Fun with new Christmas presents

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas spent with family, friends, and lots of good food.  "Santa" (aka my dad) was very good to me this year (I must have been a very good girl).  He "brought" some fun "toys" that I was able to put to good use yesterday.  One of the new "toys" was a beautiful, red KitchenAid stand mixer.  He also gave me a fun little cookbook for whoopie pies.  For those of you not familiar with what a whoopie pie is, check out this brief history.  It's sort of like an Oreo, but with a cake like cookie and a plethora of mix and match varieties.  


We had been invited to dinner with some friends and I was tasked with bringing a dessert.  I thought what better opportunity to test out the new mixer and to experiment with some of the recipes from the new cookbook.  After much deliberation, I decided to make a lemon flavored whoopie.  This cookbook suggests that you can make the cake/cookie part of the whoopie pie in various sizes, from 1 inch in diameter to as large as a 9 inch cake, so that's exactly what I decided to do...make a mongo size whoopie pie.  Normally you would drop the batter on a parchment lined baking sheet, but I was afraid they would even enough in size to match up, so I just used a 9" round cake pan and split the batter between two pans.  The problem with using a cake pan is that they do not puff up like they normally would.  They do sell 8-9" whoopie pie pans, but I don't think it's worth the investment unless you're making big whoopie pies on a regular basis.  The lemon flavor of the cake was very subtle, but tasty.

The cookbook shared a whoopie pie suggestion for what they called a Lemon Triple Threat which consisted of the lemon whoopie with a lemon curd filling and a lemon mascarpone cheese filling.  I didn't want to overpower with lemon, so I took the lemon curd and paired it with the traditional marshmallow whoopie pie filling.  In my past attempt to make a lemon curd, I did not have much success.  It never really set up and stayed very runny.  This time I used a different recipe and the result was phenomenal.  Making lemon curd is not very difficult or time consuming, but it is very time and heat sensitive.  Due to the time and heat sensitivity, there were no pictures taken of the process only the end result.

 This has got to be one of the best fillings I have ever had.  The flavor was divine!  It would go great in a cupcake, doughnut, or pie shell.  You could probably even add a little heavy cream to make it more mousse/pudding like.  Excellent!


I put a layer of curd on one of the cakes, topped with a thick layer of the marshmallow filling, topped with another layer of curd and then topped off with the other cake.  The end result was very yummy.  Next time I think I would use less of the marshmallow filling, but there was a lot of filling and I didn't want to waste it, so it ALL ended up in the whoopie pie.  

Stay tuned for more cooking adventures!  Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe New Year and Happy Cooking!

Early Christmas Dinner

Much like Thanksgiving, Christmas this year is going to be small.  With Christmas on a Sunday, we decided that the dinner we had planned with our friends for yesterday would be our Christmas dinner.  The menu included a few firsts for me, but turned out really fantastic.  The friends that were coming for dinner, the Roberts, raise their own animals for slaughter and Joyce wanted me to show her how to cook a prime rib.  I had never cooked a prime rib before, but it was the main course at the dinner party last week, so I picked up a bunch of pointers from the person who cooked the prime rib last Saturday.  I started with a mirepoix (fancy French cooking term for chopped carrots, celery and onions), some beef broth and a well seasoned prime rib.  I seared the prime rib in a skillet with some garlic and olive oil and then placed it in the oven to begin the cooking process.

I baked it at a high temperature for the first 30-45 minutes and then lowered the cooking temp for the remaining time.  I basted it every 30 minutes with the broth.  It turned out perfectly medium.  

I didn't take any pictures of the gravy, but it was divine.  The mirepoix helps to make a really great gravy.  I pureed the carrots, celery, and onion and then added that to the broth and drippings from the meat.  When mixed together with a little flour for thickening, you end up with an extremely robust tasting gravy.  


You can't have prime rib without mashed potatoes.  I made roasted garlic infused mashed potatoes.  No photos of the mashed potatoes, but here is a pic of the mashed roasted garlic with rosemary and olive oil.

Along with prime rib, mashed potatoes and gravy, we also had Yorkshire Pudding.  My former roommate, Amy, makes Yorkshire Pudding any time she makes roast.  Traditional recipes for Yorkshire Pudding have you baking it in a pan and then cutting the pieces.  Amy's family bakes them in muffin tins which I really like because they're the perfect size and already come individually portioned.  You start out with oil and some bullion in each muffin cup and put it in the oven to get hot, only a minute or two.

Once the oil is hot, you add the batter and bake.  They puff up nicely and are the perfect addition to a roast.  Make sure to eat with gravy.  We did have one small mishap with the Yorkshire Pudding, but that is most likely my fault.  I may have placed too much oil in the muffin tins.  As the batter began to rise, so did the oil and some of it dripped onto the heating unit in the electric oven.  This unfortunately caused a small flame to start in the oven, but we acted quickly and nothing, including the Yorkshire Pudding, was damaged.  I just have to remember less oil next time.

There was a jello salad and a broccoli cauliflower salad.  Dessert was heavenly!  My dad requested a pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but it wasn't on the menu, so I promised he would get one for Christmas.  It wasn't too sweet, which is usually my complaint with pecan pie.  

The other dessert was also fantastic.  It looked very festive.  I made a red velvet cake.  I know some people are not crazy about red velvet because they think that the cake tastes like food dye because of how much food coloring is used.  I don't feel like this recipe has that kind of flavor.  My pet peeve with red velvet cakes is that too often it doesn't look red, but a brownish red which leads me to think that there is chocolate in the cake and if there is chocolate in the cake, then I expect it to taste like chocolate.  The truth is there is chocolate in the cake, but it is a minuscule amount.  This is a Paula Deen recipe and it is light, fluffy and tastes wonderful.

Overall, it was a fabulous Christmas dinner with wonderful food and excellent company.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Until next year and Happy Cooking!

Cookies Galore!!!!

For the past three weeks, I have been in Alexandria, VA visiting some friends and staying with my second family, the Hatchers.  It has been a fun and busy time.  With the upcoming holiday, the Hatchers and I have been busily preparing for two cookie exchanges and a HUGE holiday party, complete with a visit from the "Big Guy."  Needless to say I've been spending many hours baking cookies.  I've tried to do some fun festive recipes.  I started out with one of my favorite cookies, gingersnaps.  This recipe makes a soft flavorful gingersnap.  It does require a ton of flour, so I was very happy to have access to a KitchenAid mixer.  

I also tried a couple of new recipes.  The one is very sweet, but looks very pretty and festive.  The other is super yummy and is the perfect dessert for the Christmas season.  The first one is a Chocolate Crinkle Cookie.  It's basically a chocolate cookie rolled in powdered sugar.  The powdered sugar has the illusion of snow.  Super fun for December on the east coast (though we have no snow in Alexandria).

The last recipe is a Red Velvet Whoopie Pie.  These are super pretty, though there were a few mishaps involving the red food coloring.  I'm not sure how long my hands will be pink, but I guess that's part of making a red velvet whoopie pie.  The finished product was well worth the slight pink color on my fingers and hands.

So, I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the final product of the whoopie pies, but they were yummy and a big hit.  I had plans to take pictures of the whole spread at yesterday's party, but it was so crazy and busy that it didn't happen.  
There were also sugar cookie cut-outs made, but I was lazy and didn't make those from scratch.  They were a fun project to do with the kids and I should have taken some photos of how messy we were, but like I said we were messy.  


The party was a big hit and it was followed by a small dinner party where I did attempt Yorkshire pudding for the first time, but there were no photos taken, so stay tuned for Yorkshire pudding round two along with prime rib for my Christmas-like dinner in Oregon on Thursday.  


Happy Christmas and Happy Cooking!

Non Traditional Thanksgiving

I know it's been an eternity.  I haven't fallen off the face of the earth just wrapped up in the usual holiday craziness.  As I previously stated, with only three of us in the house we decided to do a non traditional Thanksgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving.  Overall, it was a very successful meal, but some of the recipes need a little tweaking.  


Dinner consisted of a fabulous orange glazed pork tenderloin with a sauce made from the drippings, mashed potatoes, a green bean casserole, rolls, a jello salad (I'm LDS aka Mormon and jello is almost a must at every meal), chocolate pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream, and pear cranberry gingersnap crumble.  

I love orange juice, but I'm not always a huge fan of orange flavored things.  I really loved this glaze.  It had great flavor and the rosemary added a nice bold flavor to the glaze and sauce.


Mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls and jello salad aren't anything super special, so I'll just skip ahead to the really good stuff.


I was SO excited about the chocolate pumpkin pie.  I found this recipe when I was watching The Chew one day.  I thought to myself what could be more perfect.  Chocolate is great and pumpkin is great, so the two together must be fabulous!  It was ok, but I didn't love it.  I'm not sure if there was too much chocolate, though I don't know how that's possible, or if I did something wrong in execution.  The pie did seem to taste better after a day or two.  I'd like to try it again, but maybe adjust how much chocolate is used.  If anyone decides to try it let me know how it turns out and what you think.

I was equally as excited about dessert number two.  I discovered this recipe from my friend Katie.  It is a pear, cranberry, gingersnap crumble.  I may have put too much of the crumble on top, but the taste of it is absolute heaven.  The pears stayed firm, which is how I like them, but for some reason the cranberries stay whole and firm instead of bursting when they were cooked.  They did pop in your mouth when you bit into them.  It was excellent and probably my favorite thing of the whole meal.

It was fun to try some different recipes.  All of the traditional fall flavors were there and present, but in non traditional recipes.  


As Christmas quickly approaches, there will be more cooking adventures coming. Stay tuned for red velvet whoopie pies and cake, pecan pie and my first experience cooking a prime rib.  This is a great time of year to share wonderful and memorable food experiences with family, friends, and all those that we love and care about.  


Happy Christmas and Happy Cooking!

Stay Tuned....

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything.  I haven't really done any new cooking, but stay tuned.  Thanksgiving this year is just going to be my parents and I, so we're doing a non traditional Thanksgiving.  Who makes to make a huge turkey and all the fixings for just three people?!?  Plus, I'm not a huge fan of all of the traditional Thanksgiving fixings.  There will be no turkey.  We will be having a orange glazed pork tenderloin.  There will be mashed potatoes, gravy and rolls.  There will also be a jello salad and a vegetable.  Dessert is going to be the highlight and will consist of a chocolate pumpkin pie and a pear, cranberry and gingersnap crumble (recipe stolen from my friend Katie).  


What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes?  Have a great Thanksgiving and Happy Cooking!!

Third Time's a Charm....

They say that the third time is the charm.  This is my third attempt at making a full size cheesecake.  The previous attempts all tasted great, but failed miserably at setting up.  I did use a different recipe this time, so I'm hoping that will make a difference.

My dear friend Amy made this recipe earlier this year because she wanted to try a to make a cheesecake and she is a lover of all things pumpkin.  If you want to see the recipe and her results, check out her blog.  It's a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.  Can we say yummy?!?

It's a very simple recipe.  The crust has gingersnaps and pecans.  Super tasty!

The filling was simple and easy to make.  The big difference between this recipe and the other one that I've used is that this recipe has the cheesecake sit in a water bath.  It seemed to make a huge difference.  The cheesecake set up nicely.

The new recipe seems to have made a difference because it set up very nicely.  It didn't taste like the one that Amy made earlier this year, but it was still yummy and a big hit.

Stay tuned for more yummy cooking experiences.  Happy fall and happy cooking!!

Warm, Filling Cheesy Goodness

Today's post is all about classic comfort food that fills your tummy and warms you inside.  Since I currently don't have a job, some of my time during the day is spent watching TV.  One of new favorite shows, that is on during the morning here in Oregon, called The Chew.  It is a show that is all about food and basically they cook, eat and talk.  It's hosted by some of my favorite chefs/people...Carla Hall(former contestant of Top Chef), Michael Symon(Iron Chef), Clinton Kelly(from What Not to Wear), Daphne Oz(Dr. Oz's daughter), and Mario Batali(Iron Chef).  It's a really fun show and there's always great food.  I seriously recommend that if you like food at all and are home during the day because of a day off or sickness, check your local listings and find The Chew.

On yesterday's show, Michael Symon made what he called a pork pie.  It was very akin to a shepherd's pie.  His pork pie had ground pork, bacon, kale and some other vegetables topped with mashed potatoes and cheese.  They suggested that you could also make this vegetarian by using squash instead of pork.  If you'd like to see for yourself just how yummy this looked, click here.


As I watched them dish out this cheesy goodness, I thought to myself that I needed to have some shepherd's pie.  So...shepherd's pie is on the menu for dinner tonight.  Technically, a shepherd's pie is made with lamb.  Tonight's dinner was made with ground beef, so it will be a cottage pie.  I didn't exactly follow a recipe and it is far from a "traditional" shepherd's pie, but here are some pics of the step by step process.  I used frozen vegetables because of the easiness of it, but you certainly could use fresh ones.  Also, a "traditional" shepherd's pie wouldn't have any cheese on it, but as far as I'm concerned everything tastes better with cheese.  Here are some pics of the step by step process.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall and those of you that live in colder climates are staying warm.  This is a great meal to warm you up on a cold fall or winter day.  Pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust coming later this week.

Happy Cooking!!