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Archive for the 'Cooking' Category

December 28th, 2008

No weigh I am missing this feast

I cooked it myself, so on top of all the tasting and what not — there was just no way I was going to stick with weight watchers today. But I didn’t care.

I started last night making the dip for the crudites–mostly pita and tortilla chips, to be honest– with a chevre based dip chock full of roasted vegetables (garlic, eggplant and red pepper, to be exact). It came out middling–I don’t think I got the same kind of chevre as I did last time, and its flavor was decidedly more goat. Taste improved the longer it sat out, for some reason, but at any rate, I was too busy to partake and no one else seemed interested (more like it was invisible than the chevre chasing them off).

Got up about 8:30 this morning and set about the rest of the feast, which included:

Apricot-Dijon Glazed Turkey Breast with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Sweet and Savory Stuffing with Cranberries (using cinnamon raisin bread)
Yeast Cloverleaf Rolls
Rosemary Mashed Potatoes with gravy deglazed from the turkey
Garden Salad w/homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
Peas
Four-cheese Rotini Bake
Ham-boiled Peppergrass
Apple Pie

It went over smashingly well, with my husband actually saying it was among the top holiday meals he’d ever had. It’s also the first time I’ve cooked on a grand scale for company in years, and my skills are much improved–both cooking-wise and in my ability to stage things well. Had almost everything ready by 1:30 only to get phone calls announcing we’re running late, so kept everything warm in the oven while the rolls got some bonus proofing time. Some of them wound up looking like mushroom clouds, they got so big.

Probably to no one’s surprise, our christmas gift haul was mostly food-related, either on the up side (an ice cream maker, a griddle) or the down side (an Eating Well cookbook, a new Weight Watchers scale). My son got a wireless hookup for his xbox, so I’ll be lucky to ever see my TV again…

Posted in Cooking, Fitness, Life, Yum! by: Helen
2 Comments

October 4th, 2008

Stuff Helen Likes #1: Single-Malt Scotch

It was weird, one day last winter, when Dean poured me a blended scotch–a special DeWars–and passed it over to me. I made faces drinking it, as I often do when trying a new drink that isn’t fruity, and kind of forced down the drink slowly over the next half hour or so. It was the only decent alcohol we had on hand and I was of a mind to have a drink for some reason, and so I did.

A couple of days later, I found myself craving the whiskey but completely unable to pinpoint what it was specifically that I was craving, because I hadn’t particularly cared for the DeWars. On a hunch, we picked up one of the lower-end single-malts and brought it home.

I still don’t know how it happened that in the middle of my 37th year, I became a Scotch fan. It’s a curiosity among my male friends, even more so that I’m starting to have the vocabulary to describe the different flavors of scotch–don’t like it too peaty or too sweet, and definitely prefer it neat, but still figuring out which ones I like more and less.

Even the low-end Scotch is a bit beyond my means at the moment (I’m a tad overextended from carrying most of the mortgage for a year and change), but it’s definitely a worthy entry in this, my first Stuff Helen Likes post, because I need blog fodder (as if I don’t have enough categories already).

Posted in Cooking, Stuff Helen Likes by: Helen
5 Comments

January 7th, 2006

God bless the Mennonites.

Some years back, I dated someone whose parents were Mennonites. They severed ties with me when he did, alas, for I loved them all, but it ended badly.

The best banana bread I ever had was stuff that LB made. I adored that woman, and miss her horribly. JB scanned the recipe and passed it along to me.

Shortly after TB and I broke up, I found the cookbook it came from in the bargain rack of a bookstore. It’s _Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking: A Mennonite Community Cookbook_.

Tonight, I had a compulsion to make pie. I’ve never made my own pie crust before, and sifted through a couple of cookbooks before remembering I had the queen of all Mennonite cookbooks.

Flour. Salt. Shortening. Water.
Apples. Cinnamon. Sugar. Milk.

It’s better than any pie I remember. Flaky and perfect.

LB, I miss you.

Posted in Cooking, Memery, Random, Yum! by: Helen
2 Comments

January 6th, 2006

Oopsimama

So, what with THAT faux pas over with, we indulged in therapy.

(Note: this is not a faux pie.)

And as I mentioned in a comment, god bless the Mennonites for the crust recipe, which really, honestly, for a first time out–is…

And since I’m all crazy mommified, here’s my pie-making hair.

Posted in Cooking, Life by: Helen
No Comments

January 23rd, 2005

Yummy weekend

Well, snow kept us from our appointed trip to Philly. First I did some major cleaning up on Friday, since I had taken the day off to catch up from the last several weeks of insanity–holidays, then ALA prep, then the conference itself… gah. I finally feel like myself again after several weeks of being all kinds of out of sorts. Started a sweater last night and so far, after about two dozen rows, I’ve only accidentally increased three stitches, dropped one, and had one stupid thing happen at the end of a row. The ribbing isn’t totally straight, but it’s the kind of yarn that forgives that sort of thing. But now that I’m into straight stockinette I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to knit the back of the thing and most of the front. Going to have to wait for the lessons to kick in before I’ll be able to do the neckline and the sleeves. The best part? It’s a hoodie!

Foodwise, we had stopped into the grocery store Saturday and they had whole chickens for 99c a pound, so I picked up a roaster amid the other, more ordinary trappings. While D. was doing other stuff, I managed to prepare a multi-course meal around said roaster, complete with wine. Then today, I cooked beef stroganoff for dinner and also made a round of salsa–the tomatoes aren’t so great, but they had hot pepper assortments–so this is habanero hot stuff! That will go well on baked potatoes tomorrow if D. doesn’t eat it all first. So while he was basking in all that food, I went back into the kitchen and made blueberry buckle. this stuff is so sugar laden it’s a horrible, horrible sin, but some weekends are made for indulging in luxury like this.

He keeps sitting down to unwind with his 12-string, and there’s something about the way his fingers dance over the strings that I find very soothing, even as my needles are clacking away in some contrapuntal rhythm. It never fails to astonish me how comfortable the two of us are together. And yet, even in the moments when things are most comfortable and relaxed and mellow, he can still stop me in amazement with a simple phrase.

Just.. wow.

It’s not the snow. It’s the snow days we love. Snow itself is bedlam incarnate–but once it’s fallen, and everyone is home safe, it’s peaceful.

Posted in !!!!!, Cooking, Family, Knitting by: Helen
No Comments