by Christine | Cooking, Life, Observations
My mother was the Holiday Ho while I grew up. Not that I mean that in a bad way! She was always there with valentines and candy, green cupcakes at St. Paddy’s day, Easter baskets, amazing 4th of July desserts, Halloween treats, Thanksgiving feasts, and the best Christmas presents. The thing is, she was ALWAYS THERE for every single holiday.
Me? Not so much. Oh, I show my love. I remembered yesterday to buy the valentine cookies at the grocery store. I was stumbling around at 6:00am, looking for coffee beans because I had a ton of pages to edit still and needed COFFEE. The valentine cookies were a side benefit. However, they did the trick this morning – I put one in a baggie for my 17 y/o son, and two in a baggie for his girlfriend. He grinned at me – I’m sure he completely forgot Valentine’s Day. It’s his first girlfriend – if she can’t train him, then she’ll at least get a couple of heart shaped cookies.
I will have you know that I did make the evening meal special. Don’t laugh, I did! I made my favorite turkey with fresh sage meatloaf, shaped into individual heart-shaped servings. Add a terrific cider-onion gravy and voila, love (and dinner) from the heart. Hand-dipped chocolate strawberries are for dessert.
As I’ve been writing this, though, the smoke alarm has gone off three times because of the meatloaf; the potatoes won’t mash right; and the broccoli looks funny.
But hey – it’s the thought that counts, right? Happy Valentine’s Day!
by Christine | Cooking
I have two dinner-time standbys for when the wind howls and it feels like you’ll never be warm again. As it’s impossible to have a fire when it’s windy, and as I have an allergic reaction to a really high heating bill, I tend to fill the night with the warmth of one-pot meals. While I have a few tried-and-true recipes, I frequently search the internet for new ones to try.
For me, a one-pot meal usually means stew or a hearty soup or cassoulet. Something I can throw in a slow-cooker in the morning and by nightfall, it’s hot and whatever meat inside is meltingly yummy. A slow-cooker is, in my opinion, a busy parent’s best friend. Once everything is in the pot, you can just forget it – until the savory aromas come wafting out from the kitchen, warming the house and making you hungry all afternoon and thus adding on the pounds as you snack your way to dinner. But aside from that…
Another fabulous cold-weather meal is pasta. Almost any kind of pasta, but my favorite is spaghetti with lots of fresh veggies, cooked just to al dente. While pasta doesn’t warm you up from the inside out like a good soup or stew does, it’s hearty flavors and textures soothe the wind-whipped beast and the carbs will keep the internal fires burning all night. Add in a hunk of good sourdough bread, toasted; then rub the toast with fresh garlic and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. That, my friends, will help keep the winter colds at bay (as well as discourage any lurking vampires – but that’s a post for another day).
Mornings are tough, too, climbing out of the warmth of a many-blanket-and-quilted bed to the chill of the morning house. I’m always reaching for the oats when hubby would rather I reach for the pancake mix. But both of us agree on Decadent Hot Chocolate. Forget your diet and try it – I guarantee your taste buds will weep in gratitude.
What are your go-to favorites for cold weather? I’d love some recipes!
by Christine | Cooking, Writing
I’m in a strange kind of limbo right now. Waiting for edits and stalled on my current book, the writing muse is hiding right now (probably because I don’t really believe in her and she’s pissed off).
When I’m in limbo, I tend to cook. In this case, since my family is getting together for Thanksgiving this year and not Christmas, I wanted to make up some holiday goodies to take down with me on Thursday. One that I talk a lot about, but haven’t made in years, is home made marshmallows.
You did not misread that. Yes, I said marshmallows. I LOVE home made marshmallows! But today I remembered why it had been awhile since I’ve made them.
They’re sticky. And prior to that, boiling sugar. WTF? Okay, I got past that part, and did the whole pouring into the medium speed kitchenAid part – but still. I wanted to make peppermint marshmallows (YUM!), but I didn’t have any food coloring – that’s my way of letting everyone know exactly what they’re getting – so I had to stick with regular vanilla.
I digress. Okay. I poured the hot stuff into the bowl and beat for 15 minutes at high speed – until it turned the color and consistency of marshmallow fluff, the stuff in the jar, you know? – then holy moly… I pried the beater out of the bowl; then I needed the spatula that never sticks (IS there such a thing?) in order to spread it out on the foil and oil-sprayed cookie sheet. Except – the darn stuff doesn’t want to come out of the bowl. And when it did come out of the bowl, it didn’t want to spread – it just lumped there all sticky first on the spatula, then on the foil. The stick factor was amazing, and it went everywhere – the spatula, my hands, the counter – anywhere it could stick, it did and while I shouted for help, I also turned help away. No one else needed to get sticky sweet marshmallow fluff on them! I had forgotten that you get about half a second from the end of the 15 minutes of beating to get it onto the already prepped pan, or it turns sticky. Boy, had I forgotten!
I had marshmallow everywhere. On the counter, on my face, my fingers, my jeans – I could have made a perfect Santa beard out of the stuff, only my hands would have been stuck to my face.
Finally I sprayed the heck out of the stuff already on the pan (gave up on the stuff still in the bowl, and don’t even ask about the beater…) and spread it out with my hands, also sprayed. The veg oil disappeared in the flocking of powdered sugar it got next. Now it sits overnight to “cure” before I go through the trauma of actually cutting it.
Gee…after wrestling in the kitchen with marshmallows, I’m thinking writing is a lot easier…oh muse….here, muse muse muse…
by Christine | Cooking
I had the best hot chocolate ever in February 2005. Hubby and I were in Paris for our anniversary, and we stumbled on this patisserie on the Isle de St. Louis on a chilly morning.
The scent of chocolate permeated the air. We didn’t even think of resisting its call. So, as we sipped our chocolate (to DIE for), hubby prowled around and found the recipe, hand-written, on a card by some chocolates. So he copied it.
One memorable morning, when Paris was a distant memory, he made me this Decadent Hot Chocolate, and I was pleased to remember, yet again, what a lucky girl I was to have married him.
The recipe is below…but be careful. You can tie people to your side with this hot chocolate. On no account (if you’re single) should you give out the recipe…
1 cup high quality 60% cacao chocolate (I use Ghiradelli – but regular choc chips are fine) 4 cups milk, 3 Tlb powdered baking cocoa, 3 Tlb white sugar, 1 cup heavy whipping cream.
Put chocolate in a pan, and add just enough milk from your 4 cups to float the chips a bit. Heat until chocolate is melted through, stirring the entire time. Once melted, add the rest of the milk a little at a time, keeping the heat on medium (don’t boil!). Then add the powdered cocoa, one Tlb at a time, whisking it in. Do the same with the white sugar. Once that is incorporated, slowly add the 1 cup heavy whipping cream, stirring the entire time. Continue to stir until the chocolate is hot again. Then drink and be glad you are human!
IF you wish, in the spirit of the movie Chocolat, you may add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper to spice things up.
Now you know!
