But when we were kids we got into more than one snafu with food.  There was the time we made scallops for my mother.  Should have been easy, right?  Yeh, well, we didn’t know how long to cook them and we didn’t want to undercook them so…  rubber.  Yick.  My mom was nice about it- had a few bites and said they were great but didn’t finish.  To be fair, these days, my darling friend makes a really delicious scallop dish that’s usually eaten around Christmas, a dish that’s so good, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night craving it. And the scallops are never overdone.

Then there was the time we were going to make cookies and S. was reading the recipe as I gathered the ingredients.  “Oh no,” she cried, “We can’t make this!”

“Why not?” I asked, running through the ingredient list, thinking we had everything we needed- butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla…

“It says, ‘cream the butter and sugar’ and we don’t have any cream!”

I burst out laughing, rather unkindly, and explained to her that the recipe meant for us to mix the butter and sugar well, not to actually add cream.

The joke’s on me these days because she can make some kick-ass cookies (she’s not always healthy).

The other wonderful thing about my friendship with S. is that we’re always in sync.  We’ll often email/call/text the other when she’s thinking of us- it’s that weird ESP-telepathy thing that women develop between themselves when they’re close.  Often when one of us is struggling with a particular situation, the other one is going through something similar.  And sometimes it’s just funny.  S. taught me how to make this cornbread once when I was visiting.  It was delicious and I make it often.  Last year I made it for the first time in a while and after I got it in the oven, I sat down to check my email.  One came in while I was checking, from S, asking me if I could send her the recipe since she was at her cousin’s house and wanted to make it.  See?  Telepathy!

Old  Friend Cornbread

I’ve never, ever been able to make cornbread.  Which has always made me feel a bit dumb—I can make Beef Wellington, cook for 200 with ease and improvise with the best of them but something as simple as cornbread eluded me.  Luckily, S saved me.  The following recipe is delicious and I’ve been able to emulate it many times.  Of course, the first few times I made it, it was awful because I was using baking soda instead of powder.  See?  The cornbread gods hate me.  Luckily, S corrected me and once again saved my cornbread from disaster.

This recipe makes an extremely large pan of cornbread- lasagna sized pan.  I tend to halve it and make an 8 inch square size since that’s a more reasonable amount of cornbread for us.  If you’re serving many (when the whole S family is together it’s something like 11 people, minimum), go ahead and make the full recipe I’m giving you here.

Ingredients:

4 c. flour

2 c. yellow cornmeal

1 ½ c. white sugar (although we’ve used brown as well and it’s been delicious)

1 tsp. salt

2 tb baking powder

4 eggs

3 c. buttermilk

2 ½ tb vegetable oil

½ c. butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift your flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder.  You know me, lazy, so I whisk them together rather than sift.

Stir in the eggs, buttermilk and oil.  I used a whisk but a spoon might actually work better- I switched halfway through.

As you stir, it will come together but be a bit rough and sort of sticky and dry-ish.

At this point, add the melted butter and mix to combine.  It will smooth out and moisten the batter.

Pour into a greased pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes (for 8 inch pan), about an hour to an hour fifteen for a larger pan.

It’s done when the top is sort of crackly and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Me?  I cook.  As much as I can because morning seems to be when the toddler can best amuse herself.  So as of the writing of this post, I have made chicken chili, cornbread and 7 loaves of challah.  I’ve also cleaned the kitchen and started removing things from the shelves (we’re moving around furniture today).  It’s been quite a morning.  I’m sure you can guess which of the above categories I fall into in terms of waking time.

Also, it’s freezing here all of a sudden.  I can’t really complain since it’s been an extremely mild and non-snowy winter (the only snow we’ve had so far was on Halloween) but, wow, is it suddenly cold.  Like 11 degrees out with a wind chill making it feel like 0 degrees kind of cold.  So chili is the thing to make on a day like this.  Plus, since it can sit on the stove all day and simmer while it gets more tasty, it’s the perfect thing for thanking my friends who will be coming over to help us move furniture (the husband is convinced that if I move heavy stuff this late in the pregnancy it will send me into labor).

Without further delay, I give you my chili recipe/guidelines.  The great thing about chili is that it is versatile.  Sometimes I add more veggies, other times, more beans.  Sometimes it’s really spicy, other times less so.  Chili is also one of those things that vary by region.  Some areas of the U.S. are aghast if you add beans to your chili, other areas serve it over pasta.  I refuse to get into that debate and simply make my chili as suits my mood each time.  So use this recipe as a jumping off point for yourself- make your chili to suit your mood.

Chili

This makes a big pot of chili which can probably serve 5-8 people, depending on portion size.  Chili also gets better over time so it’s good to have leftovers to eat throughout the week.  You can also substitute any kind of veggie or bean that sounds good to you at the time.

Ingredients

1-3 red, yellow and/or orange peppers (you can use green as well but I don’t like green peppers)

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

1 lb ground meat (I use chicken)

2 cans kidney beans, 1 can black beans, 1 can garbonzo beans or any combo you like

1 large can diced tomatoes (or stewed or crushed)

1 cup frozen corn

salt, pepper, olive oil, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper

Directions:

In a large, heavy pot, heat some olive oil over medium-high heat.  How much?  A tablespoon or two.  Add your chopped onions and let them soften and get a bit charred.  It adds some nice, smoky flavor.

Once the onions have done their thing, add the ground meat (if using) and let that get brown. It helps to use the back of a spoon to break up the meat into chunks.

Chop your veggies.

Check your meat/onion mixture.  If it’s browning up, add some chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper.  Maybe a few teaspoons.  I like to season at this step and then again further along in the cooking time.  The spices really need to be to your taste- some people like it really hot (cayenne) and others like the smoky, sort of earthy flavor of the cumin.  Stir the spices around and then add your veggies and stir again.

Let this cook for a few minutes while you open the beans and rinse them off.  You can use any combo of beans you like.  I tend to favor kidney (because they scream chili to me), black (because I love them and they’re a superfood) and garbanzo (I find them delightful in  any mix).  Just make sure to rinse them well since canned beans can sometimes taste like tin.  Of course you could use dried beans but that involves a soaking process which I never remember to do.

Add your beans to the pot and stir.

Add the tomatoes (juice and all) and stir again.  I’ve use fresh tomatoes as well, it just depends on what you have on hand.

Now, let it just sit, over low heat, covered for as little as 30 minutes to as long as all day.  Stir occasionally.  Towards the add, you can add the corn if you like.  I find it gives a nice sweet pop to the chili but I’m also loving corn right now, for whatever reason.

This chili is actually really good for you- it’s all veggies and good protein.  Which is why I do not feel badly eating big bowls of it and topping it with shredded cheese and sometimes even some greek yogurt or sour cream.  I also usually make cornbread to go with it.  I’ll save that one for another post but I have a really good cornbread recipe.  Really good.

As the chili sits, the liquid will release and make a kind of sauce.  You can add tomato paste if you want it thicker but I like it the way it is.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  I will often add a teaspoon or two of sugar, just to cut the acid of all the veggies.

Really delicious, pretty healthy and will definitely warm you up on a cold day.  Even if you make it in the morning.

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*Of course, I’m posting this around 6pm so that just tells you how my days tend to go.  To be fair, all furniture is moved (thank you to T, K and T!) and things have been put away but really, this is the first time I’ve sat down long enough to finish this!

No, I haven’t had the baby yet.

No, I haven’t stopped cooking.

Yes, I am overwhelmed with work and Things To Do before the baby comes.

Yes, there is a stomach bug making its way slowly through my house, starting this past weekend with Super G., moving on to me on Monday and it is now currently involved, pretty intensely, with my husband.

So food has been a low priority.

Fear not, I have a whole first kitchen fail of the year to post, along with a Thai pork recipe I’ve been dying to try.  I’ll get there.  Soon.  Until then….

I made the hippo’s black-eyed peas and sausage.  For the most part, I followed her recipe but I did make a few adaptations.  It was delicious.  I also tried an…. intriguing dessert.  More on that at the end.

The Hungry Hippo’s Lucky New Year’s Stew

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, diced

2-4 garlic cloves, smashed

1 carrot, peeled and diced

2-4 sausages (I used sweet and hot Italian chicken sausage and used 1.5 of each- saving the other 1/2 of each for a soup later in the week)

1-2 cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 large can diced tomatoes

Olive oil

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350.  Rinse, peel and chop your veggies.  Heat a heavy, oven proof pot on the stove and add a few tablespoons of olive oil.  I think I threw in a little bit of butter as well.  Do this over medium-high heat and when the oil/butter is hot, add your onion, carrots and garlic. Let them soften but be careful not to let the garlic burn since burned garlic both smells bad and tastes bitter (right K?!).

Meanwhile, in a frying pan on the stove over medium-high heat, brown your sausages.

Sausages never look pretty to me. So phallic.

Once the veggies have softened, add the tomatoes and stir.  Let this stay on the heat while you finish cooking your sausages.

Once your sausages have cooked and cooled a bit, slice them into discs.  It’s ok if they haven’t cooked all the way through since they’re going in the sauce to cook longer anyway.

Add the sausage to the pot with the veggies and put into the oven, covered.  Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Add the drained and rinsed beans.

Put this back in the oven and let it cook for as long as you want- I think mine was in for about 40 minutes.  Check it from time to time to ensure that it’s not burning and that the liquid hasn’t all evaporated.  The sauce will thicken up as the liquid from the veggies evaporates.  I let mine cook with the lid off.

I served mine with mini corn muffins crumbled on top.  It was delicious- and lucky!

So, the intriguing dessert.  I’ve seen these in Whole Foods the last few times I’ve been in there.  I will say that I almost never buy baked goods because that’s something I can easily make at home.  Plus, then I know what’s in them- that whole keeping things shelf-stable makes me nervous.  But I just kept seeing these and wondering.

French Toast Cupcakes (yes, that's bacon on top)

So, I had one.

Really, bacon. Real bacon. How is it not rancid or rotten? I have no idea.

I have read about the bacon-as-sweet craze and I get it.  I really do- salty and sweet.  How can it be wrong?

The verdict?  It was, um, interesting. The cupcake tasted like french toast, kind of.  It was more of a spice cake with cinnamon.  The frosting was sort of maple-y but not very much so.  The bacon?  Kind of went with it.  It was salty and contrasted nicely with the extreme sweetness of the frosting.  Overall, though, I’m pretty sure I could pass these up if I see them again.  And I have three more left.  First come, first served, people….c’mon by!

Instead, I will leave you with a few thoughts on New Year’s Foods, so that you can get ready for the next year.

Jewish Tradition is to eat something sweet at the New Year (Rosh Hashannah).  There’s a lot of honey involved.  Honey Cake is the most common use, along with dipping apples in honey.

Chinese Tradition is to eat foods that have symbolic shape or have names which sound like the words for fortune or luck.  For example, Sticky Rice Cakes have symbolic significance on many levels. Their sweetness symbolizes a rich, sweet life, while the layers symbolize rising abundance for the coming year. Finally, the round shape signifies family reunion.  Noodles represent a long life- they say it’s bad luck to cut them.  I’d say make the Asian Chicken Soup and add some looooong noodles.

Spanish (as in Spain and the former Spanish and Portuguese Colonies such as Venezuela) tradition asks that you consume 12 grapes at midnight, one at each stroke of the clock, each representing the coming months.  The goal is to swallow all the grapes by the last stroke of midnight.  I was only in 5th grade when we spent Christmas and New Year’s in Caracas but I distinctly remember this tradition and how hard it was- I’m pretty sure I didn’t swallow all of them.

Southern U.S. tradition says that you should eat black-eyed peas- dried beans which, when re-hydrated and cooked, swell to resemble coins- for good luck and fortune.  This year I’ll be making the Hippo’s Black Eyed Peas and Sausage.

Round cakes, sometimes with things hidden in them (such as a whole almond) are often used as well to bring good fortune to the new year.  The person who has the thing in their piece of cake is said to be blessed with an upcoming lucky year.  I would favor this chocolate cake from Epicurious.com and maybe add an almond or other large-ish whole nut for the lucky find.

Lots of people go swanky for new year’s eve.  If that’s your fancy, you could try the elegant and easy salad from Lady Gouda, beef wellington, roasted root veggies and an impressive looking but easy to make dessert like this one.  If you’d rather go comfort, you could always try  Chicken Stew With Biscuits,  Italian Wedding Soup, African Chicken Soup or some kind of fish like this one or this one- fish are also considered a lucky food to eat.  For comfort desserts you can’t beat chocolate in any form- cookies, cake, pudding…. maybe just have a chocolate meal?  (And suddenly, an idea for a blog post is born!  Perhaps in the new year, around my grandmother’s birthday as she loved chocolate even more than I do!)

And, according to Epicurious.com:

In addition to the aforementioned lucky foods, there are also a few to avoid. Lobster, for instance, is a bad idea because they move backwards and could therefore lead to setbacks. Chicken is also discouraged because the bird scratches backwards, which could cause regret or dwelling on the past. Another theory warns against eating any winged fowl because good luck could fly away.

Without her house to go to, I was sort of lost on Christmas Eve.  I honestly can’t remember what we’ve done for the last few years.  This year I decided perhaps we needed to start a new tradition- dinner together.  Now, during the workweek, we sometimes have dinner together.  By which I mean, we try, but as my husband went back to school a few years ago his schedule is, um…. different.  On the nights he doesn’t have class or isn’t working, we all sit together for dinner.  There are plenty of nights where this doesn’t happen but we try.

For Christmas Eve, we decided that I’d feed the toddler at her regular time (which is when we usually eat, one step removed from the early bird special time!) and then after she went to bed, he and I would sit down for a somewhat elegant meal without her.  Which may be the first time we’ve done that.  Ever.

What to make?  Mac and Cheese, of course, though not the cr$%^p from the box that he favors.  And not the baked kind, which he does not love.  Instead, I made this Alton Brown version which is quite similar (though far less chemical-tasting) to this from the box.  I also made potatoes with cheese which were supposed to be all fancy-like but ended up flat and frisbee-like.  More on that in a minute.  For the main dish, I made beef wellington which is something we had at our wedding and which, four years later, my husband still talks about while getting all misty-eyed.

Ok, so the potatoes first- get the semi-failure out of the way first, right?  I made mashed potatoes and added a little bit of flour and egg to stiffen them up (I would have used potato starch but I didn’t have any).  I also added a fair amount of cheddar cheese (shredded).  Then I dumped it into a ziplock with the tip cut off and a pastry tip inserted.

Sad, deflated "pastry" bag

I piped it out onto parchment and threw it into the oven.

I'm aware that they look like piles of doo-doo. This was my first clue that something was amiss.

I was going for something like this.  My mistake, I think, was too loose a mixture and not broiling right away- I wasn’t paying attention and put them in on bake, which allowed them to do this.

Now, they were tasty- sort of a crunchy, cheesy crust and a smooth creamy interior.  But they were not pretty.  Oh well.  Experimental cooking at its best, I suppose.

On to the beef wellington.  A word about my version- it’s an amalgamation of a bunch of different recipes.  It never comes out the same way twice.  And I definitely can end up with some soggy bottom dough (which happened this time- it was not my best cooking day).  If you are looking for the perfect beef wellington, I suggest going to cooks illustrated as they have quite an extensive recipe with many steps and directions and I have no doubt that theirs comes out perfectly.  If you want something a bit more user-friendly and you don’t mind slightly soggy bottom dough, go with mine.

Beef Wellington

3 lbs beef tenderloin (full confession, I can almost never find this and tend to just use good steak)

1 package puff pastry, defrosted (I use Dufour brand and it’s great)

8-10 cremini mushrooms, washed, stemmed and quartered (fascinating bit on mushrooms here)

olive oil, butter

salt, pepper

Splash of sherry or marsala wine (optional)

1 egg, splash of water

Directions:

Season your beef with salt and pepper.

No tenderloin this time, I used I think boneless ribeye. Maybe? I can't remember.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet over medium to high heat.  When hot, add the beef and sear it on all sides. You do not want it to cook through.

Set it aside to rest and cool.  CI will have you wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for four  to twenty four hours (this is after you already let the tenderloin sit over a rack/pan in the fridge for something like 24-48 hours.  Too many steps for me!).  I simply wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it chill it the fridge while I did other stuff- about an hour or so.

Don’t wipe out your pan, just take it off the heat and set  aside while you prep your mushrooms.

Wash and remove the stems.  Cut any large ones into quarters.  Add them to your food processor and process until very fine.

In the skillet that has the oil and leftover beef bits, add about a pat of butter and heat over medium heat.

Once the butter is melted, add the finely chopped mushrooms.

Let them cook over medium heat until all the liquid is released.  They may start to stick to the bottom of the pan and when they do, I add a splash of sherry or marsala wine to help degalze the pan and add some extra flavor.  I add a pinch of salt and pepper as well. Again, cook until all the liquid has evaporated.

Set them aside to cool.  Pull out your puff pastry and lightly flour the surface you’ll use to roll it out.  Place the sheet on the floured area and lightly flour the top.

Roll it out, gently, until it is large enough to cover your meat (heh-heh, that sounded dirty.  Yes, I’m a 12 year old boy.).  Keep moving it around so that it doesn’t stick.  I lift mine and flip it every few rolls.  Since I had two steaks, I cut mine in half and rolled each half to size.  You’ll need to put it in the fridge after rolling to let it firm up again.  I did this by using the packing it came in to help fold it back up without it sticking.

Let it chill for a bit- this is when I made the potatoes and when I took a few photos of the toddler amusing herself with my baking things.

Ok, now that everything has chilled, set up your assembly line.  You’ll need your mushrooms, some egg wash (1 egg lightly whisked with a bit of water), a pastry brush, a sheet pan with parchment on it, your beef and your pastry dough.

part of my assembly line- not shown, the parchment pan

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.  Lay out your dough on the sheet pan.  Spread the mushrooms on one side (I used half for each steak). You may need to use your fingers. Make sure to leave some space around the edges.

Place your steak on top of the mushrooms.

Brush the egg wash around the edges.

Fold the other half of the pastry dough over and seal the edges.  I’m sure you could do this in an extremely pretty way but I didn’t.

Brush with egg wash.

Repeat with the other steak/dough if you have two.  Put them in the fridge for a bit to let the pastry firm up again.

Bake in the oven until the internal temperature of the beef reaches 113-155 for rare (15 minutes), 120 for medium-rare (20 minutes).  Take them out and let them sit for 10 minutes (to allow the juices in the beef to re-distribute) before slicing. 

Slice and serve.  Yum.

Obviously, the thicker cut of meat you use, the higher your wellington will be.  This worked just fine for us but again, the bottom was a bit soggy.  Traditional recipes also use pate and have an accompanying sauce, usually some sort of red wine-based.  Some recipes use pate and mushrooms on all sides.  For us, this was relatively quick, easy and somewhat outside our usual fare.  It may be the start of a Christmas Eve tradition!

]]> http://laughcooklove.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/christmas-eve-2011/feed/ 0 stellacarolyn IMG_3114 IMG_3107 IMG_3106 IMG_3109 IMG_3084 IMG_3085 IMG_3086 IMG_3090 IMG_3091 IMG_3092 IMG_3093 IMG_3094 IMG_3096 IMG_3097 IMG_3087 IMG_3088 IMG_3089 IMG_3098 IMG_3100 IMG_3101 IMG_3102 IMG_3103 IMG_3104 IMG_3113 IMG_3115 http://laughcooklove.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/how-festive/ http://laughcooklove.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/how-festive/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:34:13 +0000 stellacarolyn http://laughcooklove.wordpress.com/?p=1628 ]]> Well, hello there.  Is it the holidays already?  How on earth did that happen?  I say it each year but this year it feels especially true:  where does the time go?!

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah.  We’ll be celebrating with latkes and applesauce.  We’ll also be having the elegant salad from Lady Gouda.  For an even better applesauce than mine, go to the Hippo’s site and use her Nana’s recipe.  On a non-cooking note, for some great children’s books about Chanukah, go here and read all about them- just in case you need some good bring-to-dinner gifts.

We’ve also managed to put up our tree in honor of my husband’s Christmas holiday.  I have to admit, I find the tree really pretty. Although, it was my husband’s job to decorate it this year so he’s been doing it slowly, over the last week or so and as a result not all the ornaments are up yet.  In fact, he didn’t put up any of the really pretty, personalized ones that we have, instead, he used the cheap, $10 Walgreen’s ones we bought twelve years ago for his first tree.  I suppose there’s some sentimental value in those but…  I like our pretty ones better!  As he points out, I could be helping but, you know, I’m not.

I’ve even managed to finish most of the holiday shopping (each year our list gets smaller but the children start to edge out the adults!).  And, of course, have begun and completed the holiday baking for friends and co-workers (at least round one.  I’ll do another round this weekend to bring with me as we go on all our playdates next week.   We have a LOT of playdates.  I’m excited.).

A bonanza of cookies (chocolate peanut butter and chocolate peppermint).

Peppermint brownies (I confess, I used boxed brownie mix- I love the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie- and added peppermint extract- about 2 teaspoons and crushed candy canes into and on top of the batter).

I also made caramel peanut popcorn which is just so. good.  that I promise to share the recipe with you when I have better photos.  (I’ll make more during round two of the holiday baking extravaganza).  Here’s what I did manage to get:

The plain popcorn, the popcorn in the process of becoming enveloped in yummy, decadent caramel and the dregs of the caramel left in the pot.  Yum.

Then there was the packaging.

I do have one more baking project before the end of the week.  At one of my schools we have a weekly morning meeting and since it’s the last one before vacation, I wanted to bring yummy things.  I’ll bring some cookies, of course, but then I was given these by a friend:

They are crying out for some buttermilk biscuits and/or scones.  So I will make those and bring these beautiful jams with me for the meeting (H. & J. if you’re reading this, you’ve ruined the surprise!  But at least you know what to expect).  It will be festive- how can we go wrong with “Holiday Jam”?!

Whatever you do for the holidays, I wish you laughter, love, joy and an enormous amount of delicious food.  Enjoy!

And a P.S. of sorts.  This was our holiday gift to ourselves.  Introducing our Baby Boy, due in about 7 weeks (brought to you by some amazing technology):

Actually, food is no longer the enemy for me, I seem to have figured out what/how much/when to eat so that my blood sugar is under control and the nausea seems to have subsided for now.  I can’t do much about the heartburn, thank you third trimester.  My time also isn’t as limited as it could be- I am finally, somewhat caught up at work so that I don’t have a mountain of testing reports to write.  Instead, I have a number of kids to test and an equal number of reports to write.  But my father is here visiting for the week and so the free time I have, I want to spend with him.

Playing with her Choo-Choos and Grandpa.

So, I did meal plan for the week and will give you the run down.  I also did a bunch of prep for the week.  And I’m thinking about holiday baking already.  It’s a big day.

Tonight we’re having Asian Chicken Soup.  I’ve baked off the chicken for it, using some salt and some Chinese Five Spice Powder.

Monday we’re havingFalafel and salad.  Tuesday we’ll be eating fish and veggies (or chicken and veggies if you’re my dad).  Wednesday is squash mac and cheese, for which I roasted the squash today.

Thursday is quiche and Friday is african chicken soup.  What can I say?  I’m on a soup kick.

I also made cookie dough today which I will roll into logs and freeze so that a few days before December vacation I can slice them, bake them off and come into school a hero.  I made chocolate peanut butter chip* and an experiment of chocolate peppermint.  Same chocolate dough, but with peppermint extract and crushed peppermint candies.

So there you have it, my week in food.  I promise more exciting posts to come but for now, this will have to do.  I have toddlers with whom I need to play and fathers with whom I need to visit.

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*As I went looking for the link to the recipe, I realized I’ve never posted it, which is shocking!  I’ll post it here but 1) I have no photos and 2) credit goes to the back of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Chip bag.  Every time I make it, I think, “That’s a lot of sugar, I should cut back, I bet it doesn’t need that much.” and every time I make it, I never do.  So, you decide how you want to roll.

Chocolate Cookie

Ingredients

2 cups white flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups butter (about 2 1/2 sticks), soft but not melted

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or peppermint if you’re doing what I did)

1 bag peanut butter chips  (or about 1 bag crushed peppermint candies)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment or silpat.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of a mixer, beat the sugar and butter until combined and fluffy.  Add eggs and the extract you’re using and mix again.  Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture- it will be messy.  Reese’s bag says to do it in several parts, I always dump it in, as my approach to baking really is pretty loose.  Stir in the chips or peppermints.

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake 8-9 minutes.  Leave some space between them as the will spread and puff up while baking. They will then also fall a bit when you take them out, which is ok.

Food is currently not my friend.

I’ve been having a hard few weeks.  When I’m pregnant, I apparently get gestational diabetes.  It happened when I was carrying Super G. and it’s happening now with the boy.  Last time it was easily diet controlled, this time I’m having a harder time.  Which makes me feel six thousand kinds of guilt and shame since food/weight/body image is such a tender spot for me.  In real life I’m short, strong, healthy and overweight.  I work out a lot (or did before I had Super G.- did triathlons and whatnot) and eat well.  My weight has always been high and I’ve always worried about it- in healthy and not so healthy ways.  So to be diagnosed with gestational diabetes, despite all the lectures from all the doctors about how it’s a hormonal thing, not a weight thing (though there is some debate about that as being overweight is one of the risk factors), just doesn’t sit well with me.

Add to this the fact that I’m apparently back to my first/second trimester routine of nausea/vomiting at random times of day and third trimester constant heartburn, well, I can’t find anything I want to eat.  I’ll eat something- say last night’s chicken/green beans/little bit of stuffing & mashed potatoes- and then an hour or two later, nope, not at all what I wanted.  Ick.

Tonight, though, I thought of and made exactly what I wanted.  Soup.  Which is what I craved during the first few weeks of pregnancy, which was weird since it was spring-moving-into-summer.  Tonight, however, soup is both appropriate and hardy.  I threw together a vegetable soup which could easily be totally vegetarian if you use veg broth rather than chicken.  I used what I had in the house so it’s a random assortment of veggies but it worked.  Seeing all the brightly colored veggies in the pot cheered me immensely.  And so far, it’s staying down.

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Broth- I used about 6 cups of chicken but you could easily use more/less depending on how much soup you want and you could also use vegetable broth

1/2 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks celery, washed and chopped

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed (you could also use kidney or any other kind, I think.)

about half a cup of green beans, chopped into smallish pieces

frozen corn- I used about 1/4-1/2 a cup

1 small white potato, peeled and chopped into cubes

olive oil, salt, pepper

Optional:  small pasta such as orzo or stelline (which I like because they look like stars and when you’re down on food, who doesn’t love stars as a staple?) and parm cheese

Directions:

In a soup pot over medium heat, saute the onions, carrots and celery until soft.  Add the rest of the veggies and cook for about two to five minutes.

See?  How can that not cheer you up if you’re feeling badly about food?  So bright and colorful!

Add broth to cover and then let the soup simmer for a bit.  How long?  At least until the potatoes are tender.  I think mine sat for about twenty minutes.  At the tail end you can either add your pasta to the soup and let it cook or you can cook it separately and add it to the bowls as you serve.  If you do put it directly into the soup, know that it will get both somewhat mushy and soak up a huge amount of broth, which may need replenishing when re-heating the leftovers.

Not as pretty now, but still good.

Serve with a little bit of parm cheese on top or plain.  Season to taste.  You could add some oregano, basil and/or garlic but I wanted mine plain.

Again, not so pretty but mighty yummy and good for you too!  Just the thing if you’ve overindulged on T-giving pies and cakes.

Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken

several carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 head of fennel

several cloves of garlic, peeled

1 head of garlic, cut in half

1 lemon, cut in half

1 stick of butter, melted

salt, pepper

Optional:  small potatoes or larger potatoes peeled and chopped, brussel sprouts, other root veggies (parsnips, turnips, etc) peeled and chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Check out your chicken and make sure that you’ve taken out the gizzard, heart, etc. parts. Usually they’re in the cavity in a neat little bag. You can save them to make stock or broth if you like.  Rinse your chicken and pat dry.  Set it aside and make sure that you’ve washed your hands afterwards- never touch anything after you’ve handled raw chicken.  Get out your roasting pan.  I use this enormous one which was a wedding gift from a wonderful friend- it can hold a turkey easily and I adore it.

Get out your veggies.  I always use garlic, carrot, onion and fennel.  You can also use other root veggies as you like.  Mostly they serve as a bed for the chicken to rest on as it cooks and then soak up all the yummy chicken juices and butter and spices.  They end up carmalizing in the pan and are just delicious.  Anyway, rinse, peel and chop them so that they’re roughly the same size.  For those of you playing along at home, here’s fennel, one of my favorite strange looking veggies.

I use just the bulb part but I think that the top is so funny- sort of frilly and tickly.  Wash and then chop it into rough pieces.  It’s layered, like an onion so the pieces will look like the onion that you chop.  Fennel has a sort of black licorice taste so it’s strong but I like it.  Anyway, toss all your veggies with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them into the roasting pan.

Slice the head of garlic in half lengthwise and slice the lemon in half as well.  Stuff each into the empty cavity of the chicken- I alternate, lemon/garlic/lemon/garlic.  Place your chicken on top of the veggies. 

Melt the stick of butter (yes, I know, a stick!) in a pan over low heat.  Pour the butter over your chicken.  Salt and pepper the chicken well. Wash your hands.

Bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes, or until the internal temperature is between 150-160 degrees.  Take it out and let it rest for ten minutes before attempting to carve.  Ina says to tent it with foil but I don’t always do that. Sometimes, depending on how quickly the skin is browning, I’ll cover it with foil while it’s still cooking, just to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Carve and serve on a platter with some of the yummy veggies on the side. I recently watched a foodtv special on Thanksgiving in which Alton Brown carved a turkey live! and on tv!- and now I can carve a chicken.  Far easier than I thought.