Some of you have recently asked if I’d fallen off the face of the earth (well, actually, off the face of the blog). It seems I’ve been so engrossed in cooking and eating and feeding people that I haven’t taken time out to write about what I most love writing about (coincidentally, cooking and eating and feeding people).
Allow me to look back and share some highlights:
Starting off the season, the evening before Thanksgiving our dear friends Sherry & Kerry had a fantastic open house. Yes, the night before Thanksgiving. Bold, right? That’s just how they roll and now, frankly, I have open house envy. For about five or six years I’ve wanted to have a dessert party the night before Thanksgiving. It goes without saying Thanksgiving typically offers us some of the very best desserts possible, but do we ever truly enjoy them to the fullest because we’re so, well, we’re so darn full from Thanksgiving dinner. My plan would be to have a buffet of traditional Thanksgiving desserts with assorted beverages and maybe a cheese board then invite people to stop in whenever suits them. The monkey wrench in my plan is the sad, but true fact that I have to work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, with this little glitch I can’t see me pulling off Thanksgiving dinner and a Thanksgiving Eve dessert party. So, I keep this plan tucked away in the back of my brain for “someday.”
Then, there was, of course, the Thanksgiving feast (always a crowd pleaser in our house). That was followed up by an open house at our associate pastor’s home for small group leaders from our church (who knew one of our fellow parishioners made cream puffs from scratch? Rest assured I parked myself next to that serving tray for a good long time!)
Next up was a wedding renewal/reception for John & Melanie, a pair of our most fun, colorful friends. Also bold in their choices, John & Melanie asked each guest to prepare and bring their favorite “whatever” for the reception buffet. This, as it turns out, was pure genius. There was enough food for an army and a variety of choices any caterer would have been challenged to match. Later that same weekend was an early Christmas celebration with the kids and grandkids (tons of fun as only a three and six year can provide, plus we left there with homemade caramel corn, bacon candy and a hearty pan of homemade lasagna for our freezer.)
The good times continued when our small group from church (Bread Breakers, as we call ourselves) met for a pre-holiday dinner (dear friends and fantastic cooks Phil & Debbi gifted each of us with homemade granola and homemade peanut clusters.) The next night was dinner with Dan & Dixie (Dixie of the caramel cake fame) to celebrate my sweet husband’s birthday. Following closely was a fantastic family Christmas that included said husband’s famous city ham, my mom’s legendary sour cream coconut cake, red velvet cupcakes (of course, we’ve established how deep and true my love is for red velvet anything), my sister’s version of Martha Stewart’s pumpkin pie in a shortbread crust, and my older (I think she prefers “higher ranking”) daughter by associations’ green beans and life altering sweet potatoes with olive oil & rosemary.
The next weekend the holiday season of gatherings and feasting was capped with a lovely, relaxing New Year’s Day open house at Linda & Charlie’s. There was food galore and plenty of time for friends to share holiday stories and prognosticate on what 2012 might bring. (It should be noted that the scope of the prognostications seemed to be in direct proportion to how many mimosas the prognosticated had consumed.)
So, my point (and I did have one when I sat down at the computer today) is that we shouldn’t wait until the holiday season to have this much fun. Gather together, break bread, laugh until hurts…I once saw a very wise candy box with this message on the lid “There are only 52 Saturday nights a year. Celebrate food & family every day.”
Who’s with me?
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Gifts From The Kitchen
I love gifts from the kitchen. They are, by far all, my favorite kind of gifts both to give and to receive.
Sometimes I like to make things that can be used as an ingredient at the recipient’s leisure. We’ve made Piggy Powder (my sweet husband’s version of butt rub) for fellow “Q” lovers. We’ve also experimented with vanilla sugar (which is super simple and delicious. Just take a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and stir into a pound of granulated sugar, throw the vanilla bean pod in for good measure and it’s ready to give). Use it in coffee, tea, baked goods, whatever strikes your fancy. I’m thinking of making some this Christmas using Splenda for loved ones who prefer that to sugar.
It’s fun to take muffins as a hostess gift so the hostess wakes up to a snack the morning after a dinner party. I’ve also been know to make muffins to send home with special friends when you know ahead of time it’s going to be a long night, but in a good way. (You know those nights; everyone’s having so much fun, loving the food, sharing the laughs and no one wants the night to end, so we linger and laugh some more.)
Last Christmas my older daughter by association bestowed upon us a basket overflowing with love from her kitchen. Everything was unique and delicious, among other things, she made basil mayo, bacon butter, chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough frozen in chunks for future use and bacon candy (yes, people, bacon candy. You are not hallucinating and that is not a typo. This girl is brilliant, just like her dad).
My hairdresser Mischel has the most prolific fig tree in the state of Florida. She is infinitely generous in sharing her crop in the form of fig preserves. My husband, a true fig fan, assures me Mischel works some kind of magic on those figs and turns out the best fig preserves in the world, receiving a jar is always a highlight of our holiday season.
Chocolate in any form is pretty much always a good idea. Last year, a co-worker of my husband’s gifted those in her office with old fashioned quart jars filled to the brim with homemade hot cocoa mix. Too late for gift giving, but in plenty of time for eating, last Christmas we tried the Barefoot Contessa’s Chocolate Lollipops. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/white-chocolate-lollipops-recipe/index.html) We opted for milk chocolate, rather than white, but that’s purely a matter of taste. You could go crazy and do both (really, why limit ourselves!?)
Now that we’ve conquered and embraced Cake Pops (you can recall the adventure here: http://kitchen-loulou.blogspot.com/2011/04/adventures-in-cake-pops.html) it occurs to me those would make a great gift. And, bonus time, one batch makes 48, so you could surprise four friends with a dozen cake pops each out of single baking session.
The possibilities are endless. But now, of course, I must know. What kind of gifts from the kitchen do you guys like to give (and receive)?!
Sometimes I like to make things that can be used as an ingredient at the recipient’s leisure. We’ve made Piggy Powder (my sweet husband’s version of butt rub) for fellow “Q” lovers. We’ve also experimented with vanilla sugar (which is super simple and delicious. Just take a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and stir into a pound of granulated sugar, throw the vanilla bean pod in for good measure and it’s ready to give). Use it in coffee, tea, baked goods, whatever strikes your fancy. I’m thinking of making some this Christmas using Splenda for loved ones who prefer that to sugar.
It’s fun to take muffins as a hostess gift so the hostess wakes up to a snack the morning after a dinner party. I’ve also been know to make muffins to send home with special friends when you know ahead of time it’s going to be a long night, but in a good way. (You know those nights; everyone’s having so much fun, loving the food, sharing the laughs and no one wants the night to end, so we linger and laugh some more.)
Last Christmas my older daughter by association bestowed upon us a basket overflowing with love from her kitchen. Everything was unique and delicious, among other things, she made basil mayo, bacon butter, chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough frozen in chunks for future use and bacon candy (yes, people, bacon candy. You are not hallucinating and that is not a typo. This girl is brilliant, just like her dad).
My hairdresser Mischel has the most prolific fig tree in the state of Florida. She is infinitely generous in sharing her crop in the form of fig preserves. My husband, a true fig fan, assures me Mischel works some kind of magic on those figs and turns out the best fig preserves in the world, receiving a jar is always a highlight of our holiday season.
Chocolate in any form is pretty much always a good idea. Last year, a co-worker of my husband’s gifted those in her office with old fashioned quart jars filled to the brim with homemade hot cocoa mix. Too late for gift giving, but in plenty of time for eating, last Christmas we tried the Barefoot Contessa’s Chocolate Lollipops. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/white-chocolate-lollipops-recipe/index.html) We opted for milk chocolate, rather than white, but that’s purely a matter of taste. You could go crazy and do both (really, why limit ourselves!?)
Now that we’ve conquered and embraced Cake Pops (you can recall the adventure here: http://kitchen-loulou.blogspot.com/2011/04/adventures-in-cake-pops.html) it occurs to me those would make a great gift. And, bonus time, one batch makes 48, so you could surprise four friends with a dozen cake pops each out of single baking session.
The possibilities are endless. But now, of course, I must know. What kind of gifts from the kitchen do you guys like to give (and receive)?!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Taking stock…where did the Thanksgiving leftovers go?
I was, as we all know, craving my annual post-Thanksgiving dinner turkey sandwich well before the holiday actually arrived (http://kitchen-loulou.blogspot.com/2010/11/building-perfect-turkey-sandwich.html). As delicious as this tradition is, there’s so much more to be had from what’s left after the big show. Yes, there were a couple of rounds of turkey sandwiches (if we’re being completely honest, and I think we should be, I could eat another one right now and be oh-so- happy about it).
Beyond sandwich perfection, there was turkey tortilla soup, turkey bacon bagels for breakfast and the remainder of the mashed potatoes topped a delicious shepherd’s pie for dinner tonight. Never one to miss a great culinary opportunity, yesterday I tossed the turkey carcass into a stock pot, then added onions, garlic, carrots, celery, dill, parsley, thyme, salt, black peppercorns and water. Voila, four hours later I had six quarts of turkey stock, ready to be chilled. I used the Barefoot Contessa’s chicken stock recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stock-recipe/index.html)
with two minor adjustments, in lieu of three-five pound chicken carcasses, I used one 15 pound turkey carcass. I also omitted the parsnips because I couldn’t think of what else I would do with the rest of package. (The remnants of all the other ingredients are things I will use in other recipes.) After a night in the refrigerator the stock was ready to be skimmed of fat, packaged into quart size containers and tucked into the freezer. It makes me smile when I open the freezer just to see those containers of liquid gold all lined up on the shelf. The possibilities for deliciousness are endless.
And, before I forget, in the spirit of full disclosure, there was also the matter of the leftover sweet potatoes. Here’s the problem, my older daughter by association makes the best sweet potatoes I have ever had in my life. Ever. And I do love sweet potatoes and I do love Georgia not only for making them so incredibly delicious, but also for humoring me when I ask her to make them every Thanksgiving. Really, I can’t help myself. Oh, yes, I’m supposed to be confessing here…I warmed up the leftover sweet potatoes on Saturday and ate all of them, all by myself…without remorse. Have I mentioned they’re that good?
And that, friends, family and fellow cooks, pretty much sums it up. Now that we’ve
taken stock of Thanksgiving 2010, let the Christmas cooking begin!
Beyond sandwich perfection, there was turkey tortilla soup, turkey bacon bagels for breakfast and the remainder of the mashed potatoes topped a delicious shepherd’s pie for dinner tonight. Never one to miss a great culinary opportunity, yesterday I tossed the turkey carcass into a stock pot, then added onions, garlic, carrots, celery, dill, parsley, thyme, salt, black peppercorns and water. Voila, four hours later I had six quarts of turkey stock, ready to be chilled. I used the Barefoot Contessa’s chicken stock recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stock-recipe/index.html)
with two minor adjustments, in lieu of three-five pound chicken carcasses, I used one 15 pound turkey carcass. I also omitted the parsnips because I couldn’t think of what else I would do with the rest of package. (The remnants of all the other ingredients are things I will use in other recipes.) After a night in the refrigerator the stock was ready to be skimmed of fat, packaged into quart size containers and tucked into the freezer. It makes me smile when I open the freezer just to see those containers of liquid gold all lined up on the shelf. The possibilities for deliciousness are endless.
And, before I forget, in the spirit of full disclosure, there was also the matter of the leftover sweet potatoes. Here’s the problem, my older daughter by association makes the best sweet potatoes I have ever had in my life. Ever. And I do love sweet potatoes and I do love Georgia not only for making them so incredibly delicious, but also for humoring me when I ask her to make them every Thanksgiving. Really, I can’t help myself. Oh, yes, I’m supposed to be confessing here…I warmed up the leftover sweet potatoes on Saturday and ate all of them, all by myself…without remorse. Have I mentioned they’re that good?
And that, friends, family and fellow cooks, pretty much sums it up. Now that we’ve
taken stock of Thanksgiving 2010, let the Christmas cooking begin!
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