Sacked Cupcakes

MBH and I have a long running private joke that is simply the first three lines from John Wray's sailing adventure "South Sea Vagabonds":

"You got the sack?"
"Eh, yes, I got the sack"
"Oh, you got the sack."

We pull this "joke" out at what seems to us an appropriate time and it always results in the two of us smirking or out right laughing; much to the confusion of anyone around us (It is an obscure book and since most people have not read it, they have no idea what we find funny about those three sentences). Monday, MBH called me around lunch time to tell me he was laid off from his job as a programmer for secure messaging company. The company ran out of money and as a result the entire company was "sacked". On treat day too! I had sent in to work with MBH that very morning two dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes frosted in the flavour appropriate butter cream frosting you see above.

In Wray's book, he got the sack for lack of care and day dreaming. He went home and with his last 4 pound sterling and 40p, built a sailboat in his parent's front yard; fulfilling a dream of his to spend the rest of his life sailing from island to island around New Zealand and Australia. He eventually sailed all over the South Seas on his boat, the Ngataki and wrote his absolutely wonderful tale in the 1950's. MBH isn't planning anything so drastic as building a sailboat in our front yard or running off to the South Seas . He has already called a few head hunters he has worked with in the past and had two interviews yesterday. He will have another position in a matter of weeks; especially since cryptography/computer security and "dead" computer languages are his specialty. In the meantime, his current state of unemployment means more time for reading and writing on his part. And of course, messing with our cat, LB; who I'm sure will be quite happy to have company during the day.

I hope the VP of Customer Support enjoyed the cupcakes I sent in with MBH. They will have to tide him over for a very long time...

Blog Party #18 - Black and White: As classy as they come

Today finds us getting all dressed up in the classic colours of black and white to attend a Blog Party in MBH's home state of Tennessee. This classy party is hosted by Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness. And while our party may not include the likes of Candice Bergen, Frank Sinatra, Katherine Graham, Bennet Cerf, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and the all those boring assorted Rockefellers and Vanderbilts who graced Truman Capote with their presence at THE Black and White Ball, I'll bet this one has better food and less tedious people in attendance...

In keeping with the party theme, we are suppose to bring both a munchie and a drink that is black and white. To pass around the room, I've brought something a bit old fashioned in the form of Black and White Checkerboard Refrigerator Cookies. To drink, I've contributed a bartender AND something equally decadent; a Godiva Chocolatier liqueur based drink called a Black and White Cherry.

The Black and White Checkerboard cookies where pretty simple to make and the effect is quite lovely as you can see.


I used the "Icebox Butter Cookie" recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (this has become my favourite recipe from this cookbook) for the dough. I kept half the dough the vanilla butter from the recipe for the white part of the checkerboard. The black part of the checkerboard cookie was screaming "MOCHA!" at me. So, I added two additional tablespoon of sugar, two squares of melted unsweetened baking chocolate, and 2 tsp of espresso powder to the other half of the dough. I then made four 18" logs (two white logs and two black logs) and sat a white log and black log side by side. Then on top those two logs, reversed the pairing. These cookies are so good I think they are going to be a standard in my house.

I wish I could say I liked the Black and White Cherry as well as I liked the cookies (I'm sure it isn't the bartender's fault). While on paper the drink looks really spectacular, I actually found it a bit well...too much of a good thing, a cherry cordial on vodka. The recipe calls for both chocolate and white chocolate flavoured Godiva Liqueur and cherry and vanilla flavoured vodka to which you add heavy cream, chocolate ice cream, and ice cubes; which all goes in the blender. After quite a bit of racket that disturbed the cat's mid-afternoon nap, I had a frothy and very boozy milkshake that was garnished with fresh whipped cream (what else is a girl to do with the remainder of the heavy cream?) and microplaned Belgian chocolate.


I think this drink would be better without the chocolate ice cream and served in a brandy snifter versus the Tom Collins glass in the recipe. Or maybe with hot chocolate as the base and served warm in a mug. But I will let you be the judge...

Well, I see a few fellow blog-friends over on the other side of the room and I am blocking the way to the bar. Enjoy the rest of the party and it is always lovely to see you!

Black and White Cherry

1 oz Godiva chocolate liqueur
1 oz Godiva white chocolate liqueur
1 oz heavy cream
1 oz cherry vodka
1 oz vanilla vodka
2 scoops chocolate ice cream
13 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender.
Blend until the ice is crushed and the entire drink is creamy.
Pour into a Tom Collins glass.
Garnish with whipped cream, cherry or shaved chocolate, and serve

And the winner is...

Last December I participated in the Menu for Hope III, a food blogger raffle host by Chez Pim. This year the proceeds from Menu for Hope III benefited the UN World Food Programme. I am very happy to say that we raised an incredible $60,925.12!!! My raffle prize was a box of L.A. Burdick Chocolates signature mice and the randomly selected winner of that tasty prize is Cin. Congratulations!

I just ordered those tasty buggers for her and as I type they are being rounded up and plopped into their little wooden box to start their journey to Cin.

A huge "Thanks" to all of my readers who donated to Menu for Hope.

My Favourite Sunday Brunch Fare: A New Way

Today is one of the first days where it actually feels like winter. It's cold, raining, and by nightfall we might even have some snow! In other words, the perfect morning for reading the Sunday New York Times, lingering a bit longer than normal at our coffee shop, and brunch. I've been craving brunch for the past few weekends but neither MBH nor I have been able to coordinate our schedules to allow for a nice mid-morning meal. My all time favourite dish for brunch is eggs Benedict. I love the way the runny yolk of the poached egg soaks down between the Canadian bacon (also known as Back Bacon) and the English muffin and then there is the Hollandaise sauce... Unfortunately, traditional eggs Benedict with its 860 calories and 56 grams of fat per "muffin" (muffin = 1 egg Benedict) can't be on my menu while I'm doing the 30/90 plan. Luckily, Cooking Light came to my rescue!

This month, Cooking Light started a monthly feature called Essential Ingredient where the editors will examine an ingredient that is absolutely necessary for food to taste good, cook correctly or required for good health. This month's ingredient is butter. Now wait a minute, isn't the name of the magazine Cooking Light? And isn't naming butter the first "essential ingredient" a bit of an oxymoron? I thought so when I saw the feature in the content page. But after reading the article, I understood why it was chosen. You see, a small amount of fat is necessary to give food a pleasing flavour and butter is the best fat for providing flavour. It is key to browning in baking and roasting. The trick to using butter while cooking healthy is to use small amounts in ways that give you the most "bang" in the flavour department while minding the fat. The article is really interesting with lots of little tips on how to use butter sparingly but take advantage of the flavour and crisping that butter offers. It is also chock full of recipes ranging from chicken Kiev to Butterscotch Blondies and Eggs Benedict Florentine with Creamy Butter Sauce.

The Cooking Light recipe calls for substituting a buttermilk based sauce for the Hollandaise sauce and scrambled eggs made with eggs and egg whites for the poached egg. I made a few modifications/substitutions to their recipe to make it even lighter and more flavourful. I used Egg Beaters instead of whole eggs and a low sodium/low calorie Canadian bacon our local supermarket stocks. I also added fat free Feta cheese and sauteed garlic with the spinach. Putting the recipe together took about 40 minutes but the result was worth the effort. This version of eggs Benedict was one the best I've ever had! The "mock" Hollandaise sauce was creamy but light tasting and I loved the garlic sauteed spinach. I served my eggs Benedict with a side of strawberries and blackberries and a small glass of orange juice. And now for the amazing part of this recipe. The total calorie/fat content is 524 calories and 17 grams of fat for two muffins! Now that is a dish I can indulge in...


Eggs Benedict Florentine with Creamy Butter Sauce
Adapted from the Jan/Feb 2007 Issue of Cooking Light
Serves 4 (2 muffins per person)

Sauce (makes about 1 cup of sauce):
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
2 large eggs (I used 1/2 cup Egg Beaters)
2 Tbsp clarified butter
1/2 tsp salt

Scrambled Eggs:
cooking spray (I used butter flavoured Pam)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 large egg whites
4 large egg
(I used 1 cup Egg Beaters)

Remaining Ingredients:
cooking spray
6 cups fresh spinach, trimmed
4 English muffins (I used Thomas 100 Calorie)
8 slices Canadian bacon
3 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup fat free Feta cheese
1 Tbsp minced garlic

To Make the Sauce:
Place cornstarch, water, buttermilk and eggs in the top of a double boiler and whisk together until cornstarch is well blended. Cook over simmering water until thick and mixture reaches 160 degrees, stirring constantly. Stir in butter and salt. Remove from heat, put lid on double boiler (keep top part over the simmering water) and keep warm.

To Prepare Eggs Benedicts:
Whisk together eggs, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, salt and pepper in large bowl and set side. Lightly coat large saute pan with cooking spray. Add spinach and 1 Tbsp of garlic to pan and coat lightly with cooking spray. Saute over medium high heat until spinach is slightly wilted. Place in bowl and cover to keep warm. In same saute pan, lightly brown Canadian bacon. Remove and keep warm. Using a fork, split English muffins and toast lightly. Place two on a plate. Using the same saute pan, spray with cooking spray and over medium heat, add egg mixture. Allow to slightly set before scrambling with spatula. While eggs are cooking, place one piece of Canadian bacon on each muffin and sprinkle a bit of Feta cheese on each piece of bacon. Place 1/4 cup scrambled eggs on top of each muffin, top with 1/4 cup of garlic sauteed spinach and drizzle 2 Tbsp of sauce over each muffin. Sprinkle with chives and fresh ground pepper.

Serve with 1/4 cup of fresh fruit

Command Performance

With the holidays, my trip "Up North", and then being sick, I haven't sent baked goodies to work with MBH the past three weeks. Yesterday I received the following email from him while we were both at work: "The VP of Customer Support came in and told me in no uncertain terms that he and his crew expect cookies on Monday! ;-) I said I would pass it on..."

I was planning on baking a few classic cookie jar cookies this weekend to send to MBH's parents. So, adding a few more dozen won't be tough. On the cookie menu for the weekend are oatmeal raisin, Toll House, snickerdoodles, black and white checkerboard refrigerator cookies, and another adaption of the Dorie Greenspan World Peace cookies I've been thinking about trying. There is also a request from one the guys in MBH's department to make some biscotti. I've never made biscotti before but I always like pistachio biscotti and have some pistachios that I've been saving to bake with. The recipes I've looked at for biscotti look pretty easy and quick.

Since MBH has Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, his crew will have to wait until Tuesday for their "demanded" treats. Of course, that gives me one more day to bake up a storm...

"Thirty in Ninety"

I've been debating all day about posting on this subject. MBH encouraged me this morning to do so. "It's food related", he said. The subject I've been debating about all day is in the title of this post; which refers to how many pounds I have to lose in how many days on doctor's orders or face being put on medication to lower my blood pressure and cholesterol.

I basically figured I would get read the riot act when I went in for my full workup this year. Both sides of my family have histories of hypertension, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks and after my mother's heart attack around this time last year, I had already determined I needed to lose weight, watch what I eat more carefully and get back to exercising more vigorously than I do. But, it was the threat of medication that finally kicked me into high gear. I hate taking prescribed medicine unless I absolutely have no choice. "How much do I need to lose in order to NOT be put on the medicine", I asked. My doctor did some quick calculation, consulted a chart on the wall, then she turned to me and said, "You have ninety days to lose thirty pounds. We'll see where you are in April and if I'm not satisfied you are going on those meds." Basically, this all boils down to ten pounds a month or 2.5 pounds a week. Pretty sensible and achievable if you ask me.

When I got home and told MBH what my doctor had told me, he just gave me one of his "told you so" looks and promptly found a few nifty tools on the web for me to help track my progress (Calorie King's food guide, Jeremy Zawodny's weight/calorie spreadsheet). I am glad I renewed my subscription to Cooking Light. I have a feeling I'm going to be scouring the issues for ideas and menus. I also picked up two GAIAM "Quick Start" DVDs from Borders (Pilates and Yoga). I'd always wanted to try both and figure now is my chance.

Now reader, I'm not going go on some whacky "eat four dozen eggs a day" diet. I'm just going to do some sensible changes in my daily routine, the meals I cook, and keep closer track on what I eat (I'm journaling every little thing I eat and the calories...sigh). More importantly, I am MOST DEFINITELY not going to turn The Sour Dough into an all "30/90" blog that goes into minute detail on my day to day progress. I'm just going to play around with some of my favourite foods and see if I can lighten them up without losing the flavour and tell you about my adventures in the kitchen while I try all sorts of new things out. Consider this a chance for you and I to share a tasty and good for you recipe or two.

Oh and don't worry, there will be all the normal buttery and rich baking and not so good for you cooking going on here too! The only difference is most of it is going to work with MBH....

Recovering...

There hasn't been much cooking or for that matter food related things going on in our house the past four or five days. Both MBH and I managed to get some really nasty flu thing that made even the thought of food frankly awful. I know I'm sick when new issues of Bon Appetit and Cooking Light come in the mail and looking at the covers makes my stomach turn and when MBH mentions that I should watch some of my Julia Child DVDs all I can muster is to roll over in bed and groan. The most adventurous food has gotten around here was yesterday when I actually thought about eating Jello.

Anyways, both MBH and I are on the way to recovery and back at work today. We may even go for something solid for dinner tonight like a little white rice and chicken...

Mac-n-Cheese Off: One of MBH's Major Food Groups

MBH grew up challenged in the food diversity category. For MBH's there are three major food groups: meat, green beans and macaroni and cheese. I blame his mother for this sad state of food affairs. When I first met MBH he warned me that he was a very picky eater and told me tales of how bad his mother cooked. I didn't believe any of it; that is until she sent us some cookies. MBH's stories of his mother's culinary exploits were not wrong and in fact did not do her cooking justice (just for the record, MBH's mother and I get along just fine!). MBH's limited favourite foods are a survival tactic. MBH has become a bit more adventurous over the past few years but when it comes to major comfort food, macaroni and cheese still reigns supreme.

So when I read that Kevin over at Seriously Good and CookieCrumb at I'm Mad and I Eat had invited food bloggers to post their recipes for mac and cheese on January 5, I knew I finally had a reason to post MBH's most favourite recipe in my repertoire.

My mac and cheese is simple and classic and there is nothing low fat about the dish. It is full of heavy cream, eggs, butter, and three types of cheese. The key is the final 10 minutes of the recipe: broil baby broil.



So without further ado...

MBH Mac-n-cheese

2 large eggs
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk (whole or 2%)
4 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2lb elbow macaroni
1/3lb shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3lb shredded cheddar cheese
1/3lb shredded monterey jack cheese
1 cup additional shredded cheese, reserved for last 10 minutes of cooking
(take your pick of type, we use the sharp cheddar in our house)
1 1/2 cups buttered bread crumbs (optional)

Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Mix eggs, dry mustard, heavy cream, and milk in a bowl and set aside. Cook macaroni to al dente and drain. Put butter in macaroni pan and put macaroni back into pan and stir until butter coats the macaroni. Over very low heat, add milk, heavy cream, mustard and egg mixture and stir in cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Place macaroni and cheese into prepared 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and turn oven broiler on. Sprinkle top of baked mac and cheese with the reserved cheese and broil until cheese is all gooey. If using the bread crumbs, sprinkle them on for last 3-5 minutes to brown.
Technorati Tag: mac-n-cheese off

And finally...The Roast Beast

As promised, pictures of our Christmas dinner. Well, ok...not the complete dinner but the wonderful boneless prime rib roast. I'm not a huge fan of Emeril Lagasse but a few years ago I used a recipe for his "essence" from one of his cookbooks I received as a gift to season a prime rib and it was some of the best prime rib I had ever had. I used it again this year and the results were the same, moist and juicy and perfectly seasoned.



Roast straight from the 'fridge after seasoning all night with "essence"



Tying the roast nice and tight



Four hours at 200 degrees and perfectly rare with lots of nice Au Jus!

Weekend Cookbook Challenge #12: Brunswick Stew

This month's installment of the Weekend Cookbook Challenge is being hosted by Shaun of Winter Skies, Kitchen's Aglow ; giving Sara of I Like to Cook and the normal hostess a much deserved after holiday break. He chose a winter perfect theme of stew! Here at the Sour Dough we are big stew eaters but lately we have been in a stew rut that consists of one type of stew, beef. Sometimes we go crazy and toss a bag of frozen mixed veggies in to the pot but basically our stew consists of huge chunks of beef, potatoes, peas and carrots with a dash of red wine. MBH is always after me to introduce him to "new foods" and I had a ham bone in the freezer I wanted to use. So, I took to my seldom used cookbooks in search of a recipe that would satisfy both needs which I found flipping through the classic Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery, Revised Edition in the form of Brunswick Stew. A side story to this whole affair of stew is that preparing the Brunswick Stew resulted in one of the worst kitchen disasters of my thirty-some-odd-years of cooking but more on that later...

Brunswick stew is a classic stew of the southeastern part of the United States and there is a debate where it originated, Brunswick, Georgia or Brunswick County, Virginia. One thing that is not in debate is the historic recipe probably called for the use of both rabbit and squirrel as well as lima beans (or butter beans if you are from the South). Today's recipe calls for two types of meat of which one is normally chicken. The Virginia version always calls for both chicken and ham. Brunswick stew is traditionally cooked in huge stew pots over an open flame like burgoo and served after a long slow simmer, making it a natural stew for the crock pot. Which leads this tale to the kitchen disaster.

I actually made two pots of Brunswick Stew for the WCC. But, due to what can only be termed as a "bone-headed move", we only ate one pot of Brunswick Stew! The first pot of stew ended up in the garbage after I forgot to plug in the crock pot before going to work. Yup, you read that right. I forgot to plug in the crock pot. For ten long hours a crock pot full of chicken stock, raw chicken thighs, a huge ham bone, potatoes, and onions sat on my counter and did Lord only knows what. Imagine our surprise when we got home expecting those wonderful smells emanating from the kitchen in a way only cooking with a crock pot can provide and smelling...nothing. Not a thing. I dropped my briefcase and computer bag and hurried to the kitchen to find the crock pot stone cold. I checked the temperature and saw it was on low and assumed our lovely crock pot had died. It was only after several minutes did I notice the little white plug sitting beside the pot, unplugged. Now for the second "bone-headed move". MBH was sure it would be ok. "Just plug it in and let it cook overnight", he suggested. I don't know what possessed me to listen to that advice. Maybe it is the frugal cook who grew up in a home where we were admonished to not waste food. Whatever it was, it got the better of me because I plugged the crock pot in, rummaged in the freezer for a frozen pizza for dinner, and sulked through the rest of night. The next morning, I knew the stew was no good. There was a strange smell to the stew and the meat just looked all wrong. I pulled out two strong kitchen trash bags and tossed the contents of the crock pot into the bags and into the garbage determined that I would not fail with Brunswick Stew.

The following weekend I tried again. Since it was the weekend and I was home putting the final touches on the Christmas baking, I decided to pull out the enamel stew pot and make this on the stove top using the recipe from Crockery Cookery as a base. Two pounds of chicken parts, two large ham steaks, and another six cups of chicken stock later we had fabulous tasting Brunswick Stew.


MBH wanted noodles and I wanted dumplings so I made some fat and thick homemade egg "nooplings" to add to the stew. By adding them the last thirty minutes of simmering the flour worked as a thickening agent. The result, a wonderfully smokey tasting stew to warm us on a cold winter's day. This recipe is going into rotation for a repeat sometime very soon and the "stew slump" at the Sour Dough is over...


Brunswick Stew
adapted from Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery

1 2-3lb chicken cut up (I used boneless breasts and thighs)
2 1/2lb ham steaks cubed
2 quarts chicken stock
3 Tablespoon salted butter
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
3 medium potatoes cubed in large pieces
2 16 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1 12 oz package of frozen lima beans (I used a 10oz bag of mixed vegetables)
1 10 oz package of frozen corn
2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
4 cups homemade egg noodles or dumplings (optional)

In stew pot, on medium heat, melt butter and saute onions until golden, add ham and brown. Take pot off heat and add cut up chicken, chicken stock, and potatoes to onions and ham. Return to low heat and cover. Let simmer for 2-4 hours until chicken is fully cooked and shreds into large pieces. Add tomatoes, frozen vegetables, salt and pepper. Allow to cook for 1-2 more hours at a simmer tasting often and adding salt and/or pepper as desired (careful with the salt, the slow cooking of the ham will add quite a bit of saltiness). 30 minutes before serving, add noodles or dumplings and let cook until noodles/dumplings are cooked. Serve hot in soup crocks with collard greens.

2007: The Year of Pie

I've never been one for making New Year resolutions. This is probably because since an early age I've been a prolific list maker. However, as I begin the year which will bring the big "Four-Oh" birthday, I have decided it is about time I make a few resolutions.

Resolution #1: I will not get so task focused in the kitchen that I lose sight of the fun and joy I get from puttering around my kitchen.

Resolution #2: I will make an attempt to introduce at least one vegetarian meal a week to our diet (MBH snorted when I mentioned this).

Resolution #3: I WILL master pie if it kills me.

I guess when I made out my Christmas wish list this year, I was subconsciously prepping for Resolution #3. MBH surprised me with a box of goodies from the King Arthur Flour's Bakers Catalogue that included a pie crust bag, crust shield, and oven spatter guard along with espresso powder and a nifty bread slasher.



MBH's Christmas surprise didn't end there because he also got me a subscription to Cook's Illustrated, the magazine I have been dying to receive for many years.


Between MBH and my parents, I added five cookbooks to my collection. MBH gave me the Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006, Williams Sonoma Paris: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World (Williams-Sonoma Foods of the World), and staying with the Cook's Illustrated Theme, The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook by Christopher Kimball; the bow-tie wearing editor of Cook's Illustrated. My folks decided to keep with my request for a taste of Northern Michigan home cooking this Christmas by getting me Hollyhocks and Radishes: Mrs Chard's Almanac Cookbook, a lovely cookbook filled with stories and recipes from a family farm stand and the fabulous Ships of the Great Lakes Cookbook which combines my love of food with my love of the big ore boats of the Great Lakes!


Finally, when I got home Sunday from my folks house in Northern Michigan, one last Christmas present from MBH had arrived: The French Chef With Julia Child 2 DVD's to complete my Julia Child collection.

I'm sure somewhere in all this booty I will find success with pie...

Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward Men

I've been meaning to post a few pictures of the Christmas cookies I baked this year but as usual the hectic pace of the Season got the better of me... Anyways, above are the Sour Cream Cutout Cookies and one of the Gingerbread men. Below are the raspberry and apricot Linzer cookies.



And here is an assortment of the cookies I made, including the appropriately named World Peace cookies from Dorie Greenspan.



I made three verisons of the World Peace cookie: the original, the original but rolled in crushed almonds, and then I modified the recipe by replacing the cocoa with almond flour and finely chopped almonds and using 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract along with the vanilla. I dusted the Almond World Peace cookie with powdered sugar after they had cooled. Included in my cookie tray for MBH to take to work were my Grandmother's Spritz, Maple Chocolate Coconut Bars, Orange Spice Shortbread and Chocolate dipped Shortbread. One of MBH's coworker's put a sad face sticky on the container when all the cookies were gone.



I'm going to be taking a small break to celebrate Christmas with MBH and LB here in Cambridge and then my family back home in Michigan before returning to Cambridge and The Sour Dough on New Years Eve.

As tonight is Christmas Eve, a time when families come together to share the glad tidings of the Season that is Christmas, may you and yours feel comfort, joy and peace.

Celebrating in Style

This post marks the beginning of the 3rd year for The Sour Dough. I've written 157 posts (excluding this one) for The Sour Dough and my profile has been viewed 590 times since December 22, 2004. To celebrate, I made broiled Georges Bank sea scallops and oven hash for dinner and popped open a bottle of pink champagne to sip while I share a few food related facts about myself you may not know (and after you read these you may wish you hadn't).

-The very first week living in the dorms my freshman year of college, I set off the fire alarm because I used a damaged oven in the floor kitchen to bake a batch of brownies. Three weeks later I was banned from the kitchen for "stinking up the floor with garlic" (I was making spaghetti and sauteed two whole heads of garlic).

- I decorated my first cake at six. It was a two layer yellow cake made in my Easy Bake oven. I served it on pink china at a tea given for a headless GI Joe, two Barbies and one stuffed animal; a horse whose mane and tail I had braided for the occassion. I was dressed in a pink tu-tu, swimming fins, and cowboy hat.

- I was the only Girl Scout in my council to earn every single cooking badge as a Junior, Cadette, and Senior.

- I can't make a flaky pie crust to save my life.

- My all time favourite food is cheese and this, among other things, makes France heaven on Earth for me.

- I have had street vendor food on six continents and none of it has made me sick. The best was the B'Stella I had in Marrakesh. The worst was the pretzel I had a few weeks ago in NYC. The continents are Africa (Cairo and Marrakesh), Asia (Tokyo, Seoul and Kowloon), Australia (Sydney), Europe and North America (too many to list), and South America/Latin America (Belize and Rio). I'm not sure I'll be able to add Antarctica to this list but if I do manage to get there and there is a street vendor, I'll try.

- In that same vein, the two times I've had food poisoning from someplace I ate were here in the United States.

- I have a fondness for freeze dried Raspberry Granola from Richmoor-Natural High Camping Foods. I like to make it with hot water on cold winter days and curl up on the couch in my fluffy red bathrobe and green fuzzy slippers and watch old movies.

- I once brought back two cases of Aero chocolate bars back from a business trip in Canada and spent two hours in customs because they thought I was smuggling something else. I can now get my fix of air bubble filled chocolate by going to the World's Worst Grocery Store but it isn't as much fun.

- Late Feburary makes me crave fresh caught fried smelt and Labatt's Blue.

- When I fix a meal for MBH and I, there is always some portion of it that can be shared with our cat, LB.

- I'm learning CSS, PHP, MySQL, and more than I even want to know about how to set up a website so I can launch breadchick.com in the new year (with GREAT help/patience of MBH).

I feel blessed to be associated with so many of you fine bloggers and count some of you as good friends. So, I'm raising my glass of pink bubbly to you, my readers and fellow bloggers. Here's to spending the next year cooking, reviewing, and chatting about food with you.

Menu of Hope: A puzzle and chance at a prize for you!!

Tomorrow is the last day to contribute to the world wide food blogger fund raiser event hosted by Chez Pim to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme. So far we have raised over $40,000!!! That is so amazing. Wouldn't it be even more amazing if we could get to $50,000? Just think, for $10.00, the equivalent of two triple grande-venti-super mocha chai lattes at name-your-coffee-shop, you can donate to the Menu for Hope and win a chance at some pretty fabulous prizes like dinner with a famous chef in San Francisco or New York, a brand spankin' new Kitchen Aid mixer (sigh), or some yummy treats like my donation of LA Burdick's signature chocolate mice! (For a full list of available raffle prizes go here to Chez Pim's site) Your $10.00 donation may only get you a chance at a wonderful prize donated by the food bloggers of the world but will definitely provide three people with enough food to eat for the week. Not a bad way to spend ten bucks...

The event ends tomorrow so instead of that coffee drink, brew your own and help us give a wonderful end of the year present to the World Food Programme.

Here is how you can help: Go to the First Giving: Menu for Hope page and click on Give Now and donate what ever you feel you can.

When you donate, please remember to:

1. Specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation (My mice are UE23). Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02.

2. For US donors, if your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

3. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 for the results of the raffle.

Now a puzzle about tomorrow's post with a chance at a Menu for Hope prize: What do the numbers 3, 157, and 590 all have in common?

I'll donate in your name one raffle ticket to Menu of Hope to the first five people who leave me a comment with an answer. Don't forget to tell me what prize you would like and your email address when you fill out the comment info. Note: I use haloscan for my commenting system so the "feature" of the new blogger not being able to do comments shouldn't be a problem.

Retro Recipe Challenge #5: Have Yourself a Merry Little Boozy Holiday

Laura Rebecca of Laura Rebecca's Kitchen and host of the monthly Retro Recipe Challenge picked the best theme for this hectic and stressful time of the year: A Boozy Holiday.

Actually, there was even a little bit of holiday stress involved with this theme. First, while flipping through all my old cookbooks looking for retro holiday treats to bake, I would also check out the drink section. Interestingly enough, most of the cookbooks I have that were published between 1920 - 1980 had few if any alcoholic drinks! I found some punches and the typical egg nog recipes but since I wasn't in the mood to make a huge bowl of lime jello champagne punch or orange sherbert and whiskey neighbor bowl, most of my recipes were ruled out. I was about to give up and do Mulled Wine when an old, yellowed newspaper clipping poking out from a rarely used cookbook from the late 50's caught my eye. Like the Star of Bethlehem calling me, I had found my boozy drink: The Sleigh Bell

My grandmother clipped any recipe she thought she might use and stashed them away between the pages of her cookbooks and apparently this coffee drink caught her eye sometime in 1958. I'm not sure which newspaper it came from but it was either the Detroit News or the Cadillac News. The little description says "this is the perfect Christmas drink to serve in the kitchen to the wives while the husbands and children bring the tree in from outside". The drink calls for a good amount of an almond or anise flavoured liqueur. Since I had a small bottle of Amaretto left over from a pastry I made few months ago, I went with the good amount of almond flavoured liqueur. I didn't have any half and half to lighten the coffee, so I tossed in some egg nog and sprinkled some coloured sugar on top of the whipped cream. One sip and I know why the recipe had caught her eye, it was sweet and had a nice almond taste. As I munched on a frosted sugar cookie the opening line of the Christmas carol, "Winter Wonderland" ran through my head. "Just hear those sleigh bells..."

The Sleigh Bell

6 oz of fresh brewed coffee
1 shot glass of almond or anise flavoured liqueur
coffee cream and sugar to taste
whip cream to top

Tag: rrc5

Giving Back to the Community: Menu for Hope

For the past three years, Chez Pim has hosted the Menu for Hope event where food bloggers from all over the world donate raffle prizes to raise funds for the United Nations World Food Programme. Last year, the event raised over $17,000.00!!! This is a great chance as food bloggers and food blog readers who spend most of the year writing/reading about food to give something back to people throughout the world who do not have enough food to eat.

This year, Chez Pim has asked several fine food bloggers to help host the event and divided the bounty available up into regions. Since I'm an East Coast US blogger, Adam of The Amateur Gourmet is the host.

BUT before you can win a raffle gift, first and most importantly, you have to go to the Firstgiving - Menu for Hope page and make a pledge. Every $10.00 you pledge gets you a raffle ticket and an opportunity to win one of the fabulous gifts! If there is a particular item you want, you can specify that item by it's number in the comment section. To see the East Coast Foodie items and numbers go to Adam's page here or here and to see the whole list of goodies available go here at Chez Pim's site.

Oh, and yours truly? What did I donate? I've donated a box of really sweet chocolate mice from LA Burdick Chocolate, located right here in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA. They are item UE23!



They are so adorable you will not want to eat them but trust me, they are even more delicious! Now that is eating wonderful chocolate for a very good cause.

Let the Baking Begin!!

Today is the big start of baking for the Christmas holiday and this year, I decided to be bold by making five different types cookies as well as at least two different types of candies. Also, breaking with tradition, I won't be making some of the goodies my family and friends have come to expect from me like my grandmother's spritz and chocolate chip pecan cookies. This year I'm going to bake cookies I've been dying to try from some of my most recent cookbook acquisitions. My holiday home baked treat package will include:

- Sour Cream Cutout Cookies decorated with royal icing from this year's issue of Better Homes and Garden Holiday Baking

- Decorated Gingerbread Men/Women from The Good Home Cookbook

- Linzer Cookies from The Cookie Bible

- World Peace Cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours

- Chocolate Espresso Bars from the Williams-Sonoma Cookies

So far today, I've got the cutout cookie, gingerbread, and Linzer cookie dough done and chilling in the fridge. I'll get the World Peace cookies and Chocolate Espresso Bars finished later this afternoon and decorate the cookies tomorrow. Candies will be made over the next few evenings and with a little luck, all this sweet goodness will be boxed up and on its way by Thursday!

What are you baking this year?

The Last of the Leftovers

Last night I used not only one of my new cookbooks, The American Century Cookbook but I also finally used most of the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. We had one half of turkey breast left and frankly I think if I had suggested that MBH eat the turkey "as is" he would have taken the cat and run screaming from the house. So, I decided to channel a little 1950's housewife and make a time honoured classic dish as a way to use the left over turkey, Turkey Tetrazzini.

One of the things I really like about the The American Century Cookbook are the stories behind why Jean Anderson included the recipes she did. She give the provenience of each recipe and often gives the "classic" interpretation of the recipe as well as the common or updated version. Apparently, Tetrazzini recipes became popular during the very early part of the last century as a way to honour the visit of the Italian coloratura soprano, Luisa Tetrazzini. The classic recipe calls for a white sauce with dry sherry and mushrooms added to pasta and turkey or chicken cubes and then baked. In the middle of the last century, Campbell's soup created a version using the ubiquitous Cream of Mushroom soup as a base. As I have never been fond of using Cream of Mushroom soup for anything but green bean casserole and for soup, I decided to go traditional. Surprisingly, MBH kinda liked it...

Almost Classic Turkey Tetrazzini
adapted from Jean Anderson's American Century Cookbook

5 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups low sodium chicken broth (the remainder of the container from Thanksgiving)
1 cup light cream (the remainder of my coffee creme, used before it expired)
2 tablespoon dry sherry (I used dry Riesling, the remainder left over from Thanksgiving)
3/4 freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded swiss cheese (left over from making carrot/turnip puff for Thanksgiving)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 bag frozen sweet peas (left over from beef stew several weeks ago)
3/4 pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thinly
3 medium scallions sliced thinly
1 lb pasta, cooked al dente (I used some leftover bow tie pasta from my pantry)
4 cups diced turkey (the almost last of the 14 lb Thanksgiving bird)
2 cups buttered saltine cracker crumbs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish and set aside. Melt 3 tablespoon of butter in a heavy sauce pan over moderate heat. Blend in flour to make a roux. When roux is just turning brown, add chicken broth and stir constantly until sauce begins to thicken. Mix in cream, wine, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and Swiss cheese, and pepper. Stir with whisk about 3 - 5 minutes until completely combined and remove from heat. Melt remaining butter in saute pan over moderate heat. Add mushrooms and scallions and saute until just limp and fold into sauce. In large bowl combine peas, pasta, turkey and sauce. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly. Add cracker crumbs for last ten minutes of baking. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 -10 minutes until firm. Serve with a tossed salad and white wine.

Catching Up

It has been a very, very long week...

Several months ago, I called a conference of my worldwide technical staff that would take place over the week of November 27 - December 1. I wasn't thinking about the fact it was the week after the American Thanksgiving holiday and that getting flights into Boston from places like Kuala Lumpur, Rio, and London would be so pricey! (My corporate bean counter just LOVES me...) But, it was a good week. We had lots of hands on with new loudspeakers the company I work for will be debuting this year as well as the typical corporate rah-rah that has to happen at these things. We also had some pretty good meals at a few local restaurants and one really atrocious meal at a chain steak house up the road from our headquarters. I was getting up at 4:45am to get into work by 6am just to read emails and do a little "real" work then not getting home until almost 11pm every night. Poor MBH was fending for himself all week with the slim pickings in the fridge since there wasn't much coming out of the our kitchen.

I've added to my cookbook collection this week. I don't know how I lived without Amazon. I find cookbooks at the library I can't live without (OK, I could live without them but come on here folks. I'm a cookbook addict. I know it. You know it. Heck, even my cat KNOWS it...) and then order them if I want to add them to my personal library. One is the delightful American Century Cookbook by Jean Anderson. This is a wonderful book that chronicles food trends of the 20th Century with stand out recipes, great stories about the foods we all know and love, and little tid-bits about the companies that brought us the products that made up the century of convenience foods. Another cookbook I added was the gorgeous Solo Suppers by Joyce Goldstein. I'm looking forward to cooking out of this book very soon as well as Truffles, Candies, and Confections by Carole Bloom. I'm sure Carole Bloom's book will come in very handy during the Christmas baking season.

A few days ago, my good friend Sara over at I like to Cook had a great photo post of all the food she has taken pictures of the past few months with good intention to blog about but just hasn't quite gotten around to being able to do so. Sara, I know what you mean... I have folders of pictures I've been meaning to post about but just haven't found the time. So, I'm "borrowing" her idea of throwing them up and letting you see what I've been cooking the past few months.

About seven months ago, a co-worker and his wife asked me to bake for their baby shower. His wife is English and she was longing for real English Cream Tea Scones as well as fat and gooey cupcakes. So here are the English Cream Tea Scones from a recipe I got from my landlady when I was living in London



Next up is some very yummy bruschetta made with tomatoes, chives, cilantro, and basil from my summer garden and placed on top of a freshly baked baguette of sourdough from one of my starters. The recipe, believe it or not is from a Richard Simmons cookbook my grandmother had that somehow I ended up with after she died. Say what you will about Richard, this bruschetta is to die for...



While we are in my garden, here are the only fried green tomatoes I got all summer. It was an awful summer for tomatoes here in New England and the one week the tomatoes were perfect, I was traveling. But I have high hopes for next summer. I use the recipe from the Fried Green Tomatoes cookbook when I make these.



Until really recently I had four or five huge piles of cookbooks all over our house. In September, I unburied The Breath of a Wok which I had picked up some time ago. MBH loves stir-fry so we found a recipe for Stir Fried Pork that looked really good. It was! I served it on some Hong Kong Style Noodles we picked up in Chinatown.



One of the great things about being a food blogger is reading other people's food blogs and finding recipes that become star recipes in your own repertoire. In October, Lisa at La Mia Cucina posted about an apple cider jus for pork tenderloin she had found on Je Mange La Ville. Michelle of Je Mange la Ville calls this the "best sauce ever" and I have to totally agree. This was the best sauce ever! Not to mention the rosemary and scallion roasted baby new potatoes were a fine compliment to the pork loin.



And last but not least, I've been baking goodies for MBH to take into work. Here are some Frosted Fall Leaves. Just in time to practice my icing skills for Christmas cookies.



Well, guess we are all caught up! Time to go finish getting the Christmas baking list together. I'm starting tomorrow and need to get a battle plan together. Happy Weekend!

Weekend Cookbook Challenge #11: Party Food

For most of us in the US, from the end of November though the first week of January means one long party. We go from Thanksgiving right into the Holiday rush of shopping, decorating, and cooking to the rounds of merry-making and good cheer that Christmas, Hanukkah, and the New Year bring. Sara at I Like to Cook and the hostess of Weekend Cookbook Challenge is here to help with the cooking part with this month's theme for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge #11: Party Food!

MBH and I have a very small, almost non-existent group of friends and now that we are an old staid pair, we don't party like we used to but I was able to find a recipe to try for this installment of WCC from one of my newest additions to my ever expanding cookbook collection, Paula Deen Celebrates! I picked this cookbook up right before Thanksgiving mainly for Paula's Buttermilk Biscuits but flipping through the cookbook several recipes struck me as delicious sounding, and one of them was absolutely perfect for Party Food, The Lady & Sons Crab Stuffed Shrimp.

There is a little bit of prep work involved with this recipe that mainly involves finding really big jumbo XXL shrimp and cleaning them. After a visit to two fishmongers in my area, I found 2 lbs of massive shrimp and the fish guy was even nice enough to devein them for me! I also picked up the lump crab meat ready to go in a nice tub. Once I got home, I put the shrimp and crab into the fridge, turned the oven to preheat and started making the filling. I would recommend chopping the veggies that go into the stuffing very, very fine as, even though the shrimp are huge, you are still going to stuff them and if you are like me, I would rather have more crab and less pepper and onion. I also added red pepper, onions and mushrooms to the mix that weren't called out in the recipe and substituted two left-over Parker House Rolls from Thanksgiving for the saltine crackers. I also skipped the cayenne pepper because I was out. The shrimp came together in about 25 minutes with a piece of bacon to hold the stuffing in the shrimp. I got about 12 shrimp from the 2lbs. While they were in the oven, I made the Basil Cream Sauce to dip the stuffed shrimp into.

Twenty minutes later, I had a plate full of crab stuffed shrimp that dressed up real darn pretty with a slender slice of red pepper and a bit of garlic chive. I have to say the shrimp stands up very nicely on it's own without the Basil Cream Sauce. In fact, I liked them better without the sauce. Lady & Sons Crab Stuffed Shrimp: elegant, tasty party food you can eat with your fingers.



Crab Stuffed Shrimp
Adapted from Paula Deen Celebrates

1 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup sweet onion finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/8 cup finely chopped button mushroom stems
1/4 tsp garlic powder
dash salt
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup saltine cracker crumbs or very fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I used Mircle Whip)
1 large egg
2 tsp minced fresh parsley
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 lb lump crabmeat, picked through for shells
1 lb extra large or jumbo shrimp (peeled, deveined with tails on)
12 slices bacon, halved (low sodium bacon is good)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in large saute pan over medium heat and saute onions, peppers, and mushrooms until peppers just soft. Remove from heat and place sauted veggies in bowl. Add garlic powder and salt and stir. Add mustard, egg, parsley, lemon juice, and cracker/bread crumbs. Mix well and gently fold in the crabmeat. Split the shrimp in half, careful not to cut all the way through. Place a small spoonful of stuffing on the shrimp and fold over, wrapping the stuffed shrimp with a piece of bacon and securing the whole thing with a toothpick. Place shrimp on a baking sheet and cook in top 1/3 of oven for 15 -20 minutes until bacon is cooked and stuffing is starting to turn a bit brown. Turn the oven to broil and broil for 3-5 minutes until bacon is crisp. Garnish with chives and pepper slices.