Holiday Dinner

You gotta love winter...okay maybe not so much. This week the midwest was blanketed with another snowstorm, our second one in weeks. We'd planned to celebrate Christmas with Tim's kids on Wednesday night but because of the weather they headed to their grandparents in Minnesota early.

We were planning on tapas for Christmas Eve dinner so why not have this dinner on Wednesday night anyway?

Menu
Deep Fried Turkey
Paula Deen's Cornbread Stuffing
Brussel Sprouts
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie*

*This is a January Sweet Melissa Sunday's post, so check back for this one!

This incredibly delicious Brussels Sprouts recipe is from my son Justin's recipe file.



Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts, Dijon and Crisp Crumbs
Fine Cooking

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. caraway seeds, toasted lightly and crushed
3/4 tsp. kosher salt; more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
2 lb. Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, cut through the core into quarters
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 400°F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of the olive oil with the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, caraway seeds, 1/2 tsp. of the salt, and about 10 grinds of pepper. Add the Brussels sprouts and toss to thoroughly distribute the mustard mixture. Spread the sprouts in an even layer on the two baking sheets.

Roast until the cores of the sprouts are just barely tender and the leaves are browning and crisping a bit, 20 to 25 minutes (if your oven heat is uneven, rotate the pans midway through cooking).

While the sprouts are roasting, make the topping: Line a plate with two layers of paper towel. Heat the remaining 1 Tbs. oil with the butter in a medium (10-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter has stopped foaming, add the breadcrumbs all at once; toss to coat with the fat. Reduce the heat to medium, add the walnuts and the remaining 1/4 tsp. salt, and cook, stirring constantly, until the crumbs are browned and slightly crisp and the nuts are golden, 4 to 6 minutes. (The crumbs will start to sound “scratchy” as they get crisp.) Dump the breadcrumb mixture onto the paper towels to drain the excess fat.

Transfer the sprouts to a serving bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary. Sprinkle the crumbs over the sprouts just before serving.

Make Ahead Tips
You can fry the crumb topping up to 2 hours before serving.

Peanut Butter Balls

What Christmas treat are you known for? You know that recipe you make every year and everyone asks you for this recipe. For me, it's these decadent Peanut Butter Balls. It doesn't get any better than peanut butter and chocolate.

I've been making these at Christmas since Justin was small. My recipe is scratched onto a piece of notebook paper, it has my son's scribbles and a phone message he took for me on the back. Too sentimental to rewrite onto a recipe card!

Peanut Butter Balls
1/2 cup butter
3 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 pound powdered sugar
8 ounces Hershey's chocolate bar
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate bits
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cake paraffin

Melt butter, stir in peanut butter until smooth. In a large bowl, combine rice krispies and powdered sugar. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice krispie mixture. Stir until combined well. Chill for at least one hour. Roll rice krispie mixture into balls approximately the size of walnuts.

In a double boiler or a bowl over a pan of boiling water, combine chocolate bar, chocolate chips, paraffin and vanilla. Stir until melted and combined.

Dip balls into chocolate mixture, making sure to cover all sides. Place on waxed paper to dry.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Treats

I decided to make homemade treats for my staff this year. Instead of making one thing, I decided to make a variety of treats. My often requested Peanut Butter Balls, mini loaves of Mrs. Flint's Banana Bread and a third treat to be revealed in January. You see it's the January 3rd Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe.

Hopefully they will all enjoy some sweet holiday treats. They're a great bunch and I am lucky to have them all on my team!

Vegetable Stock from Scraps

When I took the Culinary Boot Camp series a few weeks ago, we learned to make stocks. I learned a lot of tips from the chef who taught our classes but one of my favorites was the save your veggie scraps and make stock. I am sure for some of you that's a given but for me, I'd never made stock before these classes.

For the past six weeks or so, I've been putting the celery, onion, carrot, mushroom and various other veggie scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer. I was excited to make my first ever Vegetable Stock using these scraps. While the stock was cooking, the house had a wonderful soup like aroma. Although I forgot to take a picture, the stock had a beautiful golden color.

Vegetable Stock

4 cups vegetables*

2 garlic cloves, minced

Water to cover

6 peppercorns

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add vegetables and garlic. Sweat with the lid on for about 5 minutes, stirring at least once. Add enough water to cover vegetables, peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaves. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain stock into a collander, lined with cheesecloth. If you don't have cheesecloth, use a strong paper towel.

You can freeze your stock in ice cube trays. This makes for a quick way to add stock to soups or sauces.

Tomato Soup

I have fond childhood memories of a steaming hot bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup, a Grilled Cheese Sandwich and lunch with my mom. As I grew older, I became less and less fond of tomato soup or should I say canned tomato soup. Homemade tomato soup on the other hand, I love. The flavor is so much milder and less acidic than the canned varieties. I am always anxious to try a new recipe for tomato soup. I so enjoy Michael Chiarello and when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. The only change I made to this recipe was to substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. This soup has a wonderful texture and a nice mild tomato flavor.

Tomato Soup
Adapted from Michael Chiarello

1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.

Gingebread Cupcakes - MSC

Gingerbread Cupcakes...hmmm? Gingebread, Gingerbread Cookies, Gingerbread Houses but Gingerbread Cupcakes? I am not a big Gingerbread fan but it is one of those signature holiday dishes, so knew I was baking this one. I really wanted to like these cupcakes but the truth is, I didn't. Now that wasn't really because of the flavor, it was because they were DRY!!! I followed the recipe exactly! As I was scooping the batter into the cupcake pan, I thought it seemed really thick. I even baked them for less time than the recipe called for. With some of the earlier Martha Stewart Cupcake bakes, I felt like my cupcakes were overbaked. I bought an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature was right on. What happened? I am anxious to read the other Martha Stewart Cupcake baker's blogs to see if I am the only one who experienced dry cupcakes. Now I am trying to decide what to do with the cupcakes because while on the first day they were dry but edible, on the second day, they're too dry to eat. Maybe some sort of bread pudding?

Thanks to Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table for choosing this great holiday recipe for this month's bake. You can find the links to all of the other Martha Stewart cupcake baker's here!