Norman Rockwell eat your heart out.

The Tree is up and now, there is shortbread in the oven, that's right SHORTBREAD.

There is something intimidating I think about shortbread, but fear not!  Here is a easy recipe that will have your holiday (no CHRISTMAS) guests asking / demanding (depending on your guests) for more.  Here is how to start:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups of Butter (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt

The non intimidating instructions:

- Pre heat oven to 350
-With an electric bowl mixer cream together the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy

mix at warp speed.

- In a seperate bowl sift together flour and salt
- Add the flour to the creamed butter mixture, mix until .... mixture comes together
- Drop the combined mixture on a floured surface and shape into a disk.  Refrigerate the disc for a half an hour
- Roll the dough out to 1/2" thick and play with the shapes a bit.  My only suggestion is to keep shapes that are similar.

- Bake for roughly 20 mins ( i did 15 mins. because my shapes were smaller)

Cabbage Bombs

I've decided to do two things that I haven't done in a while:

1. Cook something that I've never tried before and...
2. Write on my beloved blog!

I apologize for my absence, I'm sure you were all hanging on my last post... so many unanswered questions... well, I'm back.

When I deciding to make cabbage rolls, I had to come to terms with the idea that these probably won't be as good as my moms or the Ukraniane cooking wizard that I once had the pleasure of eating (wait... I didn't eat the wizard, I just ate her cabbage rolls.).  Anyways here's the recepie I worked with

Ingredients:

die cabbage!

• One Medium Cabbage
• One Pound of Lean Ground Beef
• One Chopped Onion
• Three Garlic Cloves minced
• A dash of Seasoning Salt
• A couple pinches of Chipotle Chilli Powder
• One Large Egg, beaten
• Three to four cups..... (WHAT ?!?!) .... cups of cooked white rice*
• it was at this point when I realized that I had made my first mistake.  When I originally read the reciepe I thought this said 3/4 cup of white rice.....these maaaaay be a little heavy.
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

careful

1. Saute Ground Beef, Onions, Garlic and add your dry spices.  Cook until there's no pink and the onions are soft
2. Drain the beef and add the THREE TO FOUR CUPS of cooked rice
3. Cut the core off the head of cabbage and carefully remove the leaves.  Take the leaves and place them in a boiling pot of salted water for 3-5 mins.  Drain leaves on paper towel and wait till they cool.  When the leaves are cool enough to handle, trim the excess cabbage leaf stem.
4. Place the meat / rice mixture in the portion of the blanched cabbage leaves where the stem was and roll the cabbage leaves as you would a wrap..... if you don't know how to do this your screwed.
5. Place the rolled cabbage with the wrapped side down, this will seal the cabbage rolls, although you may need tooth picks as well.
6. bake as per sauce recipe.

Alien eggs or cabbage rolls ?, only time will tell.

Sauce Ingredients :

• Three cups of Tomatoe Juice
• 1/4 Cup of Butter
• 1/4 Tsp. of Salt
• 1 Tbsp. of Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. of Vinegar

Boil Sauce for 10 minutes, and pour over the cabbage rolls.  Cook for 2-3 hours at 300 degrees.

I'll let you know how these turn out, and if you do make this recipe with the right amount of rice, let me know !

Made a Meatload, I will never be the same.

this is how i felt through the entire process

Don't ask me why I had a craving for meatloaf, my former vegetarian self is rolling over in his grave. I would like to reassure my vegetarian self, that I will never crave this again. It could be the amount of Walking Dead that I've been watching, but the tactile nature of making meatloaf disgusted me half way through meatloaf production, and I really wanted to abandon ship. I initially envisioned a cute little meatloaf in a bread loaf pan, however this recipe from the barefoot contessa had another vision, a mass of ground meat beat, packed and slapped down onto a baking sheet and shaped into a rectangle or death! (i might be a little dramatic here). This recipe apparently serves 6 -8 ppl, (no way in hell), this recipe will likely serve 20,000 people easily, and I'm not being dramatic now. Although the finished product had a good flavor and I will probably make the sauce again for another dish I would regretfully crown this my first culinary failure of 2013. But if hunk's of meat are you thang, here's the recipe;

looks manageable here

Meatload:

1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh chivesplus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh thyme leaves, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce

serves 6-8 ?  ah no, too much...  

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups finely ground Panko
2/3 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
I added:

-three garlic cloves

-1 1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes

Sauce:
cups chicken or beef stock
8 to 10 cloves roasted garlic
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

For the sauce, combine the broth, roasted garlic and butter over medium high heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until lightly thickened. Add 1 teaspoon of each of the chopped thyme, chives and parsley. Slice the meatloaf into serving portions and spoon the hot sauce over the meatloaf and serve.

all and all, make the sauce, not the meatload.

Holiday Unwrap

of course there was too much of this

As the holiday season finally draws to a close, and that early Monday Morning curtin call draws near,  I thought I would share my favorite holiday culinary hits and misses. 




 



Pizza works on so many levels, even for a grown up pizza party.  One of these is made from a pita, and the other is made from an experienced pizza dough / maker.... I can't remember which one, (too much sampling from the first photo), but i do remember that both were great.

 

Above: 

Buffalo mozzarella, basil and salami (?)

Right: 

 sauteed mushrooms, with arugula and topped with truffle oil.

Pizza Interogator: WHAT'S ON YOU? ! ? :  Pizza: ah... ah... Buffalo mozzarella, basil, chrizo and basil(?) I think, should have made more notes.

I didn't do much baking this year, but I did make some zippy snappy ginger patties:

crystallized ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups all - purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup unsulfured molasses

1 extra-large egg,

1 1/4 cups chopped crystallized ginger 

The Bounty

I guess I did do some other baking, i made 1 lbs of home made dog treats!  (what a great pet parent), unfortunately Watson doesn't like them now... Fortunately they aren't bad with a little goats cheese and fig jam...

On new year eve, Watson may have dressed up, but before the ball dropped, he was bow tie less and running around the house.   I blame it on these holiday drinks that really made the season extra bright, but don't talk to Watson the next day:

 

Watson before

Watson after, the next day.

2 cups (16 ounces) good vodka (recommended: Stolichnaya or Finlandia)
1 cup (8 ounces) orange liqueur (recommended: Cointreau)
1 cup (8 ounces) pomegranate juice (recommended: Pom Wonderful)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
Lime peel strips, to garnish

Combine the vodka, orange liqueur, pomegranate juice, and lime juice in a pitcher and refrigerate until ready to use. Pour the mixture into frozen martini glasses with a twist of lime peel and serve immediately. 

 Hope everyone has a great 2013, and  weeee! the Mayan's were wrong!