Special Occasion Cooking

Y'all.  I don't want to toot my own horn but.....  **toot toot** my New Years Eve dinner was THE BOMB.    Let me just lay it all out for ya:

Challah
Steaks (in a marinade)
Au gratin potatoes (ok, so THOSE were out of a box-the HH prefers those over home made, go figure)
Black eyed peas
And (:::drum roll please:::)
Creme Brulee

Dudes.  I cannot tell you how amazing this dinner was.  The whole time Steve and I were gushing over it every other bite.  Best. Meal. EVER.  If you want to impress someone, this is the way to do it.

So this meal is good only if you have about...mmm...4 hours or more to spend in the kitchen off and on.

I started off with the Challah.  Let me be honest, Sex and the City inspired me to cook some challah.  You know, the episode where Charlotte converts to Judaism and makes a Shabbos meal for her and Harry?  Yeah... I saw that braided dough and knew I would eventually have to make it.  I figured it would go well with a hearty dinner, so I decided NYE was a good night to do it.

Steve and I don't go out on NYE.  Mostly because menus are generally limited and all the crazies are on the road.  Plus, we both know we can make a dinner that rivals any decent restaurants meal.  Also, we also know ourselves well enough that we'll probably be in bed before the ball drops in Times Square.  I think I started the challah around 5:00.

You're gonna need a lot of time with this one part of the meal.  3 hours at least.

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp salt
4 eggs
6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Topping:
1 egg
1 tsp cold water
1 tbsp sesame or poppy seeds, optional

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the oil, sugar, salt, eggs, and 4 cups of flour; beat until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic about 6-8 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down (I forgot this part, but it didn't seem to make a difference).  Turn onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide each portion into thirds.  Shape each piece into a 15 inch rope.  Place three ropes on a greased baking sheet and braid; pinch ends to seal and tuck under.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  

(see I told you this one takes a while.  At least you can leave it and forget for an hour at a time)

Beat egg and cold water; brush over braids.  At this point you can sprinkle it with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.  I choose to leave it plain because I didn't think it needed anything else.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from pans and let cook on a wire rack.

This is the water and yeast.  I think I ::may:: have put a little bit too hot of water for the yeast.  Not sure though. The challah still turned out amazing, but I was worried it wasn't rising fast enough

All other ingredients (except flour), waiting to be mixed.

Kneading the dough before I let it sit and rise.

Covering it and letting it rise...

Getting ready to braid the challah

Braiding

All braided, ready to cover and let rise for another hour

Both the challahs covered and rising

The challah all done rising, ready for the egg topping and a trip to the oven.

The egg and water topping

The egg topping all brushed on.

The challah all baked and ready to eat!

Both of the loaves cooling on the wire rack

So that was the Challah.  While I was messing with the challah, I was doing a crap ton of other stuff to prepare dinner.  At first I was baking a sweet potato and regular potatoes because I thought that's what we were having as one of the sides but then I remembered that Steve wanted au gratin potatoes, so I took the potatoes out of the oven once they were done.  At least I can just save them for a lunch or dinner tomorrow.  While the challah was rising, I started on the Creme Brulee.  This little dessert also calls for a lot of down time, so if I were you-I'd start it BEFORE you start anything else for dinner.  Trust me.

Oh and by the way, this is what my HH does while I'm busy in the kitchen :)   I may or may not have enjoyed a few glasses of that Jack Daniel's (with diet Dr. Pepper) you see back behind that Maker's 46 while I was cooking.

White Chocolate Creme Brulee

3 egg yolks
6 tbsp sugar, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 squares (1 oz each) white chocolate baking chocolate (I used Ghirardelli's white chocolate chips), finely chopped (I didn't chop up the chocolate chips)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks and 2 tbsp sugar; set aside.  In a small saucepan, combine the cream, chocolate, and 2 tbsp sugar.  Heat over medium-low until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, stirring constantly.

Cream, white chocolate chips, and sugar

Egg Yolks and sugar

Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla.  Stir in a small amount of hot filling into egg yolk mixture; return all to the pan, stirring constantly.

Pour into two (I used 3 smaller ramekins) 10 oz. ramekins.  Place in a baking pan.  Add 1 inch of boiling water to the pan.  Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 50-55 minutes or until center is set.  Remove from water bath and cool for 10 minutes.  Refrigerate for 3-4 hours (yeah.  I told you that you'd need pretty much all late afternoon/ evening for this meal).

The water bath, getting ready to be put in the oven

The creme brulees straight out of the oven and their water baths.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.  Just before serving, sprinkle remaining sugar over the tops.  Broil 4-6 inches from the heat for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes or until sugar is carmelized.

The finished product.  OH. EM. GEE.  Flipping fantastic.

So while the creme brulee was chillaxin' in the fridge, I got the crazy idea to make a steak marinade. I wish I'd had this idea around 10:00 this morning so that the steaks could have marinated all day, but oh well.  Definitely will do this next time.

Steak marinade:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil (I used 1/3 since I'm kind of low on olive oil)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tbsp garlic powder (I eye balled it and used garlic salt)
3 tbsp dried basil (same thing-eye balled it)
1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley flakes (again-I eye balled it)
1 tsp white pepper (I used ground black pepper and I probably only used about 1/8 tsp)

Basically, I put all these ingredients into a big shallow rubbermaid dish and mixed it all up.  Then I put the steaks in it, turned them over a few times, covered it up and put it in the fridge until we were ready to put them on the grill.

I don't know if it was the marinade or if it was the quality of steaks we had but these steaks were the best I've ever had.  I'm talkin' melt and fall apart in your mouth good.  Almost no knife necessary good.

The soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and olive oil.

 With the rest of the herbs and seasonings

 And the delicious steaks added in.

 The steak after it was cooked on the grill.  Ah. Maze. Ing.

 Our meal.  Steak, challah, black eyed peas, and au gratin potatoes.

The au gratin potatoes were from a box.  :/  I've tried to make home made au gratin potatoes before but Steve doesn't like them that much.  I don't know why...  Oh well.  Maybe I just haven't found the right recipe yet.

While I enjoyed my creme brulee,  I sipped on a personal size portion of champagne.  I NEVER drink champagne, but this one sounded good.  And it was.  Highly recommend this brand.

I drank it out of our champagne flutes from the wedding.  I probably use these less than once a year. I figured if I was drinking the bubbly, I might as well do it in style.

This meal is definitely something I would not do any old night of the week.  I highly recommend this for NYE, anniversaries, birthdays, religious reasons, and special family get togethers.  This was a special occasion dinner that I probably won't be replicating for a while, but I enjoyed it.  I think my next post is going to be about the things I find most necessary in the kitchen.  I've been thinking about the few things that I've recently acquired or have had for a while that have made my life SO much easier and I thought it might be wise to pass on my thoughts and feelings.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having and/or did have a great NYE.  I wish everyone and their families a wonderful 2012.  May the new year bring you joy, comfort, and blessings beyond measure!

Happy cooking!

Puffy Pancake with Banana and Apple Compote

The weekends, for me, are awesome.  And so are breaks from school because I get to really try new recipes without feeling rushed for time.  On the week days in the morning I ALWAYS have an english muffin with an egg, so on the weekends I'm dying to change it up.  This morning I woke up and thought to myself, "I really don't want cereal and I really don't want an egg and english muffin" so I flipped through my new favorite cook book and immediately knew what I was going to be making.  I've been eyeing this recipe for about a month now and figured today was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

It's easy but it looks insanely hard, like you spent an hour in the kitchen and used about 20 ingredients.  It was supposed to be a "banana-berry" compote, but I'm out of strawberries/blueberries/any kind of berry.  So I used what I already had in my kitchen-apples.  It was still really tasty.  Here ya go:

Ingredients for pancake:

4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1/3 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter or margarine

Ingredients for compote:

2 ripe bananas cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1 pint strawberries sliced (I used 1 gala apple...next time I'd use 2)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 425.  Place 10 inch skillet with oven safe handle in oven; heat until very hot.

*I used our cast iron skillet (please don't say anything about my dirty cooktop...today is chores day and it will be sparkling by the end of the day...I get a little lazy after I cook when it comes to scouring my cooktop)

 In a blender (I did this while the skillet was heating up in the oven), at medium speed, blend eggs, milk, flour, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, and salt until smooth.

 While that was going, I had my HH (hot helper) cut up the apple for me and I put it in a small saucepan to soften the pieces a little.

 Once the skillet was nice and hot, I took it out of the oven and added 2 tbsp of butter and swirled it around until it was all melted and coated the skillet.

 Then I poured the batter into the skillet.  Bake for 15 minutes or until fluffy and golden.

 Meanwhile, I cut up the bananas (2 of them) and added in the sugar and lemon juice and let it sit in the warm saucepan until the pancake was done cooking.

 Ta-da!!!  Check that baby out!  Nice and fluffy.

 I topped it off with the banana and apple compote and sprinkled some confectioners' sugar on top.

It was a hit!  My HH loved it and I'll definitely be making this again.  He was impressed that this was all done in a matter of less than 30 minutes and didn't require a ton of ingredients.  Next time I'll use more apples and probably try to have strawberries on hand, but other than that, I wouldn't change up this recipe it all.  It's so flavorful that you don't need syrup and even the confectioners' sugar I feel that you should use a light hand with it.  Too much of it and it would just make this pancake overly sweet.

Thanks for checking out M&M and I hope you enjoy this recipe.  I know we did :)

Happy cooking!

Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe was supposed to be turkey, but I couldn't find any turkey breasts at Target....so then it became Chicken Pot Pie.  Oh well, what are you gonna do?

This recipe calls for dough...rolled into a pie crust...an art I have not mastered.  So towards the end you'll see a pretty sad looking bottom and top crust.  I refuse to think of this as a bad thing.  It's all going to the same place.  Plus, it should taste wonderful regardless of it not winning any "best in show" awards for outward appearances.

I feel like I should properly introduce my husband, Steven.  Everyone say, "Hi, Steve".  Here we are Billy Bob's earlier in December.  He's pretty hot.  I got me a good one.  He's my helper.  If I have a ton of time, I usually chop things up myself, but when I'm short on time he is my go-to chopper.  Today he chopped all of the veggies for me while I worked on the dough and cooking the chicken.  Love him.  He really helps prep time go by faster.

Anyway, so here we go with the recipe.

For the dough you need:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (I only had the regular size shredded cheese which may or may not have hindered my dough rolling experience)

2/3 cup shortening

1 tbsp butter, cubed

3 to 4 tbsp cold water (seriously, I put an ice cube in it to make sure it's super cold)

I used my Kitchenaide because I don't have a fancy schmancy food processor.  Mix the flour and salt, then add in the cheese until it's crumbly.  Then mix in the shortening and butter until it forms a thicker crumbly, coarse crust is forming.  Then slowly add in the water (while it's still mixing) until the dough forms a ball.

Divide the dough in half (form them into two balls wrapped in plastic wrap), with one half being slightly larger than the other (the larger one is your bottom crust).  Put in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prepare the rest of the pot pie.

Mixing the dough...

 While I mix the dough, I've got the chicken cooking...

 My hot helper, chopping the veggies.  If you don't have a hot helper to make prep time go by faster, I highly recommend finding one.  :)

The dough with the shortening, cheese, and butter.

The filling: 

1 cup diced peeled potatoes

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp butter

1 cup chicken broth

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken

1/2 cup frozen peas (DANG IT!  I just realized I forgot the peas)

1/2 cup frozen corn 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dried tarragon (I thought I had this ingredient...but I don't...so I used oregano instead)

1/4 tsp pepper

I cut up the chicken breasts and cooked them while I was preparing the crust.  Then I took a large saucepan and added all the veggies (minus the corn).  Cook the potatoes, celery, onion, carrots, garlic, and butter in a saucepan for about 5 minutes.  Add in the chicken broth, cover, and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the veggies are tender.

In a small bowl combine flour and milk until smooth.  Gradually add to veggie mixture.  Bring to a boil for 2 minutes and stir.  Add remaining ingredients and let it simmer while you roll out the dough.

Roll out larger pastry ball to fit a 9 inch pie plate.  Put in pie plate and then pour the turkey and veggie mixture over it.  Roll out the second crust and place over filling.  Trim and seal the edges (I didn't do this because my top crust was pretty pathetic looking to begin with...and I didn't cut slits in it either...) Cut slits in the top.

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Veggies cooking.

 Adding in the flour and milk.

 Corn...no peas...(::frustrated sigh::) and seasonings.

 The dough getting ready to roll it out.

The laughable bottom crust.

Sorry for the blurry iPhone picture-this is with the filling in.

The disappointing top crust.  I'll master it one day.

Final product straight out of the oven.

And here's the final product.  It's edible and actually delicious.  Another success in our household.  A really great recipe for chilly nights and when you're longing for some comfort food.

Hope you enjoy it!  Happy cooking!

Cream Puffs

No, I didn't just call you a name, I'm referring to my new favorite dessert.  

If you had asked me 6 years ago if I would ever be making any sort of puff pastry, I'd scoff and tell you "no way".  It sounds hard to make.  Just the name "choux pastry" is enough to deter people from thinking it's even remotely easy to make.  Let me tell you right now-it is.  This recipe practically bakes itself.  Just a few ingredients and you're good to go.  Even my husband, Steve, was able to lend me a hand with this recipe.  Sorry you'll be getting all of the "after" pictures.  Like I said in my first post, it wasn't until I made these delicious nuggets of heaven that I decided to attempt a cooking blog.

Choux Pastry

1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick), cut into pieces

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

In a 3 quart (medium size) saucepan, heat butter, water, and salt over medium high heat until butter has melted and mixture boils.  Remove from heat.  Add flour all at once, with wooden spoon, vigorously stir until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball.  Add eggs to flour mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is smooth and satiny.  

Preheat the oven to 400.  Grease cookie sheet ( you can flour it too, but I had new non stick sheets so I just put a tiny bit of Pam spray on it)

Drop slightly rounded 1/4 cup scoops of batter in 8 large mounds, 3 inches apart.  

Bake until golden, around 40-45 minutes.  Remove puffs from oven; with tip of knife make small slit in side of each puff to release steam. Turn oven off and place the puffs back in the oven to sit for another 10 minutes.  Transfer puffs to wire rack to cool.  With serrated knife, cut each cooled puff horizontally in half; remove and discard any moist dough inside puffs.    

This is what mine ended up looking like:

With some BlueBell Natural Vanilla Bean scooped on in:

A little hot Hershey's fudge drizzled on top.

So here are a few things about the recipe that I noticed.  When I tried to make the little mounds on the cooking sheet, they kind of spread out more than I wanted them to, but I couldn't really help that.  I don't know if that's the way it's supposed to go or not.  Also, I think next time I cook them, I may cook them for about 5 minutes less.  They were not as light gold as I wanted them to be.  Other than that, this is a delicious dessert.  It looks like something you'd pay $15 for at a fancy restaurant.  Another thing I want to do next time is make my own ice cream and fudge sauce.  I have an ice cream maker, so that could be just a really cool finishing touch...  Another thing I did was reheat the puffs in the microwave for about 20 or 30 seconds and then put the ice cream and fudge on top.  I think that really made it delicious.  There's something about the hot of the cream puffs and hot fudge and the cold of the ice cream that really gave it that something special.

So there you have it.  Cream puffs.  I used to look in recipe books and think, "that looks way too hard to make".  Nope.  Pretty simple and delicious.  You'll impress your friends and family with this one.  They're like little eclairs.  :)

Happy cooking!