Good Friends and Good Food

Today's kitchen adventure was quite the experience, not only because I made a couple of new recipes, but also because I was in a kitchen that was not my own.  For the past week, I have been visiting friends in Utah.  I've been staying with my friend Angie and her roommate Sarah.  During my chaotic departure from Oregon, I forgot to grab a little something small as a thank you to them for allowing me to crash at their house for a whole week.  I figured making dinner for them would be a nice way to say thank you and give me a chance to try out some new recipes.  Our dinner tonight consisted of my current favorite meat, pork tenderloin with a cherry sauce, my first attempt at risotto with spinach, mushrooms, and peas and a previously attempted crumble recipe, but with a twist.


I've had risotto a few times and I really enjoy it, but I've always been a little apprehensive to make it.  I watch a lot of cooking shows and cooking competitions and it always appears that risotto causes many of the PROFESSIONAL chefs participating in these competitions many problems.  I decided it was time to toss my fears and apprehensions aside and give it a shot.  I food a really easy recipe from the foodnetwork.com.  I did quite a bit of tweaking to the recipe, but it turned out marvelously.  I started out sautéing some chopped onions and fresh mushrooms in olive oil.  If I had had some fresh garlic, I would have also added that to the mushrooms and onions.  Then I added the arborio rice and then slowly started adding hot chicken broth to the mixture, remembering to continually stir until the liquid was completely absorbed.  Once the consistency of the rice begins to appear creamy and the rice is tender, I added frozen peas and baby spinach.  I continued to stir until the spinach was slightly wilted.  I seasoned throughout the process with salt, pepper and garlic powder and added in some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  The result was a deliciously, cheesy, and creamy risotto.

The pork tenderloin was simply seasoned with thyme, salt, and pepper.  The cherry sauce had cherry jam, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, some cinnamon and allspice.  The vinegar was very present, but overall it was a great accompaniment to the pork.

Dessert was a twist on the pear cranberry gingersnap crumble that I made for my non traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I looked for fresh cranberries, but they must something that is only sold seasonally, like in October/November/December.  I was trying to think of a good replacement fruit that would still bring the tartness of the cranberry and taste ok with the gingersnaps.  I decided on raspberries.  I loved this recipe with the cranberries, but I think I enjoyed almost as much, if not more, with the raspberries.  The lemon zest and lemon juice that are in it complement the raspberries so nicely.

Stay tuned for more fun experiments in the kitchen.  Happy Cooking! 

Experimenting with Acorn Squash

My dad is a big fan of squash, but my mom and I are not very crazy about it.  I love squash soups, but I don't love it when it's cooked any other way.  I think I've finally figured out why.  I think it's because when you cook squashes they get mushy.  I like cooked vegetables that are still a little crisp and crunchy when they're cooked.  You can't achieve that with a squash.  If a squash is crunchy, then it's still raw which leaves you with a mushy vegetable.  I also feel like if a vegetable is mushy then you might as well puree it and make it completely smooth.  So when my dad asked me if I would cook up some of his remaining acorn squash, I decided I would make a puree.


I found a recipe for a mashed acorn squash with garlic.  You roast the garlic and squash in the oven until extremely tender.  Once cooked you mash the squash and squeeze the garlic in the mash and mix together.  I wanted to get a really smooth texture, like a puree, so I put the garlic squash mash in a food processor and pureed until smooth.  I also threw in some butter, salt, fresh thyme and cracked pepper.  Along with all of those seasonings, the recipe called for a leek and apple mixture to top the squash mash.  We didn't have leeks, so I used one small onion and sautéed it with some butter and a diced apple.  I actually folded it in to the squash puree.  It was super yummy!  I actually really enjoyed it.  The flavor was nice and the crunch and sweetness from the apples was a nice surprise.  

To accompany our squash puree, I also made a pork tenderloin.  It was nothing special, but the sauce that I made to go with it was fantastic.  It was a mixture of apple juice, honey dijon mustard, some brown sugar and a little maple syrup.  I thickened it up with some corn starch as well.  It had a nice sweetness from the juice, sugar and syrup and probably could have used just a little more sweetness, but also had a nice bite from the mustard.  I liked it a lot and it complimented the other aspects of the meal really nicely.  

I'm not sure what my next kitchen adventure will be, but I will say that I may be attempting ice cream very soon.  I know it's winter and ice cream sounds like a crazy thing to make, but I just got the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and I'm kind of dying to try it out.  Stay tuned!


Happy Cooking!

Lemon Meringue Pie

After making the fabulous lemon curd, I had been craving it again.  I decided to attempt my first lemon meringue pie.  I've never really been a huge meringue fan.  I've always felt that it was really sweet, but I figured this would be a good opportunity to use my lovely mixer again.  It turned out ok.  I definitely need to work on perfecting it.  The flavor was great and surprisingly the meringue wasn't very sweet.  

I'm not sure if I over baked it or under baked it, but the meringue separated from the crust after cooling and the filling became watery as it cooled as well.  It looked really nice to start, but now a few days later it's not so pretty.  Is there anyone that is experienced with meringue pies that can give me some pointers on how to keep the meringue from separating from the crust and how to eliminate the excess liquid?  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.  Happy New Year and Happy Cooking!

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!