How to cook a Feast at home (Part 1 - the menu)

This next series is going to be a serious how-to... I make a major feast every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It could easily feed 10-12 people. Although I've served as few as six and used leftovers for soups, pot-pies, and the like.

The major posts will be:

1) Menu and recipes
2) Shopping lists - what to buy and when
3) Advance preparation (up to the day before)
4) Final preparation

First the menu:

Mixed Greens and oranges with brandied shallot dressing (Shirley Corriher's Cookwise)
Good Eats Roast Turkey
Turkey Gravy
Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Sourdough Bread Stuffing
Pear-Fennel Bread (Better Homes and Gardens recipe from several years ago)
Honey-Glazed Roasted Carrots and Parsnips
Tangy Garlic String Beans
Cranberry Relish (my own concoction)
Apple Pie (Crust from Shirley Corriher's cookwise and was posted previously on this website, Apple filling is my own...)
Pumpkin pie
Wine
Water
Sparkling cider
coffee

Where the recipe came from a posted source, I've linked into that source. I love Alton Brown and FoodTV, so you'll note several recipes came from there. I DO put my own twist on them... More on that in a minute. Here's the recipes that I could not find online anywhere:

Mixed Greens and oranges with brandied shallot dressing
1 small head romaine lettuce
1 head Bibb Lettuce, or Boston
1/3 cup almonds, slivers or slices
1 tablespoon butter
1 Ounce Ginger Root, Slices, walnut sized piece OR equivalent slices of candied ginger.
2 tablespoons sugar
4 ice cubes
22 ounces mandarin orange sections, drained and rinsed with water
1 cup hot tap water
Brandied Shallot Dressing (recipe follows)

Prep the greens: Rinse the lettuce in cold water, then let it stand in a large bowl or in the sink in cold water with ice cubes for 30 minutes. Spin dry and pat dry. Store in zip-top plastic bags with two damp paper towels. Squeeze the air from the bags and seal. Keep refrigerated until ready to prepare the salad.

Toast the almonds: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and roast in the oven until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. While the almonds are hot, stir in the butter and salt.

Set up the oranges: Stir the hot water, ginger slices, and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl, then place the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes to cool. Stir in the ice cubes for further cooling, then add the orange sections. Soak for at least 5 minutes.

Put it together: When ready to serve, tear the lettuce into pieces. In a large mixing bowl, toss the lettuce well with enough brandied dressing to coat all the leaves. Lift the orange sections from the ginger water with a slotted spoon, leaving the ginger behind, and place them on a paper towel for a minute to drain. Add the orange sections to the salad. Toss very gently to combine and add a little more dressing if needed. Taste and add salt if needed. Remove the salad to a serving patter, sprinkle with roasted almonds, and serve immediately.

To simplify: Buy a bag of high quality mixed greens and a bag of baby spinach. This simplifies the prep slightly.

Brandied Shallot Dressing
2 medium shallots
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Teaspoon Brandy, or cognac
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 cup Olive Oil, mild

With the steel knife in the workbowl and the food processor running, drop the shallots down the feedtube onto the spinning blade to mince. Add the salt, pepper, brown sugar, mustard, brandy, and vinegar. Process to blend. With the food processor running, drizzle in the oil, very slowly at first, until emulsified.

Pear Fennel Bread Recipe
3 cups water
1 cup apple jack (or water if you don't have something better to add)
7 Ounces Dried Pear, about 2 cups
1 package active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
28 ounces bread flour (5 to 5 1/2 cups), divided
1 egg
2 2/3 Ounces butter, softened (1/3 cup)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/2 Ounce melted butter

1. In a large saucepan combine the water apple jack and dried pears. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until pears are very tender. Drain pears, reserving the cooking liquid. Chop pears; cover and refrigerate. Reduce remaining liquid down to about 1 cup. Cool liquid to lukewarm (105º to 115°F).
2. Properly scale/measure ingredients. If possible WEIGH everything, it is the most accurate measurement.
3. Mix instant yeast with one half of the flour. This assumes instant yeast. If active dry yeast is used, proof yeast in ¼ cup water. Set aside.
4. Add reserved pear liquid, egg, butter, and brown sugar to work bowl, followed by the flour/yeast mixture.
   Mix into a dough, cover, allow to rise until doubled in size. At this point, the longer the sponge is allowed to work, the more flavorful the bread. Placing it in the refrigerator over night, or keeping in a cool place for several hours is highly recommended.
5. Slowly add the remaining flour, salt, baking soda, fennel seeds, raisins, and chopped pears.
6. Knead, adding flour a little at a time, as needed.
7. Put into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size. Punch down and divide in half.
8. Rest dough for 5 minutes to relax gluten, then form into final shape or allow dough to rise again.
9. Shape into two 8x4x2 inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise again.
10. Bake at 375º for 40 minutes or until well browned and done. Brush with melted butter while hot.

Cranberry Relish
12 ounces of cranberries (1 bag)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine (don't go very dry with this - zinfandel, miraz, cabernet sauvignon are all good)
grated fresh ginger

Dump cranberries into a bowl full of water. pick out any bruised or soft ones, as well as any that sink. Dump the rest into a colander to drain.

Bring sugar and wine to a boil on high heat. Lower heat to medium and add cranberries. Using a microplane grater, grate 1 tablespoon or so of fresh ginger. Cook no more than 15 minutes or until the cranberries have all popped.

Pour into a clear glass bowl. These are gorgeous and you'll want to show them off. put into refrigerator to fully set before serving.

One Crust Apple pie
(exact quantities depend on the size of your pie pan, mine is a big deep dish extravanga from Williams Sonoma)
1/2 recipe of crust (see my page on turkey pot pies for making a double crust recipe)
6-7 large apples ( a mix of honey crisps, fuji, and granny smith, for a nice blend of tart and sweet)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon clove
1/8 cup apple jelly
Struesel topping (recipe below)

Make up crust and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Peel core and slice apples (1/4" thick or less). Put apples in a big bowl and toss with sugar, cinnamon and clove.

Pre heat oven to 350F.

Roll out crust and put into pan. Layer in apples. Dot with apple jelly. Coat with a heavy layer of struesel.

Place in oven and bake for about one hour until apples are bubbly.

Pumpkin pie
1 1/2 cups pumpkin, canned or pureed fresh
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon ginger, ground
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 cups milk
6 ounces evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Combine pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spices. Blend in eggs, milk, and evaporated milk.

Pour into pastry shell (have edges crimped high because amount of filling is generous).

Bake for 50 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Cool.

Next post: the shopping list(s)

Anise Drop Cookies

Almost decorated for the holidays... Outside is totally done, including "candles" in the window on the inside, shining out. One of the candles died this year, they are more than 10 years old, so it's not too surprising. We can wait until after Christmas to pick up a new one in a sale. The candle that's behind the crepe myrtle in the dining room window is almost invisible anyway.

I made anise drop cookies a couple of days ago. This is an interesting recipe. I found it in a Better Homes and Gardens cookie magazine as an "Anise Macaroon", but when I googled it for more information, I found out that it is really NOT a macaroon, which uses only egg whites. Interestingly, it is VERY similar to the gum drop cookies that my great grandmother used to make at the holidays in the ingredients for the batter. It allowed me to make that gum drop cookie really work, FINALLY.

These cookies are wonderful, IF you like the flavor of anise or licorice. Otherwise, don't bother as they are pretty pungent. Since I like licorice, as does everyone in my family, I love baking them.

Anise Drop Cookies (Anise Plaetzchen)
3 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Anise Seed, finely crushed
3 Drops Anise Oil

Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 10 minutes or until eggs are slightly thickened and light-colored.

Gradually beat in sugar; continue to beat until mixture is smooth and shiny. (This takes about 5 minutes; sugar should be nearly dissolved.)

Reduce mixer to low speed; stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time.

Mix in anise seeds and anise oil.

Line cookies sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough from well-rounded teaspoons 1 1/2 inches apart onto prepared cookies sheets. I used a small cookie scoop to get more uniform cookies.

Let stand, uncovered, for at least 1 hour. Overnight is OK.

Preheat oven to 275F.

Bake cookies about 20 minutes or until firm and barely beginning to brown on edges.

Let cool on baking sheet. I actually just turned off the oven and left them in there until the oven cooled down. They peeled off paper very cleanly.

Gum Drop Cookies

I'm still working on Holiday decorations. I prefer to take my time and work a little each day and let the house evolve. I am, however, running out of time. My son graduates from NC State next week so I'll be gone part of Tuesday, all of Wednesday, and part of Thursday with his graduation. We are very proud of him as he is graduating in 3 1/2 years with a BS in chemical engineering and a minor in mathematics. He has a 4.0 in the honors program, so he's graduating summa cum laude and is one of the class valedictorians!

Anyway, I'm also gearing up into cookie/candy making pretty heavily.

The latest endeavor is an OLD recipe from my father's mother's family. My mother tells me that it is at least one generation back from that. What she had was mostly a list of ingredients and some rudimentary instructions. I started working with it two years ago. This year I ran across a recipe for "Anise Macaroons" that isn't REALLY a macaroon, but looks like another version of the base cookie for THIS recipe. I tried it out and it works like a charm.

Gum Drop Cookies
(makes about 60 SMALL cookies - 32 larger ones)

6 ounce gumdrops, cut in pieces (about 1 cup)
4 ounces pecans, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 Tablespoons flour
4 eggs
15 ounces brown sugar (2 cups)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 1/2 ounces flour (2 cups)
Orange Butter Cream Frosting (recipe to follow)

Mix gumdrops, pecans, and 2 T flour, set aside
Let eggs stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. In a large bowl beat eggs with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 10 minutes, or until eggs are slightly thickened and light colored.
Gradually beat in sugar; continue to beat until mixture is smooth and shiny - about 5 minutes.
Reduce mixer to low speed; stire in baking powder and cinnamon, then stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time.
Fold in gumdrop and pecan mixture.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough using small cookie scoop 1-1/2 inches apart.
Let stand, uncovered, for at least 1 hour. Overnight is OK
Preheat oven to 275F
Bake cookies about 25 minutes or until firm and barely beginning to brown on edges.
Let cool on baking sheet. Peel off paper.

I suggest using old fashioned cookie sheets not the insulated kind so that the bottom really cooks.

Orange Buttercream frosting

3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 cups powdered sugar
1 pinch salt
1 dash orange extract (optional)

beat togeter butter, orange juice, and salt
Add powdered sugar to desired consistency

Fill a piping bag or a zip lock bag with frosting. Using a small star tip (or snipping a small hole) frost each cookie with a swirl of frosting (Go light -these are rich enough).

Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Pecan Biscotti

Working on Christmas decorations this week. The outside is essentially done. We opt for the more tasteful display as opposed to the over-the-top. Mark outlines the crepe myrtle in white lights. We cover the bushes to the left in white net lights. The bushes under the crepe myrtle get multi lights. This year they are 100% LED. Not ready to go LED on the white lights - they are too "cool" for our taste. The railing on the porch has garlands and white lights. THIS year, I cut the berries from the Nandina bushes and wrapped them into the cheap garland - it looks really great. Pictures later.

I made pumpkin biscotti a few weeks ago, but it was too dry, like a pumpkin flavored teething biscuit. I reworked the recipe and so far, so good...


Pumpkin-Pecan Biscotti

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
1 Tablepoon bourbon
1 1/4 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
6 ounces butter, softened
1-1/3 cups brown sugar (10 ounces)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs, allowed to warm to room temperature
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
4 cups flour (17 ounces)

Put oil, corn syrup, bourbon in a saute pan over medium high heat. Once mixture is hot, add pecans and stir and toast for several minutes until pecans start to darken. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat over to 350F.
Cream together butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and vanilla. Then, beat in eggs and pumpkin.

Lower the mixer speed and add the flour, mising just until it is completely incorporated. Fold in the pecans.

Shape into two logs about 14 inches long, 3 inches wide (or so), and 3/4 inch thick.

Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Turn oven off.

Let cool on the pan for 20 minutes. Lightly, but thoroughly, spritz the top with with water (better yet, use bourbon) and let sit for five more minutes. (This step softens the crust JUST enough to make it cut with fewer crumbs.)

Preheat oven (again) to 325F.

Cut the biscotti into 1/2-3/4 inch slices. Pay attention that that knife is perfectly vertical or the biscotti will not stand up properly for the second baking. The steeper the angle across the biscotti the longer the pieces will be.

Set the biscotti upright on a baking sheet with an inch or so between each piece. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

Yum!

Pork Roast with Balsamic glazed onions

Took the dog to his usual Saturday fun today. Competition Training and Small dog play. He always loves the day.

He's the rock star of DogTrain, where he prances around and makes everyone smile.

Almost finished the Christmas shopping, but JC Penney didn't have in store what they displayed online. Tomorrow, I hope to get that all done.

For supper tonight, I made a roast pork with blasamic glazed onions.

Roast Pork

2.5 pound pork loin
cajun spice rub
fresh thyme
olive oil

Rub the pork loin in the cajun spice blend. Heat up the olive oil medium high in an oven proof pan on stove. Brown off the loin on four sides, about 2 minutes per side. If the roast is tied, tuck the thyme under the twine, otherwise lay on top of the roast.

Put in a 375F oven for 1:15 or until internal temperature reaches 160F.

Pull the roast out and let it stand for 15 minutes.

Slice thinly and serve.

Blasamic Glazed Onions

3 medium onions
vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Slice onions thinly. Toss with vegetable oil.

Put in 375F oven for 30 minutes. (or put in the pan with the pork roast when there's 30 minutes left).

melt butter in saute pan over medium high heat, add sugar and stir until sugar is melting. Pour in balsamic vinegar and let everything dissolve together. Pull off heat and toss with onions.

Serve over roast.

Yum!

Turkey Pot Pies

Day Two:

Mark asked for turkey pot pies for dinner tonight. This is a real change for us. Although I love to cook - bake mostly, my kitchen time was limited to the weekends and the holidays.

He used to do pretty much all the cooking as I was always at work until very late. We were kind of a reversed couple. He stayed home and raised our son - who's about to graduate from college. He cooked and took care of the house while I went out and climbed the corporate ladder. Since I just got off that ladder, I'm now sharing kitchen duty.

In fact, I launched into cleaning and organizing every room in our house to make a clean sweep in all aspects. I'm sure that will come out as I continue to post.

But, let me post a recipe that is a wonderful way to use up leftovers from Thanksgiving. It was adapted from an old reprinted Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but I've modified sufficiently to make it my own...

First, you need 4-2 cup Ramkins or mini pie tins.

Next, you need to either make or buy pie dough. Here's my favorite pie dough recipe.

Simply Flaky Crust
This recipe came from Shirley Corriher's Cookwise.

2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Flour, instant (Wondra or shake and blend)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound butter
8 ounces sour cream
2 Tablespoons milk, if needed

• Mix together flour and salt. Cut butter into ½ inch cubes, add to flour-salt mixture and toss to coat. Place in freezer for 10 minutes.
• Dump the flour-butter mixture on the counter and roll over it with a large rolling pin to flatten butter lumps. Scrape together and roll over again.
• Repeat one more time. Then scrape back into the bowl and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.
• Dump on to the counter and roll and scrape together three more times.
• Place in the freezer for 10 minutes, then gently fold in sour cream. The dough should be moist enough to hold together in a ball. Add milk if needed.
• Divide into quarters, wrap in plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
  

This is a really great basic pie crust. In fact, I found several old cookie recipes that were essentially using this kind of pie dough as the pastry basis. For that reason, I figure that the basic recipe isn't copyrighted.

Turkey Pot Pie

2-3 small potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery (I keep chopped celery in my freezer for just these kinds of recipes)
3 med. carrots chopped (I used leftover roasted carrots from Thankgiving dinner and added them after the cooking step)
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped turkey
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups turkey gravy

• Pre-heat oven to 425F.
• Heat the oil over medium high heat. Add potatoes, onion, celery, and carrots. Saute until browned. Add some water to the pan lower the heat and cover. Let simmer until all vegetables are tender.
• Take out one portion of pie dough and roll out 1/2 of it to line 2 cup ramekin. Pinch out folds to prevent dough from getting to thick, trim to top of ramekin. Make sure that all holes are sealed.
• Repeat with other three ramekins.
• Mix vegetables, turkey, and cranberries in a large bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Divide evenly between four ramekins.
• Ladle gravy over each ramekin dish
• Take out one more portion of pie dough, divide into 1/4 and roll each quarter out to cover ramekin. Trim off dough to edge of ramekin. Cut slits in top.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes until crust is golden brown and delicious and filling is bubbly.

I'm also trying to freeze two of these and will reheat them later. We'll see how that works.

Citrus Peel Candy

OK,

This is a whole new world. I'm leaving the company for whom I've worked for my ENTIRE adult life. My departure is without a net. I have no job, no specific plan. I've been keeping a private journal for about a month and a half as this situation has developed.

At this point, the reasons I'm leaving this company after 27 years of dedicated service will remain private. BUT I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do next and decided to do it somewhat publicly.

Where shall this begin? I'm not sure if I'm going to seek employment with another corporation, or if I'm going to take the plunge and go out on my own either as a consultant or owning a retail operation, or something else entirely that I haven't thought of yet.

So, I guess the first entry is this introduction and introspection. The purpose of BLOGGING, though is to make it a public entry that others will read and encourage. I don't think this entry will draw much.

I think for the month of December, I will follow a COOKING theme. I love to bake and cook and my recent change in employment has given me the opportunity to do just that. So each day, I think I'll post a recipe that I've made in recent days and provide comment and possibly pictures.

This recipe is a great way to use something that most people think is garbage. I save all the thick peels from citrus. Grapefruit in the winter, lemon in the summer, Orange year round. You can stick the peels in the freezer and make the candy MONTHS later. In fact, I just made the last batch of grapefruit from peel I cut up and froze LAST December.

Citrus Peel Candy

8 ounces Citrus peel, cut into thin strips, leave pith on (Grapefruit, orange, lemon work best)
8 1/2 cups water, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/8 teaspoon (5 drops) food coloring (optional: I use red with grapefruit peel so that it looks like pink grapefruit, a little yellow to enhance the color in lemon and a mix of the two to enhance the color of orange)

• In a heavy saucepan combine peel and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cook over low hear about 10 minutes. Drain off water
• Repeat 3 more times. This destroys the bitter taste in the peel.
• Combine 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil in sauce pan.
• Reduce heat to a simmer, add peel and cook until peel is transparent (about 1/2 an hour). Usually all of the sugar is absorbed, but watch it carefully. Basically, the amount of sugar absorbed dictates whether the candy is chewy or crunchy. Each type of citrus cooks a little differently. See picture
• Do not cook over too hot a fire or peel will carmelize.
• Remove from heat and separate strips.
  
• Tumble fruit strips in 1/2 cup of sugar
• Spread on a cookie sheet and put in a very low oven (less than 200 F). This step is optional, but can tighten up the texture if the strips are softer than you wish.

The only peel that I've not successfully candied is lime. The peel is so thin that it just seems to get hard before it really gets sweet.