Go me!

I have a review of The Book of Mormon (the musical, not the book) up on a big group blog. Not a really busy comment thread, so I guess I didn't leave many questions unanswered.

Valentines!

Thank you, Design Mom.



Here's the image we used for the kindergartener's Valentines, so you can see better just how cute he looks. His new method for getting a natural-looking smile in pictures includes hyperventilating and fake laughing. Seems to sort of work, though.

Black Bean, Kale and Butternut Squash Stew with Quinoa

I made this recipe earlier this week for dinner. The previous night I made Swedish Meatballs on my sister's recommendation, and they were pretty darn delicious but very, very rich (I could really tell how rich when I got out the leftovers for lunch the next day and there was white congealed fat around the edges of the container). Something less heavy was called for, and I wanted to use the quinoa, kale and butternut squash I already had on hand. I didn't have a jalapeño, so I added a pinch of cayenne with the other dry spices. I didn't have canned tomatoes, but I did find at the back of the fridge about a third of a pint of Emerald Valley Medium Salsa that needed to be used up, plus I tossed in a few cubes of frozen tomato juice. I used chicken stock instead of veggie broth, and I tossed in a couple cups of frozen corn at the end. Served over the quinoa, topped with the cilantro, plus grated cheese, sour cream, and crumbled tortilla chips, it was delicious, satisfying but not dense or rich. And if you follow the original linked recipe and forgo my animal-y alterations, it's even vegan.

Smørbrød, or, Something to Eat When You're Tired of Turkey

I hosted a dinner party on Thanksgiving weekend and wanted it to resemble turkey and trimmings as little as possible. So, a Scandinavian theme! We started the evening with gjetost on Kavli with butter and honey, and then four different smørbrød. Smørbrød (this is the Norwegian spelling; the Danes say smörrebröd) literally means "buttered bread," but has come to mean small, fancy open-faced sandwiches. Web research and cookbooks told me a smørbrød layout usually starts with fish and eggs, proceeds with liver, and then moves on to red meat, so that's what we did.


First up (ingredients in order of assembly): rye bread (I found small loaves of thinly sliced bread at the grocery store, labeled "party slices"), butter, spinach, cucumber, scrambled eggs, herbed chèvre, ivory smoked Chinook salmon, dill. To make perfect scrambled eggs, whisk 8-10 eggs with 2 oz softened cream cheese, salt and pepper until cream cheese is in small bits, then cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until just set.


Next: sourdough, butter, forgot the spinach, Chop chicken liver pâté with pistachios and brandy-soaked currants, homemade cranberry sauce (thanks to J's mom!), crispy onions.


Aaaaah: pumpernickel, butter, spinach, havarti, thinly-sliced rare-side-of-medium steak (this was the last steak from our 1/16, a cube steak, but I think any steak would work), tomato, plain or pickled thinly sliced red onion, minced flat-leaf parsley.

I made my own pickled red onion: halve onion pole to pole, peel, then slice very thin with a mandoline. Toss sliced onions in a small bowl with a tablespoon of kosher salt, top with a cup or two of ice cubes, then let sit for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, make a sugar-vinegar solution. I think I started out with a cup of sugar and a half-cup of vinegar, and then added another half-cup of vinegar when it seemed too syrupy and not like the refrigerator pickles I remembered my dad making when I was a kid. I think next time I'll try replacing half the vinegar with water, to make them a tad less potent. Anyway, you'll probably need to heat the vinegar some for the sugar to dissolve completely, and a quick zap in the microwave did the trick for me. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, set it aside to cool while the onions sit. After a couple of hours, pick out the ice cubes and drain the onions well, then stir them into the sweet brine. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.


Finally: Trader Joe's European-style whole grain bread, butter, forgot the spinach, jarlsberg, Swedish potato sausage, sour cream, chives. This was the only combo that wasn't spot-on perfect. I think the bread was a bit dense, and the whole thing needed something to moisten and tang it up. Or maybe it just seemed bland after the very exciting steak sandwich that came before it.

Once everyone had polished off the assembled sandwiches, I hauled out all the raw ingredients (there were leftovers of almost everything other than the tomato) and let my guests build their own smørbrød until they couldn't eat any more (I was fine with just the four!):


For dessert? Riskrem, aka Norwegian Christmas Rice Pudding. I can't give you an exact recipe on this, since I didn't measure anything. Essentially, though, you cook arborio rice (maybe 1 1/2 C?) in whole milk (6 C?) with a little salt until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed (there should still be some, though, as the rice will continue to soak it up as it cools). Then you stir in sugar (1/2-3/4 C) and vanilla (2 t) and let cool. Then you whip a cup or so of cream and fold it in, along with (if you want) the prize almond (I skipped it this time). Serve with jam (I had rhubarb-ginger, tayberry and cloudberry) and cookies (ginger thins + Danish butter cookies).

Copenhagen Butter Cookies
from Sheila Lukins' All Around the World Cookbook

1 C unsalted butter, softened
2/3 C superfine sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
2 C flour

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until thoroughly combined, but not fluffy. Mix in the flour just until it's fully incorporated. Form the dough into a log, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Either cut dough log into scant-1/4" slices, or let the dough warm up just a little before rolling and cutting. Bake at 350 until the edges are golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Finally

I've finished re-uploading all the pictures to this blog. Now when you explore the archives, no more blank spots.

Thanksgiving sides and desserts

Thanksgiving was at J&J's house this year, so they provided turkey and trimmings, and we brought side dishes and a dessert. I brought three sides: Roasted Green Beans, Cocoa-Roasted Butternut Squash and Cauliflower and Brussels Sprout Gratin. The beans and gratin were total winners (thanks to my sister for pointing me toward the gratin recipe!), but the squash wasn't nearly as good as it sounded.

Cocoa-Roasted Butternut Squash
adapted (mostly to shrink quantities--the original recipe would feed an army) from a recipe printed in Oregonian FOODday, November 16, 2010

3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t salt
pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
scant 1/4 t cinnamon
1 t granulated sugar
2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into one-inch chunks
1 1/2 T vegetable oil
1/4 C toasted slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cocoa, salt, sugar and spices in a small bowl. Toss squash with the oil, then with the cocoa-spice mixture. Arrange squash on foil-lined baking sheet, then roast for 40-45 minutes or until tender. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with almonds.

Perhaps I ended up with a particularly flavorless squash, but this didn't taste like mole sauce (as the article had promised). If I were to try it again, I would use less cocoa and swap the teaspoon of white sugar for a couple tablespoons of brown.

The dessert was a much less equivocal success. A few years back, a friend sent me a recipe, originally from Fine Cooking magazine, and I finally got around to making it.

Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Tart
adapted from Fine Cooking Winter 2005

Crust:
1 C cookies ground in a food processor (about 25 chocolate wafers, 8 whole graham crackers, 35 Nilla wafers)
2 T granulated sugar
3 T unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Mix crumbs, sugar and butter until well blended (I do it all in the food processor to avoid dirtying another bowl). Press crumb mixture into a 9.5-inch tart pan, using a straight-sided steel measuring cup. Bake about 10 minutes, then let cool.

Filling:
1 1/2 C whole milk
1/4 t salt
3 egg yolks
1/3 C light brown sugar
4 t flour
1/2 C creamy natural peanut butter
1/2 t vanilla

Bring milk and salt to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, and flour until well blended. Slowly add hot milk, whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a full boil. Boil one minute, then remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour hot custard into the crust and spread evenly. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cold, at least two hours.

Glaze:
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 C unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 T light corn syrup

Melt chocolate and butter in a double-boiler or bain-marie, then whisk in corn syrup until smooth. Carefully remove plastic wrap from filling, then drizzle the glaze over the filling and spread to cover whole surface of tart. Refrigerate until glaze is set, at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours.

Quilled Snowflakes

Here's a Christmas craft for you to take on when you're snowed in.





To make these four snowflakes (adaptable for use as Christmas ornaments), I used one sheet of cardstock, a rotary paper cutter, and a large tapestry needle, no special quilling tools or papers. I adapted the pattern created by Reese Dixon to make a six-pointed snowflake. I also used this snowflake-quilling template, mounted to a piece of foam-core, to help hold them steady and symmetrical (with straight pins) while the glue dried. I used a clear liquid craft glue with a fine squeeze tip, but I think as long as you're pinning them in place with the foam-core template, standard white glue, applied with a toothpick, would be fine.

Use a paper cutter or a paper shredder that only cuts in one direction to make strips of the cardstock. They can be anywhere between 1/8" and 1/4" wide, but it's better if they're not wider, and it's important that they be as even as possible. Then cut them to the lengths needed for the snowflake pattern, only make the strip for the central spiral 10" long instead of 6". I might also cut the "arm" pieces a little longer, because I like the slightly airier look of the snowflake at upper left in the picture above. Its "arm" pieces were the same length as the others, just curled a little less at the ends.

Using a needle instead of a quilling tool meant it was a little harder to get each strip started winding, but it was totally doable and pretty quick once I got the hang of it.