Christmas dinner 2013

I wanted to keep the Christmas dinner a little more simple than the Thanksgiving meal. Alex requested seafood, but had no particular idea what. Lots to work with there…

I started with an appetizer course of spinach dip and a cheese plate. I used this recipe as a base for the dip, but then used greek yogurt instead of the sour cream and mayo. I also added some additional spices. It didn’t end up quite as creamy as I’d hoped, but it was still tasty. The cheese plate was composed of fresh mozzarella, Brie, Kerry Gold Dubliner, and Prima Donna Maturo. These were paired with pretzel crisps, crackers, and Veggie Dippin’ Chips.

For the meal itself, I picked up a 2 lb bag of mixed seafood. It contained scallops, shrimp, calamari, and mussels. I used this recipe, although with quite a bit more Old Bay. (maybe mine has lost its strength?) I used a regular onion and left out the snow peas. I think my seafood was not completely thawed out, so I ended up with rather a lot of liquid that I don’t think I was supposed to have. The milk part also did not thicken as much as I expected. As in, not much at all. I really debated whether to even add it or just leave it as a garlic sauce, but ended up mixing it in anyway. I am SO glad I did. The overall flavor was amazing, and I’ll definitely be making this again! I’m sure it would have been fine on the angel hair pasta the recipe calls for, but I skipped that part and made some 7-grain medley I had. It appears that mix is no longer available for sale, which is a bummer since it was such a nice, healthy mix of grains. It also worked well to help soak up some of the delicious seafood liquid, as did the baguettes. I baked some sweet potatoes so I could have some form of vegetable and made sure to keep them just the veggie without any heavy butter, cream, or sugars added. I should have made a salad or some other type of green veggie, but I didn’t. We had plenty of food.

I was not sure what kind of dessert I wanted to make. I was torn between a cheesecake and a key lime pie. I did not want to make both, since I knew we would eat both and we did not need that much dessert floating around. I found this recipe that sounded rather like a lime cheesecake. Voila! Perfect! Well, turns out not really. It was a nice, creamy, mild pie with only a hint of lime flavor. It’s nice, but I doubt I’ll make it again. It would have been better with a stronger lime flavor, which perhaps the suggested brand has. I used what I had, and was not impressed. But hey, we had some Lindor chocolates so it all worked out.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving 2013

Once again, I had quite a fun time preparing a mountainous spread of food for Thanksgiving. As per usual, it was heavily carb-laden. Also as per usual, I split up the leftovers and put the majority of them in the freezer for later (more balanced) meals.

• Turkey – I stuffed it with carrots, celery, and onions, then rubbed it down with olive oil and seasonings. I cooked it breast-down for the majority of the meal. I tried to turn it over near the end to get the breast side a little browned, and it was already so tender that it started to fall apart, so I scrapped that idea. Transferring it to the plate also caused it to inwardly collapse, so it looks a bit disfigured in the photo. It surely did taste good, though. And now I again have homemade turkey stock in the freezer.
• Stuffing – Ironically, I found a small package of the stuffing from last year tucked away in the freezer. Thawed, baked, served, nice and easy!
• Sweet potatoes – I used the same recipe as last year.
• Mashed potatoes – I baked them, then added garlic, used limited butter and sour cream, and it was delicious. I don’t have an actual recipe for these, so they vary a bit each time I make them.
• Cheesy macaroni – Alex’s favorite item. I used the same base recipe as usual, with additional garlic and seasoning modifications like I always do.
• Cranberry sauce – I was so pleased with how it came out last year that I did the same thing again. This time I did not bother grating the apple since I knew I was going to puree it. I did not get it made ahead of time, so it was not chilled as fully as I wanted. Still yummy!
• Green beans with orange essence –It was supposed to have candied pecans on top, which worked out the first time I made the recipe, but unfortunately I burnt them beyond edibility this time so I had to leave them off.

I went a little overboard on the desserts this time.

• The pumpkin pie came from Costco’s bakery. They make them from scratch, they have the homemade taste as a result, and they are inexpensive.
• Nutella pie – Alex loves Nutella, so this was something I made for him. I bought a chocolate Oreo pie crust and cut out 25% of the sugar, but otherwise followed the directions. I should have reduced it even more, as I thought rather unpleasantly sweet. Alex still loved it, and I am sure I’ll be asked to make it again. I will completely leave the powdered sugar out as I think the whipped cream, cream cheese, and Nutella will be sufficent sugar. I think the fruit on it would be nice, and might put it on next time even though I know Alex would prefer it without.
• Beekman Boys’ Cranberry Apple Pie – I found the recipe in a magazine and thought it sounded good. I was not successful in finding it online except for a copy of the magazine page. I bought a pie crust. I made the mistake of just using a 12 oz bag of cranberries and two apples from my Costco package without measuring either of those items. It ended up with enormously too much topping that completely overwhelmed the poor custard base. I basically had enough topping for two pies but smooshed it all onto the one pie. I’ll have to make it properly sometime as it definitely had potential.

Overall, it was a buffet with much more food than needed, and those extras were helpful over the next few busy days when cooking was not particularly an option. I hope you and yours had some good food as well.

Thanksgiving 2012

I chopped a lot of veggies on Wed to make prep easier, and somehow still spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen on Thursday. Bummer. We certainly ended up with a crazy amount of food. I was trying to keep it reasonably balanced, but it ended up carb-heavy after all. After we ate, half the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and turkey went into the freezer for future meals.  Here was our bounty this year:

• Turkey – baked breast-side down as usual to keep the white meat more moist, rubbed down with a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Yum! Boiling the carcass has generated several gallons of broth for future meals.
• Stuffing – I cooked a half roll of Italian sausage, then sautéed a skillet full of onions, mushrooms, garlic, chopped carrots, celery, yellow squash, and zucchini. I added all this to a bag of Pepperidge Farm bread chunks. There was enough moisture from the veggies that I did not need to add any moisturizing broth or water. I have never added sausage before, and was surprised how just that little bit really added a lot of flavor.
• Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries – the sugar and raspberry balsamic vinegar hardened into tooth-breaking crystalline texture (like the red shell of a candied apple), which promptly melted and ran all over the place when added to the sprouts. The result was okay, but I do not expect to make it again.
• Green beans with mushrooms – I had an idea in mind, and this recipe is fairly close to what I envisioned. I was less than enthused about my results. They were edible, but not exciting.
• Sweet potatoes – I cut out half the butter and sugar and didn’t miss it at all. Even Alex liked them, and getting him to eat sweet potatoes is usually a challenge.
• Mashed potatoes – The bag from Costco suggested cooking them in the crock pot. I set the timer to cook them overnight. I doubt I will do that again. The potatoes turned yellow and smelled funny in the morning. I creamed them, added sautéed garlic, and baked to reheat just before serving. They turned out pretty tasty, but the color was still a bit dingy.
• Mac & Cheese – I used this recipe as a base as usual but added additional seasonings and used a healthy dose of pepper jack for some extra seasoning.
• Cranberry sauce – I doubled the recipe, reduced the sugar by 1/3, added a grated apple, and included the zest from the orange I juiced. The apple was not grated as much as I thought and I didn’t like the visual appeal when it was done, so I used the immersion blender to puree it. I also made it the day before and then served it chilled. I liked it last year, but I thought it probably the best part of the meal this year.  Alex did not share this opinion.
• Pumpkin pie – I bought a frozen pre-made one months ago when they were on sale but it’s just been occupying freezer space since so I baked and served it. It was good, but I like the seasoning combo from homemade a little better.
• Death by Chocolate – I bought the ingredients, but Alex made every bit of it himself. It is layers of double chocolate brownies, chocolate pudding, devil’s food cake, and whipped cream. He found some snack-sized Butterfinger bars left over from Halloween, and he shredded them for a garnish on the top. Isn’t it pretty?

We certainly have much to be thankful for as we reflect on the blessings of the past year. I am not sure just why we choose massive amounts of food to celebrate our thanks, but since I love to cook, it is a vessel I enjoy using.

Thanksgiving 2011

It did not work out to celebrate Thanksgiving with "blood family", so we spent the day with "heart family". We've done this before, and it is always a nice time. There were 8 people total: Valerie, her two kids, her mom Doris, her boyfriend Michael, her friend Katherine, and the two of us. As usual, we had more food than necessary, but it provided wonderful leftovers. Due to some paperwork snafu (on their end, not mine), the jobs I had planned to do on Monday got pushed to Wednesday, so all the prep work I’d intended to do got scrubbed and I ended up doing it all Thursday morning. Thankfully, Alex was very helpful getting it all done, and at least I got the grocery shopping done on Monday before the stores got crazy.

Our menu:

Turkey – Valerie baked hers for Thursday, but I also bought one and baked it on Friday. It’s good, filling, and so very inexpensive this time of year! Some of it got frozen for later use. I also made a big stockpot of broth from the bones.

Ham – I got a spiral-sliced ham from Costco. Those come pre-cooked, but I had to heat it and make the glaze.

Stuffing – Doris made this. It was good, but I’ve realized that I’m not a big stuffing/dressing eater. It’s nice, but I don’t get overly excited about it.

Green beans – Valerie did not make it into the loved/reviled green bean casserole, just served green beans.

Baby Carrots –boiled until tender. I don’t think I actually tried any of these, so I don’t know what seasonings Valerie used.

Mashed potatoes – Doris made some for the meal, but I also made some at home. I’d bought them planning to make them before I knew she was going to do it, and didn’t want them rotting. Besides, I love mashed taters!

Sweet potatoes – Valerie makes a casserole that I don’t want the recipe for. I love to eat it, but I’m quite sure I do not want to know the butter and sugar content. The potatoes are creamed, then topped with a brown sugar and pecan topping. It’s like a candy. No marshmallows are involved.

Mac & Cheese – This was Alex’s request, and he grated the block of cheddar for it. I used mostly cheddar, but added some pepper jack for a little kick, and threw in some smoked gouda I had that was a bit old and rather crumbly. I was amazed how the little bit of that I used infused the whole pan with the smoked flavor. It was quite yummy.

Marinated Asparagus – I generally don’t enjoy asparagus as I find it tough, sometimes stringy, and not all that flavorful. Apparently I normally get served the thicker stuff. Doris used little thin stalks (about the same thickness as the green beans, maybe even thinner) that she roasted then marinated in a vinegar and oil sauce. This stuff was fantastic. I will probably get some asparagus myself to make this again, and that’s not something I ever thought I’d say!

Caramelized onions – I saw this, thought it sounded good, and figured this was a good time to try it since even if I didn’t care for it, someone else might. Nice to use everyone as a guinea pig, huh? The pearl onions were $3/lb and the yellow onions were $1/lb, so I opted to just use the smallest yellow onions I could find. I can see how the pearl ones would have been a little easier for eating, but what I used came out just fine. I also substituted dried cranberries for the raisins since that’s what I had.

Salad – I used a spring lettuce mix, spinach leaves, and romaine lettuce. I grated some carrots, diced green peppers, and used grape tomatoes. I figured we had enough other veggies in the rest of the meal. The leftovers made a perfect light lunch the next day with some of the olives, cheese squares, and shredded turkey.

Cranberry sauce – For someone not that fond of cranberry sauce, I surprised myself by deciding to make some this year. I made a double portion of this recipe, but used two cinnamon sticks instead of ground cinnamon, reduced the sugar by 1/3, and added a finely diced apple. I also zested the orange that I juiced. Apparently I like “real” cranberry sauce, just not the canned jelly stuff, and it was so easy to make. It firmed up a little after it was refrigerated for a while, but it was noticeably soupy at first. I think I would cut back the liquid just a little bit next time.

Baguettes – I got them from Costco and just cooked them up in the oven right before we ate. They are fabulous, and we had enough made-from-scratch food.

Beverages – Katherine brought some wine and tea, plus we had a couple soda options.

Pecan and Pumpkin pie – Valerie purchased from a local diner. Both were delicious.

Death by Chocolate – This was Alex’s request for dessert. It is layers of chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate pudding/mousse, and whipped cream. You can also pour Kahlua or Baileys on the cake for additional flavor, and can put chopped up bits of candy in it. I’ve done it all those varieties, but we left out the alcohol and candy this time. I made the pudding on Tuesday and ended up making the whipped cream, but Alex did pretty much the entire rest of it, including assembly. It unfortunately escaped the photo of the feast as desserts were intended to do separately and then were forgotten.

Since dinner never ends up being served when we expect it will, I made a little platter with four kinds of olives and three types of cubed cheeses to use for munchies. Lo and behold, Valerie had made a tray of sliced cheese, sausage, and crackers! We’ve never included an “appetizer” before, so for us to both do one the same year without mentioning it to the other was pretty funny.

Hopefully I didn’t leave anything out. It was clearly a smorgasbord of food! Even with portion sizes of literally 2-3 bites to basically just taste test each item, it still filled the plate and the tummy. It was a great time, though!

Egg Nog, second try

Last year, we attempted to make our own egg nog. It was ok, but really thin. Alex really wanted to make some again over the Christmas break, but we didn't want to use that same recipe this year. Which one should we try? The cooked ones deliver a thicker product, and that's what we wanted. Since there were so many options, we decided to make two different recipes and compare.

This Cooked Egg Nog from About.com was one choice. My sister offered this Homemade Eggnog recipe from Food & Wine for another option.

While the Cooked Egg Nog was better than last year's attempt, the Homemade Eggnog was the clear and definite winner. We even made it again the next day, adding a splash of vanilla. With or without the alcohol, this is quite a tasty treat. Just make sure you keep the temperature really low, especially if you choose to skip the double boiler part and just cook it directly like I did. Otherwise, the egg could start to solidify, and nobody likes chunky egg nog.

It's Cookie Time

I love cooking. And baking. And eating. I haven't done a big Christmas cookie smash for several years, though, and I decided it was time. There were some hits and some duds, so I thought I'd share.

Peanut butter cookies - with only 3 ingredients, it seemed a great idea. I don't know what I could have done wrong, but even the dog didn't want to eat them. The reviews sounded good...

Snickerdoodles- Alex likes this kind of cookie but I've never made it before. This recipe seemed reasonable, so I tried it. Rolling them in the sugar becomes a little tedious, but the end result was very tasty. He was pleased, so mission accomplished.

White chocolate chip Oatmeal Cranberry cookies - Alex had a friend visiting who requested macadamia and white chocolate cookies. I didn't have macadamia nuts, so this was the compromise. Even slightly overbaked, these were really good.

Hello Dollies - I don't know about the name, but these will make you sit up and take notice! Golly, these are good. I used cinnamon graham crackers, and added a handful of white chocolate chips (left over from previous recipe) plus some dried cranberries. I would have added some peanuts or pistachios for some non-sweet items, but we'd eaten them all. I definitely recommend using the 8x8 pan rather than the 9x13.

Potato Candy - I don't know about this one. There are a bunch of recipes for it, the one I started with said to use two small potatoes. You can feed the US army with as much candy as that makes! This link uses a smaller portion of potatoes. Don't worry, there's no potato flavor after all that sugar is added. I unfortunately didn't have as much peanut butter as I thought As soon as I get more peanut butter, I will try smashing out the remaining candies, layer additional peanut butter, and re-roll it. I think the peanut butter does cut the sweetness factor, so hopefully adding more will make this a nice idea. Even the kids didn't eat much of this because it was just too sweet.

Butter Toffee - How easy is this? Put it in a pan, boil it until it is the color of peanut butter, then pour it out and let it cool. It's really yummy. I did not melt the chocolate in a separate bowl, but rather just put the Ghirardelli chocolate chips directly onto the hot toffee. They melted right away, and it worked out great. This really makes a lot; I used two sheet pans. I did not coat both sides, and it was sufficiently chocolate. I also only needed 1/3 of the crushed peppermint quantities she listed. Next time I need something different to take for a party or gift, I know what to make!

Thanksgiving 2010

We stayed home and cooked and celebrated with just the two of us this year. Alex helped with the chopping – he minced ½ cup of garlic – and had him help cook some other things. He half-heartedly complained about it as he was doing it but turned out the things he helped with were the things he liked the best!

Our menu:

Turkey – baked with rosemary and garlic

Ham – a Honey Baked Ham that was given to me

Stuffing – used a Stove Top package and added sauteed onions, mushrooms, celery, and grated carrots. Per Alex’s request, we actually stuffed the turkey this year rather than cooking it on the side.

Green bean casserole from Pioneer Woman – added mushrooms, subbed red pepper for the nasty pimento things. I did have some bread crumbs taking up space in the cabinet, so tried using them. If I ever do that again, it would be with ½ cup, not a full cup of crumbs. Chances are good I’ll simply leave it off completely. I did not think it added anything except to make it grainy.

Corn casserole – recipe from high school Home Ec class, but added onions, green and red bell peppers for color. It uses creamed corn and cornmeal. I used to love it, I haven’t made it in a while, and it was still ok but not as exciting as I’d remembered.

Mashed potatoes – cooked them the day before, then mashed and baked again.

Sweet potatoes – I baked some sweet potatoes to make the peanut yams recipe, but decided I had plenty of carbs and yellow items on the table so saved them for later.

Mini Cornbread loaves – came from Boston Market and were leftovers from a food distribution at church

Pumpkin pie – came from Walmart and was a leftover from a food distribution at church

Cranberry Cheesecake pie – the result was visually odd, but the taste was good

Nutella Cream Cheese Pudding – Alex requested something chocolate. I was looking through my printed recipes to find my corn casserole directions, and came across this recipe that I’ve had for eons and had never tried. It has a nutella custard that gets layered with a nutella glaze. I made the custard on Wed and made Alex do the glaze and then create the layers. There’s something that gives a strange taste, I think it is the honey in the glaze, but he was very pleased with it.

We certainly have plenty of leftovers to stuff ourselves with over the next few days. We have so much to be thankful for!

World Nutella Day

Today is World Nutella Day. I invite you to join me in celebrating this tasty, chocolately confection. If you need some ideas, there are plenty of recipes for you to try. Yum!

Egg Nog

So many times I've been doing something and thought about posting it, but I've just never remembered to do it by the time I got around to a computer. Then I'd either forgotten or it didn't seem worth it. That probably means you wouldn't have cared anyway...

However, for my digital scrapbook, I'd like to note that after 3 years of saying we were going to make our own eggnog, we finally did it. I use "we" in a general sense, as I found the recipe but I made Alex do it himself. He's been really excited about it, so I figured he should be the one to get the praise when it finally got made.

There are so many eggnog recipes out there, I wasn't sure which to do. We finally opted to try this easy eggnog for the first one. As promised, it was easy! Either it calls for much too much vanilla, or we used the wrong amount, because it was quite vanilla-y. Otherwise, it tasted great.

It came out a lot thinner than I'd expected. My sister had warned me that self-made tends to be thinner than store bought, and apparently I didn't take her advice under as much advisement as I thought. We typically use skim milk, and since this was made with the thicker whole milk, I figured it would balance out even with the other ingredients. Turns out, not so much.

There are other recipes that call for beating the egg white separately and then folding it in, which would theoretically thicken it a little. Or we could try one of the cooked recipes, which probably thickens it a bit as well. As much fun as Alex had making this batch, we'll probably try it again. If not, at least that's one of those "bucket list" items now checked off!

Recipe: Mediterranean Stew

Last January, my brother introduced me to the MediterrAsian website. I tried a few things, liked them, and then promptly forgot about it. A couple of months ago, I went back and started trying a few dishes.

Thai fish curry - This recipe surprised me. It was very light, a little sweet, and really good. There's no curry powder in it, though, and my brain was still expecting that type of flavor because of the name. I thought there was quite a bit of liquid for the quantity of solids, so you could easily increase the fish and veggies if you were serving more people. Or break up the fish pieces, stir the rice in, and serve as a soup.

Salmon risotto - not a dish I particularly recommend. I had a 14 oz can of salmon, so I doubled the recipe. According to their idea, that should have been 4 servings. We ended up with 6 ample portions, and were really wishing it was only the original two.
Side note: That was the first time I'd used canned salmon. Did you know it still has the fish bones in it? I was expecting bone-free like canned tuna.

Dhal with carrots and cauliflower - I couldn't find the red lentils at the regular grocery store, but the health food store had them. The coconut milk in it gives it a slightly sweet flavor. I'm not a big fan of cauliflower, so I found this an easy way to work it into my diet without having to suffer through the normal taste of it. In fact, I really didn't even notice the cauliflower at all. I found the Indian bread at the grocery store, and I did like it, but it was a little pricey to be using in one meal. Next time, we'll probably just use a baguette. Or skip the bread altogether. As with the salmon risotto, I found their 4 servings to expand to about 6 at my house. Except for the bread, this is a reasonably inexpensive dish.

Mediterranean Stew - This recipe is the reason for this post. This stuff is fantastic. Alex doesn't like olives, so I leave them out, and it is still an excellent recipe. They offer a number of variations on it, and we've tried all but the Italian one. It amazes me how the overall flavor really changes based on the protein and seasonings you add. My hands-down favorite is the Moroccan version. I've tried it with both fish and chickpeas, and I prefer the chickpeas. That's convenient, since it's cheaper as well!

When I make it, I double the ingredients for the basic stew, then divide that up into 3 portions. I then add the variant's protein and seasonings into one of the portions. Either refrigerate or freeze the other two until you need another quick meal.

I really have issues with the portion sizes they suggest. They must eat a lot more than we do. I still have 4 servings per portion, and we don't feel the servings are all that small. Sometimes I serve a salad with it, and then we are really full.

Summary: Unless you are really big eaters, their serving portions are going to be more generous than you probably need. The recipes themselves, however, are pretty good. If you don't try anything else except the stew, you should at least give that one a try. I think I'm probably going to make another batch soon because I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Recipe: Coq au Vin

It's otherwise known as "chicken cooked in red wine". This recipe started as a compilation of my mom's research into various recipes, and I've then made a few adjustments myself. It's been very popular with others when I've made it, so I'll pass it along.

If you aren't serving a large number of people, package it up into smaller portions and freeze for when you need something quickly.

COQ AU VIN

Ingredients

• 4 chicken legs
• 4 chicken thighs
• ¼ lb. bacon or salt pork
• 1 head celery, chopped
• 3-4 carrots, chopped or julienned
• 3 onions, quartered
  
• 3 shallots, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped or minced
  
• 1 pint mushrooms, washed
• 1 can diced tomatoes OR dice 3-4 medium fresh tomatoes
• 750 ml red wine
• Bay leaf
• Herbs for seasoning

Preparation
Step One

Brown chicken pieces in olive oil. Sprinkle with flour, then remove from pan.
Cook the bacon in the chicken grease. Remove from the pan.

Saute the celery, onion, shallots, carrots, and garlic in the chicken and bacon grease. Cook until the onions are translucent. Pour ¼ bottle of red wine into the pan to loosen any of “the bits” in the pan. If you’ve used a non-stick pan, you’re basically just rinsing the pan.

Step Two
I put it in the oven, mom has successfully put a smaller portion in the crockpot, so finish cooking with whatever method works for your schedule and size of cooking vessel.

Put browned chicken in lasagna pan, Dutch Oven, or crock pot. Crumble the bacon over the chicken. Add your sautéed vegetables. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, bay leaf, and herbs. Use fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme if you have it. Otherwise, dried herbs are just fine. I tend to just use a few tablespoons of Herbes de Provence.

Pour ½ bottle of red wine over the whole dish. That leaves enough for 2 glasses of wine to go with the meal. If you don’t want to drink the wine, pour it into the pan.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½-2 hours until chicken pulls easily from the bone. (3-4 hours if using a modern crockpot)

Step Three
Remove bay leaf and fresh herbs. Serve with mashed potatoes, salad, and baguette.

Notes
It doesn’t seem to matter what quality of wine you use. I’ve found it as cheaply as $3/bottle on a sale.

I enjoy deboning the chicken and shredding it into the vegetables rather than serving it with the bones. This is generally easier to do when putting away leftovers, however, as it is not so hot.

The finished product might have a lot of liquid. Either thicken it up with a little cornstarch, or just enjoy the juice. It also makes a nice stew if you’ve removed the bones.

Recipe: Spicy Peanut Yams

This recipe came courtesy of my sister. She sent it by email, I couldn't find it online, so I posted it in recipezaar. I took it to a Christmas party and the only person who didn't like it said it was because she can't eat spicy foods. It was otherwise extremely popular.

The spicy peanut yam casserole dish is pretty flexible. Reduce or even eliminate the hot pepper flakes to adjust for your level of spicy tolerance.

A tip for the peanuts: put them in a Ziploc bag and mash with a rolling pin.

One friend made the recipe using canned yams. She used a can of Ro-tel instead of the peppers and tomatoes, and sauteed the onions in the sauce from the Ro-tel. She reported it was very popular with her family, and saved her a lot of prep time.

The first time I made it, I was at someone else's house and had neither peanut oil nor curry powder nor hot pepper flakes. I used regular vegetable oil, cinnamon, and a couple shakes of tabasco sauce instead. We all thought it came out great, even though it was nothing like the recipe's intended flavor. Maybe that's another option you could try.

If you try it, be sure to let me know how you liked it!

300 degrees

When one puts the entire skillet into the oven to bake dinner, one should not then grab the bare handle willy-nilly when scooping out the food.

Just sayin'.

Ouch. This hurts.

Recipe: Crustless Pizza Dip

I love to cook, and I love finding recipes that I can share with people. My favorite online recipe place is www.recipezaar.com. I can pretty much always find something on there to fit what I'm looking for, and the user reviews are usually helpful.

This dip recipe is just as advertised: it takes just like a pizza. I made it for a SuperBowl party for Sunday, and it was scarfed up. Actually, to be honest, I found the recipe but Alex made it while I was cooking other items. Rather than using a pre-packaged jar of sauce, I made this pizza sauce.

I bought a package of pizza crust (never done that before) that I sliced into breadsticks and baked. We used those and a whole veggie tray as dippers. The cucumbers were a little odd, but the other items were fine. The broccoli and carrots probably worked the best.

If you need a dip for something, this one is definitely different but delicious. Don't expect leftovers!

unbelievable trip

Remember I said it was raining? That apparently turned into some horrific galestorm that tore up the island but good. We went out to the beach to ride the crazy waves (I kept looking for that hurricane tracker guy to show up with his TV crew to record the stupid people out in the ridiculous weather) and when we came back in, we discovered the power was out. Ok, no big deal, this can be fun for a little while. After a few hours, it got dark, and then it was not quite so fun. Board games by candle light can be amusing. After 2 days of having no dry towels, half our clothes filthy, and cooking all our food on the itty bitty charcoal grill downstairs, the "fun" had definitely passed. This morning, we finally got some power back, and we are so excited. The laptops, the cameras, our cell phones, and the handheld video games - everything is plugged in to recharge. The things you take for granted... I was thanking God for giving me the foresight to bring some candles and flashlights to the beach! Those were our saving grace at night.

After the fix-it crews showed up, I asked them what was going on. Apparently the transmitter lines that connect us to the substations came crashing down into the ocean. They brought crews from Pensacola and somewhere down S Fl to come rebuild the lines to connect us to generators. I don't know how long it will take them to correctly fix the situation, but for now the island is running on several humongous generators.

I did manage to pick up some fun photos of the situation before the camera battery ran out. I wish I'd gotten one of me cooking tacos in a frying pan on the grill, but I didn't think about it in time and the bugs were just feasting on me and I couldn't take it any more. I'll post them later. Meanwhile, it's sunny now so we are going out to the beach!

yum yum

I asked Alex yesterday what he'd had for lunch. He said he made a sandwich with "the meat that looked sort of like bacon". It took me a little bit to figure out what he'd done, then asked if he meant the package of turkey bacon. He supposed so. I asked if he'd cooked it first, and was rewarded with a look of stupefaction. "Maybe that's why my tummy hasn't been feeling so great this afternoon."

Yeah, I bet that would do it. Raw bacon probably doesn't sit that well on the tummy, even if it is made from turkey instead of pig. Can you tell we don't have bacon in our house very often?