Fresh cremini mushrooms and fresh herbs take this stuffing to a level that poultry seasoning and bouillon cubes can never touch.
Ingredients:
1-pound loaf sourdough bread
8 Tablespoons butter
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/2-inch thick in both directions
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 to 4 stalks celery with leaves, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
About 10 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
10 to 10 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley leaves
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
Cut or tear the bread into 1-inch cubes and spread it evenly on 2 baking sheets. Toast the bread in the oven until completely dry and beginning to crisp and brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and a few pinches of salt and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add celery, onion, 2 tablespoons butter, and thyme. Once the butter has melted, cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Add sage and remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Add chicken broth to skillet and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl. Pour the chicken broth mixture over the bread cubes and toss to combine until the bread cubes absorb the liquid. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish, and sprinkle with parsley. Bake in the center of the oven until heated through and the top is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remove the stuffing from the oven and allow to cool about 15 minutes before serving.
When I tried to make this cheesecake with a hand mixer, it burned out the motor. We ended up going to Costco to buy a new one AND a stand mixer so that we could make the cheesecake. Since then, this has been know at my house as "$300 Cheesecake."
Crust:
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 pound butter
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the flour, sugar, and lemon rind. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix. Pat one-third of the dough over the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with sides removed. Bake for about 6 minutes, or until golden. Cool. Butter the sides of the pan and attach to the bottom. Pat remaining dough around the sides to a height of 2 inches.
Filling:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup cream
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon rind. Combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually blend into cheese mixture. Beat in eggs and egg yolks, one at a time. Add the cream and beat well. Pour mixture into the prepared crust.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 1 1/2 hours longer, or until set. Turn off heat. Allow the cheesecake to remain in the oven with the door ajar for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack, then chill in the refrigerator.
Glaze:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1 quart strawberries
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon butter
Preparation:
Wash and hull the strawberries. Crush enough berries to make 1/2 cup. Boil the crushed berries, sugar, water, and cornstarch 2 minutes, stirring. Add the butter. Strain and cool. Arrange the remaining whole berries over the top of the cheesecake and pour the glaze over the berries. Chill.
The almond extract in these delicious buttery (three fourths of a pound buttery) cookies really make them stand out.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Preparation:
Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Ad 1 cup of the flour, the sugar, egg, baking powder, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat till thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour.
Force unchilled dough through a cookie press onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm but not brown. Cool on a wire rack.
I know I posted this before, but I LOVE this dark, rich cocoa topped with cold whipped cream! This recipe came on the back of the package of vanilla beans I purchased from Costco. I had to go online to find out how much sugar to put in the recipe. That bit had been omitted from the recipe!
Ingredients:
1 vanilla bean
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup water
1 pinch salt
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy cream
Preparation:
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and use the back of the knife to scrape out the seeds. Save the vanilla bean. Put the sugar in the bowl of a food processor along with the vanilla bean seeds. Process for about 10 seconds to make vanilla sugar. Set aside 3 Tbsp of the vanilla sugar.
Place the rest of the vanilla sugar, the cocoa, the water, and the salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk until smooth. Continue whisking over medium heat until the mixture barely begins to bubble. Add the milk, half and half, and saved vanilla bean and continue to whisk over medium heat until it just starts to simmer.
Whip the whipping cream together with the reserved vanilla sugar until soft peaks form.
Serve the cocoa with a generous dollop of whipped cream.
This one is too easy. Too, TOO easy, but it's one that we can't do without each Christmas season.
Ingredients:
1 lb white almond bark
1 cup crushed peppermint candy
Directions:
Melt the almond bark over very low heat or in the top of a double boiler. Be careful not to scorch the almond bark. When the almond bark is completely melted, stir in the crushed peppermint candy. Spread onto a foil-lined cookie sheet and allow to cool. When completely cool, break into irregular pieces.
These buttery caramels have been a delicious holiday treat in my home since I was a child.
Ingredients:
1 12-oz can of evaporated milk
Dash salt
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups Karo syrup
1/2 lb butter
2 tsp vanilla
Directions:
Combine 2/3 of the can of milk, salt, sugar, Karo syrup and butter in a heavy pan. bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Continue stirring and boil over medium heat about 10 minutes. Add the remaining 1/3 can of evaporated milk. Boil, stirring constantly until it reaches soft ball stage and is a nice caramel color. The total boiling time should be about 30 minutes. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Pour into a buttered 9x13 pan. You can put a layer of chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or toasted almonds) in the bottom of the pan if desired. When completely cooled, cut into 1-inch squares and individually wrap in wax paper.
Last year, I did a post a day for the twelve days of Christmas. This year, I'm going to do it again, but this year, it will be the twelve culinary days of Christmas. I'm going to share some of my favorite recipes with you. Some of them are Christmas treats and others are recipes I use all year long.
I'll also link back to the same day from last year so you can enjoy both at the same time.
So Merry Christmas from Mr. Me! I hope you find a recipe or two that you enjoy this year.
I don't know WHERE in the broccoli those critters were hiding. They must have burrowed into one of the stems somewhere, because I thoroughly washed the broccoli and didn't see anything out of the ordinary when I cut the broccoli up to cook it.
It wasn't until I had completely finished making the soup and had it dished up and on the table that my son asked what the little black things were. I thought it might have been some little broccoli bits that were overcooked, but upon closer inspection, we realized that broccoli bits don't have legs, wings, and antennae.
*shudder*
At least I had only eaten a couple of bites.
*double shudder*
So we had Gandolfo's sandwiches for dinner instead, which doesn't help us out much for tonight when we were expecting to have leftovers.
This was, of course, "organic" broccoli, which apparently means that it hasn't been sprayed with the pesticides that would have kept the bugs OUT of the broccoli, and therefore, out of my soup. This doesn't make me want to buy "organic" any more. It cost more, and it turned out to be unusable, AND it made the other ingredients in the soup unusable. Yes, I'm done buying "organic."
On Sunday, I made a most excellent pot roast. I'm having the last of it for lunch today. This is a particularly good recipe. It's a dutch oven recipe. I cooked it in my dutch oven, but not outside. It was too cold and I was worried about finding the right temperature.
I started out by putting a rather large chuck roast in the dutch oven. I seasoned it with a little bit of salt and pepper and started it cooking at only about 200 degrees. I let it sit that way for about 3 hours. Then I added a mixture of rosemary, salt, pepper, sliced garlic, honey barbecue sauce, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, and soy sauce. I let it cook for another hour before adding sliced onions, carrots, and potatoes and increasing the oven temperature to 350 degrees. When the vegetables were fork tender (about 45 minutes later) it was time to eat.
Wow.
That's the best way to describe dinner on Sunday. Just... Wow.
The tough chuck roast was falling apart, the flavor was amazing, and the vegetables were cooked perfectly.
Wow.
I'm very glad have some leftovers for lunch today. I hope your lunch is as good as mine is going to be. Post your lunch in a comment below and let me know!
It was a weekend of a little bit of experimentation and a lot of good food. Yes, I'm talking dutch oven cooking again.
Ever since my younger son had dutch oven pizza at cub scouts, I've been wanting to try it out. On Saturday, I gave it a shot. I made the pizza dough and after it rose, I split it in half and spread it into the bottom of two dutch ovens. I added homemade pizza sauce, cooked italian sausage and lots of cheese. After baking the pizzas for about a half hour, they came out deliciously. The crust was really puffy and wasn't as crispy as when we cook them on the pizza stone in the oven, but it was VERY delicious.
Then, on Sunday, I made pulled pork sandwiches and baked beans in my dutch ovens. I put the pork loin in the oven and cooked it at about 250 degrees from 10:30 in the morning until about 4:45 in the afternoon. It was EASY to pull apart with forks. I added a little more barbecue sauce and piled it on toasted buns with cole slaw, and pickles. The baked beans had pork & beans (of course) with bacon, garbanzo beans, lima beans, and kidney beans. Added to that concoction was brown sugar, white sugar, dry mustard, and some other spices.