I have some really good friends who love to humor me. When I was growing up, we always had clam chowder and cheese and crackers on Christmas Eve. This tradition is something that I look back on fondly and I'm always sad when I can't honor it. This year, I decided to keep the tradition but give it an update... so we invited some close friends over on NYE to enjoy homemade chowder with us. It was a great evening.
We started with a cheese plate with three types of cheese including my favorite sun-dried tomato chevre, two types of crackers, dried apricots, dried cherries, cashews, pistachios and dark chocolate chunks. For the main course, we had homemade clam chowder (recipe below) and BLT popovers (you might remember this recipe from Thanksgiving). We ended the meal with coconut cheesecake that was divine (that recipe is to come).
Clam Chowder
4 slices bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 potatoes, diced
1-8 ounce bottle of clam juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2-6.5 ounces cans of minced clams
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 cups half and half
Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucepan. Remove bacon to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain. Add onion to bacon drippings; sauté until softened. Add potatoes and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes. Ladle into bowls and garnish with bacon crumbles.
If you are lucky enough to invite a fish monger to dinner, you can hope that yours will also bring fresh clams AND cook them for you to use as garnish! Really, the perfect finishing touch...
Wow - this is actually amazingly good. I had a sweet tooth and was craving something peanut butter but I didn't want to take the time to make cookies. This was fast, easy and is super sweet...
Peanut Butter Fudge by allrecipes.com
1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter (I used almond butter because that's what I have)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour over powdered sugar in a large bowl. Beat until smooth; pour into 8x8 inch dish. Chill until firm and cut into squares.
You might recall that Jewel and I scored from free quince during canning season... here's the recipe that we used:
Quince Marmalade
3 1/2 pounds quince
5 cups water
5 lemons, cut in half
6 cups of sugar
Wipe fur from outside skin of quinces with a damp cloth. Quarter, core and dice quince and put into pan with water. Thinly slice lemons and add to pan. Simmer until quince is quite tender, about 45 to 60 minutes.
Warm sugar by placing in a steel bowl in a 250 degree over for 5 minutes and stir warmed sugar into quince. Boil rapidly until setting point is reached by which time quince should be a beautiful rich pink color. Test a little of the marmalade on a saucer chilled in the refrigerator. Place small amount of sauce on saucer - if a skin forms on top quickly and it runs off saucer in a lumpy formation, it is ready to set.
Pour into sterilized jars and lid. Invert the lidded jars for two minutes to sterilize the lids (use a cloth to protect your hands). When cold, wipe jars and label. Store in a cool place - will keep for at least 12 months. Yields about 6 half-pints.
Any fans of Sunny in Philadelphia out there?? We recently had some friends over for a Sunny marathon - they don't have cable and we had about 8 episodes saved up on our DVR. I wanted to do a bar food type of menu so Ty whipped up chicken wings (someday maybe I'll get him to post that recipe) and I made twice baked potatoes for a heartier spin on the classic bar potato skins.
Twice Baked Potatoes
4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and dried
2 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 to 6 slices of bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
1/3 cup sour cream
1 scallion, finely chopped
1/2 cup (or more!!) shredded sharp cheddar
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the potatoes directly on the rack in the center of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Pierce each potato in a couple spots with a fork and continue to bake until tender, about 30 minutes more. Remove potatoes from oven and turn the heat down to 375 degrees.
Hold the potatoes with an oven mitt or towel and trim off the top to make a canoe-like shape. Carefully scoop out most of the potato into a bowl taking care to leave enough int eh skin so the shells stay together. Mash the potato lightly with a fork along with the butter and sour cream. Stir in the scallion, some of the cheese and bacon and season with salt and pepper. Refill the shells with the potato mixture, mounding it slightly. Sprikle remaining cheese on top of the potato filling.
Set the potatoes on a baking sheet or in a baking dish and bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve!
I'm still sick... and there's not much on TV so I'll be spending today finishing up with posting recipes from our recent entertaining. I've made this carrot cake several times now - once even as cupcakes! I found the recipe on Pinch My Salt which is one of my favorite sources of recipes...
Carrot Cake
2 1/3 cups flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (about 4 medium carrots)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift together first six ingredients. Stir in oil then stir in eggs, one at a time. Add carrots and stir until well blended then add nuts. Divide batter between the pans and bake in preheated oven, 30 to 35 minutes for the 8-inch pans or 35 - 45 minutes for the 9-inch pans. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for ten minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
With an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and blend until well combined. Blend in vanilla extract. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting is at room temp, beat with mixer until smooth).
I'm sick so Ty made me my favorite sick meal - hot tea, soup and grilled cheese!
And here's a picture of my view:
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| My teddy bear tree! |
Gift giving is always a dilemma for me. Overall, I'd say that I'm a generous person. But, I'm also always trying to be more aware of my environment - both the physical and political. Obviously, consumption harms the physical environment in ways to numerous to count but what message does it send out there in other ways? If we all quit buying just for the sake of buying, would the world be a better place? I'm not sure but I decided a couple of years ago to step off the holiday gift giving merry-go-round and I have to tell you that I feel like a much better person for doing so.
At the holidays, instead of giving a gift, we make a charitable donation in the names of our closest loved ones and that's it. We really don't do more than that - even when we want to and even when someone has given us a gift. Sometimes it is hard but we are sure to send them a sincere thank you card and hope that's enough for them. Eventually, we've found, they'll stop buying us things and, sometimes, even reciprocate in kind by making a donation to the Oregon Humane Society or the Oregon Food Bank in our names. Really, that's the best gift we could receive anyway.
Like everyone else we know, we have more than enough things and we have the resources to acquire any things that we truly want or need. I tend to be a perfectionist so gift shopping was always about finding just the right thing for each person. I would spend a lot of time thinking and searching. Often, that also meant spending more money then I maybe should have. Inevitably, I'd present them with the perfect gift only to be given an indifferent shrug and no note of thanks. All that effort, time and money would feel wasted and I'd exit the holiday season feeling more deflated than fulfilled. With my new philosophy, I have more time to spend with Onya and Ty doing the fun things that we enjoy - really, isn't that what the holidays, and the whole year really, should be about??
Ty just decided that a turkey sandwich with a big slice of tomato and dill mayonnaise would be good tomorrow. So, with an egg from our chicks, he made his own mayonnaise:
A couple of months ago, Ty and I were watching "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the Food Network when they profiled the popovers by a place called BLT Steak. If I remember, it is a restaurant in New York. When you eat there, they bring you a basket of their popovers instead of bread and they include the recipe so you can make them at home too. The next day, I swung by Sur La Table and bought a popover pan... and then waited for an occasion to use it!!
Here's the recipe I found online:
4 cups mile
8 eggs
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In it put two popover pans (enough for 12 popovers).
In a saucepan, warm the milk over gentle heat. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy. Slowly whisk int he milk (so as not to cook the eggs). Measure the flour and salt into a sieve and sift onto the egg mixture. Combine until mostly smooth.
Remove the popover pan from the oven. While the batter is still slightly warm or at room temperature, fill each popover cup three quarters full. Top each popover with about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the grated cheese. Return the pan to the oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes, rotating the pan half a turn after 15 minutes of baking.
Remove the pan from the oven, remove the popovers from the pan and serve immediately.
Since I only have the one popover pan and we were only hosting dinner for six people, I halved the recipe - it seemed to work and I thought they were delish!!
We made this for Isaac's birthday party and for Thanksgiving. Both times, we served it with artichokes and, let me tell you, the combo is fantabulous!!
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cooked crab meat
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh dill
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar or 1 1/2 teaspoons of dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Combined everything in a bowl and chill for 2 hours or overnight.
