4 T unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
November 30, 2010
Cranberry-Apple Crumble Pie
4 T unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
November 30
The last few days have been: early darkness, full of laughter and dutch, the smell of turkey all night long, warm hugs and cranberries
Thanksgiving 2010
What we made: (so I know where to find the recipes next year!)
We had Farmhouse brie with Agassiz hazelnuts and dried cranberries, mixed with a little Honeyview Farms honey.
The turkey was roasted off the bone by Shane
He made the turkey gravy by making a stock and reducing it down to only 10 oz. Thickened with a roux, 1 oz butter, 1 oz flour
We had a potato and yam mash
green beans sauteed with bacon
I made this stuffing recipe with chorizo and a homemade poultry seasoning.
I made a cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, half a cup of water and sugar and a little orange zest. YUM!
I made my crusty bread by dividing my recipe in half, one half plain and one half aged cheddar and thyme.
I made my own butter found here.
Finally we ended with an apple cranberry pie (very good if I do say so myself.) The pie crust was this recipe. And the filling and crumble topping were from my Gourmet November 2009. (Very last issue) (sad crying face)
I'm rather sad it is over. Till next year turkey, goodbye.
November 28, 2010
Homemade Butter
Were having our Turkey Day 2010! celebration tomorrow. I am super excited! Shane and I sadly missed out on our Thanksgiving dinner back in October due to some unforeseen circumstances, so we, (I) decided it would be a lot of fun to invite my in-laws and visitors from Europe, over for a turkey dinner. And a lot of fun it has been planning and thinking and list writing. I've had full control over the menu because we're coming at it as a dinner party not Thanksgiving. That just may be the best part, I basically get to design my dream Thanksgiving dinner! I started cooking today, and one of the items on my list was homemade butter.
I figured that since I was making bread I needed a great butter to go along with it. Homemade butter is very simple, it all comes down to quality of ingredients. The better the cream you use the better the end result. Unfortunately there are no organic creams to be found in my neck of the woods but even so, my butter far surpasses any store bought around here. Do this as a project, its certainly not something I could use as a substitute in my baking, it's cheaper to buy at the store in pounds, but for on bread where you really taste the butter have a little fun.
Homemade Butter
You can add most anything to flavour the butter in the same step you add the salt. You could add honey, for honey butter on toast. You could add rosemary or thyme to melt over sauteed green beans. You could add smoked paprika and dollop it on top of a steak.
You can easily double and triple the quantities to come out with a better yield. Two cups of cream makes about 1/2 cup of butter.
2 c cream
salt to taste
Pour the cream into a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Cover the top of the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and turn mixer to medium-high speed. Mix for 5-8 minutes. The cream will go through the whipped stage and then turn yellowish in colour. When the mix starts to look pebbly its almost done, just mix it for another minute or so until it separates and the liquid splashes up against the plastic. Stop the mixer here.
Place a strainer over a bowl and dump the whole mixture into it. The liquid that falls off is buttermilk and should be saved for baking.
Keeping the butter over the bowl knead the butter to get all the liquid out. Knead until the butter is dense and creamy. Mix in salt if you want, or keep it plain. Refrigerate the butter in an air tight container until needed.
Italy
November 26, 2010
One week
We've been busy. Hardly time for a breath. Not all of it good.
Hot Chocolate on a Stick
It's time for week six of ten weeks of Christmas cookies. And this time I'm not bringing you a cookie or bar or even anything baked. This time it's hot chocolate on a stick, one of my favorite treats in the winter. This recipe is a no brainer for me because I don't usually have marshmallows in the house, they're full of bad for you ingredients, of course they don't usually end up in my hot chocolate as a result. I should also mention I rarely have hot chocolate in the house, I don't typically find them all that good. So once (or maybe twice) a year I make a batch of these to give away with my Christmas boxes, indulging in a few myself of course.
It's a block of fudge, I'm not kidding, you swirl into hot milk and a built in marshmallow! I've made these marshmallows peppermint flavoured before which turned out really yummy. Homemade marshmallows are different from store bought ones, they're lighter for one, and have a lot more flavour. I really really like them! (I'm going to try using my leftover marshmallows in place of marshmallow fluff in a fudge recipe, I'll let you know how it goes)
November 22, 2010
Dutch Night
Yesterday I woke up early and put on a batch of Sunday soup. Four hours later Natasha came over and we were in heaven. This soup comes straight out of our childhood. Every Sunday for 13 years I had this meal with my uncles, my dad, sisters and grandparents after church. Before I made it however, I never really thought about how to make it. Two years ago I attempted it and failed miserably. I didn't know the secrets, the time honed ways. Always yellow potatoes, and always cooked the night before. A marrow bone and stew beef simmered together in a pot of water for three hours. Meatballs with gehakt spice, milk, no eggs and breadcrumbs. After my first attempt I asked my Oma (the master of this craft, she's been doing this for over forty years) what went wrong. She was happy to tell me. I wrote it down and used her guide. This time was perfect.
November 21, 2010
Double Chocolate Muffins
November 20, 2010
A taste of winter
Simple Squash Soup
November 19, 2010
Nov 19
November 18, 2010
Hazelnut Cookies
November 17, 2010
Right Now
Time: 5:04pm
In my mug: I had an eggnog latte on my drive
On the stereo: Peter Bradley Adams
In my belly: an apple most recently, but a yummy oatmeal coconut cookie tash gave me before that
In the fridge: eggnog and perogies
Last thing on the laptop: looking up stuff about greece
On my wish list: A really big wood cutting board
Looking forward to: Tonight with Tash and Erin at the Christmas Craft Market here in Vancouver followed by dinner at Nuba(hopefully) and Hunter's birthday tomorrow!
On the nightstand: Baking for all occasions by Dorie Greenspan
Recently satisfied: Getting a great price on flights
November 16, 2010
Chocolate Peppermint Bars
November 15, 2010
Polish Night
Sorry about the quality of the photos, I hate photographing dinner but I want to remember all these meals.
Shane did an awesome job, they were so good! He made this dough recipe. We filled some of them with potato and cheese, and some with potato, cheese, sausage and thyme. After we boiled them we fried them with bacon, onions and topped them with sour cream.
November 15
November 14, 2010
Peanut Butter Chocolate Pudding
November 11, 2010
Music!
Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
November 9, 2010
November 9
I’m a weird-o don’t ya know?
Fact: I love to clean
Fact: Travel dvds make me insanely happy
Fact: I plan everything, except when I don’t want to, this usually lets everyone down
Fact: I’m starting to conquer my dead-stop-on-the-highway-road rage
Fact: It makes me really sad when the street lights turn on at 4:30pm (today)
Fact: Salt makes my husband insanely happy, in fact sometimes I catch him dipping a wet finger into the salt bag (also our citric acid bag). So I make him these.
leaves everywhere