Thanksgiving 2010, Part I: Cream cheese ball (p.75), Shrimp dip (p. 72), and XXBaked honey shrimp (p. 84)

And on to another edition of TJOC Thanksgiving! Did anyone else make any TJOC recipes for the holiday?

There were two major changes this Tday:

1. I'm getting to the point where I've made a very significant portion of certain chapters. The recipes that are left I've made the conscious decision (many, many times since I go through every recipe several times a month) not to make. Either I think it looks gross, it's time-consuming, it has difficult ingredients--whatever. One of the chapters I'm the furthest in is definitely "Appetizers and Hors D'oeuvres", from which I traditionally make a few selections for Thanksgiving lunch.

2. I've made the vast majority of the normal Tday TJOC recipes. So the turkey, one of the stuffings, one of the cranberries, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, and sweet potatoes were all made either from TJOC recipes I've made before--the green bean casserole, for example--or from mom and I just winging it.

Now, this was a long list of entrées. Guess how many people we had to dinner? Four. Josh, Mom, Josh's brother, and myself. Plenty of food for four people! I love Thanksgiving. We cook all day, eat around 5 or 6 pm, sleep for a couple hours, and then go to the mall to shop at midnight. We get home, sleep a couple more hours, and then get up and go to the mall again around 6 am. Fun!

The appetizers this year and why they haven't been previously made:

I hadn't yet made Cream cheese ball (p.75) because it's such a boring recipe. I made the Cheddar cheese ball a couple of Thanksgivings ago and it was a hit, but this was essentially just a more boring version of the same recipe.

I mixed cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, a little salt, and some horseradish:

The best part of cooking with mom is that she enjoys doing some parts of cooking that I can't stand. For some reason I really hate forming the cheese balls--but mom enjoys it. She says it's like working with clay. Look at the perfect ball she formed:

We cooled it in the refrigerator for a couple hours and then rolled it in crushed pecans:

Perfect! This cheeseball was a hit too. I think people don't make cheeseballs nowadays because they seem old-fashioned and way too retro but people seem to like them. I think it's time for a cheeseball renaissance. That being said, it was more boring than the other cheeseball and really needed to be spiced up with something else--probably more cheese.

Shrimp dip (p. 72). I hadn't made this recipe because it seemed odd--it's not a dip FOR shrimp, it's a dip made FROM shrimp. It was a simple recipe, I mixed a little can of tiny shrimp, sour cream, mayonnaise, chili sauce, lemon juice, and a little onion and refrigerated it for an hour:

Believe it or not, it was actually pretty good! I thought the little shrimp were very strange but it had a nice, tangy flavor. I had two issues though--it was a very strange little pink color and it was difficult to figure out what to spread it on. We gave plenty of options--crackers, bread, baguette, breadsticks, but none of them were perfect.

I actually haven't made any shrimp appetizer recipes up until this point. I'm not sure why. I decided to break the drought with Baked honey shrimp (p. 84).

The recipe called for Cajun seasoning, which I actually happened to not only have, but have at mom's house. I hadn't found a use for it before this point--I only had it because Penzey's had a coupon for a free jar. The ingredient list is hilarious--it's essentially every spice.

I mixed lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, honey, the Cajun seasoning, parsley, and red pepper and added my shrimp (it took a LONG time to peel two pounds of shrimp):

After they marinated for an hour, I popped them in the oven:

When they were done I sprinkled a lemon zest and parsley mixture over the top:

These shrimp were amazing. The Cajun seasoning was spicy but not too hot (if it was just me, I'd make it quite a bit more spicy) and was rounded out by the soy sauce and honey. These shrimp were really good both hot and cold--which is a great characteristic for a party appetizer. I would make these again in a second.

Delicious dinner at Moe's Original BBQ!

I'm not the kind of blogger that gets invited to press events or gets sent free stuff to try out and talk about. I think the companies like people who are far more foodie than I am for those sorts of things. So when I got invited to a press event by Moe's Original Barbeque I was extremely excited.

And the food on the menu looked delicious:

From Drop Box

When we walked in, I thought the place was adorable. I have this strange aversion to eating in places that look like fast food joints--if it sets off that trigger, I get the food and take it home. Sometimes BBQ restaurants set me off but this place was really cute and easy to eat in:



When we got there, the menu was even more extensive than what had been emailed to me! The owner invited us to help ourselves to some spinach dip with carrot sticks and celery as an appetizer. It was really good but most places have pretty good spinach dip:



And they offered us beer!



Obviously, I live in Fort Collins, so Fat Tire is offered everywhere (and is what Josh drank) but I was happy to see the Schlitz! This will probably get me driven out of FoCo but I don't love New Belgium as much as everyone else so it was nice to have some choices that aren't frequently offered here.

I ordered chicken wings with summer squash casserole and macaroni and cheese as the sides.

The chicken wings had a really terrific sweet flavor but were pretty dry:



I don't think I would order them again. On the other hand the sides:



were DELICIOUS! The summer squash casserole was obviously homemade and had a nice creamy texture that reminded me of the version I make. Same with the mac and cheese--it didn't come out of a box and had a nice tangy cheese flavor. So good!

Josh got pulled pork with the mac and cheese and creamed spinach:



The pulled pork was tender and flavorful. The creamed spinach was perfect--just enough cream to showcase the spinach, rather than to hide it (the way it should be). I didn't love the cornbread but Josh did--I thought it was dry but he found it perfect.

Since it was Josh's birthday I got us two little desserts:



The owner heard that it was Josh's birthday and showed up with two shots of whiskey:



Uh oh! I hate taking shots but I felt like I should since it was Josh's birthday! ::shiver:: I still hate taking shots. It was a great gesture though!

One of the desserts was banana pudding which was TERRIFIC. It had a nilla wafer on the top and bottom and was absolute perfection. I could have eaten five of them. The other was a Nutter Butter Icebox Pie--it tasted EXACTLY like Nutter Butters! Yum!

From the press kit:

The Beginnings

Moe's Original Bar B Que was founded by three Bama boys: Mike Fernandez, Ben Gilbert, and Jeff Kennedy. After meeting at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, they instantly became friends and had a mutual interest in all things Southern: BBQ, live music, college football, and whiskey.

In 1988, Mike hooked up with Moses Day in Tuscaloosa and began learning to fire roast meats. When Moses fired up his backyard barrel pit, everyone in T-Town knew where to go. The boys were lucky to learn from Moses and his distinct style that makes up Moe's original flavor of BBQ. The boys loved the mountains and eventually they all landed in Vail, Colorado where they each refined their cooking skills. By using fruit wood to smoke the meats and hitting it with two sauces, they knew they had something special. Moe's Original BBQ smokes all meats fresh daily and unlike other BBQ joints, they don't stop there. They prepare eight to ten Southern style side dishes everyday with recipes derived from mothers, grandmothers, nannies and housekeepers.

Moe's Original BBQ is a Southern soul food revival. Working diligently as a team, Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que serves up a unique, all things Southern, bar-b-que experience.

And I believe that they are using actual recipes instead of frozen food from Cisco. I really recommend trying Moe's if you get the chance. I'll be going back to gorge myself on sides and desserts--and a nice cold Schlitz.

NYE #4--Pesto cheesecake (p. 76), Pigs in a blanket (p. 91), Curried nuts (p. 70), and Rosemary and brown sugar nuts (p. 70)

First things first, if you have the slightest doubt that this was a HUGE day of cooking--

This was our list of recipes that we would make. I needed the organization and it included how much cook time, fridge time, and prep time each item would take. I greatly underestimated the prep time of some of the foods (I'm talking to you, samosas and dolmas). Some of the items got knocked off the list as we cooked and ran out of time (Swedish meatballs, cupcakes) and I've blogged about other items before (Blue cheese dressing, honey mustard).

My mom had watched a tv segment on cream cheese covered in hot pepper jelly that she thought we should make. I happened to have a big jar of dad's homemade green pepper jelly that I had not idea what to do with. This was the result:

It was amazing! I thought green pepper jelly sounded horrible but it tastes almost nothing like hot pepper and is super sweet! It was so good on crackers! Dad gave me another big jar of it and I am going to make this at home in the future.

Rachel's cat was also being helpful:

There is something very strange to me about a savory cheesecake. I adore cheesecake. In fact, I would say that cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts. But Pesto cheesecake (p. 76)? It seemed so strange. TJOC gives no indication on how to eat it either--do you just take a slice? Or do you smear it on something? This was high on my list of "when am I ever going to make this" so when Rachel mentioned we should make something that I wouldn't normally make, it was the first thing to pop into my mind. The only experience I had with savory cheesecake was when Melissa of Melissa Cooks Gourmet made a green chili version.

The recipe wasn't difficult but was time-consuming. I combined pesto (store-bought) with ricotta cheese, sour cream, eggs, salt, lemon zest, nutmeg, and black pepper. I then poured the mixture into a springform pan that had been buttered and sprinkled with breadcrumbs:

It was then cooked in a waterbath:

And refrigerated for six hours (yes, six hours. Give yourself lots of lead time with this recipe). We popped the springform pan off, smeared more pesto on the top, and decorated it with sundried tomatoes:

We are such dorks! It seemed like the perfect decoration for the party. I would recommend this cheesecake to everybody who likes pesto. If you like pesto, this cheesecake will be a big hit. If you don't, it's going to be the most disgusting thing you've ever tasted. Rachel and I both liked it and I think it would have been even better if we had made it in an 8-inch pan instead of the 9-inch pan I had with me. I think you just eat it in slices, like sweet cheesecake. It was actually a very beautiful dish (but not a very popular one).

Pigs in a blanket (p. 91) are one of those foods that EVERYBODY seems to like but me. I don't know what it is about them but they just don't appeal to me. That being said, they seem to appeal to everyone else--we even had them as a hors d'oeuvres at the wedding (and got tons of compliments). I decided that they would be perfect for the party.

I took a can of refridgerated crescent roll dough, unrolled it, and cut it into pieces (ignoring the perferated lines). I then wrapped the dough around cocktail franks.

Each batch of the piggies made about a cookie sheets worth.

Popped into the oven, they puffed!

I made honey mustard sauce to go with them. They were a HUGE hit. They were so much of a hit that Rachel's boyfriend asked us to hide the rest of them so they weren't all gone before everyone got to the party. We did as he asked and people still hunted them down! The pigs in a blanket were absolutely the most popular thing at the party, which I think is a little ironic. We made all these difficult dishes that took hours and yet the pigs in a freakin' blanket are the first things eaten!

I thought Curried nuts (p. 70) seemed interesting and Rachel agreed. She pointed out that she didn't really like the curry mix she had (the real question is, why did we continue on at this point?).

Curry powder, cayenne, and butter were mixed together:

And the nuts were mixed in. The nuts (I used almonds from a friend's farm and store-bought peanuts and cashews) were roasted for about seven minutes.

We didn't have any parchment paper, so we just used aluminum foil--it's not quite as good but it worked okay. The nuts were strange because the curry powder wasn't very good--I think they would have been amazing if we would have used my own curry mixture. I've really never tried my hand at high-end nuts but it was much, much cooler than just putting out a bowl of salted mixed nuts. If I had a high-end lounge, these would totally be on the table, along with Rosemary and brown sugar nuts (p. 70). Rosemary and brown sugar nuts were made much the same way as curried nuts, except for a rosemary/brown sugar/corn syrup/butter mixture instead of the curry mixture:

I roasted them:

The corn syrup made them beautiful and glossy. Rosemary and brown sugar are unexpected flavors when it comes to nuts but they were absolutely delicious. I would make these again in a heartbeat. Again, they seemed very high-end. I think it would be even better with macadamia nuts, cashews, and pecans, but that's probably because those are my three favorite nuts.

NYE #1: Becker bloody bull shots (p. 57), Champagne punch (p. 65), and Glogg (p. 67)

New Year's Eve! I was going to be in Iowa for once. One of my very best friends, Rachel (who some of you may remember from Thanksgiving or my birthday) cane up with a truly terrific idea--she wanted to have a party and we could cook lots of recipes from TJOC! I thought it was a truly inspired idea and we made a boatload (well, if 16 or so fill a boat) of recipes. I'm going to break them into five posts so keep checking back!

Rachel and I made three sets of drinks for the New Year's Eve party--I will discuss them in the order I find them the most interesting. I don't usually have events with enough people for the party drinks in TJOC (ie punch).

Rachel and I had an excess of beef broth. I said "You know, TJOC has a recipe for Becker bloody bull shots (p. 57) and it uses beef broth and is kind of like a Bloody Mary". Rachel perked up--we are both huge Bloody Mary fans. I told her that I thought the recipe looked gross and she replied that it looked delicious and we should make it (we had all the ingredients). The recipe is one of those bizarre ones--tomato juice, beef consomme (or beef broth, I figured), tons of vodka, lime juice, a dash of hot sauce (or many, many dashes if you measure like Rachel), and a little black pepper:



Rachel and I were absolutely exhausted by this point and a drink was well needed:



We decided to drink this more as a drink and less as a shot. It was STOUT. Not kidding around. This is a great drink if you really like hot sauce and vodka. It didn't taste particularly beefy, so if that is scaring you away from the recipe, don't worry! Of course, if you have vegetarians at your party, you might want to warn them--there aren't usually animal products in what seems to be a Bloody Mary :)

I love champagne, I love punch, it seemed Champagne punch (p. 65) would be the perfect drink for a NYE toast.

First, we peeled and cored three pineapple.

Rachel went shopping for the first set of groceries without the list and thought "how many pineapples could this recipe possibly take". She bought two, it takes THREE! THREE PINEAPPLES! Does that seem like a lot to anyone else?



We then sprinkled a pound (yes, a pound) of confectioners' sugar over the top and let it stand for an hour.



Lemon juice, brandy, rum, curacao (actually, Grand Marnier, we traded up), and maraschino liqueur (what the heck is this? We used cherry schnapps) were added to the pineapple and powdered sugar mixture.



The whole thing sat and chilled for four hours. We then added four bottles of champagne.



It was so delicious! Nice and sweet. The pineapple was nice and punchy too--and tasty. This is the perfect drink if you don't really like alcohol because it was so sweet and easy to drink. People seem to mock punch as a innocuous drink. A drink for 15-year-olds to drink and feel naughty. And it is, if it doesn't have alcohol in it. This punch? Almost entirely alcohol.

There was one problem with the punch. Well, actually two problems.

Problem 1--the punch was easy to drink but had no liquid ingredients, other than the lemon juice, that weren't alcoholic so it was STRONG. So, it packed a punch (ha!). Problem 2--I'm allergic to fresh pineapple. That's why I had Rachel slice the pineapple. I thought about it all day. But for some reason, I drank about ten glasses of it. The next day, I was in real pain--my throat was swelled almost shut, my lips itched, my eyes itched, and so on. FOR THREE DAYS! Next time I try to eat pineapple, slap me. Or kiwi, I'm allergic to that too. So I won't be making this again :(

There are a couple of recipes in TJOC that have absolutely amazing lines. Glogg (p. 67) is one of these recipes but we will get to that later...

Glogg requires cinnamon sticks, cloves, and cardamom pods to be tied up in cheesecloth:



The packet was dropped into a mixture of tawny port, brandy, vodka, the peel of an orange, and a cup of raisins.

Getting the tawny port was not as easy as it should have been. Rachel and I went to a grocery store and looked for the port section. Not easily finding it, I asked the liquor employee. He asked me what port was. That's not a good sign! I stumbled upon it myself (in the "dessert wines" section).

TJOC recommends a large non-reactive pot. What is a reactive pot? We had no idea, we figured reactive pots would be copper, everything else is non-reactive. Does anyone know the answer to this?



It was then simmered for an hour.

And on to the best line in a long time...

"Holding the lid against the edge of the pot as a shield, hot a lighted long match near the rim of the pot until the alcohol fumes ignite."

Love it! A shield!



It was on fire! How pretty!



The glogg was strong. STRONG. Really strong. Did I mention it was strong?

There was NOTHING in the glogg except for raisins, spices, and alcohol.

I will admit to not liking the glogg much but I don't like cinnamon. It's a VERY cinnamon-y drink. Unfortunately, it was so late by the time we finished that almost nobody drank it! So Rachel packaged it up--hopefully someone got use from it, it was extremely expensive to make! And lighting it on fire wasn't a fraction as difficult as it seemed like it was going to be.

Scrambled Eggs (p. 198) and Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer!

Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer!



I can't recommend reading about Rombauer enough--it's really inspiring. She self-published TJOC in 1931 to make some money after the death of her husband. In 1936 the publication was picked up by the Bobbs-Merrill Company and a more comprehensive edition was released and the rest is history!



I make passable scrambled eggs--I will preface this blog entry by saying that even I know how to make decent scrambled eggs. Even so, I wanted to make breakfast burritos for dinner and figured I could knock out a TJOC recipe at the same time.


Scrambled Eggs (p. 198).

Combine a few eggs, some salt, a little cream, and bit of paprika. I measured it into the measuring cup so that I could have one less dish to wash.







Pour into a pan (with melted butter) and push the eggs around.




And you keep pushing the eggs around....





And push them around some more...



Finally! The eggs are done. The recipe says the eggs should thicken in about two minutes. It took my eggs CONSIDERABLY longer than that.

How were they? Well, they are scrambled eggs. Unless they are absolutely horrible, there isn't much to say about scrambled eggs. Although I think they are particularly good in a tortilla with some cheese, bacon, and hash browns. Nothing healthy about the combination, but delicious.




Of course, today was Halloween, my favorite holiday! This was the first time in years that I didn't get dressed up and go out on the town . I refused to have no holiday spirit in the house so Duchess got costumed up.

Duchess, Halloween 2008, in her pig costume:



And as a pop star:



She even got special treats--Doggie s'mores from Three Dog Bakery!



Happy Halloween from Josh, Jessica, and Duchess!