Getting ready for the holidays

It’s time.  In the next five or six weeks you will be cooking your fool head off.  You will cook things you only cook on holidays and eat more than you eat any other time of the year.  Consequently, you will gain weight that you will marvel over and say, “I didn’t think I ate THAT much.”  And you will begin planning to do it all the following year, only better and more elaborate.

My mother-in-law was about the only one I’ve seen succeed at this game.  After extended deliberation she pared down the meal to the only things absolutely necessary to the meal and we had only turkey, dressing, gravy, rolls and I think maybe a salad, just to make it all healthy.  And we STILL rolled away from the table feeling much too full.

I have no answer on the healthy eating part.  You can tell that by looking at me.  I do, however, have lots to say about the getting ready part.

This is your magic weekend.  The calm before the storm, so to speak.  It would be a good time to clean out the fridge.  You could make a game out of it.  Wager someone how old the oldest expiration date will be.  I just threw out applesauce that expired in 2010.  You should also check your spices.  It’s cold and rainy today in Texas and I understand all through the rest of the country, as well.  It’s not like you have anything better to do.

You will need to buy new sage and/or poultry seasoning.  Definitely get a new box of baking powder. And yeast. These things all have expiration dates and if you only bake at the holidays your current supply is out of date.  Do this now before the store runs out of sage. I have seen it happen. There is nothing more pathetic than trying to find sage at the Seven Eleven the night before Thanksgiving. (clue: They don’t sell sage there. However, they probably DO sell beer and you’re gonna need a lot of it if you try to put dressing without sage on your table.)

I have noticed that cake mixes don’t yield as much cake as a few years ago.  I don’t know when they slipped in this change but I noticed a year ago that a two-layer cake isn’t as tall as it used to be. You could mix up two boxes and bake three layers.  You’ll get a slightly bigger cake than usual but it’s all a matter of whether you want to look limp and feeble or hale and hearty for the holidays.

The alternative is to make it from scratch.  I may try this but it has emerged that our family is a PIE family, not a cake family.  So, I may not even fool with it.

I have most of the classic recipes here on the blog index.  From How to Cook a Turkey to a new cranberry relish recipe I love.  I’m not sure if I put a sweet potato pie recipe here.  I got into BIG trouble one year trying to foist off Sweet Potato pie as a Pumpkin pie.  I think I permanently lost Elizabeth’s trust over that one. LET ME JUST SAY……..I Don’t think you can tell the difference and you’re not inviting Elizabeth over for dinner, anyway.

Remember my favorite tip:  In cold weather you can use your outside BBQ grill as a second refrigerator.  Just as long as it has a heavy cover, that is. And watch for the afternoon temperature…it might get higher than your ice box.

You can tell I’m old because I just used the word “ice box.”

 Have a GREAT Thanksgiving/Hanukah/Christmas!

Carrot cake

Yeah--just what I need: another dessert recipe.

Carrot Cake

Cake:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups grated carrots
• Butter, for greasing
•  

Icing:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecans, chopped finely

·         Directions

·         For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together the granulated sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and combine. Then add the carrots and mix well. Pour the batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan and bake until done, about 50 minutes. Leave to cool completely.

·         Meanwhile, for the icing: In a larger bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and blend. Then mix in the pecans. Spread the icing on the cooled carrot cake.

Corn Bread

I have to give credit to Paula Deen for this recipe.  I don't usually cook complicated recipes but this one isn't that bad and it's worth it. It calls for buttermilk and I don't usually keep that in my house.

(You can substitute by putting a tablespoon of vinegar in regular milk and nobody will notice.  It's really the acid in the milk that counts.)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus butter for baking dish
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt the butter in an iron skillet in the oven. Take it out when the butter melts and pour the melted butter into a bowl to let it cool slightly.  Put the skillet back into the oven.  This will grease the skillet and heat it at the same time.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, and butter. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and fold together until there are no dry spots (the batter will still be lumpy). Pour the batter into the skillet.

Bake until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Now--if you want to make this in a dutch oven over a campfire, which I highly recommend--because this is one recipe I have done this with several times and had great success with-- here's how I do it:

Since you are outside and things are a little more rustic...….

• You will be using a dutch oven:  the cast iron skillet with (1) feet and (2) a cover that has sides to hold the coals.  It is easier to use charcoal because you can regulate the temperature by counting the charcoal but with experience and some abandonment you would just throw coals around trust it all to work out. Coal counting comes later in the recipe.
• You can just throw the whole stick of butter in the skillet and it won't really make any difference.
• Instead of a mixing bowl, you can mix everything together in a ziplock bag with your hands. Measure it all ahead of time back home and transport in the ziplock bag.
•  It's great to have one of those chimney charcoal starters.  They aren't that expensive and use newspaper to start the charcoal and really work.  Then you can put things on top of it like a little table to keep stuff out of the dirt. 
• Make sure you have good pot holders--at least two--thick ones.  And something to lift the lid.

Dutch Over Method:

1. Melt butter in hot skillet
2. Mix everything else in ziplock bag
3. Slowly add butter to mix
4. Add mix to skillet and cover
5. Put skillet on top of 16 red hot coals.  Put 20 hot coals on lid.
6. After about 15 minutes check inside.  Add coals or adjust as needed. 
7. Enjoy!

German Potato Salad

I got this recipe from a friend who grew up in an old-fashioned German family from Illinois like my grandmother. It's just as good cold as hot.

Also, note that the recipe calls for two teaspoons of salt, not two Tablespoons like I read it one horrible morning that I made it for a church potluck lunch.  It was a good thing I tasted it before it packed it up for church.  And it was a good thing I had enough time to run by the store and buy an emergency-back-up-salad.  Also, in God's gracious mercy someone else had also made German Potato Salad that day so it all worked out.

5 large potatoes
4 slices thick-sliced bacon
1 onion, diced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/3 teaspoon dried (powdered) mustard

boil the potatoes.  Set aside and cool a bit

cut the bacon into pieces and cook in an iron skillet-- take out of skillet and set aside

pour out all but 2 Tablespoons of the bacon fat
add the onion and cook until soft 

add 1 Tablespoon flour to make a roux
when roux is cooked and smooth (as smooth as it can be with onion pieces in it)
add 1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
cook until thick gravy-like consistency

peel and slice the potatoes
add to the roux
add the reserved bacon pieces

You can eat this either hot or cold.

Fried Chicken

I've been watching Ina Garten again.  This really works.  Fool-proof. Moist.  Delicious.

The only catch is you gotta think ahead--marinating the chicken the night before you cook it.  Or all morning for an evening meal. Oh.....And it makes a huge mess. 

Buy a chicken and cut it up.  Or buy the parts you like.  Marinate it overnight in about a cup or so of buttermilk.

For lunch the next day:

Mix the coating:  2 cups of flour with 1 Tablespoon salt, 1 Tablespoon pepper, and 2 teaspoons garlic powder.

Dredge the chicken in the coating. 

put about 2" oil in a cast iron skillet

Fry at 360 degrees for about 3 minutes each side, or until brown.

Place chicken on a cookie cooling rack placed over a baking pan..

Finish cooking in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes

Chocolate Ice Cream

This started out as an Ina Garten recipe for Chocolate Sorbet.  I wanted to turn it into an ice cream so I substituted milk and cream.  But Ina has taught me that adding coffee and/or cinnamon to chocolate brings out the chocolate flavor.  And this recipe proves her point,  This takes chocolate to the nth degree.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (like Hersey's)
1 teaspoon instant coffee
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups half and half
1 cup whole milk
1 cup whipping cream
(I guess if you consider half and half to be half milk and half cream you could just use 4 cups of half and half.  duh.)

Heat this on the stove until the cocoa dissolves and everything is combined.
Cool in the refrigerator. Freeze in the ice cream mixer.

Chocolate Sauce

This is one of the mainstay recipes in our family.  We have always called it Papa Els' recipe, although it certainly came from either his mother or his sister.  My money says it's really Aunt Esther's Chocolate Sauce, because she also made a killer bourbon sauce that is very similar.  Whoever taught it to George-- it is a winner. Elizabeth had the recipe memorized by the time she was in high school; Sarah, by the time she was 11 years old.  None of the ingredients are perishable so I keep it all on hand.  And every time she comes to our house it's all right here ready for her. 

1 cup sugar
a 5 ounce can of Evaporated Milk
1/2 stick of butter
pinch of salt
2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate
vanilla

Put everything except the vanilla into a pan with a stout bottom so it cooks slowly and deliberately.  Stir as everything melts. The better you stir, the more homogeneous and creamy it will be.  A wire whisk or electric mixer does a great job.  As soon as it starts to bubble, give it an extra whirl with the mixer and take it off the heat.  I think this keeps it from being grainy or having sugar crystals form.

Now you add a healthy dose of vanilla, maybe a Tablespoon. Once Sarah's hand slipped and we thought she might had added too much but it didn't hurt anything. You know how we are about our vanilla. Stir it again and and pour into 1/2 pint jars.  It will fill two jars perfectly.  You can use it on top ice cream now if you want to call them hot fudge sundaes.  If you let the jars cool the lid makes a neat popping sound as it cools.  Sometimes Beaven gets into a hurry for it to cool and he puts the jar in a bowl of ice. It will thicken as it cools.

You should probably store it in the refrigerator but we've never had it last long enough to spoil.