Christmas Cookies!

This year's Christmas cookies are done, and the kitchen is now closed. At least for a few days. And despite my plans to not go overboard this year, it's possible I did, though strangely there aren't many left at this point. As usual, there were a couple of regulars and a few new flavors, too -- I kept finding new recipes to try, but eventually even I had to call it quits. In the final tally, I made peach-raspberry linzers, shortbread snowflakes, chocolate-dipped espresso shortbread trees, soft ginger cookies, fleur de sel caramel, almond buttercrunch, chocolate chip-pretzel cookies, cranberry-oatmeal-chip cookies, and pecan bars with cranberries.

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight we lit the first candle on the menorrah, and we welcomed the Festival of Lights with a big plate of latkes, sour cream, and warm, homemade applesauce.

Coriander-Crusted Pork Loin with Rice Pilaf and Sweet n' Spicy Roast Vegetables

I saw this meal featured in the current issue of Fine Cooking and decided to try it. Week night? Why not? -- and for all that this sounds involved, it can be done during the week, though it would be great for entertaining, too. I've liked Ellie Krieger's recipes in the past, and these were no exception. As usual, I made a few changes to the recipes -- some out of necessity and some just because. I didn't have any red peppers, so I left them out of the roasted vegetables, which I actually think I wouldn't have liked as much if I had put the peppers in (for all that I love red peppers.) I also used maple syrup instead of honey. The rice pilaf was pretty straightforward, though I used white rice instead of brown, but the overall result was very, very flavorful. Definitely let the rice get nice and toasty in the pan before you add the water; it tasted nutty even before I added the walnuts at the end. For the pork, I used a loin vs. a tenderloin, so the cooking times were a little different, but the end result was super flavorful--and it even converted a declared non-lover of pork to the other (white meat) side.

Smoky Mediterranean Chicken

Sometimes I have absolutely no idea what to make for dinner. And not all my last-minute creations are successful; however, this dish was a big hit--and the bonus is that it's both super flavorful and easy too. In a 9 x 13-inch baking dish I mixed one package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1.25 lbs) with four Yukon gold potatoes and a can of artichoke hearts. I cut the potatoes in four to six pieces, depending on the potato, and the artichoke hearts were drained and then cut in half. To that, I added the zest of one lemon, four whole cloves of garlic, about a tablespoon of smoked paprika, dried oregano, salt and pepper, and maybe a tablespoon of olive oil. I tossed everything together and then baked it at 350 degrees for an hour or so (or you could do a higher temp for less time.) When done, the chicken was sweet from the lemon and paprika, with a little hint of spice, while the potatoes were crusty on the outside and tender within.

Jook

There are many names for this dish, but at it's most basic, this is a rice stew or soup. But it's not just rice stew ... it's creamy rice cooked in a mixture of chicken broth and water with earthy mushrooms, spicy ginger, and pretty much anything else you want to add. I used what we had in the fridge--roast chicken, ham, carrots, and green peas--along with a few shrimp I picked up at the store today. The flavors all cooked together with a little Thai fish sauce and black soy sauce, and the result was perfectly warm and comforting and soothing on my sore throat. I based my recipe on one from David Lebovitz.

Soft Polenta with Chanterelles

This is grown up comfort food: creamy polenta topped with chanterelle mushrooms. Somehow we happened to have chanterelles left over from Thanksgiving, so I sauteed them in a little olive oil, butter and thyme. I cooked the polenta in a mixture of chicken broth and milk, added a little chopped up ham and grated parmesan, and spooned the mushrooms over the top.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had 10 people at our table for Thanksgiving this year--and, of course, enough food for many, many more. I'm only just recovering from the food coma that was Thursday, though a long walk around the zoo today helped. We cover the traditionals at our holiday meal--there are no theme Thanksgivings around here--and it was all very, very good. We had turkey with gravy, apple-pecan stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, asparagus, cranberry-0range sauce, and more. Not surprisingly, dessert was my focus, and with four (yes, 4) options, I think we covered all the bases. The above picture is of a caramel-apple cheesecake tart, a great recipe I found at Annie's Eats, that essentially combined pecan pie, apple pie, and a cheesecake all in one.

The sides: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy


The big three: turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing


Broad beans, olives, asparagus with a lemon vinaigrette, cranberry sauce, gravy


Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans


Homemade toasted coconut-macaroon ice cream with dark chocolate chunks, made with the effort and inspiration of SwimmerGirl


The final round-up: (from the top) carrot cake, caramel-apple cheesecake tart, and pumpkin chiffon pie

Dinner With Friends

Thanksgiving is tomorrow night, but last night we had 14 at our table. Because there's such a huge meal just around the corner, dinner was fairly simple: two lasagnas--butternut squash and plain, with a bolognese sauce on the side--salad, and French bread. The kids had pasta: with cheese, with tomato sauce, with meat sauce, and only with butter.

For dessert we had KAF's Guaranteed Fudge Brownies

Crepes Monsieur

Dinner tonight was based on a recipe for Man Crepes that was published in today's Washington Post. Man crepes, meaning that the author successfully served them to the menfolk in her family. She used turkey and cheese as a filling, but I took this a couple steps further and added a little ham and slices of honey crisp apple. The result was smokey and cheesy and sweet and crunchy, all wrapped up in a super thin pancake.