Recipe and Cook's Corner

[ImEnnisShesJack]

^^^ yes i know, it's ruined for FOOD but works great for clay, i'll have to find another way, i do not want that duvall woman chasing me around...! maybe i can just roll it out and slice the noodles...

Roll out the pasta as thin as you can with a rolling pin, lightly dust with flour and roll the dough up loosely, jelly-roll style and then slice like you would icebox cookies or pinwheel cookies...you can either dry them in the little coils or unroll them and dry them flat or over the handle of a wooden spoon between two drinking glasses...

I've done this - but I'm always in such a hurry that I don't roll the dough out thin enough so my linguine is a bit doughy.  Oh and remember that fresh pasta - even air dried for a day - cooks up in about oh 2 seconds!

[PatSinnott]

Does anyone have a recipe for Hot Buttered Rum, or a good spiced mull wine or cider punch, something adult to serve on a chilly night?

Thanks, and by way of contributing here is a great dessert recipe I've made several times:

1 package of Archway Coconut Macaroons
1/2 cup light rum (tried Captain Morgans spiced rum once, not as good)
6 Hershey bars
1 carton heavy whipping cream (I think it's a pint)
1/2 cup toasted almond slivers (I buy them raw and put them in the toaster oven until golden brown)

Soak macaroons in rum until rum is absorbed (about 20 minutes), flipping them over occasionally.  Press macaroons down into bottom of springform pan to form crust.  Chill while making filling.

Break Hershey bars into pieces, put in microwave safe dish and heat on high for 30 seconds.  Stir, heat another 30 seconds until melted, repeat until melted making sure not to let sides scorch or crystallize.  Can use double boiler to melt chocolate too.

Whip cream till stiff.  Temper chocolate with about 1 cup whipped cream, and then fold chocolate into whipped cream, mixing well.
Spread over macaroon crust and top with toasted almonds.  Chill for 1 hour.

To serve, remove springform from bottom of pan and slice.   

[ImEnnisShesJack]

God Bless You, Pat!

Carol and I will be trying that one VERY soon....

I'll see if I can dig up a Hot Buttered Rum recipe in exchange.

I do make a wassail recipe in the Crock Pot that you could just as easily use some wine or cranberry vodka:

1 medium orange studded lightly with cloves and sliced thinly
1 large lemon studded lightly with cloves and sliced thinly
1 or 2 limes sliced thinly
1 cup fresh cranberries

4 cups orange juice
4 cups cranberry juice cocktail or cranberry juice blend (cranapple or crancherry are best, crangrape is okay IMHO)

3 or 4 large cinnamon sticks, slightly broken
2 or 3 large star anise (yuck!  I don't like these and don't use them!) 
3 or 4 cardamon pods, slightly crushed

(optional) wine to taste
    -  or  -
(optional) cranberry or orange or lemon vodka to taste

Now for the hard part:  Dump all that stuff into the crock pot and cook on "high" setting for about an hour, then turn it on "low" setting.  When the stuff smells so good that it starts to draw people's attention, it's ready.  This is also VERY good when you have a scratchy throat or head cold.

chef's note:  All these measurements are approximate.  I just throw the ingreds together until it looks right and smells right and tastes right.  This recipe can also be adjusted if you have a smaller/larger crock pot, or if you want to cook it on the stovetop in a large stock pot.

[PatSinnott]

Thanks Heidi,
I'm gonna give this one a try! 

I did find a spiced apple cider recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook, and as a variation it told how to make it into a hot buttered rum spiced cider, so I'm going to serve them both. Basically to make it into a hot buttered rum version, you put a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of packed brown sugar and two tablespoons of rum into the bottom of the mug, and fill with hot cider.

Oh, and enjoy the chocolate mousse/macaroon thing.  It's totally rich, so be prepared!!

[Castro]

Simple Dessert for Solitaries and Lovers:  Here's the single-serving recipe. Modify as needed to share with a friend.

One mug very hot black coffee
One Hershey Skor bar, unwrapped, broken in half, preferably served on a small, pretty plate.
Paper napkin.

Dip one piece of candy bar into the coffee.  In a leisurely manner, lick or suck the melted chocolate from the toffee. Reverse grip and, holding the naked end of the piece, dip the other end in coffee and remove the rest of the chocolate.

(Alternative: continue to dip and nibble the unclothed toffee until consumed; then dunk the other end.)

Repeat process with other half of candy bar.

[Laurentia]

^ Simple desserts are the best!
Reminds me of the kind of biscuits an Australian friend told me about, a sort of porous wafer coated in chocolate, that can be used as a straw for coffee. The chocolate will, of course, melt and blend with the coffee on its way through the wafer. Sounds delicious...

[gnash]

pat, the recipe you posted sounds realllly yummy and decadent. i'm inclined to put sliced bananas into the mix.. damn, i didn't have dessert all weekend, and that would certainly fit the bill!  oh wait, duhhhh,,,, i made brownies last night!      :::runs to kitchen:::

the hot cider and wassail recipes sound delicious. my american grandma in wisconsin used to serve us tea with tang (flavored drink mix) in it.. down-home, simple and sugary, and around holidays, i remember her peppery pfeffernusse cookies -- homemade, with nuts inside. they where dry and crumbly and delicious. covered in powdered sugar, they reminded me of snowballs and omg i must have eaten hundreds of em over the years..!

with the holidays around the corner, i guess we'll be seeing more good recipes here for holiday meals. i hope to see some unusual things from different cultures... okay, not haggis or anything like that,,, but you know what i mean.

lately i've been enjoying shredded raw vegetable salads -- little separate mounds of shredded carrots, zucchini, beets, jicama, cabbage, green papaya, bell peppers and whatnot, all finely shredded (with a grater) and topped with toasted sesame seeds, then drizzled on a lemon-olive oil-vinegar dressing, with herbs, garlic, etc...

however tonight we went out for chinese at the ultra non-descript noodle house in arcadia and OMG it was deliciousnesss.. the best buns i've ever had, just amazing:



they were so soft, yet had that crunchy crispiness on the bottom, and inside was a perfect meat filling...  next time i want to try this, it's very spicy (or so they say):



with a name like that, how can you resist...   ...i think it's those clear rice noodles with tofu and vegetables.  tonight we also ordered a beef noodle soup. the noodles are handmade, and chewy -- hands down the best chinese noodles i've eaten. worth the drive...

[PatSinnott]

Hi Jimmy,
I loves me some Chinese food!  I tend to order the hot/spicy dishes.  Jim doesn't eat it because it raises his sugars.  He is a long time diabetic.  So I usually eat it for lunch. 
The recipe I posted won a contest many years ago in the Dallas Morning News for recipes using only 6 ingredients or less.  That's how I found it. I'm sure they would have added bananas or something else if the rules for the contest didn't say 6 or less ingredients.  It's a great base recipe to try additions with. 




For Thanksgiving this year I'm going to make another dessert that I love, and have made dozens of times.  Here's the recipe:


Butch’s White Chocolate Cheesecake  (December 1987)

Crust:

18 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup pecans
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons melted butter (salted butter)
      
Put all ingredients into food processor and mix thoroughly.
Press into bottom and sides of spring form pan.
Save 2 tablespoons for topping.
Refrigerate while making filling.

Filling:
   2 lbs cream cheese at room temperature
   4 eggs plus one egg yolk
   8 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
   2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
   3 tablespoons of favorite liqueur (Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Kahlua, etc.)
   Pinch of ground nutmeg
   1 lb of white chocolate, melted

Place cream cheese in food processor or beat with mixer and cream until light and fluffy.  Add four eggs, one at a time, plus one egg yolk.  Add room temp butter, vanilla, liqueur and nutmeg, until thoroughly blended.  Stop and wipe sides of processor bowl with rubber spatula.  Process on low and blend in white chocolate. 
Pour carefully into crumb crust.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1&1/4 to 1&1/2 hours.  Sprinkle saved cookie crumbs over the top and continue to bake for 15 more minutes. 
Cool completely, then refrigerate, covered, overnight.

[gnash]

omg, sugar rushes! it's no wonder people worry about weight during the holidays -- all the delicious desserts! i love cheesecake, but to be honest, i prefer a plain one with just a fruit topping. which is the kind that is not sweet and creamy but rather dry and crumbly? ny or philadelphia? i remembered once my friend ordered one fed-exed to california from the east coast, and we at the entire thing in one sitting. LOL. can you say oink oink...?

umm, an old friend, who is italian, made the best biscotti and crumbly italian berry dessert bars. i need to find those recipes. she would bake for hour during the holidays, her house was always sweet smelling and warm. i am not big on desserts really, but my BF loves sweets (he has the metabolism of a hummingbird) so tonight to replace the brownies we scarfed he made oatmeal-coconut cookies. i never had them with coconut before, but they were good,,,, you could smell the coconut during the baking, and the texture of the oatmeal hid the sometimes annoying chewiness of the shredded coconut.

for a simple dessert, i will sometimes poach pears sitting in a red wine/water/sugar solution halfway up their sides, when i bake a chicken or other oven meal. i baste them with the liquid while baking..  by the time dinner is over they're cooled a bit and ready to eat. i usually slice them keeping the upper part near the stem intact and fan them on a plate (peel and core the firm-ripe pears, retaining the stem; pack brown sugar inside if you want)... they are good sprinkled with cinnamon and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or probably just whipped cream as well.


latest favorite sandwich:  grilled BTCs... bacon, tomato and cheddar, on sourdough. i use that precooked bacon.... it's so easy and very good with a bowl of soup.

[ImEnnisShesJack]

I love it when jimmy posts in here!  lol!

I was just getting ready to log off when I saw his post and HAD to come in here...I'm now going to be HORRIBLY late for work, but it was worth it....

[Laurentia]

Oooh! Poached pears are an old-school Swedish dessert, the kind of stuff that people had after Sunday roast in the 50's and something my grandmother might make!

Here's another old-school dessert with pears, it's also really good with apples. Traditionally tinned fruit is used, because fresh fruit used to be expensive and hard to come by here in the Northern wastelands 

Toscapäron

4 - 6 sweet, ripe pears
some butter for the pan

"Tosca" batter:
1/3 - 1/2 cup almonds, chopped or thinly sliced (hazelnuts are OK, too) (1 dl)
2 ozs butter (50 g)
3 tbsp sugar (1/2 dl)
1 tbsp wheat flour
1 tbsp milk

oven temperature: 225 Celsius, which corresponds to 437 Fahrenheit - I don't know the "standard" temperatures of Fahrenheit ovens, but I'm sure a couple of degrees up or down doesn't ruin it!

Grease a pan; peel, core, and halve the pears if using fresh ones. Put them flat side down in the pan.
Melt butter in a small saucepan, add almonds, sugar, flour, and milk and simmer for a couple of minutes. Put a dollop on each of the pears, then bake in the oven until the tosca is nicely brown and the fruit is soft. Let cool slightly before serving with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

[gnash]

I'm now going to be HORRIBLY late for work, but it was worth it....

tell you what, heidi. you really should learn to read more quickly...   now, don't blame me about work! lol.

laurentia, the toscapäron sounds yummy and simple...  sort of like a apple crumble. hazelnuts sound good, one of my fave nutmeats.

[chapeaugris]

Funny, my older daughter asked me the other day when I was going to make poached pears again. So I bought some nice ripe ones on my way to their collège (jr high school) for a parent-teacher meeting. I handed the bag to younger daughter just before she got on the bus and told her to give it to her dad when he picked them up. She was so embarrassed because 1) I spoke English to her in front of her classmates and 2) she thinks it s not cool to be  seen doing anything helpful for one s parents. So once on the bus crammed the sack of pears into her book bag. We had to have pear smoothies instead.

But in my poached pear recipe I use a mixture of water, sugar, lemon peels and vanilla pod for poaching on top of stove and then refrigerate them afterwards. Maybe I ll try the wine this time.

[gnash]

aww, your daughter doesn't fully appreciate the delicate flesh of a ripe pear!

poaching pears is great, you can add all sorts of things -- ginger, lemon, orange peel, cinnamon, etc. i sometimes toss a clove in there too. but always, always, some sugar.

[Laurentia]

Chapeaugris, your daughter was embarrassed that her mum spoke English? Over here, that would have made her coolest in her class!  Especially American English equals coolness here. I hope the pear smoothies were good 

Toscapäron does resemble an apple crumble a bit, they're like a cross between apple crumble and toffee apples (only with pears) - mmmmm. Tosca can also be spread on an almost ready sponge cake, which is put back into the oven for 10 - 15 minutes more so the tosca goes brown and crisp and chewy at the same time. I made a couple of those cakes for my workmates when I quit my latest job, and they (mostly men in their fifties) were like slightly embarrassed, but starved, vultures