesn't care for chili.  This recipe was Richard pre-approved because it forced me to buy stout.  

This proved a good basic recipe but I did alter it a little.

First of all, the recipe as written is enormous.  Five pounds of beef?  I definitely don't need that much.  So, the first thing I did was to cut the recipe in half.  Even then, however, the proportion of beef to beans/chili seemed off.  So this is what I did.  I replaced ground chuck-which of course cooks down substantially-with leaner ground round.  I also used only one pound of ground round, which was just the right amount.  An added benefit of the leaner meat is that you don't have to drain it.  

From the perspective of the vegetables, I thought the recipe would have been better served written in cups rather than pounds.  I used about 3/4 of a large white onion, and a whole medium red and a medium yellow bell pepper.  

We bought a four-pack of the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, so I used probably less than 1/4 of the bottle, which I thought was just right.  

Seasoning-wise, I added some salt and a little more cumin.  I also added just the slightest touch of cinnamon, which I think helps warm up the flavor a bit.

Delicious result.  

Vegan Before Dinnertime: Day 2

I got the idea for trying this from Mark Bittman. The idea is simple - go vegan during the day, no meats, dairy or otherwise uber-processed foods - and eat pretty much what you want for dinner.

Meg and I are trying this for two weeks, starting yesterday.

Since I work full time and don't get to cook dinner every night of the week, cooking separate vegan dishes for work lunches isn't really feasible for me. So I'm doing more or less the "raw vegan" thing until dinner, and snacking pretty exclusively on fresh fruits and veggies at the office.

As of day 2, I've already eaten more fresh produce than I'd eat in an average month. I'm being honest here - I'm not a big fruit or veggie person. But I've done 3 apples, 2 bananas and a 1 lb. bag of baby carrots. Compared to my standard diet, this is significant.

What I am most curious about is how I feel after a few weeks of this - if I have more energy, for example, or think more clearly. We'll see.

Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake

I have never been a fan of pumpkin pie, much less pecan pie-which I find revolting.  So at Thanksgiving I'm just screwed.  I will eat pumpkin pie to be polite, but I really don't care for it.  I will under no circumstances eat pecan pie, since I think it would be most impolite to gag.  Solution: Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake.  That's right.  Liquor and pumpkin together at last.

I searched for several recipes for this cheesecake, and I have to admit that the decorative properties of this one made the decision for me.

I didn't notice until too late, i.e. after I'd already purchased an 8" springform pan, that she uses a regular cake pan.  Oh well.  I don't think it would make that much difference.

I made the unfortunate error of assembling this cake on a time crunch, so I didn't get to follow the recipe exactly.  Instead of putting the cake in a tented water bath, I put a pan of water in the oven with the cake.  The cake came out plenty moist, but I think the tent would have prevented some of the cracking.  Although the cracking could have been more a result of the cooling "process" I used.  I put it straight in the fridge instead of cooling to room temp in the water bath.

I also did not use the sour cream topping for two reasons: 1) I didn't think I wanted that much extra sugar and calories on something already so sweet, and 2) more importantly, I did not have time.  I didn't miss the sour cream in the finished product, but if I were going to do the decorations (which I intend to do) I would use the sour cream topping just for aesthetic purposes.

So, how did it taste?  Very good.  It is definitely a superior pumpkin dessert.  However, I do think it needed more bourbon.  One tablespoon did seem too little to me, but I wanted to follow the recipe the first time. Or I could try putting some bourbon in the sour cream topping.  We'll see.

She does recommend making your own graham crackers, but come on...Who's going to do that?  I'm sure it does taste better.  I was not wild about my graham cracker crust.  I think next time I'll make the crust with ginger snaps, to add a little more depth to the finished product.

Overall, it was good, but could be better.  I like my cheesecake a little more on the tart side, so I might replace some of the cream cheese with sour cream.