Christmas Dinner - with my honey this year!

For Christmas dinner, we had a very special and unusual dinner. From the Blue Star Restaurant, here in the Springs, I had ordered a turducken. It is a specialty Cajun dish with de-boned turkey stuffed with boneless chicken, encasing a duck breast filet. It is stuffed with sage bread and Andouille stuffing, seasoned on the outside with Cajun spices. Yum!

While it was roasting, I steamed some green beans in the microwave and then sauteed them with garlic and ginger. We also had some boiled, sliced potatoes that were then drained and coated with some carmel (1/2 C sugar - cooked for 6-8 minutes, then salted & 1/2 C cream added): voila! Carmelized Potatoes. The addition of Murray River Flake Salt at the end, allowed the salt to stand on the carmel on the tops of the potatoes.

I have just finished reading Diane Mott Davidson's Sweet Revenge and so at the moment I have her Chicken Divine resting after coming out of the oven. (It's marinated overnite in a mixture of buttermilk, sugar & salt to tenderize it.) It smells . . . divine and is a lovely toasty brown.

Pecan Crescent Cookies

2 C whole pecans (or walnuts), chopped fine

2 C flour

3/4 t salt

1/2 # unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)

1/3 C superfine sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix 1C shopped nuts, flour, and salt in medium bowl; set aside. In food processor, continue chopping remaining 1 C nuts until it resembles cornmeal - 10-15 seconds. Add to flour mixture.

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 1 1/2 minutes at medium speed; beat in vanilla. Scrape sides of bowl then add flour mixture. Beat at low speed until dough just comes together. Scrape down sides of bowl & continue mixing 6-9 seconds more.

3. Using 1 T of dough, roll dough into 1 1/4" balls. Roll each ball into rope that measures 3 1/2" long. Shape each rope into a crescent shape, placing on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing 1 1/2" apart.

4. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets (from front top rack to back bottom rack) halfway through baking, until tops are pale golden and bottoms are just beginning to brown, 17-19 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets about 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

5. Cool cookies to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Roll cookies in powdered sugar to coat them. Will store up to 5 days in covered container (unless you eat them all immediately). You may re-roll in powdered sugar before serving. makes about 4 dozen cookies.

from: The Best Recipe (Cooks Illustrated magazine), 1999, p.427.

Thanksgiving tradition: Scalloped Eggplant with Shrimp

With a nod to my cooking friend, Craig, in Atlanta, here is one of my faves for Thanksgiving - or anytime you have a hankering for a shrimp dish that's a little different. When it comes out of the oven, it smells heavenly . . . the melted cheese on top looks so yummy, but do let it cool a bit or you'll burn your tongue!

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, peeled & cubed

2 t brown sugar

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 T olive oil

1 can healthy choice cream of mushroom soup

1 C sliced mushrooms

1/2 # raw shrimp

5 oz white cheddar cheese, grated, divided

2 t Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t cayenne pepper

1/4 t black pepper

1/2 C saltine cracker crumbs

paprika (mild)

1. Cook eggplant in covered pan with sugar in olive oil until tender.

2. In another pan, saute onion, green pepper and garlic with olive oil. (Shortcut: put all in microwave safe bowl & cook on high for one minute). Add to eggplant.

3. Turn off heat and add soup and mushrooms. Add shrimp, half of cheese and the seasonings.

4. Put into a 2-quart casserole. Cover with cracker crumbs and the remaining cheese. Dust with paprika and cook for 50-60 minutes at 325 degrees or until almost dry. Yield: 8 servings. 2003

Creamy Fennel Soup with Herb Salad

Brrrrr it's cold out . . . thus the need for soup today. I love cold weather, it so energizes me. That's probably why I spent so much time in the kitchen today!

I made Joanne Weir's soup - with a few modifications (of course). Find the recipe at: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/creamy-fennel-soup-with-herb-salad-recipe/index.html

However, after pureeing the soup, I just put it through my extra-large food mill. This took out the fibrous bits. After seasoning it with three kinds of salt (Shallot Salt, Rad Alae Hawaiian Kai Sea Salt & Smoked Sea Salt - all from Savory Spice Shop) I added 2 t of dark brown sugar and 2 t of white balsamic vinegar - to balance the taste. The soup is quite thin after taking out the solids, so in a pinch I might add a bit of instant mashed potatoes to thicken it. I was too hungry to wait! The grilled bread & herb salad make the taste wonderful. Bon Appetit

Raspberry Butter

Ok, so the lemon poppyseed muffins I made were just okay. But the raspberry butter paired with them totally made the flavor pop. Think of making some butter balls & freezing them for the holiday feasts ahead.

Recipe:

1 (6 oz) container fresh raspberries (or 6 oz frozen, thawed)

1 t fresh lemon juice

3 T powdered sugar

1 1/2 C (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 T honey

pinch of salt

Place raspberries in a food processor & pulse until completely pureed. Place in a food mill & process until all juice & puree is removed into a bowl (or pan). Pour the strained puree into a medium saucepan, adding the lemon juice & powdered sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2-3 minutes until thickened. Remove from the heat & cool completely.

Cream together the butter, honey, salt & cooled puree until smooth & well blended. Roll the butter into logs or scoop with smallest scoop onto a plate. If in a hurry, put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Otherwise, refrigerate until well-chilled and firm. Slice rolls into pats as needed.

Yield 1 1/2 C butter. Note: Recipe may be halved.

source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/lemon-poppy-seed-muffins-with-raspberry-butter-recipe/index.html

Comfort food: Cauliflower Soup

Since it was chilly, I decided soup was in order. Wanting something a bit different, I opted for Phyllis Stanley's Cauliflower Soup (Healthy Recipes, 2001).

After making a white sauce in my Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker with 1/4 C butter and 4 T flour (stirring well with a whisk), I added I C milk, 1/4 t white pepper, one egg yolk, 1 t salt, 1/8 t nutmeg, 1/2 t lemon juice . . . cooking until bubbly. Then I added 4 C vegetable stock (2 cans) and 1 head of cauliflower, chopped in pieces.

After everything came to a boil, I put the lid on & brought the pressure up to the 1st ring - for just 4 minutes. After letting the pressure release naturally, I mashed the cauliflower a bit using Mom's vintage potato masher. A sprinkle of parsley and voila - about six cups of slightly exotic soup for lunches this week.

Phyllis has pressure cookers on sale now: phyllis@breadbakingsupplies.com or

Her mailing address is: 7455 Winding Oaks Drive Colorado Springs, CO. 80919 Her telephone:719 528 7098

Wolfgang Puck's Goulash

Oh yum! That is what I say every time I make this dish. Granted, the 45 minutes it takes to caramelize the onions seems like forever. Be sure to leave the pan uncovered - the process will go quicker. You want the extra moisture to evaporate - but the onions to just brown. Keep an eye on them.

But then, putting the meat & sauce into the pressure cooker for 15 minutes on high, letting cool naturally and then just stirring in no yolk noodles for another 10 minutes . . . the flavor is quite amazing. (Note: I like the noodles a whole lot better than the spaetzle in the recipe; for the beef, I just use stew meat - it's already cut to size).

The real taste kicker requires using both smoked sweet paprika as well as a spicy paprika. Be sure to go easy on the fresh marjoram - it’s a stronger taste than you think. And finally, to toast the caraway seeds - put in a small frying pan over a medium heat for about three minutes, stirring almost constantly. Dump into your mortar. Let cool before grinding.

If the resulting sauce is too thin, make a flour & cold water mixture (about 1/4 C of water & 1T flour), mix & stir into the very hot sauce. It will thicken as the pan cools.

Find the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/wolfgangs-beef-goulash-recipe/index.html

Focaccia Bread

Just a quick update - made some focaccia last week using the equivalent of one loaf of my usual bread recipe (key ingredient: freshly ground wheat flour). After patting the bread dough into my gold 9" X 13" pan, I topped it with: 1 heaping C chopped black olives, 3/4 C dried tomatoes (Costco), 3/4 C feta (reduced fat), cracked dried rosemary (Savory Spice - coming to Colorado Springs soon!) and 2 t coarsely ground salt.

Note: gold pans are available at Williams Sonoma - they are non-stick & brown things extremely well. Savory Spice should be opening next week down on Tejon.

It turned out so well - was so flavorful and required less salt on top due to the very salty black olives. Because it was thicker in the 9" X 13" pan it took about 25 minutes to bake instead of the usual 10 minutes.

Squash Ravioli for dinner

Since I was gone all day, I opted for a quick dinner. I had found some squash ravioli at Costco . . . they were just waiting in the fridge! So, I made a white sauce, added garlic, parsley and shallot salt and enough 2% milk to make two cups of sauce. For dessert, I had some lovely banana bread compliments of my friend Sarah (thanks Sarah!). It was all so very yum and there are leftovers for lunch!