Candy post #1--non-TJOC recipes and a PSA for dog owners

So, several years ago I decided to make cookies for a bunch of my friends. I made dozens and dozens of cookies and sent them all over the country. I was so insane about this that I made cookies and sent them out days before having a rib removed and moving to Colorado at the end of 2006.

But I hate baking in Colorado because of the altitude, so I didn't send any cookies out in 2007 or 2008.

This year I started getting passive-aggressive comments from my friends about the lack of cookies, which were both hilarious and annoying. I didn't want to do the cookies again but I realized that I had a new love that I could make instead...candy!

Candy is actually better in Colorado than the midwest because of the low humidity. I thought they would take approximately the same amount of time as the cookies. That was incredibly wrong. They took me at least ten times as much time.

I made many types of candy, half from TJOC and half from other cookbooks. I went to Barnes and Noble and perused their candy-making section. It was four books. Only four books. I bought two of them. I actually bought fifty percent of their candy section. Not even half the titles--half of the books!

The first book I bought was The Field Guide to Candy. I was excited about this book! It was cute and colorful and had information on approximately every candy ever made! I decide to make several candies out of it! I started by making gumdrops.

This is what I ended up with:



That is not a gumdrop, even if you cut it. And it didn't even taste good. I threw it away. I figured it was my fault and made peppermints. An even bigger disaster that almost ruined my saucepan (I didn't even take a picture). DON'T BUY THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU JUST WANT TO LOOK AT THE PICTURES! I had been really excited about making cherry cordials for my father--I had the cherries soaking in kirsch and everything--and I decided not to try because I was not optimistic that they would turn out.

I had much, much better luck with Brittles, Barks, and Bonbons by Charity Ferreira. I made three recipes from it. I'm not going to do a step-by-step because these aren't TJOC recipes :)

Butter mints! I didn't know these little mints were called butter mints but I always take a handful when I see them out at a resturant. They were easy to make and delicious. They also don't require any cooking so they would be a good starter candy.



Peppermint bark is something that I've never been a huge fan of, but it's really easy to make. Believe it or not, I couldn't find candy canes at the grocery store. I certainly couldn't believe it. It always seems like there are hundreds of candy canes everywhere and I get dozens of them for holidays--and I don't even like them! It took a special candy cane pilgrimage to Walgreens (which has a wide selection of candy canes).



As I said, I don't like peppermint bark, so I have no idea how it tastes. But a coworker who loves the stuff said it was tasty. And it sure was pretty!

Rocky Road!



Personally, I love rocky road. And s'mores. I like chocolatey combos. This rocky road was just chocolate, marshmallows, and pecans and it was aaammmmaaazzzing. The book taught me a great trick--don't worry about tempering the chocolate, just melt the chocolate so slowly that it never falls out of temper.

I also made macadamia nut brittle. Incredibly good if you like macadamia nuts, although rather expensive to make.




PSA--I call my dog a little roomba because she is constantly eating everything that falls on the floor. I dropped macadamia nuts and didn't think anything of it. About ten hours later, I went upstairs to go to bed and called Duchess. She didn't follow me. I kept calling her and looked down the stairs and she was staggering up. I went to get her and her back legs weren't working--they were paralyzed. I immediately figured that she had probably eaten something she shouldn't have and I googled and found out that MACADAMIA NUTS ARE TOXIC FOR DOGS. I called the ER and they said that it should pass in 24 hours, just watch her. She was better in 24 hours but it was terrifying--it actually paralyzed her back legs but the poor dog still was wagging her tail :(


Finally, out of my 1964 TJOC, I made Maple caramels:



First off, the recipe was written in (apparently) 60's lingo. I was supposed to cook the candy over a "quick heat" and then cook the ingredients "slowly". Very vague. It took about an hour to get up to temperature. When I popped them out and cut them, they were extremely fragile and granular--I was sure they were wrong. I gave one to my father (who, unfortunately for him, is on the Atkin's diet and couldn't eat any of the candy) and he told me they were perfect--it was an old-fashioned candy and that was exactly what they were supposed to taste like. I found them extremely addictive--they only had four ingredients--maple syrup (spelled sirup, strangely, and the real stuff--very expensive at Whole Foods), brown sugar, cream, and butter.

The table got incredibly full--and this wasn't even all the candy!



Hooray for candy-making!

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Baked sweet potatoes (p. 301) and Baked winter squash II (p. 308)

There are many foods in TJOC that I regularly make but never take a picture of so I can count them off the index. An example of this is Baked sweet potatoes (p. 301). My father gave me a big bag of sweet potatoes and winter squash. The recipe is almost ridiculously easy--poke a few holes in the sweet potato, put it on a potato lined with foil, and pop it in the oven for 45-60 minutes. Delicious and easy!




Another example is Baked winter squash II (p. 308). I love winter squash. Actually, I just love squash, all squash. Growing up in the land of the overproducing squash plants, I was inundated with it growing up, and it only made me love it more. The recipe is amazingly easy. Cut up a winter squash, remove the seeds and strings (I do this with a spoon), add some water, cover with foil, and cook.



Yum! Sweet and delicious. I tend to scoop it out, mash it down, and add butter.

Since this is a nice short post, I will shill a little for one of my favorite charities, Kiva.org




Kiva is a microlender. Essentially, you microfinance people in developing countries--the idea of teaching someone to fish, rather than giving them a fish. I find it extremely rewarding. I donate almost exclusively to agriculturalists (especially pig farmers) and I feel like I am making a (admittedly small) difference. I have donated many, many times and never had anyone default--Kiva's microlenders have something like less than a one percent default rate. Anyone else have any favorite charities this holiday season?

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Roast turkey (p.442), Basic corn bread stuffing (p. 534) , and Corn bread stuffing with sausage and bell peppers (p. 535)

Final Thanksgiving 2009 post! Hooray! It's going to be a brief post though :)

This year, we decided to make Roast turkey (p.442). I apparently forgot to take pictures of the naked bird but, essentially, I rinsed it, brushed it with butter, and then mom seasoned it to her liking. We stuffed it and cooked it for five hours or so.



Beautiful! This was a really gorgeous bird and was tender and juicy. It was a BIG turkey too, so flipping it would have been impossible. We didn't brine it but I think it was just as juicy as the year before.

I decided that this year I would make Basic corn bread stuffing (p. 534) and truly make STUFFING (inside a bird). Mom had proactively made corn bread or me, so all I had to do was toast it.



I cooked onions, celery, and garlic in some butter, and then stirred in some parsley, sage, salt, and pepper. I tossed it with the bread crumbs.



Mom had kept her parsley plant alive for the Thanksgiving meal.



I moistened it with chicken broth...

And I stuffed it into the turkey!




What goes in, then has to come out! Rachel extracted the stuffing.



I had extra cornbread left over and thought--what the heck! I'll make both stuffing and dressing (outside the bird). I thought Corn bread stuffing with sausage and bell peppers (p. 535) would be perfect. It was particularly perfect because I HATE bell peppers and love stuffing, so making it as the only stuffing choice would be really sad for me. That being said, everyone else at Thanksgiving loved both sausage and peppers, so I had the perfect audience!

It was essentially the same recipe, except green pepper and cooked sausage were added to the rest with the seasoning and it was popped in the oven:



Mom insisted that it was delicious! I thought it was really pretty with the green pepper and would have been even prettier if we had had red pepper too. I really liked having two choices of stuffing since it's almost everyone's favorite part of the meal.

The table with the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Yum!



It was a terrific Tday. I love Thanksgiving. It's one of my two favorite holidays (Halloween is the other one). A day about family and food is about as great as you can get, in my opinion :) I really loved our mixed group of friends and family this year. And after we eat, we nap, and it's on to my favorite part of the holiday--going Black Friday shopping, starting at midnight! Most of the time we don't even buy anything but I think it's fun. What is your favorite holiday?

Tday 09 #2: Pumpkin pie (p. 686), Molded cranberry sauce (p. 175), Green bean casserole II (p. 251), and Braised carrots (p. 266)

Again, I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures--it's hard to get used to a new camera and mom's camera isn't great for food pictures.

What's Thanksgiving without Pumpkin pie (p. 686)? This is usually one of the items that mom makes before I get to town. The problem with Tday is that we tend to drive in so late on Wednesday that I can't get any prep work done. This Tday we came in a little earlier so I decided to make the pumpkin pie.

I also decided that since I was operating on limited time, I might as well use a store-bought shell instead of making it myself (even though making pie crust is pretty easy). The pie crust requires pre-cooking:



The filling was simple: pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar (both white and brown), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.




I filled the pie crust and it looked perfect.



What isn't shown is the foil crust-protective-covering, which I totally recommend, if you don't like burnt crisps. I assume that would include everyone. Or you can buy one of those expensive crust-protectors but foil does the exact same thing!

Mom and I kept checking the pie because it didn't see done. When I shook it, it still shook like jello! Eventually I took it out anyway. And it WAS done. It had probably been done for a few minutes.



The pie was pretty good, it was your typical pumpkin pie. Nothing special but good.

One of the biggest problems with taking years to cook through TJOC is that I'm running out of common holiday recipes, such as cranberries. This year we decided that mom would make her cranberry sauce (our Italian version) and I would make Molded cranberry sauce (p. 175), which was conveniently on my randomly selected list!

Gelatin always smells so bad.

It was a little boincy pad after softening in water:



The cranberries were cooked in a little orange juice until their skin popped and sugar and salt were added.



The gelatin was added in and it was poured into the mold and allowed to set:



Green bean casserole is one of those typical Tday dishes that we never actually make. That being said, when our guest list went from 4 to 6, I needed to add a side dish or two and thought Green bean casserole II (p. 251) would be perfect. I could see immediately why it is so popular for Tday--it was extremely fast and easy.

I mixed green beans (I used frozen), milk, cream of mushroom soup, and those canned onions together in a casserole dish.



More onions on the top and into the oven it went:



And done! Fast and easy, which is really helpful when you are making so many different dishes. I thought it was really tasty too--I kinda like GBC. Simple and homey. And the crunchy top is always delicious.

I thought another easy side dish would be Braised carrots (p. 266), which is essentially glazed carrots with less sugar and no brandy.



The carrots were really good but not as good as the glazed carrots, so I probably won't make this recipe again (although I will remake the delicious glazed carrots). Every single time I eat carrots I wonder why I don't eat them more often--carrots are easy, really nutritious, and taste terrific coated in butter.

The side dishes were good! I made mashed potatoes (I use my own recipe) and mom made candied sweet potatoes. So much delicious food!

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Thanksgiving 09 Post 1: Cocktail meatballs (p. 82), Salami rolls (p.83), and Crudites (p. 78)

Thanksgiving 2009! A couple items before I start the Thanksgiving blogs:
1. The pictures are TERRIBLE, I know it, I apologize. I forgot the charger for my camera and my mom's is not good for food pictures. They are all dark and/or blurry. I'm really sorry!
2. It was our biggest Thanksgiving we've ever thrown! There were 6 of us, which was exciting!)
3. Mom was complaining last year that she was just a flunkie and didn't actually get to make anything. Since I've made so many TJOC Thanksgiving style recipes already, mom was able to throw in some of her favorites. So she's graduated from flunkie to sous chef, which she seems happy about.

Like the last couple years, I decided to make some appetizers for lunch on Thanksgiving so that I could knock some of the appetizers and hors d'oeuvres recipes off the list. This has became an anticipated tradtion.

I made three appetizers, starting with Cocktail meatballs (p. 82). This recipe has intrigued me for a while due to the sauce which includes brown sugar, jellied cranberry sauce, lemon juice, and an entire bottle of chili sauce.



The meatballs were made out of ground beef, cornflakes (strange!), catsup, soy sauce, onions, parsley, garlic, black pepper, and eggs. Josh and Jordan took over the balling of the meatballs--they were tiny (it makes 70!).



The sauce was then poured on the meatballs and they were cooked.



Watch them carefully! The sugary sauce started to burn on one of the trays, although no meatballs were harmed. They were really tasty! As strange as the sauce sounds, it really worked, and they were tender and flavorful. They would be particularly good in a little slow cooker at a potluck (I never go to potlucks--do people bring stuff in slow cookers to them? It seems like they would).

I also made Salami rolls (p.83). The recipe is really simple--take cream cheese, add sun-dried tomato halves, some chopped scallions, and a little pepper, and grind it in the food processor. The problem was that it became a ball of cream cheese and wouldn't mix! So I had a smoking food processor, clumps of cream cheese, and annoyingly whole tomato halves and scallions. This problem was never fully solved, I just quit worrying about it and smeared the cream cheese, chunks and all, onto the salami slices.




I know the picture is dark, you may have to use your imagination.

They were then rolled up and cut in half. They were good although I would rather have them with less cream cheese. I would make these again but change the cream cheese to include garlic and chives or something. So I suppose I wouldn't actually make these again but, instead, a similar roll-up.

I then chopped up some celery and cauliflower for Crudites (p. 78) with blue cheese dressing. The blue cheese dressing is so delicious that it makes people who say they hate blue cheese change their mind :)



You can see all three finished dishes in this picture :) The salami roll recipe is online.


Thanksgiving means that all three dogs get to spend some time together, too, and bond with the rest of us (the third dog is hiding in this picture). Mostly, they just sleep.



I hope all of my American blog readers had a great Thanksgiving! There will be more Thanksgiving blog posts :)

Baked rice pudding (p. 820)

I have mentioned many, many times that I really hate making TJOC recipes that I already make terrific versions of. I make an amazing rice pudding. Honestly, it's like heaven in a bowl (I make a variety of extremely delicious old-fashioned desserts including blueberry buckles, bread puddings, and rice puddings). And my recipe is totally different from TJOC's Baked rice pudding (p. 820). I wasn't optimistic about TJOC's version...

It was a simple recipe. I combined milk, eggs, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt in a bowl until well mixed.



I then added two cups of rice and some raisins and added them to a buttered casserole dish.



And baked it:



How was it? Pretty good. Not amazing. And certainly not as good as the version I already make, which is closer to Indian kheer than British pudding. I actually think this version was really bland--it needed more butter, cream instead of milk, and more sugar in my expert opinion :) And make sure to keep it in the refrigerator, otherwise it will mold...not that I would know anything about that...

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Cabbage soup (p. 130) and Celery root soup (p. 144)

As many of you know, I love soup. In fact, I was just talking to my dad about what we would eat if we could only have one type of food--my answer was soup. I could easily eat only soup for the rest of my life--I love it.

I was optimistic about Cabbage soup (p. 130) because I have recently decided that I like cabbage. I started by sauteing leeks, onions, and garlic in a soup pot--I really liked the look of the large amount of garlic in the dish.



I then added poultry stock, water, carrots, and some potatoes.



And then the cabbage!



The cabbage wilted down:



And managed not to make my house reek of cabbage, which was nice. I thought the soup was good but extremely boring. It needed...something. It was a perfectly nice soup but I don't think I'll make it again. Or if I do, I will add a little cream and some ham or something. It was easy enough...

I also went ahead and made Celery root soup (p. 144).

This is a celery root:



Peeling it was NOT FUN. I tried to use a veggie peeler, which totally didn't work. I had to chop it off with a knife.

The celery root was added to a pot with some celery and onions.



Eventually, a little flour was added and then some poultry stock. I then pureed the whole thing with my stick blender and added heavy cream.



It was DELICIOUS! Josh really loves celery, so he was in love with this soup. This is the first time I've ever had celery root but it seems to have a mild celery taste. I still think the cream of cauliflower soup was superior, but this was a good soup too. So if you get some celery root in your CSA box, this is a good use of it (does that ever happen?).

I think celery root is a strange veggie. Between that and the parsnips I had recently, I feel like I'm broadening my vegetable horizons! Exciting.

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