Potlikkery

giving gifts of food. or not.

An improper feeling of confidence filled me and made me decide to bake gifts of food for several people with whom I work this year.  One night last week I spent an hour grocery shopping and another four in the kitchen pulling things together.

 

The first item I tried were Benne Bits, a recipe that James Villas included in The Glory of Southern Cooking (2007). They're a snacky sesame and cayenne thing. I didn't have a small round cookie cutter, but I pulled out a miniature holiday cookie cutter set I bought on a whim a few years ago. These Benne Bits were in the form of a tree.

 

Next I worked on another item from Villas' cookbook: Orange Cocktail Pecans. I've never made any spiced nuts, but they seem like an easy thing. With this recipe you melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan, add orange zest and Cointreau or Grand Marnier. I had Cointreau on hand. Once everything melts, you toss the pecans with the sauce, then transfer it to a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 300.

When I tasted them straight out of the oven I was disappointed. Angry, really, because pecans don't come cheap and I used up my "special" supply that I order each autumn from a lady with whom I work. Normally I parcel those out a few times over the span of the year in my pecan pies, but I went for broke on this.

But really, it was the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade recipe that threw my cooking into a tailspin. I've always been skeptical of her products, but saw her make the white chocolate and macadamia bark on her show and liked the combination so well that I wanted to give it a try. The thing about Sandra Lee is that she takes so many shortcuts that her approach fails to lend the meditative and careful qualities to cooking that I seek. And if you've watched her show, many of her products are shoddy and haphazardly put together. They're not anything I'd want to give to anybody. However, despite her style not being for me, I think she appeals to others who don't have the amount of time, or the same feeling about the process as I do.

 

Microwaving the semi-sweet morsels sounded like a shortcut I didn't want to take, but I did. And it turned out horribly. My morsels overcooked and turned into something akin to fudge. Out came my double boiler, but that was after another trip to the grocery store for more semi-sweet morsels.

I discounted her instructions to use a "fine" white chocolate because c'mon, this is semi-homemade, not Barefoot Contessa. Like there's a difference between white chocolate? Oh, there is. My Nestle white chocolate chips never melted to the state where I could "drizzle" it over top of the chocolate base on my wax paper-protected cookie sheet. Said cookie sheet remains in the freezer until I find time to get better white chocolate and finish that up.

Somewhere amongst all the holiday baking articles in various cooking magazines I encountered a pistachio nougat thing that I wanted to make. Couldn't recall where, so I went to the foot network, searched, and found Mario Batali's recipe for Torroncini.

I thought this went well. I used my candy thermometer for the first time. But the nougat never set up, or hardened, so I have no clue why this failed so miserably. I tossed it into the trash the next day.

This year's food as gifts did not work well. I'm still up for making Villas' bleu cheese straws though. And even though I think the pecans weren't orange tasting enough, Ian cannot keep his mitts out of the container. He doesn't know why I don't like them, he said. He thinks they're great. I may set them out on Christmas eve for company. And I'm still working on the menu for that. Oh what fun!

cooking with camera

Anymore I simply cannot cook without grabbing my camera. It's been this way for some time now. The sight of patterns and bumps and glug-glugs in food entrances me and I need to capture the visuals before they disappear into a dish and are never witnessed again. These are shots from Wednesday night's cooking.

scallions rising up to meet the challenge
salad/slaw dressing as the vinegar reacts with sugar
my most favorite thing: nutmeg

another holiday potluck

This is the third year I've blogged about our library holiday party, as well as the third year I've written about the Jbo Progressive Dinner; such a year for threes! The party snuck up on me this year. The people who organized it chose to have it early, on December 6, ostensibly so that the student workers were here and could get their grub on. Or so I imagine. The date arrived way too early for me, because I'm slammed with personal and professional commitments that make doing anything extra a major drag.

After an hour at the grocery store, because, really, I love grocery shopping, and I invariably end up with way more in my cart than I went for, I came home and cooked from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. Anymore, trips to the grocery store are fun-filled because I run into Doug Burgess, a history professor at ETSU who also lives in the same neighborhood as my parents-in-law. Last week Doug and I almost bumped carts several times at Food City. This week, we rolled by each other like two buggies in the night at Kroger.  Then, there were at least two other folks from the university that I recognized at Kroger as well, but don't know personally.

I mention Doug for two reasons. First, I love being connected to the university and my community to the extent that I run into people I know on a regular basis. Call it the small city effect. And second, the reason Doug is always at the grocery store is that he cooks. He compiled "Doug's So You're Over Forty, Can't Cook, and Can't Get a Date Cookbook," but what he's really known for is the hot sauce he bottles and offers to faculty, staff, and students across campus. I've not tried it, but I should. Ian collects hot sauce every chance he gets, and we have gallons of it, an abundance, and so adding another mason jar to the collection is overkill.

Last night I spent four hours cooking. I loved it, but am still wiped out this afternoon. I started with Nigella's Guinness Chocolate Cake.  Once that was in the oven I sliced my squash and set them to cook on the range. Then I turned to my salad. I had ideas for three or four things to make and bring, but it's not until I'm in the kitchen and I gauge my ingredients and my stamina that I decide what to make.

Originally I'd planned on bleu cheese straws, chocolate cake, and Manchego cheese and walnut stuffed dates. And maybe a Vidalia onion and goat cheese pie. But there were no Vidalia onions at the grocery store. I bought a bag of sweet onions, but I'm sure they're not the same. Also contemplated a cardamom-buttermilk pie, but only had one pie crust left in the fridge and forgot to pick up another set of those pillsbury rolled up pie crusts that are almost as good as scratch.

But since I don't have a food processor (Santa, are you reading?), I quickly ruled out the bleu cheese straws. I had picked up a couple packages of Ramen at the store because I still have cabbage left from the first batch of salad/slaw I made and was ready to try a second batch. This time it came out more how I wanted it to. The difference was a lot more Ramen noodles and the  rice vinegar and peanut oil substitution. Plus, I added ground ginger and one of the roast chicken flavor packets from the noodles. And then there were grated carrots. Its taste is much improved. I made notes of the changes I made to the recipe and shall share those later, along with the original recipe. Also chopped the cabbage instead of grating it, and like the latter texture much better.

Seems like the thing that took the most time was the dates. I had that stuffed date at the Jbo Progressive Dinner and its simplicity amazed me. Luckily I found Mancheno cheese at the grocery. I was also worried about dates. The first ones I ever ate were this summer, or maybe last summer when Kellie brought home a bunch from the Middle East. Yum. I love dates. Who knew!?

But Dole sells dates in re-sealable bags in the fruit/raisin section. And walnut-availability is no biggie. I sliced the cheese into tiny bits and sliced open the dates (they were pitted), and tucked cheese and walnut inside. Easy peasy! So good, too. Surely this is a dish that people rave about. I foisted one on Ian this morning. He got home around 4 a.m., peered inside the fridge and thought the dates were something chocolate. What a disappointment for him. Then he asked me about them later this morning. I told him what it was and brought him one to eat even though he said he hates dates.

The trouble was the cake. Normally I use my larger springform pan, but I tried following Nigella's instructions to use the 9 inch pan instead of the 10 inch. Mistake! There was overflow and a muffin top. And after cooling it a good hour or so, I popped the springform latch, and a lot of the cake came away with the tin. Sad, sad cake. I frosted it anyway and thought I'd keep it at home for me and Ian. But really, we cannot consume an entire cake alone. So I brought it, bugs and all, to work for the party. It may look very homemade, which could be a good thing next to all the store-bought desserts, but one thing I know for sure is that it rocks.

Oh, and then I decided after making the squash casserole that I wouldn't bring it. Heating dishes and keeping the refrigerated is always tricky at the library. And so I wanted to bring things that didn't need either. The top of my squash casserole was rather dark. It looked unpleasant. I didn't want to share it. Then, too, I changed the recipe a bit to incorporate a medium-sized sweet onion (of the not-the-Vidalia-kind) and was afraid the taste might be too oniony.  Eighty percent of the time I'll share a new dish with folks without tasting it myself because I'm confident that it's good. This squash casserole I am still unsure about. Might warm it up for dinner and see how it is.

As for all the other goodies at the holiday party, man, there was too much stuff. I tried corn pudding, beef stroganoff, hot german potato salad, sausage balls, deviled eggs, ratatouille, what else? Oh, there was way too much food. Sadly, I was forced to take a break because I worked the reference desk from 12-1. Had to eat quickly, then assume my position. But, that allows for a good hour's break for my food to settle and process and then I'll have room to sample desserts.

Last year there was some talk about compiling our recipes. One of my co-workers asked me to take on the job, but I didn't follow up. So this year, I think I'm following up. It's a shame not to have all those divine recipes at one's fingertips. Come next year, I may be compiling an in-house cookbook.

ramen slaw

There's a Ramen noodle salad at a local lunch place that I want to replicate. After searching the internet for recipes, I found one that seemed similar to what I thought I've eaten at that establishment. But it wasn't.

I followed the recipe for the most part except that I added half a head of red cabbage to the mix.

The recipe mentioned oil and vinegar substitutions as well. No doubt I'll work on this recipe until its an approximate facsimile of the other. It seems like it was far from the original that I want to emulate.

The color was great. The dressing was boring and lacked something I cannot quite ascertain. I broke the ramen noodles into too small of pieces and would likely use a heavier hand with the amount of Rame noodles when I try my next concoction.

Ian liked it though. That's always a plus, in my book.

gnocchi not for me

Perhaps gnocchi isn't for me. This is a brand I bought at the grocery store. Wasn't sure how best to prepare it. Found a butter thyme recipe at Food network of Giadia's and thought that was the best way to prepare it this first time. Surely if my thyme was fresh and not from a bottle, the flavor would have been better.

Ian snacked on one. I left half the package uncooked, but stored them in a zip-close bag in the fridge. He popped one in his mouth and thought it tasted awful. When he asked about it later, I let him know that they had to be cooked, and at that, they weren't that wonderful anyway.

I should try it with sugar and butter. That combination is usually a winner, even though gnocchi is supposed to be savory instead of sweet.

third time yum yum

Saturday evening my mother and I drove to Jonesborough for the 30th Annual Progressive Dinner. It's our third time. Ian spoke of childhood Progressive dinners he attended with his family when they returned home each holiday season to Canton, Ohio, where his parents originated. He said they'd go around to his relatives' homes, gobble something good, and then move on. But I'd never participated in one until three years ago. It was a slightly foreign concept for me.

In Jonesborough this means that you board a trolley, hear fascinating tidbits about the town's history from Deborah Montanti, Director of the Jonesborough Heritage Alliance. There's an emphasis on architecture and town history and we stopped at several of the town's finest historic homes to eat a portion of the meal and socialize with other diners. And, each home hosts live music.

The h'ourdourves were fabulous and were my favorite part. Clockwise beginning at the Wassil we had Dates with Manchego cheese and walnuts, Bleu cheese filled radicchio and endive, and bacon-wrapped scallops. The toast was at Hawley House, perhaps the oldest home in the Territory South of the River Ohio by virtues of its establishment about 1793.

Mushroom and brie bisque and cheddar melting morsels were at Hedberg Home. Both were okay, but didn't knock my socks off. The home was the first built in town after the Civil War. My favorite space was the octagonal section, but I have no idea what it's proper name is.

The entree was at the Parson's Table a former church turned restaurant that closed in the early 1990s. The roasted pork loin was supposed to have Jezebel sauce on it, but I couldn't tell whether it did. And i was excited at my first taste of jezebel. But I'll likely have to throw together my own jezebel for a taste of that. There was a vegetarian option listed on the menu, but we were not offered it. Frankly, it sounded better than pork loin: Butternut squash, portobello mushroom & tomato spinach lasagna. The pesto green beans were good, but too plentiful. The creamy spinach and Parmesan cheese orzo was my favorite. Country rolls and your choice of white or red wine rounded out the meal. This year though, our server wasn't prompt with refilling wine glasses. I only had two glasses this year, whereas last year I might have had four.

The couple at our table were in their seventies and eighties. The gentleman was dapper and an excellent conversationalist. He was a retired chemist from Eastman who served under Patton during World War II. I could have talked to him all night. I absolutely love men and women in their eighties. There's something about that age that draws me in. I love hearing the stories they tell about their lives and experiences.

He regalled us with stories of his grandson who lives in Madison, Wisc. and all his techie gadgets. Sadly, I cannot recall his name. His companion was Alice. She's an artist who paints mainly with oils and watercolors. I wasn't certain if they were friends or something more.

Why must dessert always be something I don't care for? Last year was tiramisu, which I find over-rated, though it was quite good. This year was chocolate cake with raspberry stuff drooled alongside. It wasn't terribly rich and was quite palatable, so I ate most of it. I've mostly been a good eater all my life. I eat what is offered.

Chocolate, while a lovely thing, and friend to millions, is just DONE for dessert, as far as I'm concerned. I am terribly atypical because I don't love coffee, either. And that's all that was offered to drink at Floyd Home, a gorgeous 1907 Colonial Revival whose interior and exterior were Mom and my's favorite hands down. Floyd Home used to belong to Jonesborough's premier historian, Paul Fink. The iron fencing surrounding the house was delicate and lovely.

My photos were not so good. That was unfortunate. The lighting was subdued and I am not a lover of flash photography. All in all a delightful time was had by Mom and me. As we ate dessert a woman commented about us being mother and daughter. She said my mom didn't look old enough to have a daughter my age. I replied that I looked a lot younger than I am. She guessed my age at 28. When I revealed my age she was shocked and said I didn't look that old. I pointed to mom and said, "I've got good genes."