Now, here's a sampler plate of most of the food served:
And, here's the menu:
Beef tenderloin
Blender Bearnaise sauce
Creamed spinach
Carrots with orange
Roasted cauliflower
Potato gratin
Yorkshire pudding
Oatmeal bread
Cranberry Sauce
Persimmon pudding
So, let's dig in with a couple of new recipes:
Creamed Spinach
I'd have sworn that I actually blogged about this. Truth be told there are probably 100 unfinished blogs and it's undoubtedly in that mell of a hess. This is one that I don't measure but it's so forgiving that that doesn't matter! BTW - the persimmon pudding is behind the spinach in the photo
Ingredients:
two packages of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 T olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
4 oz cream cheese
couple of grates of nutmeg
handful of grated cheese (I used gruyere but swiss would work just fine)
cream
Directions:
Saute the onion in the olive oil. Add in the spinach and the cream cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted in. Add the grated cheese and stir it in. Pour in cream and stir until it's reached a consistency that you like. This is easy to make ahead and reheat.
Roasted Cauliflower
Another dinner party staple for us. Super easy to pop in the oven and ignore until you're ready to serve it. Here's the link: roasted cauliflower
Carrots with Orange
I used a David Rosengarten recipe. It was very good but didn't beat others we've made so I'm not going to post the recipe.
Blender Bearnaise Sauce
If you've never made hollandaise or Bearnaise because your'e worried about how fussy it is to make, you're missing out The blender version isn't quite as fabulous but it's one heckuva lot better than a mix or a jar! Here's a link to my mom's: blender Hollandaise.
Oatmeal Bread
Here, I used a Better Homes and Gardens recipe for my bread machine. Again, it was good but not as good as other breads we've made so I'll not post the recipe.
Cranberry Sauce
I used a Bon Appetit recipe here. And, I do believe I'll be going back to my old faithful cranberry sauce recipe. Which I see I've not yet blogged about. Ok, I need to rectify that since it is incredible!
Yorkshire Pudding
This was a failure on my part. I used a Tyler Florence recipe. They were like hockey pucks. Well, maybe not that dense but they certainly didn't rise. Next time I'll work on figuring out where I went wrong...
Potato Gratin
This, in our opinion, was the star of the sides. I read about a dozen recipes and narrowed my focus down to a Fine Cooking and a Bon Appetit recipe. Then, I smooshed the two together and wound up with a recipe I'll make again and again.
Ingredients:
4 large russet potatoes
salt
lemon peel - a couple of strips
4 peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T thyme
bay leaf
1 1/2 c cream
2 T butter
1 large shallot, minced
two big handfuls finely grated Gruyere
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients except for the potatoes, salt and cheese in the cream. Bring it to boil in a small saucepan. Remove it from the heat and set it aside for 30 minutes.
Saute the shallot in the butter and set it aside.
Peel and slice the potatoes about 1/8" thick. Put the slices in lemon water for about 15 minutes. Dry then before using. I liberally salted them when I had them out on the towel
Shingle the potatoes into a baking dish. See the photo. This assures every serving gets some nice, crispy edges.
Fish the bay leaf out of the cream. Combine the shallots, butter and cream in a blender and blend until the mixture is relatively smooth. Pour the cream over the potatoes. Top with the cheese. Bake them for about 60-70 minutes at 350.
Persimmon Pudding
Last but not least. This is truly an heirloom recipe. From my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my mother and now on to me. It's made to be made with Indiana persimmons. Here's the link:
persimmon pudding
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