Cookie Dough Cheese Ball

We're going to start here with a visualization exercise.   Ready?  Let's go.  Picture a cheese ball.  You know the kind rolled in chopped pecans?  Full of yummy cheddar cheese or some other kind of cheese.  Surrounded on the plate by crackers.  Now, let's twist this a bit.  Picture the crackers morphing into animal crackers.  You cut into the cheese ball and there are little brown specks.  The cheese itself is kind of brown.  Hmmm, you say.  This doesn't look like any cheese ball I've ever seen.  Well, my friend, it isn't.  And, had I not been trying to get this yummy concoction out on the table at our friends party, I'd have realized I needed a photo.  But, no, I was gabbing away to Chris and fixing myself a nice glass of scotch and testing a deviled egg and NOT thinking about blogging.  So, I was a very bad blogger.  But, this is just too good not to share.  Now, here's what I wrote before heading to Columbus:

In our never-ending quest to have some new and different dishes at our holiday party, we try a lot of new dishes out.  Since we're not much for desserts, I was thrilled to find this right before Chris and Mark's party.  This is the second year we've attended their party and the 38th year of the party.  Can you imagine?  Keeping that kind of tradition going for 38 years?  Awesome.


Brandy's tried several recipes from Gooseberry Patch recently so when I saw their Quick and Easy Family Favorites cookbook on sale, I snagged it.  There are a bunch of recipes I'd like to try but this one is the one that really caught my eye.  It's so different.


What did we think?  Major YUM here.  I let a couple of the gals at Girls Night Out taste it last night.  Both of them licked every molecule off their spoons.  I think it's going to be a huge hit at the party tonight!


Cookie Dough Cheese Ball


Ingredients:
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/4 c butter, softened
3 T dark brown sugar
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c mini chocolate morsels
1/2 c finely chopped pecans
animal crackers

Directions:

Whip the cream cheese and butter.  Whip in the brown sugar and powdered sugar.  Stir in the chocolate morsels.  Chill for several hours.  I did mine overnight.  Then, mold into a ball and roll in the finely chopped pecans.  Serve with animal crackers.

Vodka Poached Shrimp with Bloody Mary Cocktail Sauce

Don't you love, love, love that sense of accomplishment when you get a big project done?  Then, you look around at what DIDN'T get done while you were working on the big project and that love gets deflated a bit.  That's rather how I feel this morning. 

Many years ago, I got a call from another financial planner who needed help on a group major medical case.  She didn't do any insurance work and as it happened, the president of the insurance company had at one time lived in Indianapolis and had become a client of the planning firm she worked for.  He called their local office to ask who she could call and was given my name.  We resolved the issue and became friends.  She invited me to join a group of her friends from Jazzercise on their holiday limo trip.  I'd Jazzercised for years - wish I still did!!! - and said sure.  I joined about 10 other gals on a limo ride to everyone's favorite bars.  Jaws would drop when a bunch of gals poured out of the limo wearing their holiday best.  We'd always end up at Daddy Jacks.  Lots of great memories were made along with lots of great friends.  Over the years, we've added gals to the group.  And our ringleader, Shelly, has moved to Phoenix.  Several years ago, we started having the party at Judy's house.  Words are absolutely inadequate to describe her home.  Stunning.  Beautiful.  Classy.  She and Carl have done amazing things with it.  And, it's always decorated so beautifully for the holidays. 

This year, Shelly was going to be in town for a few days in early December.  We all e'd around wondering if we should do the limo again and decided the best thing was a pitch-in dinner so everyone could mingle and talk.  Besides, we couldn't get fourteen 40 and 50-something women in a limo.  Well, ok, we could but it wouldn't be terribly comfy!  I volunteered to host the party.  Ordinarily, that's not a big deal.  This year it was.  We were coming off a multi-month home repair and renovation project that we'd still not finished up.  All the rooms were painted but very little had been hung on the walls.  And, I'd been swamped at the office so hadn't spent much time working on things at the house.  Plus, with the drama going on in Cape Cod, we'd just not focused on the house.  It was time to get pictures hung, knick-knacks where they belonged, furniture rearranged, the house cleaned and the mountains of paperwork, magazines et al put into a semblance of order.   Then, as luck would have it, Steph scheduled me for one of those weeks where you just go from appointment to appointment and are lucky to breathe in between much less take a potty break or return phone calls or emails.  How in the world was I going to get my house ready?  There was NO way it'd look as good as Judy's.  But, it did need to be ready.  Lots of elbow grease later, Connie and I  had a clean house.  The table was set.  I was as ready as I could be after taking everything that'd gone on into consideration. 

The party went wonderfully.  The only hitch was that I overcooked the pork loin.  Shelly looked stunning as always.  We all had an opportunity to chat.  And, an hour after everyone left, Connie and I had the house back in order.  The folding chairs were in the attic.  The extra candles and other table decorations were put away.  The dishes were all washed and put away.  The trash was emptied. We collapsed.

Then, this morning I signed on to the office and downloaded email.  And, looked at my to-do list.  And, the sense of accomplishment at having my house in order paled a bit when I realized how much work I've got to do this weekend to get ready for next week...  So, that's my tale of success and woe for this morning.  As you can see, instead of digging into the email, I decided to blog a bit and put off the other for just a bit.  When everyone signed up for dishes to bring, I only saw one appetizer on the list.  One of the recipes we've tested for our big party in January is a vodka poached shrimp with bloody mary cocktail sauce. I had a bag of shrimp in the freezer so I whipped up the cocktail sauce and poached the shrimp.  By the time I thought to take a photo, it'd almost been inhaled...

Vodka Poached Shrimp with Bloody Mary Cocktail Sauce

Ingredients:

for the shrimp:
1/2 c vodka
2 T lemon juice
2 t salt
2 t black peppercorns
24 peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp with tails

for the sauce:
1 c ketchup
1/2 c chili sauce
3 T horseradish 
1 T vodka
2 T lemon juice
1 1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1 t hot sauce
1/4 t celery salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Mix all the sauce ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.  Poach the thawed shrimp for 2-3 minutes.  Drain and chill for an hour before serving.

adapted from Coastal Living

Now, here are some photos of last night:

the table ready to go

Pangga is the other photographer of the group

Vicki and Dee

There's Shelly on the right

Trying to get ready for Connie to take THE photo.

THE photo.  I'll put this one on my Facebook page :-)

Annie patiently waiting in the hall for dinner to be over.  She knows she's not allowed in a room where food is being prepared or eaten.

Gift exchange time.  My bottle of wine got stolen three times and wound up with Pangga.  Shelly's Santa met the same fate.  Most everything else got stolen once or twice.  And, we all had a great time. 

Atlantica Parmesan and Asiago Crab Dip

This recipe has been in my to-try for the party for several months.  I collect recipes during the year then try them in the fall and come up with a final party menu by the end of November.  Over the years we've made many different crab dips.  You might think that we just love to test crabmeat recipes.  Hmmm.  Guilty as charged :-)


We made this for our dinner party for our football friends.  Everyone loved it.  Then, we took the leftovers to our friends Andy and Mary Kay's.  Again, everyone loved it.  But, it just isn't quite as good as the crab dip I've made before.  And, since I make a couple hundred mini crabcakes for the party, everyone gets a good dose of crabmeat there.  I made half a recipe and this served 10 for appetizers.


Atlantica Parmesan and Asiago Crab Dip


Ingredients:
16 oz crab meat
16 oz cream cheese
1 c mayonnaise
1 1/2 c finely grated parmesan
1 1/2 c finely grated asiago cheese (I used gruyere)
1 c sour cream
2 heads of garlic, roasted
2 large handfuls of cooked fresh spinach




Directions:


Whip the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise.  Blend in the spinach. Stir in the garlic, parmesan and asiago.  Mix well. The recipe calls for baking this at 400 until it's hot and bubbly.  I also served it cold - after it'd been baked once.  Both were very good.

adapted from Where and What in the World

Turkey Time

Connie and I are absolutely in the minority on Black Friday.  We don't even attempt to go to the grocery store.  Neither of us has the shopping gene.  And, we particularly don't have the crowded shopping gene.  My favorite trips to the store involve a list and a plan and a no lines.  Well, unless there's a rack of cookbooks.  Then, you'll find me browsing.  But, you knew that :-)

On Thanksgiving, we were lucky to be able to go to my brother and sister-in-laws.  Talk about extended family.  My niece and nephew, my mom, my sister-in-law's sister and folks.  My niece's husband and stepdaughter and his grandparents. Plus, my sister-in-law's cousin and his wife and their daughter and her mom and brother.  Nineteen of us total.  We are indeed thankful to be part of such a wonderful family! 

While the turkeys were on sale, I bought one so we'd have leftovers.  The day after Thanksgiving is when we roast our own turkey.  Last year, I pretty much followed Alton Brown's recipe.  This year I combined his, what a friend told me about Pam Anderson's, my brother's and my own.  Actually, my intent wasn't to even blog about the turkey since I'd blogged about Alton's recipe last year.  But, this turkey was the best yet so more than anything I want to get the instructions written down before I forget a bit of them. 

Kate's Turkey with Thanks to Alton et al

Ingredients:

for the brine:
1 gallon vegetable stock (we just add Penzey's stock base to the other ingredients when we heat them)
1 c kosher salt
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 T black peppercorns
1 T allspice berries
1 T candied ginger
1 lemon, thinly sliced


for the aromatics and base:
1 red apple, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 large sprigs rosemary
2 large sprigs sage
8 ribs celery
8 whole carrots

for the baste:
16 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
4 oz can orange juice concentrate
1 c red wine
1 stick butter

Directions:

The night before you're going to roast the turkey, it's time to brine it.  Put the brine ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Cover with water. 

Simmer until the salt has pretty much dissolved.  I've found it never dissolves totally.  Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.  Add the brine ingredients to a large stockpot and fill it halfway with water.  Add the thawed turkey breast side down then add water to assure the turkey is fully submerged. 

Allow the turkey to soak in the brine for 8-16 hours.

Preheat your oven to 500.  Prepare the roasting pan.  Lay the carrots and celery in the bottom of the pan - two ribs of celery then two carrots... 

Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it well with cool water.  Place the turkey breast side down on the carrots and celery.  Stuff the onion, apple, sage and rosemary in the cavity.  Rub the turkey with butter or canola oil.  Place the roasting pan in the oven.  Roast the turkey for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to 350.  If the skin gets too dark, you can cover it with foil.  Roast another two hours breast side down. 

When you put the turkey in the oven, start your basting sauce.  Put all of the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and stir to combine as the butter and cranberry sauce melt.  Baste the turkey once or twice while it's cooking skin-side down.

After two and a half hours, flip the turkey breast side up.  (nb:  we've found a pair of oven mitts works wonderfully for this.)  Baste it well.  Roast for another hour and a half to two hours, basting regularly.  Again, if the skin gets too dark, you can tent it with foil.

Alton's recipe calls for removing the turkey from the oven when it reaches 161 degrees.  Mine hit 175 at four hours - which is when I checked it... 

Allow the turkey to rest for 15-20 minutes while you make the gravy.  Use some of the drippings with the fat to start the gravy the skim the fat from more drippings to add to the gravy.  I also add about 1/2- 1 cup of water. 

We found that the carrots used as a base and the onions stuffed in the turkey made for some fantastic eating.  We didn't try the apple or celery. 

 adapted from Alton Brown, Pam Anderson and John Marvel

Open-faced Roquefort Burger

CVS, H.H. Gregg, Menards, Sams Club, Kroger.  Calcium carbonate for George food (aka cat food) Check.  Freezer shopping.  Check.  Ingredients for George food.  Check.  Weird shopping list (full flavor molasses, parsnips, cheesecloth, apples, cucumber, red wine vinegar - see what I mean!) Check.  All done in two and a half hours.  Home at 8:30.  Blast.  Never thought about dinner.  Well, that's ok, I have the ingredients for cat food and his food has hamburger in it.  We can always steal a pound and run to the grocery on Thanksgiving.  Found out tonight that they're open until 3pm on Thanksgiving.  There must be a LOT of people who forget things and have to run out to the store.  Hopefully, I'm not one of them.  Ok, let's get out the new burger cookbook.  It's called Burgers and is by Paul Gayler.  We've had another burger from this cookbook and loved it.  So, start reading the beef recipes and every one sounds wonderful.  The tipping point was that I wanted an open-faced burger and I had kumatoes to use up (remember the tomatoes that are brown/black and remind me of the black brandwines?)  The open-faced roquefort burger was it.  The recipe called for half an onion, chopped.  I didn't want to waste half an onion so into a skillet with a bit of olive went the second half.  Then, on the voyage to get to the mayonnaise, I saw half an onion I'd wrapped up from Monday evening.  Into the skillet it went also.  The burger needed to be served on bread of some sort.  We had some antique muffins or some oatnut bread.  Well, if the muffins were toasted they'd be fine.  Yes, they were.  The recipe actually called for chilling the butter/cheese mixture.  Hey, when it's 9pm and you're just now fixing dinner chilling butter and cheese for a couple of hours is NOT an option.  Finally, the burgers were on the grill, the candles on the dining room table were lit, the onions were sauteed, the tomatoes were sliced, the mayo for the muffins was gussied up and we were ready to go. 

What did we think?  Five out of five.  I'll make these again any day.  The combination of the butter and blue cheese in the middle of a perfectly seasoned burger from the recipe plus the mayo mixture I dreamed up was just awesome.  If you're a tomato-holic like I am, these kumatoes are like a bit of summer on your plate.  They're not inexpensive but are worth every penny.  We find ours at Trader Joes.

Open-faced Roquefort Burger
serves 2

Ingredients:


for the burger:
1 lb ground beef (we used 80% lean)
1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
1 t Dijon mustard
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 T butter, softened
2 T blue cheese
1 T snipped fresh chives

for serving:
2 T mayonnaise
1 T blue cheese
2-3 t capers
1/2 t white truffle oil
pinch black truffle salt
2 small tomatoes, sliced into four slices each
1 large sweet onion, thinly slice
1 T olive oil
1 english muffin, split and toasted

Directions:

Mix the ground beef, egg yolk, diced onion, dijon mustard, Worcestershire and garlic together.  Separate the mixture into four patties. 

Mix the butter, blue cheese and chives together.  Form into two disks.  Place a disk on each of two patties. 

Use the other two patties as lids.  Seal the edges well.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until it's caramelized.

Mix the mayonnaise and blue cheese together well.  Add in the capers, truffle oil and truffle salt.  Set aside.

Grill the burgers.  We found about four minutes per side on direct heat on the grill was fine.  As the burgers are about done, toast the muffins. 

To serve, slather the muffins with the caper mayonnaise.  Top each muffin with a burger.  Then top each burger with tomato slices then sauteed onions. 

Irish Pancakes

It's Secret Recipe Club time again!  And, I was assigned a gem of a blog.  Josie's Kitchen.  Josie oozes enthusiasm for life and is a delight to read.  Most months I print a dozen recipes and debate what I'm going to try.  This time, I found MY recipe in a few minutes.  Irish Pancakes.  Something I've never had.  You see, when I've been to Ireland, I've focused on oatmeal or a traditional Irish breakfast. 


Let's talk for a moment about a traditional Irish breakfast.  It's unlike anything you've ever had.  Josie has a perfect description of one on her blog.  Here's a link to her blog about their trip to Ireland:  Irish breakfast.  The closest thing I've found here in the states is a restaurant on Cape Cod that we frequent that has real Irish breakfasts.  I'm feeling stuffed just thinking about one!!


I've been to Ireland twice and have loved the food.  My favorite was something that I couldn't find the second trip - a salad sandwich.  It's a mixture of cucumbers, tomato and mayo on bread.  Unfortunately, I think the food in Ireland has become too global and some of the old standby's have gone by the wayside. 


So, back to the Irish Pancakes.  It's funny about how we all have preconceived notions.  Pancake.  To an American it means a light fluffy syrup delivery system.  This recipe called for drizzling each plate with lemon juice then sprinkling it with powdered sugar.  THEN, you put the pancake on top.  Ok, so  I did that.  Grudgingly since pancake means shagbark hickory syrup to me.  The pancakes were more like crepes.  And they were oh, so very good.  Thank you Josie!  It's been a delight getting to know you :-)






Irish Pancakes


Ingredients:


1 c flour
4 eggs
1 T sugar
1 c milk
2-3 T butter
powdered sugar
lemon juice


Directions:


Pour the flour into a medium bowl.  Make a well in the center.  Crack each egg into a small bowl then pour it into the well.  (nb:  that way if you do get shell in the egg you don't have to fish through the flour...)  Whisk the eggs and flour together.  Add the sugar and whisk it in.  Slowly add the milk, whisking after each addition.  Once the batter is nice and smooth, put it aside for an hour to rest. 

Prepare your plates.  Drizzle each with lemon juice then sprinkle with powdered sugar.  I took half a lemon and gently squeezed once around the plate then used about 2 t of powdered sugar per plate.

Heat a medium skillet.  Put in about 1/2 t of butter.  When it's sizzling, you're ready to cook your first pancake.  I used a regular ladle to pour the batter in.  It should cover the bottom of the skillet. 

I used medium heat and the first side took five minutes.  The second side took two minutes. 

When both sides are nice and brown, slide the pancake onto a prepared plate.  Now, doesn't that photo make you want to run in your kitchen and make some of these! 

Here are the other recipes in this week's Secret Recipe club reveal.  If you'd like to visit SRC, I've included a link up in the first line of this blog.  It's a lot of fun to participate in.  Each month we're assigned a blog.  Actually, there are so many of us that we're divided into four groups and each group has a Monday.  So, on our Monday at 7:00 am we reveal the recipe we've made from our assigned blog. 

Lasagna

I am so far behind on posting some of the wonderful dishes we've tried.  Then, we went and had a dinner party and tried a bunch of new dishes.  And, all of them were wonderful.  That's on top of the party food testing I did last weekend at Donna and Phil's.  And, the new dishes I tried last week.  And, the 30 or so recipes I've got on the list to blog about.  And, the new recipes I've got on the menu to try this week.  How to choose knowing there just isn't enough time to blog about everything and get my house ready for the Girls Night Out Crew on December 2nd.  Oh, and work so I can afford to buy the food and have a house to cook in!  Well, the long and short of it is that this recipe was so good that you need to hear about it.

Many years ago when Connie and I first met, we bought Colts tickets.  That's still before their glory days.  And, well before their total meltdown this year.  Nonetheless, we love our Colts.  Now, we were lucky enough to be seated by some really wonderful folks.  When the new stadium was built, all of us requested to be seated together again.  Two of our game neighbors - Brenda and Janet - became really good friends.  And over the years their good friends - Roy and Nancy, who live across the street from them - have become good friends of ours also.  Long story short, the four of them came over for dinner.  We'd plotted and planned this over a burger and beer at the Lockerbie Pub after a game.  Nobody in the group is very picky so I could have as much fun as I wanted with the menu.   Then, I read Fine Cooking and couldn't get the lasagna with homemade noodles out of my head.  Ditto the gingerbread trifle.  The menu was set!

Let's start with the total menu:

Atlantica parmesan and asiago crab dip
Lasagna with homemade lasagna noodles
Casa d'Angelo salad
Ciabatta rolls with compound herb butter
Gingerbread brandy trifle

What did we think?  I've made homemade pasta for years.  Connie bought me a pasta roller set for my Kitchen Aid years ago.  And, I've used the heck out of it.  The cutters are set for linguine and spaghetti.  It never occurred to me to make lasagna with the dough.  Until I read the article in the Dec, 2011 Fine Cooking.  Eureka!  That sounds great and easy.  And, none of these guys would care that I was covered with flour and the kitchen was a mell of a hess.  Everyone was most intrigued by the process of making the dough and putting it through the roller.  The biggest question was when do you know it's ready?  My answer was pretty vague - it just feels right.  It has to have the right smoothness and elasticity.  And, it shouldn't be tacky.  The recipe in Fine Cooking was a bit different from the one that came with the roller and cutter set.  Fine Cooking called for starting with 2 1/2 c of flour and adding more as you knead it.  My Kitchen Aid book called for 3 1/2 c.  I started with 3 cups and added more as I put the dough through the rollers.  The FC recipe also called for five layers of pasta.  I'm certain I didn't roll it as thin as I should have because I wound up with enough pasta for three layers.  And, only two would fit in the 9x13 pan I had out.  None of that really mattered.  The lasagna was wonderful.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it with store-bought noodles again.  The sauce was super easy to make and was perfect with all the cheeses.  All in all it was a total success!

Lasagna

For the pasta:

3 c all purpose flour
4 large eggs
1/2 t salt


For the sauce:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
4 medium garlic cloves, smashed
2 - 28 oz cans whole plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 T kosher salt
6 large basil leaves, torn by hand into 1/2" pieces

To assemble the lasagna:

1 lb sausage, browned and drained
2 c whole milk ricotta (I used skim)
2 1/2 c shredded mozzarella
2 c grated fresh fontina
1 c grated fresh Parmesan Reggiano
3/4 c grated fresh Parmesan Reggiano


Directions:

About two and a half hours before you plan to serve the lasagna, you need to start the sauce.  First you saute the garlic cloves in the olive oil using a large saucepan.  The recipe calls for removing the garlic.  I used finely minced cloves and left it in.  In my world there's rarely a thing known as too much garlic.  Then, dump the tomatoes, crushed red pepper and salt in.  I crushed the tomatoes as I poured them in.  The recipe doesn't call for doing that.  Simmer the sauce for 45 minutes.  Once the tomatoes have really broken down, whisk the sauce vigorously.  Tear the basil and add it.  Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature. 

Next, you need to get the cheeses ready for the assembly.  Grate the mozzarella (or cheat and buy it already grated like I did...)   Grate the fontina and the Parmesan.  Combine all three cheeses in a bowl.  Grate the other 3/4 c of Parmesan and set it aside for topping. 

Next it's time to make the pasta.  Using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, put your flour, eggs and salt in the mixing bowl.  Use the flat beater and beat for 30 seconds on speed 2.  Switch out the flat beater for the dough hook and beat the dough for an additional two minutes.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it by hand for 1-2 minutes.  Allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes before rolling it out.   Divide the dough into quarters to roll it.  You'll want your strips to be about 1/6" thick when you're done.  Lay the rolled dough strips on a floured surface - preferably parchment paper or your kitchen counter.  Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and cook the pasta for about 30 seconds.  Drain the pasta in a colander and put under cold running water. 

To assemble the lasagna.  Put the ricotta in a large mixing bowl and pour the tomato sauce over it.  Mix it well.  Put about a half cup of sauce in the bottom of your lasagna pan.  You want it to just coat the pan.  Lay a layer of pasta over the sauce.  Trim the ends to fit. 

Sprinkle half the sausage over the pasta, followed by half of the cheese mixture then half of the sauce.  Add the 2nd layer of pasta.  Repeat the sausage, cheese and sauce.  Top with the 3/4 c grated Parmesan.  Bake for an hour at 350.  Allow the lasagna to sit for 20 minutes prior to serving it. 

adapted from Fine Cooking and the Kitchen Aide pasta cookbook