We then spent the next couple of days with Austin's family and I got to watch my other nephew tear into his gifts. We also had time to visit while sipping coffee/tea and my sister-in-law and I sneaked out for a fun girls' lunch with a friend (and now my SiL's coworker!).
It was a wonderful visit but Stinky was the only one who wasn't pleased. We got lots of sass when we returned and he still is quite clingy. It must be difficult to be a cat but at least he gets to spend New Year's Eve with us.
For my contribution, I made chewy gingersnaps. They might not be the cutest little cookies but they are so delicious. Here is the recipe for about five dozen. You can also swap around the spices to your liking though I wouldn't skimp on the cinnamon. I've used some leftover pumpkin pie spice mix before when I was out of nutmeg and that worked.
Chewy Gingersnaps
Ingredients:
1.5 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4.5 cups all purpose flour
3 t baking soda
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground nutmeg
additional sugar
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one after the other, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and nutmeg; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Refrigerate one hour or until dough is easy to handle.
Roll into 1 inch balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes or until puffy and lightly browned. Let cool one minute before moving to wire racks.
Brined Turkey Breast: We haven't hosted enough people to do a whole bird but brining the breast works just fine. This is the juiciest, most succulent bird recipe, hands down. If you know Austin, you know that he's got it down to a science and lots of research has gone into this process. If you're a meatatarian, you absolutely have to give this a try.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes: These are so decadent, they really should be eaten once a year. They include cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and sharp cheddar. American's dairyland in one dish!
Green Beans with Toasted Hazelnut-Lemon Butter: If you need something lighter after those potatoes, these beans will do the trick. We used haricots verts for a little more elegant touch. This is a great side dish that can be used for many occasions.
Blackberry Cobbler: Instead of the traditional pumpkin pie, Austin couldn't resist making this dessert. We use this as a baseline recipe but add some Amaretto to make it taste (almost) exactly like the legendary blackberry cobbler from The Salt Lick and of course we serve it with vanilla ice cream.
¡Buen provecho!
Austin loved seeing all the tools for Kristina's glassblowing and we were amazed the delicate and complex neurons that she had made. I was afraid to even breathe near them. We also had a blast meeting another couple who lived very close to us and had university connections. We ended up sipping wine and their home-brewed beer and I bought a painting of a cricket that will live in my office. What a perfect day.
I chose not to use Martha's recipe but instead, adapted this one for a knock-off of Starbuck's vanilla bean cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves here delicious but the buttercream frosting was just too cloying for my taste. Instead of topping them with the fake meth, we sprinkled on Mrs. Kelly's lavendar rose sugar with excellent results. Next time, I'd go with my gut and do a cream cheese frosting but the cupcake recipe is a keeper.
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Ingredients
Makes 12 cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 2/3 cup granulated white sugar 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup milk
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Set pan aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately sift in the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Prepare frosting.
Vanilla-Bean Buttercream Frosting (make more than needed)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup milk 3 cups confectioners' sugar
Cream the butter in a medium-size bowl until very smooth. Stir in the vanilla-bean seeds until they're evenly distributed. Add the salt, vanilla and milk, and stir until combined. Sift the sugar over the butter mixture and stir the mixture until it's perfectly smooth. If the frosting is too loose, add a few more tablespoons of confectioners' sugar, and stir until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap until you're ready to use; mix well just before using. Decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.
Source: Chef Mommy
We previously made the recipe with the classic elbow pasta but got cavatappi this time. We always make our pasta by weight so it was surprising when the cavatappi didn't actually expand very much. At all. We ended up using all 16 ounces to get the same volume as the elbows got to from eight ounces. Huh. So the trick is to make enough pasta to fill up a casserole dish. We also chose not to do green chilis like before but I did jalapeño and Austin did bleu cheese. The baseline recipe can be changed easily so you can throw in whatever you have on hand.
16 oz. cavatappi pasta/8 oz. elbow macaroni, 2 c. 2% milk, 4 T butter, 4 T flour, 2 c. shredded cheese, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste, jalapeños/bleu cheese to taste (not together though!), 3/4 c. panko breadcrumbs 1/2 c. P:armesan cheese, 2 T butter, melted
1. Boil the pasta until al dente. 2. Melt butter in your pasta pot while the pasta drains; add flour, salt and pepper and whisk together until well blended. 3. Pour in milk gradually, stirring constantly until thickened. 4. Gradually add the cheese, stirring until incorporated. 5. Add dash of cayenne to taste. 6. Combine pasta, mix-ins, and cheese mixture; pour into greased casserole dish. 7. Combine panko, Parmesan, and melted butter. Top macaroni mixture with the crumbs. 8. Bake at 375º about 25 minutes until bubbling and top is golden brown.
I made a tortilla española and Austin made his amazing Boursin crositinis. Other folks brought sangria, patatas aïoli (I've already scored the recipe for that one!), and a spicy cheese dip and chips. Of the six of us, only one didn't get into the book, The Shadow of the Wind. Several people mentioned that it wasn't the sort of book they'd normal select but they really enjoyed it. I had a hard time with discussion because I had also read the prequel and started on the sequel so it was kind of a blur for me. Our next pic is World War Z.
Stinky bolted as soon as the doorbell rang but amazingly, emerged to take a look at things later on. Our Croat friend spoke to him in Croatian, assuring us cats love Croatian, and sure enough Stinky listened without making a beeline to safety.
I'm looking forward to our next book group meeting and a few other social events that are starting to make their way onto our calendar. Finally, I know it's still two months away, but I am really excited for my parents to visit for Thanksgiving.
It will be another quiet weekend here, especially since I'll be gone next Thursday-Saturday at a conference. This evening, I'll also be cooking a few recipes to share on the fantastic food blog The Bitten Word for their cover-to-cover magazine cooking project. Now back to the lesson planning and work so I can have a few things done before some leisurely cooking.
A few things have progressed on the house. We put up blinds in my office, the dining room, and living room. Two new houses are going up right by ours so the blinds were essential with lots of workers coming and going. The house next to us is really, really close. You can catch all the exciting construction action here if you're into that sort of thing (and I know at least Austin's dad is!).
We also have some towel bars and toilet paper holders up, yay. I believe mirrors and the kitchen backsplash are in the works. I haven't had a chance to take any photos due to the busy-ness of our week (which also results in a less-than-photo-ready home environment) so here is a picture of the nice zinnias growing in our front yard.
P.S. Feel free to comment if you've read any of the above titles.
Later, I recruited for a book group. I'm pleased that a number of people said they were interested and I'm hoping we'll be able to actually pull it off. The plan is to meet next week at the bookstore to select our first title and then give people time to read. I'm excited to see what we choose since it seems the group is fairly diverse, demographically speaking, and I love the potential for fascinating discussion with everyone.
It's taking a little longer than I anticipated to get fully unpacked and organized. I finished grading on Tuesday and since then, have had new responsibilities to address. The kitchen should be done today and it's been like Christmas to have the space, the fully-functional appliances, and to find things that have been in storage for over a year. I need to rice some potatoes! Bake some Madeleines! Make homemade ice cream!
There were a few things about having a new home that I hadn't expected. None of the bathrooms have mirrors, toilet paper holders, or towel bars. Our Amazon Prime account will come in very handy for the bathroom hardware and the builders will install the mirrors soon. We also need to purchase some furniture since we have an empty living room with the existing furniture upstairs in the "bonus room" aka Austin's entertainment center. I am really looking forward to furnishing the living room and then will just need the temperatures to drop so I can park myself in front of the fireplace with a good book.
Ultimately, the house is just perfect and will be our office, restaurant, movie theater, gym, coffee shop, and more. I'll post more photos when things actually get organized and the printer is no longer in the foyer.
