Put on the Glasses

Thanksgiving was great this year. Gathered at my sister's house in the morning, where I cooked a turkey using the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Old Fashioned Stuffed Turkey . That recipe always works like a charm. Here is the bird after it came out of the oven: The picture doesn't do the bird justice. Here is a picture of my brother-in-law, Paul, carving up the turkey (my sister Vanessa is in the background): Here is a shot of my husband with a brew as I snapped pictures of the bird: And here is my sister's dog, Jackson, who was very shy and ran away every time I tried to take a picture of him until my niece helped me out: It was a good time. Later in the day, I went with my husband to our second Thanksgiving dinner at the Copeland house. Another round of turkey and stuffing was consumed. Here are the pies I made for dessert: The pumpkin is just a straight up version of Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe with a homemade crust. The other is my Mom...

Back in early march I read the Kitchn review of Mark Bittman's Hainanese Chicken and I had to make it.  It looked so darned good.  I mean look at it: Just look at it.  I made that and it was as delicious as it looks.  I guess I'm proud of myself because I had to poach a chicken to make it.  I had never poached a chicken before.  I can barely poach an egg.  Plus, the method seemed a bit sketchy to me. My mom taught me to have a good, healthy fear of food born illnesses.  I grew up in a house where we cook our food until it is good and dead.  This recipe calls for you to only boil the chicken for ten minutes, turn off the heat and just let it sit there for an hour.  Just sit there.  This seemed like crazy talk.  But I trusted The Kitchn and the New York Times to not steer me wrong and by golly if it wasn't delicious.  The chicken was nice and juicy, perfectly cooked and it was extremely easy.  What is easier than...

I made this recipe a few weeks ago and I cannot possibly praise it enough.  I loved it.  The sauce was rich and full of complex flavors.  The beef was perfectly tender.  It lasted several meals for me and Brian.  All of those things are big pluses in my book. The down side to the recipe is the time that it takes to make.  I didn't start cooking until about 5:30pm one night and we didn't eat until around 11:00 pm.  It takes a lot longer than you would expect to prep all of the ingredients and get it ready for the oven.  However, don't let that stop you.  It is actually really easy to make if you just follow Child's instructions. If you want a copy of the recipe, Knopf-Doubleday has PDFs of the recipes needed  here .  You will need to print and follow the main recipe and the two sub-recipes for onions and mushrooms.  Don't worry.  It's not that hard. I was too lazy to go to the butcher to get real, uncut ...

Last Sunday, as you may have noticed, was Pi Day. As is π = 3.14159... To celebrate this mathematical day, every year Brian and I eat pie.  This year I made my Mom's Apple Pie recipe, famous in our family for it's life-changingly delicious crust. She gave me permission to post her recipe, so here it is: For the Crust: 2 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup veg. oil 3 tbsps. cold water In a bowl, mix flour and salt.  Blend oil in thoroughly with a fork.  Sprinkle cold water over and mix well.  With hands, press dough into a smooth ball (if dry add 2 tbsp. veg. oil a little bit at a time until you reach desired consistency; you want it rollable).  Split it into two balls.  Roll out each separately between sheets of wax paper (my Mom uses plastic wrap because the crust is less likely to stick to it and rip; I always forget this).  Now go make the filling. For the Filling: 5 to 7 tart apples (I always use Braeburn) 3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depends on how tar...

I love making Alton Brown's Tuna Croquettes.  Not only do they include my favorite fish, tuna, they are also super easy. Here is the recipe, which is also available here : 1 (7-ounce) pouch albacore tuna, drained and shredded 2 green onions, chopped fine 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 2 large eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs, divided Olive oil, for sauteing Place the tuna, onions, mustard, eggs, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs into a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine. Divide the mixture into 8 rounds and set aside on a parchment lined half sheet pan. Allow to rest for 15 minutes. Place the remaining bread crumbs into a pie plate. One at a time, coat each round in the panko on all sides. Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the croquettes and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remo...

I love Eggs Florentine. Who doesn't love a perfect combination of eggs, butter and spinach?! If I go out for brunch, I always order it. At home, however, I have always shied away from it because hollandaise sauce is such a pain. You can imagine how elated I was when I saw in Julia Child's cookbook her recipe for blender hollandaise! Here is a close up of the finished product: It literally took less than 5 minutes to make the sauce.  Here is the recipe for Blender Hallandaise: 3 egg yolks 1/4 teaspoon salt Pinch black pepper 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into small pieces In a blender, combine the egg yolks, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Set aside. In a small saucepan over heat the butter on medium high until foaming. Blend the egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds then, with the blender running, remove the cover and pour in the hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. By the time two-thirds of the...

I saw Julie and Julia .  I love Nora Ephron movies, even if they make my husband roll his eyes at me (sidenote: When Harry Met Sally is hands down my favorite rom com).  After seeing it I needed to make a Julia Child recipe.  I immediately got a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking from the library (I highly recommend cookbooks from the library). I decided to try two recipes out of the book two nights ago for dinner.  I made gratin dauphinois (scalloped potatoes with milk, cheese and a pinch of garlic) and supremes de volaille aux champignons (chicken breasts with mushrooms and cream).  I was a bit nervous about making them but they both turned out perfectly.  Plus, they were really easy and reasonably priced! I made the gratin first: Here's the recipe, though I recommend picking up the book at the library because Child lists numerous variations to this base recipe: 2 lbs "boiling" potatoes (I used red) 1/2 clove unpeeled g...

I tried out the Curry Chicken Pot Pie recipe from Alton Brown's new book and it was excellent.  I changed the recipe a bit.  My store was lacking in puff pastry so I just made a batch of homemade biscuits in advance to substitute.    I love biscuits. In order to protect the chicken mixture from burning or drying out in the oven because of the lack of puff pastry, I covered it in tinfoil.  Then I just broke open biscuits and poured the chicken curry mixture on top. It was really good.  A perfect, warm winter meal.

For Valentine's Day this year I cooked a dish that reminds me of home like no other.  It's a family recipe that my Mom knows by heart and my Dad gets on special holidays. Spareribs, sauerkraut and dumplings: Here's my plate before I started inhaling it.     Not everyone likes it.  I didn't like it until I was an adult and came across a very similar dish in the Czech Republic.  I craved home-cooked food at the time and I instantly became obsessed with the dish. The tricky part about the recipe is that it wasn't really written down.  My Grandmother, Anita, wrote a copy for my Mom a long time ago but my Mom has since changed parts to simplify the recipe.  This is the recipe that my Mom told me and I adjusted on my own. For the Dumplings: These are the dumpling when they were boiling, as they start to get done, they float to the top of the water. 3 c bread crumbs (about a half of a loaf dried on a tray for a day and broken up in a food process...

  Look at those chocolate chip cookies.  They are perfect.  I swear, Brian is a better cook than me.   I must find a way to best him!  Ideas? P.S. He used Alton Brown's recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies , a variation on the classic Toll House recipe.   P.P.S. Brian even weighed each cookie scoop to make sure that the cookies were identical.  Sigh.

This past weekend, since any hint of a diet had vanished with Brian's quesadillas and burgers, I finally made Tres Leches cake.  The cake acquired it's name, which means three milks, from it's use of condensed milk, evaporated milk and half & half. If you are lactose intolerant, I apologize; this cake isn't for you. I used (big shocker here) Alton Brown's recipe .  It turned out perfectly or at least I think it did.  I had never actually had it before.  I put off making it for so long because Alton's recipe instructs you to use a stand mixer, an appliance I only acquired last fall.  Above you can see the cake batter as I was mixing it.  Alton called for a 9x13 metal cake pan.  I didn't have one so I substituted 2 8 inch round cake pans.  It was a perfect fit.  My favorite part of the recipe was pouring the milk mixture onto the cake and watching it soak in: It tasted exactly like white cake dunked in milk, which is surprisingly ...

Over the weekend, Brian and I decided to have a day entirely consisting of Alton Brown's food. We love Alton Brown. He teaches us so many wonderful things about cooking. The first two meals, breakfast and lunch, were inspired by his latest weight-loss episode. The episode, called " Live and Let Diet ," highlighted his tricks for losing weight. I decided I wanted to try 2 of his recipes from the episode: smoothies and sardine toast. We had the smoothies for breakfast: Sorry the picture is blurry. I was in a hurry and wanted to eat it. It was delicious. I didn't follow all of his nit-picky rules and steps on making the smoothie (I just blended it like I would any other) but it still turned out great. I love the soy milk in it. I need to use more soy milk; it is delicious. The recipe is here . Next, I made his sherried sardine toast (recipe here ) for lunch. Now, don't revolt at the sight of the word sardine. Sardines are wonderful. Don't knock 'e...

I love the blog The Kitchn and I try to make their recipes as often as I can. I recently tried making their pork shoulder and it came out perfectly. Their post on the recipe has excellent pictures and descriptions of what you should do and buy. It made cooking it much easier for me since I probably would have left the fat on the shoulder and hated the overly fatty sauce. The picture above shows the meat as I was browning it. Those are the vegetables before I cooked the meat in them. As usual, I neglected to take pictures of the food after I cooked it. I just get so hungry! I used wine instead of beer and stewed tomatoes instead of diced. Basically, I just found stuff in my pantry that was similar to the recipe and it worked out just fine. It was delicious meat and it made great sandwiches for leftovers.

I finally got around to trying a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's blog . I picked an easy one to test, the Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie. They came out almost perfectly. I let them bake a bit too long and the brie kind of liquefied. It didn't matter though., They were delicious. Also, I substituted spinach (1/2 cup chopped) for parsley because Brian hates parsley. For the recipe, with mouthwatering photography, click here . You will enjoy them and they are super easy. Trust me.

I finally took the time to make saurbraten. My mom has been talking about this recipe for years, telling me that it was excellent. It is a roast that is marinated for three to four days. Then it is slow cooked. Finally, you make a sauce out of the drippings and the leftover marinade. Above is a picture of Brian while we were sitting down to dinner. This is what the meat looked like. I am a bit disappointed that all you can see is the sauce. I don't know if the meat came out perfectly because I haven't ever eaten it before. I do know that it was delicious and the whole roast vanished within 24 hours because Brian and I couldn't get enough of it. If anyone wants the recipe, just let me know!