I know, I know

It's been a long time. And I don't have much to report, but here's a demonstration of this year's cookie baking, displayed on my lovely new Nora Fleming serving dish (complete with Gingerbread mini)

In addition to the usual jam thumbprints, shortbread thumbelinas, sugar cookies, and snowballs of the past, this year we also tried Almond Toffee. People seemed to really enjoy it.

Chicken Pot Pie for Ms. J

Ms. J and I were discussing chicken pot pies last week, and I decided I would demonstrate the making of them (at least, how I do it) to encourage her to experiment in her kitchen.

so here we go - first off, I have here 3 small onions, chopped, 3 carrots, diced, and 3 celery ribs diced with a wee bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper:


Then, because in my mind, you can't have comfort food without butter, drop in a few tablespoons of butter (or just a bit more oil):


Let that cook up and soften the veg for a bit, then add in a large handful of flour and cook for 2-3 minutes to get rid of raw flour taste:


Then start adding liquid - in my case, I added a hefty splash of white wine then chicken stock - start out slowly - you don't want it too liquidy. I probably added 1 1/2 c of liquid total at this point.


R asked for some potatoes in the pot pies, so I obliged. I think I'll leave them out in the future. I also added another 1/2 c or so of stock.


Then herbage - thyme, salt, pepper, some dill. You definitely MUST use thyme - I made a chicken pot pie without it once and it tasted disgusting. I also added some mushrooms at this point. In the future, I will saute them in a hot pan first - they didn't really add a lot of flavor to the party.


Then, because I wanted to, I added about 1-2 tbsp of cream


Then added in my previously cooked chicken and let 'r rip for a bit until the potatoes were soft.


Then, in my messy/rustic way, I lined 3 oven-safe bowls (in this case, little Fiesta pie plates) with some puff pastry and baked that at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Roll out the puff pastry first, as thinly as you can. It goes a lot further that way!


Then I ladled in the pie filling and topped them with more puff pastry (very rustic, right?) and gave it an egg wash (egg/water, beat, brush). You CAN, of course, roll the puff pastry out and cover and seal the entire pie, but I find that you end up wasting delicious puff pastry that way - some sticks to the cooking vessel and it is always too hot to peel off. Anyways, that's my two cents on that. I'll take an ugly pot pie over one where I lose puff pastry. Anyways, these also baked at 400 degrees, and took about 25 minutes (I threw on the broiler for a minute to get them really browned). Also, I added broccoli to my pot pie which was delicious. Broccoli is, however, the devil incarnate to Mr. R.


Voila (ignore the nasty baking sheet). My pie filling was a bit dry, I must say. I tend to overthink the runniness factor and then leave things too thick or dry. So, when I make these again, will reheat with more stock.


These were pretty tasty - be sure to taste your filling along the way and adjust for salt and other seasonings.

R's mushroom birthday cake

Mr. R decided to try a different cake for his birthday this year ( the standby being German Chocolate from a box). We went for the Chocolate/Peanut Butter creation that I found on Smitten Kitchen a while back.

For whatever reason, I didn't think to take pictures until well into the cake creation process. So for example, here's the basic iced cake - a really moist and delicious chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting. The recipe calls for 3 layers, but I opted for 2 mainly because I didn't have 3 8 inch pans and didn't want to bake in batches. So I made 2 9 inch layers and let them bake slightly longer. The dog really enjoyed licking the frosting bowl. Pay no attention to the cake's precarious position on the counter.


Once chilled, it was ganache time. Peanut butter, chocolate chips, corn syrup...with some 1/2 and 1/2 mixed in at the end.


Problem was, I didn't add enough cream/corn syrup. So 1) it wasn't shiny and 2) it was too thick. Hence, we have a giant chocolate/peanut butter mushroom cake. I should have captured a more aerial shot to show off its mushroominess.


Regardless of how it looked and the strange texture of the ganache, it was a really good cake. The frosting had really good peanut butter flavor without having a gross overly-buttery taste that happens sometimes with frosting. The cake was VERY moist and delicious. I may or may not have eaten two pieces on the birthday night. Next time I make this, I will definitely take more care with the ganache so it behaves as it is supposed to!

R birthday dinner

Mr. R wanted tacos for his birthday, so tacos he got. He did let me "glam" them up a bit by using a flat-iron steak for the tacos and jazzing up the plate with some beans and spanish (ish) rice. I know I've written of our taco/fajita/burrito love before, but I don't think I've ever covered my loves for flavored rice AND cast iron. So off we go!

First, for our fiesta rice, take a bit of olive oil and a diced bell pepper and onion and let that sizzle away until softened.


The add your rice (I usually let that tan up in the hot oil before adding liquid) and water or water-like products - in my case, half water, half tomato juice and salsa juice


20 minutes later, voila!


Now, onto cast iron. Mrs. Elle has a fine envy-inspiring collection of cast iron now, but for me, I make do with my one large skillet. Hello friend. Here, my friend is heating up.


And gets wicked hot! In you go, friendly flat iron steak - sizzle!


I served the steak very thinly sliced with onions and peppers and the traditional sides of cheese, sour cream, and salsa. It was a very tasty dinner!

Thanksgiving trial run

I decided I wanted a roasted chicken and fixings for dinner on Sunday so I went to the local grocery store to take advantage of BOGO roasting chickens.

First, I made a stuffing to stuff the chicken - bread cubes, celery, onion, and what turned out to be gross chicken stock (I made it from the chicken neck and other innards, it tasted yucky but I didn't know that until after the fact)


Here is the lovely pale chicken in its too small roasting pan, resting on a bed of onions, garlic, and celery.



A "spice" mix of salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning and the olive oil to baste the chicken


A side dish of asparagus is oiled, salted, peppered and awaiting the oven.


Here's the manhandled carved turkey (there was an incident with the carving). Mashed potatoes in the background, asparagus on the side.


A lovely plate of ok chicken, good potatoes, yucky stuffing, and fine asparagus.


All in all, it was an OK meal. Not great. The chicken tasted a bit weird, the stuffing was gross due to that nasty broth. The veg were fine. The gravy was fine.

Must work on my A game before Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin gooey butter cake!

Mmm. Fall. Fall means pumpkin stuff, including pumpkin gooey butter cake. I heart Paula Deen and her excessive use of butter.

Mix one box of yellow cake mix, one melted stick of butter, and one egg and press into the bottom of your baking dish:


Then mix a bar of cream cheese, 15 oz or so of pumpkin, 1 POUND of powdered sugar (I opted for slightly less), 3 eggs, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, and guess what? another stick of melted butter. This is an example of why you should really let your cream cheese soften before mixing - it tastes fine, but has little unsightly lumps of cream cheese. Pour over crust.


Bake the lot at 350 degrees for an hour or so. The recipe says 50 minutes, but I'm sorry, I don't like practically raw cake. I probably, all told, let this one got closer to 75 minutes. And it is still pretty gooey.


Decoratively top with squirty whipped cream. I went a bit overboard, but I don't care, it tasted good.

Beef beef and more beef!

When I went to Buffalo a few weeks ago, Miss M's parents made delicious beef shish-ka-bobs. As in, I couldn't stop eating meat good. I'm not a huge meat fan - I only really make it because Mr. R enjoys it so much. I'd go weeks without meat, probably, if given the choice. But I digress. This marinade was fabulous.

I took a London broil, and put it in said marinade (apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire) and let it sit for 2 days (oops, I didn't plan well) Then Mr. R grilled it.



Sliced it up and served with some mushrooms/peppers that will cooked on a high heat in the oven - roasted, I guess is what you'd say. And rice with green onion. Yum!

Steak and potatoes (sort of)

So, Mrs. Elle and I ventured to the lovely and strange MR. MEATBALL store on Saturday morning. Along with 5 lbs of meatballs, I bought a package of frozen gnocchi. I was very excited to try it ASAP, so I dug out some old filet from the freezer and decided to serve the gnocchi with a tomato-vodka sauce. Fancy, right?

Here's the meat - salted/peppered/awaiting the grill (sort of strange shapes of filet)


And lovely homemade marinara sauce, warming up

AWAITING THE VODKA! And there we go (classy, eh?)

Meanwhile, I got the gnocchi percolating in salted water


Once tender, I added them to the sauce

Ooops, forgot to add some cream to the sauce - added that in


Then cheese, a big handful


And the steaks are ready, thanks Mr. R.


And there we go - with more carbs in the form of garlic bread (I can eat that morning, noon, and night). The steak looks a little crispy there, it got slightly blackened on the outside, but was fairly red inside.

The gnocchi were lovely. I want more now.

Homemade applesauce

I went to Buffalo for a no-purpose visit last weekend. As part of our weekend of eating lovely food and drinking lovely beer, we also went apple picking at Becker Farms with Mrs. K and her lovely daughters and Mr. & Mrs. M&A and their lovely baby. I believe a good time was had by all, I particularly enjoying getting to PET GOATS! They were super cute. I loved them. I wanted to take one home. However, I don't think Miss M's mom and dad would have liked that. Oh well.

Anyways, I ended up with a half-bushel of apples, so now I'm finally getting around to doing something with them. I peeled/sliced/froze about 1/3 of the apples I picked, and I took another 8 of them last night and made applesauce. I wanted applesauce that was the same as the applesauce Miss M's mother had made on Saturday night because it was A-MAZ-ING! So, I did my best and it was pretty darn good, I must say.

First, 8 large apples were peeled and chopped and put into a pan with about a half inch of water. I had the heat on around medium to medium-high

Then, because I can't help myself, I added a pinch of salt.


After about 10 minutes, the apples were ROILING in the pan. So I turned it down a bit.


This was after 20 minutes - I decided that was long enough, they were very soft. I probably could have gone with 15 minutes.


Miss M's mother uses a food mill, but I don't have one, so I mashed the apples with a potato masher to get some good texture. I then added about 2/3 c brown sugar and close to 2 tsp cinnamon. I heart cinnamon.


And there you have it. There were still a few big lumps of apple, but they are soft, and I don't mind. It had good texture otherwise. And was VERY tasty - much better than jarred sauce. I cannot wait to serve it with pork this weekend!

Chicken casserole - blast from the past

I had a sudden craving for my grandmother's chicken casserole this week - so I hopped to it and made it.

As so many recipes start out, I sauteed some celery and onions in a pan - eventually seasoning with salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of poultry seasoning for kicks.


Meanwhile, the crowning glory and glue of all casseroles, cream of whatever soups - in my case a can each of chicken and mushroom. So appetizing to view, right?


I took about 1.2 lbs of chicken and roasted it with a bit of salt and pepper, then cubed it for the casserole. The softened celery and onion went in the bowl as well.


And a VERY generous gloop of Miracle Whip - the tangy zip makes the casserole. Even if you hate Miracle Whip, you shouldn't shy away from a recipe like this, it adds good flavor.

I added in some frozen peas then dished the mixture between two casserole dishes.


Do not, repeat, do NOT omit the crunchy topping - cornflakes and sliced almonds mixed with some melted butter.


Bake at 375 degrees until browned and bubbly. I put foil over the top for the last 15 minutes or so to prevent the top from overbrowning.

Mmm. A childhood (and adulthood) favorite. I'm done with summer - onto the season of soups, stews, and warming casseroles. I may try my hand at the much-maligned tater tot casserole in the future - there's something very appealing to be about using tots in a meal...