Because you're sweet

I'm going to show you what a typical meal looks like at Thathouse when we have company. And I'll extend an open invitation to each of you - there is always an open seat at our table. I don't even need much notice - although notice is always nice. Feel free to stop by anytime!

First Course: Soup! This is a mushroom soup. Because this week all the cool girls were making mushroom soup. Although Thatboy spent more time talking about the melty brie on the bread than the soup itself. Except he didn't know it was brie - he just knows that he likes whatever cheese was on the bread. I heard about it all night.


The Main Course: Brisket! My friend Chill had never had brisket before, so she was really excited for this one. Thatboy wasn't as excited.


The sides: Carrots and Latkes. Chill was sad she didn't get any latkes this year, so I whipped some up for her. My final batch till next year. I also sent her home with a bag...for...her cat, I'm sure.



The Dessert: Croissant Bread Pudding. Thatboy thought this was incredibly rich, which is probably do to the layer of melty chocolate chips on the bottom. Think bread pudding meets molton lava cake.

Take it easy

Fannie notes that appetizers should demand attention with bright colors and appealing arrangement. The hot dishes should be served bubbling hot. I am excellent in serving hot food when it's hot, although Thatboy isn't amazing at eating it when it's hot. He's a bit of a pain. Especially now that my cooking corner has turned into his digital darkroom. He can barely lift his head to eat, let alone eat when it's warm. As such, these two shrimp dishes have turned into dinners for us. Even though they're supposed to be merely appetite whetting, neither of us has much of an appetite lately so these are perfectly fulfilling.

And finally we're on the right track! Both of these dishes were big hits. Finally fun, flavorful, and facile appetizers! The second one even reminded me of the Johnny Cakes at Lady & Sons!

There's no real skill involved in the first recipe. Mixing the ingredients, spreading on bread and then heating. Easy enough for a small child. Although - Thatgirl's words of wisdom - always supervise young children in the kitchen. They are not as smart as you or I.

The main skill in the second recipe is frying. Here are my tips for you since I am a master fry-er.
1) Regardless of what the recipe says, when frying any form of "cake" use medium low heat. It will save you from burning the outside of the cake while the inside remains raw.
2) Wear long sleeves
3) When working with young children, have them do the mixing, let the adults be the one who actually puts the batter in the pan.

Hot Seafood with Mayonnaise (from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

• 1 1/2 cups shellfish or boned and flaked cooked fish (I used shrimp, obviously)
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 3-4 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp minced onion
• 2 tsp minced parsley
• freshly ground pepper
• salt to taste
• 24 small bread rounds

1. Preheat oven to 400. Combine the seafood and/or fish and the seasonings, and add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Spread on bread rounds and bake 7-8 minutes.

Clam Fritters (changed to Shrimp Fritters) (From The Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

• 1 cup chopped clams (changed to shrimp)
• 1/3 cup bottle clam juice (changed to milk)
• 1 egg beaten
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying

1. Combine clam juice (milk) and egg, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper and beat until well blended.
2. Stir in clams (shrimp).
3. Heat 1 inch of oil in a skillet. When it is very hot, drop the batter in by teaspoonful.
4. Fry until brown on each side. Do a few at a time until all are fried. Drain on paper towels.

You can imitate ev'ryone you know

...but it doesn't make you an expert. As much as I love to cook. As adventurous in the kitchen as I am, I am no expert. I like starting out with these appetizers because they come together so quickly, they make me feel far more proficient than I am.

However, we are so far 2 for 2 on these hot appetizers. As you may recall, Fannie mentioned they should appeal to both the eye and the palate. We're having a tough time with the palate one. These crab puffs are gorgeous to look at, but merely mehhh in the taste department. Thatboy's exact words were "they're a waste of perfectly good bread."

Lesson for the day: The French word "hor d'oeuvre" literally means "outside the principal work or main course."

Crab Puffs (from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup flaked cooked crabmeat
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped scallions
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• salt
• 2 egg whites
• 48 1 1/2 inch rounds of bread.
  

1. Preheat the broiler. Combine the mayonaise, crabmeat, scallions, cayenne, lemon juice, and salt to taste.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold in the crab mixture.
3. Spoon a mound of mixture on each of the bread rounds.
4. Place on cookie sheets and put under broiler until lightly browned.

I can however give you RAVE reviews on how I used the leftover 2 egg yolks. I made Peabody's Frozen Key Lime Souffle for 2. They were phenomenal!

Already knows her ABC's

A very very wise woman once said: "Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start." And where do you start with food? Why also at the very beginning. Appetizers, or small bites.

According to Fannie Farmer the goal of the appetizer is to stimulate the appetite without satisfying the appetite. It should appeal to the eye and the palate. Basically, what she's saying is, it should leave you wanting more.

I'm skipping over the part about dips and spreads and jumping right in to the hot appetizers.

And this first hot appetizer has led me to add a #4 to my caveat. I keep thinking I like liver because I like chopped liver. But really? I've decided I don't like liver in any form but chopped. And Thatdog agrees. When I tried to pawn these off on him he turned up his nose and asked what happened to the leftover bacon. Soooo this is the first and last liver recipe you will see from the book. Which should make a majority of you happy since as I seem to recall, there were very few liver lovers who are reading. And for those of you liver lovers, I apologize, but if you REALLY want you could always by your own copy of the book, start your own blog, and cook exclusively liver and "other organ" dishes. Oh! And you can make this recipe over and over and over again.

Skewered Chicken Livers, Bacon and Water Chestnuts

- Fannie reminds you to soak your skewers in water before beginning so they don't catch on fire, but as you can see, that didn't help my poor skewers.

• 1 lb chicken livers
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained
• 10-15 slices of bacon
  

1. Preheat the broiler. Cut each liver into three or four pieces.
2. Cut the water chestnuts in half.
3. Cut each bacon slice into three or four pieces and wrap a piece around the water chestnut half.
4. On each skewer thread a piece of liver and a piece of bacon wrapped water chestnut. Repeat so that each skewer has at least 2 pieces of liver. Place the threaded skewer on a broiler rack and cook 3 minutes each side or until bacon is lightly browned.

You better do what she said

My other New Year's resolution that is blog related is to improve my cooking skills. The basics. I thought a good way to do this is learning to make classic dishes and refining my skills through practice as well as learning new skills and techniques.

For help in this endeavor I turned to an old friend. You see, when I first moved out on my own, my mother entrusted me with her old and worn copy of The Fannie Farmer cookbook. It has proved invaluable to me. The first time I had my parents over for dinner I served a roasted pork - the first time I'd ever worked with pork, or roasted anything. I remember how nervous I was, and yet, reading the recipe, along with the introduction explaining all the parts of the pig and what they're used for, I felt a sense of reassurance.

I still turn to Fannie Farmer whenever I have anything new come up. You may remember it was my go-to when I had to figure out how to cut a chicken into 8 pieces. And then I got this month's Bon Apetit. I love reading through this magazine, especially since they began to include submissions by Molly Wizenberg, perhaps better known as Orangette. This month, Molly writes about a love affair with Pate de campagne. As usual, after reading anything she writes, I knew I would have to find a way to make some of my own. And instead of trying her recipe, which face it, is a little intimidating, I decided to turn to someone who I know and trust. Fannie Farmer. Sure enough, there's a recipe that's pretty much the same, except it has the addition of chicken! It was then I came up with the idea to cook the book.

So my goal over the next year is recreate the recipes from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. A couple caveats:
1) I'm not going to kill myself by trying to complete the book in a year. There are over 365 recipes and I just don't have the time to make 15 recipes a day.
2) There will be some modifications. For those new readers to the blog - I don't make what I don't eat, but I will make some reasonable substitutions. For instance - I don't eat asparagus, so any recipe that calls for aspargus I will sub in broccolli. Fish dishes will transform to chicken dishes. Scallops or clams will magically become shrimp. And anytime you see "milk" just know I'm using skim.
3) I'm not going to make every recipe in the book. While I will do substitutions for the fish chapter, I'm pretty much going to skip the chapter entitled "other organs." I honestly don't think I can convince myself or Thatboy to eat calf brains. I know they're a delicacy in many cultures, but frankly I get a little closed minded when it comes to eating brains. (hahahaha - I crack myself up). Likewise, if I can't think of a reasonable substitution we'll eat, I'm probably going to skip that too.

So stay tuned for the fun! Tomorrow we start appetizers!

All my loving

I want to send all my love, good thoughts, and apologies to Sweetcakes. I never should doubt her. She is always fabulous. We met for coffee last month and were discussing my upcoming nonstop travel. The coffee itself was was funny timing since Sweetcakes and I had just seen each other the week earlier, while we were on our travels. She mentioned New Years and I groaned. New Years is the holiday I hate more than any other holiday. Ideally I would love to spend the night, curled up with Thatboy and Thatdog watching old movies. But I always feel the societal tug to do something splendid and fabulous.

Sweetcakes told me that we had to join her for New Years. Every year they spend New Years with "the crew." Thatboy and I have been inducted into the Crew several times and it's always a good time. A good time that has Thatboy feeling like an old man for days after. I accepted the invitation, relieved that the plans at least would keep us in our neck of the woods.

And then as the date approached we found out what the plans entailed. Dinner at a Georgian restaurant and then heading to a dive bar that only served beer. Thatboy called me on his way home from work:
TB: How are you feeling about tonight?
TG: Meh.
TB: I'm feeling the same way. Should we cancel?
TG: No. I don't want to be the girl who cancels last minute. Besides, we always have fun when we hang out with the crew. I'm sure once we get there we'll have a great time. I bet I'm just feeling meh because I'm still not feeling 100% healthy.
TB: Well we do have champagne in the fridge, so if we're not having a good time, we'll just leave early.

As I said, I never should have doubted Sweetcakes. The evening was a smashing success. Thatboy and I had such a good time!

We showed up at Pomegranate, a Georgian restaurant that seemed just large enough to hold our huge party. And yet more huge parties continued to show up. It's a neighborhood joint, with inspirational and humourous messages scripted by patrons all over the walls and ceilings, in more languages than I've seen outside a UN building.

The drinks menu was recited by our waiter, which consisted of a vast amount of Eastern European beers, and a couple bottles of Georgian wines. We all chose from the varieties, and then sampled whatever the person beside us got too. Well except for Sweetcakes who snubbed her nose at my dark beer!

I got a Georgian porter which was sweeter than any porter I've ever had! It tasted like black coffee with loads and loads of sugar! Thatboy ordered the extra lager because it had the highest alcohol content. Well at least he's predictable.

We let Michigan and her husband do all the ordering since they had picked the restaurant and had been there before. Plus, the owner was having her sit on his lap when they first got in, so we figured that was a good sign.

Vareniki

You may recognize these are pierogies. Or you may not be able to discern what these little blobs are. It was hard to take a picture before they got snatched up on all sides. Ahhhh just like Mrs. T used to make!


Khachapuri
Literally (or maybe not...I don't speak Russian) cheese pies. Feta, tomato, and a flakey pastry. These are fantastic.


Some salad appetizer. It's not on the menu, but the friendly waiter told us it was a must and so we ordered a couple for the table. We'll start at the top left and work our way around:
"The one with Tomatoes" otherwise known as "The Indian one": This was a table favorite. Spicy, meaty - even though it was meatless.
"The greenbean one": Sweetcakes husband loooved this one. I think. They all start to blend together after a while. I was less than impressed. I think Thatboy was too.
"The beet one": I skipped this one due to beet aversion. But Sweetcakes husband said it tasted like feet, so I don't think I missed much.
"The carrot one": I really liked this one. Thatboy thought it was garlicy, but no one else could taste garlic at all, so we think that extra alcohol must have kicked in right about now.
"The other one": I don't think anyone was really into this. We don't even know what was in it. Although judging from the above plate, we ate it anyway!
"The potato one": The general consensus was that it tasted like potato salad. Annnnnd that's all we had to say about it.


Pickles
We didn't order these, but they showed up anyway, just like the bread basket with garlic butter. Somehow these ended up right between Sweetcakes and I...and we didn't make a move to share them. Yum little pickles!


Thatboy ordered the special meatloaf - lamb and beef. Except the waitress who delivered them wasn't familiar with the term meatloaf so she kept asking who was having the lamb cutlets. And no one had ordered lamb cutlets. Finally Thatboy explained he had ordered the special and his meal was promptly delivered with an admonishment that it was indeed the lamb cutlets. Thatboy loooooved this dish. He declared that he MUST return to this restaurant. He asked for a box, and then ate the whole thing anyway.

Since this was my first time at a Georgian restaurant, I had asked for recommendations on my cooking board. Someone replied that I should get the cabbage rolls. Sweetcakes had checked the Yelp review before dinner which had also recommended the cabbage rolls. Michigan had also heard good things about the cabbage rolls, and so guess what we all ordered. And it was the most fabulous thing ever! I think it was a hundred times better that Thatboy's meatloaf! The tomato based sauce was filled with spices and so flavorful. The beef was also perfectly seasoned, and the cabbage came apart with just a little fork pressure - no knife needed!

Each meal came with a side plate of rice and potato. While none of us can understand why you'd need rice and potato, both were excellent. Sweetcakes said the potato was her favorite since it was salted to the extreme. Ahhh a woman after my own heart!

As we finished up dinner, the owner stood to make a speech and had each of us raise our glasses to toast the old year and look forward to the new year. It gave the place a great family atmosphere.

Instead of the plan to head to the dive bar, we went next door to bar that was so much closer. There was kareoke, and pool, and they handed out hats, noisemakers, and champagne. We had such a good time singing and drinking with the crew, midnight came far too early! So once again, all my love to Sweetcakes, she truly is the best.

Yes It Is

Some people may think that I chose the ingredients for Platinum Challenge based on a recipe I have in mind. This is so far from the case as evidenced by my entry this month.

I was talking to Thatboy about the ingredients: carrots, potatoes, eggs, pear, and parsley. I told him I was thinking of making a pear and chicken in pastry dish, using the egg as a wash and then roasting some potatoes, carrots, and pears to go with it. He liked that idea a lot. But then he started thinking. Since potatoes are an ingredient, and it is December, perhaps I should make latkes instead? Thatboy can be a genius sometimes. (But don't tell him that, I wouldn't want his him to start thinking he "knows things.")

Latkes have always been Thatdad's specialty, and I am thrilled to have come up with my very own recipe this year that is mine mine mine. It has some of the qualities I love about Thatdad's latkes, but with some special twists of my own. Thatboy's family fell in love with my recipe. Thatsister-in-law ate seven! Even Thatfather-in-law who refuses to eat anything I make, ate three. I didn't think it would be that difficult to add carrots and parsley to my recipe, and I thought that it might even make a welcome addition. It did. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH were these good! SOOOO good. And the color? Let me just tell you - latkes are normally beautiful and golden. With these latkes the golden is matched in kin with a beautiful orange. Like a sunset.

I prefer my latkes with powdered sugar (and thanks to my bad influence, so does Thatniece), but Thatdad will tell you that the traditional way to eat latkes is with applesauce. But since apples are not an ingredient in this challenge, I decided to make pearsauce instead. This was a mistake because now I can never buy applesauce again. Thatboy has declared that he prefers pearsauce to applesauce, and since it only took 20 minutes to make, I don't think I can justify not making pearsauce. I think this year I'm going to have to learn to start jarring!

And I'm hooooping this entry might inspire some more of you to enter the Platinum Challenge. So much so that I'm extending the deadline another week! So you have until next Friday. Get your entries in soon!

Potato and Carrot Latkes with Pearsauce

• 6 pears, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 cups grated potatoes (Thatdad will tell you to use a mix of potatoes, even sweetpotatoes. I used 2 red potatoes and 3 yukon gold)
• 1 small onion, grated
• 2 grated carrots
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 egg
• vegetable oil

1. Place pears, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes. Puree in blender and set aside.
   
2. Combine potatoes, onion, and carrots in a medium bowl and press to remove as much liquid as possible. These are watery veggies, so you'll have a lot of liquid.
3. Add salt, parsley, flour, and egg and mix well.
4. Heat oil until hot, and then lower heat to medium low. Form the potato/carrot mixture into patties and gently place them in hot oil. Fry patties until golden brown in color, about 2 minutes per side.
5. Serve latkes warm with spoonful of pearsauce on top.

What You're Doing

Happy New Year everyone! It's 2009, and like everyone else I've got my own list of resolutions. Some of them are even applicable to this little ole blog!

First and foremost, I SCORED this year at the holidays. I got some incredibly great gifts. I won't bother to give you the gorey details of the rapture I felt when using my brand new can opener. When I reached into my stocking and pulled it out I squealed with joy. Thatboy was confused when I told him I loved it more than any other gift I received. He put his foot down when I asked if I could sleep with the can opener beside me on my pillow. But you've got to understand. I hate hate hate our old can opener. It doesn't work and I have more cuts from trying to get into cans then I'd care to share. It's uggggggly. Sharp metal is not my friend.

This one is like magic. It's got one handle and cuts the top clean off - no sharp edges! AND to save my fingers even more, it has a special tool to lift off the lid! There are plenty more cooking related gifts from Thatfamily and Thatboy which will undoubtedly make future appearances, but now it's time to introduce the newest addition to Thathouse... drumroll please

My brand new droolworthy camera!!!!!!! See, years and years and years ago back when we were living beside the Flintstones, Thatboy got me a gift of a digital camera. It ran off of Windows 2000. Anyone remember Windows 2000? The world was not kind to Windows 2000 and it wasn't long before Windows 2003 rolled along, and my camera became obsolute. Seriously it required special software to download the pictures, and that software would not run on Windows 2003. And the computer refused to recognize the camera as any sort of camera or storage device. So I was back to my old film camera I won at Senior Night at my high school. My parent's had given Thatboy a digital camera shortly thereafter and we pretty much both used it for all our photography needs. Shortly after getting engaged, I went to live in Europe for a summer and took the digital camera with me so I could send home pictures. I never really gave it back to him. Which was fine, we spend most of our memorable times together anyway. But the camera is old and takes forever to take a picture. It can't take any pictures indoors without giving me a message that it's blurry and am I joking or do I really want to save this piece of crap picture.

So Thatboy decided I've been such a good girl this year I deserved something bright and shiny. He picked this one out for several reasons. First and foremost, it's green! Green is my favorite color. Second, it can be dropped from 6.6 feet without any damage at all. Those of you that know me, can appreciate why this is probably a good thing. Third, it's waterproof! For real waterproof! As in, it can take pictures underwater! Which is good given that we love love love snorkeling. Although, in truth, the idea of taking the camera underwater scares the beejeebus out of me and I have told Thatboy under no uncertain circumstances that we won't be using that feature. He keeps threatening to drop it in the sink accidently onpurpose.

I love my new camera and all its new features including (and here's where it gets blog related) a CUISINE setting!!! (although I think I've been using the self-portrait setting more, and the people in line at BestBuy were highly entertained when I tried out all the different lighting settings on Thatboy. Best Buy has neutral flourescent lighting if anyone is interested) Now I can make even jam on bread look appetizing!

Mmmmmm don't you want to take a big ole bite of that goodness? And if you're ever in Idyllwild (and really you should be) be sure to pick up some of the Wild Huckleberry jam. It's very versatile. I put it on everything!

I'm still playing with all the settings on the camera, and so far have come up with a new favorite picture. It's a combination of various color settings, exposure settings, and zoom settings.

Thatdog really enjoyed his new Christmas ball. Thatboy really enjoys the fact it glows in the dark.

Tomorrow I'll fill you in on my other new year's resolution! But for now, I'll leave you with an improvement. You may recall the last time I made fried rice I deemed it completely inauthentic. All my comments said that mine was pretty much as authentic as it gets, but I still hate using the packaged stuff, so I used a tip from gaga: "The keys are to use leftover rice (ideally because it's drier and less likely to give you mushy fried rice) along with whatever meats and veggies and seasoning (usually soy sauce and/or salt) you want!" So here's my authetic version of fried rice.

Non-cheater fried rice

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/2 lb ground pork
• tablespoon soy sauce

1. In skillet over medium heat, melt butter and lightly scramble eggs. Remove eggs from skillet and set aside.
2. Brown pork in same saucepan and set aside.
3. Add oil to saucepan and heat on high until very hot. Add green onions and stirfry for one minute.
4. Lower heat to medium. Add rice and pork and stirfry 2 minutes or until heated through.
5. Add soy sauce and scrambled eggs and stirfry 1 more minute.

About a boy

Thatboy has the biggest sweet tooth and because of the season, it's easy to indulge him. For the Jewish New Year we all dip apples in honey, a reminder of the sweet year to come. Well I see your apples and honey, and raise you... in a big way. I want to wish all my readers a sweet 2009, and before that ball drops and we all swear off anything with sugar for at least a week, I leave you with some of my sweetest recipes. And they're not all unhealthy! Some have some real redeeming qualities.

Please stay safe tonight everyone! And, of course, Happy New Year!

4 Ingredient Peach Cobbler
Thatboy says this is the best peach cobbler he's ever had in his life. It makes me feel a little like Sandra Lee, but after a bite or two, I don't even care. Besides, it's hard to get fresh peaches in December!

• 2 cans sliced peaches in juice
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup chopped pecans
  

1. Preheat oven to 350. Pour peaches and juice in bottom of baking dish.
2. Sprinkle cake mix over peaches.
3. Cut butter into small pieces and dot over cake mix.
4. Sprinkle pecans on top. Bake for 45 minutes.

Strawberry Surprise Pie
Some people call pies and cakes made with Jello "mirror" cakes because of the shiny surface. I prefer to call this one a surprise because of the secret hiding below the surface - bananas. Sure you could leave them out, but then you'd have no surprise! The addition of cottage cheese helps make this a pie that's not only sweet, but kinda good for you - maybe even breakfast food!

• 1/2 packet of strawberry jello
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 12 ice cubes
• 8 oz cottage cheese
• 1 banana, sliced
• premade graham cracker crust (I know, totally cheating, right?)

1. Dissolve strawberry jello in boiling water and stir for three minutes.
2. Add ice cubes and stir for 2 more minutes, removing any ice cubes that don't melt.
3. Stir in cottage cheese until well blended.
4. Make layer of bananas on bottom of crust.
5. Spoon strawberry mixture over bananas. Refrigerate one hour.
   

Steamed Apples
I can't get away from giving you one sweet apple dish, and this is one of my favorites. Although usually baked apples are made in the oven, it's just as easy to make them stovetop. It's the perfect winter treat!

• 2 apples
• sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• cinnamon
• 1/2 cup water
  

1. Core apples, but not all the way through so that there is a cavity in each apple.
2. Fill this cavity with sugar.
3. Place 1/4 Tbsp butter on top of each filled cavity and sprinkle cinnamon over top.
4. In a saucepan place water and bring to a boil. Lower to simmer and place apples in water. Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Lemon Pie

• 1 box lemon sugar free jello
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• ice cubes
• 1 cup cool whip
• pie crust - baked and cooled
  

1. In a large bowl, combine boiling water and jello and stir 2 minutes.
2. Add ice cubes, 1 at a time, stirring until dissolved for another 2 minutes.
3. Stir in cool whip until blended and smooth. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate overnight.

What have you done?

Although my nickname at Thatboy's office is Superwife, I definitely have my lazy days. Those days where I stay in my pajamas all day and never leave the couch. Those days where the thought of coming up with a creative dinner just seems like work. Unfortunately "frozen dinners" in Thathouse consist of frozen chicken breasts, frozen ground meat, and frozen soups. That's when meals get very lazy. I start thinking "what makes up a dinner? A protein, a veggie, and a starch. I know, I'll just throw them all together, and cover them with cheese!" Don't all start applauding just yet, this kind of genius takes years of practice.

Chicken and Potato Casserole

• 1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
• 6 red potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Arrange potato in baking dish, place layer of chicken on top, and layer of red onion.
2. Mix together cheese and milk in small bowl and pour over layerers. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 40 minutes.

Serves 2.
Each serving has:

Calories		598.5
Total Fat		5.4 g
	Saturated Fat	1.4 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	2.1 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.2 g
Cholesterol		77.9 mg
Sodium		700.7 mg
Potassium		2,616.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate		98.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	12.2 g
	Sugars	4.0 g
Protein		39.9 g

Reminiscing

Let me take you back back back. All the way to the week before Christmas. Back when I promised to show you all the reasons why I hadn't been blogging lately.

First there was the Christmas Stocking:

My friend got it the day before Christmas, just in time for stuffing it with goodies for her son's first birthday! She loved it, her son loved it, and she couldn't believe it was my first stocking. To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised myself. And proud! I can't make to make homemade stockings for Thathouse next year! And the host of little babies that all my friends seem to be having lately (so far we're at 6 boys between 2008/2009).

Then came Thanksgiving dinner....in December. We were to have friends over before we left and as every good hostess, I requested dietary restrictions which was a good thing, since she's sticking heavily to white meat (not including pork) and I don't do seafood. I decided to do a Thanksgiving meal since turkey is a fantastic white meat and I've never gotten to make one before! I spent all day brining a turkey and making sides when the call came - illness forced our guests to cancel. Luckily Sisterwife jumped in to save the day (and if she's figured out my blog yet she's going to be hysterical laughing at this point in time). Her and her husband, who were already coming over later that week gladly decided to forgoe the red meat I'd promised them for Thatgirl's first turkey. But Sisterwife came exactly on time, and rather than whip out the camera, we sat down to a hot meal. You're stuck with pictures of what remained. Lucky for you, I always over do it when company comes so there was a lot left over.

The turkey! Thatmom (and Thatdad) make the turkey every Thanksgiving and they are not briners. But I had heard good things about it, and so I decided to give it a try. Thatboy said it was the best turkey he'd ever eaten! It was perfectly done, moist, and flavorful. I had a terrible fear of undercooking the bird and serving raw turkey to my guests, but who would have guessed 2 hours is all a turkey needs? I also roasted the turkey breast side down for an hour before flipping it, and Thatmom thinks that may be the weirdest thing she's ever heard of, but it came out well!


Gravy. Made from pan drippings and the roasted giblets and turkey neck. Thatboy was a little hesitant about this. I think he asked 4 or 5 times "why are you keeping the turkey neck and giblets?" Of course for fun I was keeping them in a plastic bag in the fridge right on top of his lunch box........... I took the turkey out of the oven 2 hours before the guests arrived, and had piping hot gravy ready to pour over it! Perfect!


Thatboy's favorite part of Thanksgiving is the stuffing, so I made a ton of it! Thatmom always makes two kinds of stuffing, in the bird and outside of the bird, but since so many people are worried about bacteria by cooking in the turkey, I made this outside the bird just in case. I also used chicken sausage since it was originally made for someone who doesn't eat pork.


I felt bad about not having anything green, and having so many starches, so I threw some spinach in the skillet with toasted pine nuts and raisins. Nothing fancy. Not really Thanksgiving-y, but it added some green color to the table. The raisins add some sweetness and the pine nuts add a nutty flavor and this is a great way to get someone to eat spinach!


Sweet potatoes. Not my best dish. Don't get me wrong, I love everything made with sweet potatoes (as does PI, Sisterwife's husband) but Thatboy didn't like the consistency. I put the sweet potatoes in the food processor and they came out a little pureed (Thatboy calls it baby food). I spoke with Thatsister-in-law's sister while we were out of town because she makes the most fantastic sweet potatoes and she said she mashes them with a fork, so they're still chunky. Thatboy likes hers better, so I'm going to use that technique from now on. Topping them with pecans and brown sugar however will probably stay.


Cranberry Relish. Thatboy wasn't a fan of this either. I wanted to make it on my own and not use any of my mom's recipes for this Thanksgiving so I didn't use her fabulous cranberry relish, but that was a mistake. Thatboy thought this was too tart and not nearly as sweet as my mom's. I know her secret ingredient, so maybe next time I'll use that. All I know is that it was very exciting to watch the fresh cranberries boil away on the stove!


Mashed Potatoes. These were a huge hit. I'm still kinda tasting them in my mouth, and it's been two weeks! I think what sends them over the edge is the heavy cream and white cheddar cheese. Yeah - that's pretty much all it takes right?

And finally, getting ready for the Holidays! There was holiday shopping to be done, and activities to plan. I made boxes for Thatniece and Thatnephew to open each day we visited filled with activities. Activities like making Christmas cookies and watching Christmas movies, making hot cocoa and going to look at the decorated house lights, celebrating Chanukkah and making latkes and sufganiyot. All the activities went over great and each one was a brand new first time experience for the kids which is always fun. And of course there were all the Christmas office treats!


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Don't forget the Platinum Chef Challenge deadline is almost upon us! Later this week I'll post the rest of the Christmas update with all the goodies and sweets that give you something to have a New Years resolution about.