Final 2011 Food Wrap Up: Giving Thanks This Year

As you know, the holidays have been hard on me as we move farther and farther west. It just so expensive to get back home… so we just don’t go. Which makes me a little sad as I miss my family. However, we still had a really nice Thanksgiving this year that was just the right size and with just the right people. As I mentioned in my Exiting Hibernation post, I had been feeling out of sorts, and this gathering was one of the highlights of my fall. It lifted my spirits greatly.

Busy getting ready

Time to Eat!

Thank you R, L, and I for being mine and Robert’s Thanksgiving family for the second year in a row! I am truly thankful to have such lovely people in my life.

We stuffed ourselves silly with an abundance of good food and then played a competitive round of Quiddler. Lesson learned: you will learn some new words when you play with a biologist!

Now, on to the food. We did it pot luck style, and we brought several contributions. To make sure we had veggies, we made our favorite Hearty Winter Salad that makes regular appearances at our dinner table.

My Mom’s Artichoke Dip is a classic in our family. She has been making it for as long as I can remember. It is super simple and tasty. I definitely recommend you give it a try at your next gathering. I like to serve it with Triscuits. There are no pictures of the appetizers. By the time we started thinking about pictures, they were long gone!

Mom’s Artichoke Dip Recipe

Ingredients

2 jars of marinated artichoke hearts, drained

¼ cup of sour cream

¼ cup of mayonnaise

¼ cup of Parmesan cheese

Directions

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process until desired consistency (I prefer mine to be fairly smooth).

Place in small dish and bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 30 minutes or until bubbly.

We brought two appetizers. Again, these were gone by the time we started taking pictures. We also made some stuffed mushrooms with cheese and spinach that were quite tasty. I think I picked the recipe because I had some spinach I wanted to use. Conveniently, the crumbs from the cutting the bread up for stuffing worked for this recipe. My only criticism is that it really made way more stuffing than needed, and we even increased the amount of mushrooms. I felt it “overstuffed” them. Unfortunately, I can’t find the recipe. However, it was pretty basic. Chop and sauté the mushroom stems with some butter and sherry. We also added some shallots. Mix in some bread crumbs and chopped fresh spinach. Top with cheese. Bake until bubbly.

This Sausage, Fig and Cranberry Stuffing (really it is dressing since it was not stuffed in anything) recipe was a new adventure for us. We pretty much followed it as is, but added some diced pear that needed to be used up, as well. We also used bourbon as the liquor. It is a little on the boozy side, but it was quite tasty! I would recommend it.

Here is a recap of our day in pictures:

Our lovely hostess

Max is camera-averse. He turns away if you try to take his picture.

Table is set

Beautifully roasted

Discussing the temperature

Carving the turkey

Mashed sweet potatoes

Can't have turkey without gravy!

Look at all that scrumptious food

Sweet Finish 1: Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

Sweet Finish 2: Pecan Pie with Chocolate and Bourbon

Yes, it appears bourbon was a meal theme

Potatoes, Beans and Corn: The Southwestern Trinity (2011 Food Recap, Part 2)

As Robert and tried to recall some of our more savory successes, these three were the ones that came to mind. I quickly noticed some themes. I guess it is fitting since we live in the Southwest. Although, I would like to note that it is sometimes difficult to find good fresh corn here.

Potato and Sweet Corn Hash was a summer find. It was so darn good. We made this one a couple of times. I bet it would be tasty with a fried egg on top. It is pretty self-explanatory and easy. I haven’t tried it with frozen corn, but I suspect it would still be pretty tasty!

Our CSA share provided us with an almost weekly bag of roasted chilies. Now, I am not complaining, but I find you have to start getting creative and researching ways to use them. As a result, we end up with quite a few bags in the freezer. When seeking inspiration for a recent potluck, I found these bookmarked recipes for a Spicy Corn Dip and a Creamy Bean Dip. I was torn between the two, and Robert pretty much read my mind (we spend way too much time together) when he said, why not do half and half? Brilliant, I say. I was pleased that we seemed to have one of the crowd pleasers of the night and it was one of the first dishes to disappear! We basically nestled them side by side in a baking dish.

Modifications? We cut the bean dip recipe in half. Robert said that next time, he would just make the same base for both of them (combining all the dairy and flavorings) then divide it in half to stir in the beans and corn into the two separate dips. P.S. – These would be excellent Super Bowl party dips. You can thank me later for the idea.

I am always a little more inspired to cook when I have time on my hands, so I pulled out all the stops for some bean burritos recently since I was on Winter Break. I bought the fresh tortillas you cook yourself. Look for them in the refrigerated section of your grocery. They are a little pricier than the ones you grab on the shelf, but they taste so much better! I cooked some black beans in our slow cooker to make refried beans. I highly recommend this if you eat a lot of beans because it is so much cheaper than canned beans and so easy – all you have to do is plan ahead by about half a day. We don’t even soak them overnight. We just throw them in the slow cooker and let them cook until soft. I put some of our bountiful green chilies into the refried beans. We also had shredded cheese and added more green chilies to Greek yogurt (or sour cream) for a creamy sauce. The real highlights of the burritos were these Chipotle Caramelized Onions and the roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes. I just peeled and diced them up and threw them in the oven at about 400 degrees until nice and crispy.

January Is Comfort Food Time

I have not reneged on my commitment to recap the latter half of 2011, but I am waiting, um, on my “photographer” (husband) to provide me with some photos… So, in the mean time, here is what we have been chowing down on during the last weeks of my break from school. Since my commitment to housework and cooking can fluctuate when I am in the thick of classes, I try to step it up a bit during my down time. As usual, I sucked and didn’t take pictures, but… I guess that just isn’t my style. Perhaps that will be one of my goals for 2012: Quit being intimidated by our fancy camera and actually use it.

I mentioned spinach pie during my birthday post last year, but I realize I did not share the recipe. It is so darn tasty, that I must. It is basically a version of spanakopita that I learned during a January Residence Life training at SMU where they had Dining Services come and do a cooking demo for us. Not sure what all my colleagues thought of the experience, but I loved it.

This has become a favorite along with a bread pudding recipe that I should make and share sometime soon! We could not find phyllo dough, so we decided to use puff pasty and make turnovers. I am pretty sure that raises the fat and calorie count quite a bit, but it was definitely easier and quicker than the phyllo. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do it this way again. We also had an unexpected 2 hour power outage during the baking of these. It was horrible timing and we fretted about whether or not they would cook through or be ruined. Luckily, we seemed to have enough residual heat to complete the baking process!

Spinach Pie

(Note: I am providing you the full recipe, but you should know we always cut it in half)

3 cups chopped onion (about 2 onions)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons of salt

1 ½ teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper

3 (10 oz) packages of frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted (we have used fresh before)

6 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons of plain dry bread crumbs

½ pound of good feta, crumbled or cut into ½ inch cubes

½ cup of pine nuts, toasted

¼ cup of butter, melted

6 sheets of phyllo dough, defrosted (if you use puff pastry, you don’t need this or the melted butter)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium skillet or sauté pan, on medium heat, sauté the onions with the olive oil until translucent, and slightly brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper and let cool slightly.

Squeeze out and discard liquid from thawed spinach. Put spinach in bowl and gently mix in the onions, eggs, nutmeg, parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, feta cheese, and pine nuts.

Grease an ovenproof 8 inch sauté pan (or pie dish) and line it with the 6 stacked sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with melted butter and letting the edges hang over the pan. Place spinach mixture into middle of phyllo and neatly fold the edges up and over the top to seal in the filling. Brush top with melted butter. Bake for an hour until top is golden brown and the filling is set. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Serve at room temperature.

Variation: Cut puff pastry into quarters and place filling in middle. Fold from corner to corner to make a triangle. Brush with beaten egg and use to seal as needed.

We have also made macaroni and cheese several times. I have made two of my favorite variations recently. One is a Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese. R said he couldn’t taste the cheese in the squash version, so perhaps increase the cheese amount a bit if you really want to “hide” the squash flavor. This time around, I used some odds and ends of cheeses that needed to get cleared out of the fridge. I thought it tasted great, personally. It is a great way to sneak in some veggies and lower the fat content. I should note that I didn’t measure out the squash either, though, as I just pulled a bag out of the freezer. Oh, that is a good tip I should share. We got a gigantic butternut squash with our CSA share, and I learned that you can just dice it up and freeze it raw. I pulled some out, threw it in the oven to roast and then pureed it up. Easy peasy!

This Cooking Light Four Cheese version has been my go to recipe for years. It is always loved! I never use the melba toast topping. I am not really a crumb topping person. And… I KNOW, it has Velveeta, but it does add a creaminess that is hard to replicate. If you just can’t do it, then sub in another soft, melty cheese.

I also made this variation on Shepherd’s Pie that is also a Cooking Light recipe. I love the addition of the chipotle and sweet potatoes for the topping. I am pretty sure we have subbed in ground lamb occasionally in the past. This recipe is another one that I cut in half for us and find it still has plenty of leftovers, especially for a family of two!

To continue my Cooking Light favorites themes, I also pulled out this classic recipe for Baked Potato Soup that has also been in my repertoire for ages. Who doesn’t love Baked Potato soup? Again, I appreciate the efforts to lighten up what can be a fat-laden meal. I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream this time, and didn’t notice any major taste difference.

So, hopefully, this provides some winter cooking inspirations that will help you feel warm and cozy!

Food Highlights: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Part 1: The Sweet Stuff)

I am starting with food as I found it the easiest for collecting my thoughts and getting back into the rhythm of writing. I am going to break it down into separate blogs to keep it from being too lengthy.

These days, I tend to find most of my recipe inspirations through the gazillion of food blogs I follow (yes, I know I have a problem!). In fact, I have been feeling a little guilty about neglecting my gazillion of cook books (yes, I know… problem… let’s move on now). Anyways! We have had some great finds along the way and some not so great successes. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem to turn out exactly how we thought, and sometimes, especially with baking, it seems to be the curse of the high altitude. And, I really don’t have many pictures cuz we suck and don’t think about it at the time. Hopefully my descriptions and amazing word crafting will make up for the lack of visuals… And if you really need pictures, most of the links have pictures for ya!

Brownies and Bars Goodness, Sort of…

One summer find and success was this Grain Free Brownie recipe, and I just recommend the Food Renegade website for some interesting reading in general. My mother-in-law was recently diagnosed with Coeliac’s disease, so I was excited to share my find with her while they were staying in Flagstaff this summer. I have made them with and without the cream cheese swirl, and think they are yummy both ways. More and more people are gluten free either by choice or necessity, so these are great baked good solution that will be a crowd pleaser. I promise you, no one is going to miss the gluten!

A recent attempt at Bourbon Pecan Pie Brownies (what is there not to love in that mix, eh?) has great potential, I think… The flavors were there, but they did suffer from some underdoneness despite cooking both layers past the recommended temperature times. I am starting to wonder if it was a high altitude thing. If I can figure out the baking times, I envision these being the PERFECT dessert to recommend for Kentucky Derby parties. Oh, and Jessica is pretty darn hilarious. I recommend subscribing to her How Sweet It Is blog.

I impulsively bought some Meyer lemons at the CSA store as I have often read rave reviews about this type of lemon and its flavor differences. I decided I really wanted to embrace the lemonyness (according to spell check, I just made this word up), so I determined lemon bars would be the way to go. I have made them before, but it has been a while, and of course I tried a new recipe. Again, I ended up with an underdone custard despite leaving it in the oven for quite a bit longer than the instructed baking time… so I am thinking there just must be something to custardy type desserts at this altitude. However, I struggled to find any good insight in my high altitude baking cookbook, so this is just speculation on my part. They were tasty, but I was not particularly over enthusiastic with the results and there was no Meyer lemon flavor epiphany for me.

Caramel Conundrums

Anything of a caramel type attempt seems to always be a crapshoot… as you may recall from my attempt for Robert’s birthday (link) last year. My friend R asked for caramel cupcakes for her birthday this summer, so I went with a triple caramel cupcake: caramel cupcake with a caramel filling and caramel frosting. They were not a complete failure, but the idea for a caramel filling didn’t work out so well as it just sort of absorbed into the cake instead of being a gooey center surprise. I splurged and bought icing tips and pastry bags. I figured perhaps I should try making my frosting look fancier. Kind of a hot mess (literally and figuratively). It is harder than it looks! I also decided to ix-nay the sugar sculptures.

This winter we decided we wanted to make caramel candies. You know, the almost gooshy, perfectly chewy ones that you wrap in wax paper. Robert diligently cut out 60 squares and helped me stir the caramel to the correct temperature. So, you would think smooth sailing, right? Nope. We ended up with this weird texture that was crunchy when you bit into it and then turned into this pull your fillings out, chewy glob in your mouth. They tasted good, but the texture just sucked. So, fail number 1. I did get creative and mix bits of it into a chocolate cookie batch.

Onto fail number 2. Many years ago, my friend introduced me to this candy/cookie that I call Victoria’s Addictive Cookies and she calls “Crack.” It is always a crowd favorite at parties and potlucks, and ridiculously easy to make except, apparently, at 7000 feet. Although, I swear I made it once this summer with no trouble. However, this winter, we had two complete fails, which was frustrating since I was making it to send home to my family as part of my Christmas package. However, I have since conducted some online research and learned a little more about candy making at high altitude, so at least now I know I am not completely crazy or inept. Many people mentioned they are unable to successfully make caramel or toffee without the use of corn syrup. It also has to do with the fact that water evaporates out at a lower boiling point at higher altitudes.

Here is a pretty helpful chart I found for those who are also trying to make candy at high altitude:

Sugar cookery
For sea level:
215-230 degrees: thread stage
240 degrees: soft ball
245 degrees: firm ball
250-260 degrees: hard ball
265-270 degrees: soft crack
295-310 degrees: hard crack
320-360 degrees: caramel
For every 500 feet. of altitude over sea level, the temperatures drop 1 degree..
For 5000 feet elevation:
205-220 degrees: thread
230 degrees: soft ball
235 degrees: firm ball
240-250 degrees: hard ball
255-260 degrees: soft crack
285-300 degrees: hard crack
310-350 degrees: caramel
Source: Amy DeWitt, Culinary School of the Rockies

The other important detail I learned is that several people recommend calibrating your candy thermometer by identifying at what temperature your water boils and then adjusting cooking times accordingly. Oh. Of course. Lower boiling points. I knew about that. Sooo, I am not giving up!

Here is an cool sounding blog that I may have to add to my list that also explains this: Handmade in High Places

So you are probably wanting the recipe now, right? Here you go!

Victoria’s Addictive Cookies, aka Crack, aka, Saltine Toffee Candy

Ingredients

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of unsalted butter

Saltine crackers

2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan with foil. Place a layer of saltine crackers in the pan. Break up crackers if necessary to fill in empty spaces. Combine sugar and butter in pan and bring to a boil. Stir and cook at the boiling level for about 3 minutes (although clearly, I would now increase this time at my higher altitude). Pour the butter and sugar mixture over the crackers and place in the oven for 6 minutes (again, I am thinking I will extend this time by a few minutes in the future). After you remove from the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips on it and let sit for a few minutes. After the chocolate has softened, spread the melted chocolate over the pan. Let cool completely (I suggest putting in the refrigerator). After cooled, break into pieces. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Remember, share wisely. Crack is addictive…

Exiting My Blogosphere Hibernation – A series of Catch Ups

I feel like I should do that "tap, tap, tap... is this microphone on?" moment. It has been so long since I posted anything that I had to re-log in!

I really fell off the writing wagon with the start of summer. I can’t even come up with a particularly good explanation of why this happened. I had plenty of experiences to write about, but I just didn’t. I seems it might have just been a perfect storm combination of a couple of things.

I think I was just beat after my first year of grad school and my brain went on hiatus. As much joy as this usually brings me, it was probably more thought and work than I was willing to invest. Then, I just became overwhelmed by the sheer number of things I could write about since I waited so long to write, so I think I just chose to not write at all. Finally, I had a weird funk that plagued me for much of the fall. Nothing was particularly wrong, I just felt a little out of sorts and unhappy. I think it happens to all of us – we get these weird little mental dips. It’s almost more frustrating when you can’t pinpoint how you are feeling due to one specific event or reason. No one wants to hear you feel a little blue just cuz!

Anyways, as my semester began winding down, I spent some time thinking through what was aggravating my moods and pushed myself to work through my issues and move on. So, I feel much better and much more optimistic for the start of a new year and semester!

Which left me with the damn blog… what to do… what to do... In a burst of inspiration (mainly based on the end of the year blog posts I have been reading), I concluded that I could do a reflective recap. It felt weird to not mention anything at all that I have done since, oh July. However, it is way too daunting and time consuming to do my usual more detailed summary of my experiences. And practically speaking, I don’t know that I could really remember enough at this point to write about it well. Instead, I see this as an opportunity, to share a few memories that do stand out and reflect on the good things that happened in 2011. And realistically speaking, I know my readership is small, so I am thinking this is all more for myself than anything else!