Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Kitchen Chronicles

Well, as I drag my lazy bohonkus to the keyboard . . . the Christmas food wrap-up.

First that chocolate spice bread - yeeee-ummmm. It was like a slice of Mexican hot chocolate. Very moist. And just a bit of heaven when paired with a nice cup of tea.

Second, the no-knead whole wheat bread. On the up side, this bread could not have been easier to make. I wasn't sure what would make it rise. Since there's no sugar, I wasn't sure what the yeast would eat to make those yeast farts that make the bread rise (you're welcome for that little image - good luck getting it out of your head). But rise it did. Those wee yeast beasties are a determined lot. On the downside, switching out the rye for corn meal was not a good choice. It just turned it into cornbread. Duh. And I've had better cornbreads. Not that it was bad. It was actually pretty good. And I'm more than willing to tinker with it to come up with a good flour blend. Given that the entire recipe was "put the ingredients in a bowl; stir; wait; put dough in pan; wait; put pan in oven; bake", I'm thinking this could be a go-to classic for me.

Third, the guac. Oh, the guac. I bought 6 avocados, planning to do one regular and one spicy guacamole. 6 BAD avocados. How does one buy SIX BAD avocados? How does that happen. I have no idea. Especially since I went to the hippie store, and their produce is usually top notch. Very disappointing. Luckily, I'd overbought on tomatoes, and was able to freestyle a pico de gallo-style salsa. Which, got rave reviews, she said modestly. Necessity is la madre of invention. I'm a southwest girl, and can also Magyver a queso dip out of two tomatoes, a paper clip and a block of Velveeta. Ole!

5 comments:

victory4angela said...

I was not at the top of my game this year and was off on the timing of everything. My brother was late and it too a while to set up the new deep fryer for the turkey, then the oil took a little longer to heat than expected, and then it cooked faster than I planned. I jumped in the shower just before everyone was to arrive and realized I forgot to start boiling the potatoes for the mashed taters. So, some stuff was ready early. Then we had to wrangle the crew so everyone could eat.

My sweet potatoes with Grand Manier was a big hit along with my chocolate pecan pie (bourbon). The stuffing was too mushy, but it was okay. Deep fried turkey was a big hit too.

FirePhrase said...

Timing is always the killer. Since Mom has starting letting us pull duty on different dishes, it's a little calmer. Everybody gets their share of the crazy. But no body gets too crazy.

That boozy sweet potato is killing me. I may have to hit you up for the recipe. Is it safe for the kiddies?

victory4angela said...

It's a combo of recipes from Paula Deen and elsewhere on the internet

1 large can of sweet potatoes (mashed)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk

Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans

I alter it a bit. Reduce the sugar by almost half, add maple syrup, and a couple splashes of GM. You could probably reduce the butter in the sweet potato mix too because it is pretty rich. I also mix all of the sweet potato stuff with a hand mixer so it looks like baby food (nummy!)

It should be safe for the kids because the GM should cook out in the baking.

victory4angela said...

Oh yeah,

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients together except for cream. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add cream;mix well. Pour into greased casserole dish ( 1 1/2 quarts). Add topping. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

If you double it to make a lot (which serves about 12 doubled), then bake it for at least 45 min.

FirePhrase said...

I just finished baking a sweet-potato/pumpkin pie. I was making it because one person at the party tonight can't have the pumpkin pie dip because of the cream cheese (lactose AND gluten intolerant - what a gyp). I felt bad screwing her over because of her dickie tummy. So I pulled together the pie. No dairy, no flour. What's left to make it taste good? Grand Marnier! I put in a nice little snoot full. we'll see how she turns out.

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