Mother's Day Dessert

My beautiful mom was over for brunch yesterday and I wanted to make her something special. In the dessert category, she likes raspberries or oranges with chocolate, raspberries with flan, and lemon curd, among other things. Therefore, I decided to combine some of these for what I am naming the Lemon Nell, after my mom.

It is sort of a parfait, sort of a trifle. In wine glasses, I layered lemon curd, raspberries, angel food cake and topped it off with fresh whipped cream and fresh mint from the garden. I made all the ingredients earlier in the morning, then assembled it just before serving. It was simple, summery and very sweet.

First I made the lemon curd, since it takes some time in the fridge. Whisk 4 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar and the juice of 2 lemons in a small saucepan. Add 1 softened stick of unsalted butter and lemon zest from the squeezed lemons. Stir over medium heat 10-12 minutes until thick. Pour curd into small bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Refrigerate for at least one hour. This was the first time I've made curd, so I think it will turn out a little smoother next time. It was delicious, but I saw some lumps in it. Think occasional lumpy pudding.

Next, make a simple syrup on the stove of sugar, water, lemon, and a splash of Chambord liquor. Finally, whip cream with a pinch of sugar and about a teaspoon of lemon zest.

You could use Angle Food Cake, sponge cake, etc. Just before serving, tear cake into bite-sized pieces. Put in the simple syrup bowl and press down so all pieces are soaked. In each glass, place a heaping tablespoon of the curd, followed by 3-4 pieces of the soaked cake, and finally a handful of fresh raspberries. Do the next layer in the same order, but start with about twice as much lemon curd. Top raspberries with whipped cream and a mint sprig.

Sweets from my Sweet

I can't take any credit for this, but I still had to show it to you since we are still talking about how amazing it was. Drew made this cake from Gourmet for Easter. I am not a huge sweets fan, but even I couldn't resist a few pieces - small pieces dragged out over a while because it's just so rich. Superb!

New Year's Lamb

I wanted to try something new and exciting for New Year's Eve, so I made my first Leg of Lamb, the Roast Leg of Lamb with Fennel Butter recipe from the Epicurious website. It was fabulous! The only change I made was to use a semi-boneless rather than boneless leg (because that's what I could get at the last minute). I cooked it until it was 130F, and it was a beautiful medium rare. The sauce was extremely tasty and easy to make.

I served it with a slightly boring broccoli cauliflower gratin from Epicurious - it was good, but nothing special. However, with a lot of tasty additions - more salt, cheese, etc, it might make a nice veggie main course.

Also, we started out with some Crab Canapes from the same website, which were good with champagne.

Happy New Year!

My Love

The holidays are rough on all our pocketbooks, but my poor boyfriend also has our anniversary and my birthday in December to manage. For our recent anniversary he put together what is simply my favorite thing to eat - a spread of lovely cheeses and meats, olives, fruit, bread, etc. I could close my eyes and imagine I am in some Provencal country house, but sitting on our old couch with him is almost as good!

The cheese plate included Humboldt Fog, Danish Blue, Triple Creme, Parrana, St. Andre, Smoked Rambol and Sharp cheddar. In the rectangular dish there is a Pate de Campagna, mixed olives, boursin and blueberries. Finally, he served some peppery French sausage, French bread and crackers. Just think of all the combinations you can make!

To Hell with Teeth - the Brittle Edition

The holiday gift-making has begun! Today I made brittle for the first time, based on a recipe in this month's Gourmet. It's a little different than the normal peanut brittle. It has a mixture of nuts - pistachio, almond and cashew. It calls for sliced almonds, though I used slivered and just chopped them up, and, when I ran out of those, I used chopped pecans. What makes this brittle special, however, is the cardamom, that heavenly scented seed. Cardamom would make a lovely perfume!

I found the recipe pretty easy to do, and didn't need to put it into the oven at any point. Next I'll wrap them up and include in my gift baskets.

Mulled Cider

To keep us warm this past weekend while walking around a local holiday festival, I made my friends and I some mulled cider. It's 30 degrees out! Not fair! But the cider helped. In the local supermarket's picnic supplies aisle, I found coffee cups with lids we could carry around with us. Also, I didn't, but you should feel free to add a splash of rum to get even warmer!

Here's the recipe:

1/2 gallon apple cider
1 orange slice
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and cut in half
2 cinnamon sticks
4-5 whole cloves

In a medium-to-large pot, simmer all ingredients for 20-25 minutes. Makes 4 large servings, probably 6-8 small cups.

Thanksgiving Inquiries

A few people have asked me what I am making for Thanksgiving. To be honest, we are doing Thanksgiving at my Mom's and it's pretty difficult to find anything to fit in with all the dishes that are already made. I smiled when I read this comment in a New York Times article last week: "After filling out an application in triplicate and pleading my case before the committee, I received probationary approval for a dish of string beans..."

We have so many dishes on our table, and tinkering with them is just not allowed. Mom and Dad make the turkey, Mom makes stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish and mashed potatoes, along with homemade bread and hot cross buns; Dad makes brussels sprouts; and Grandma makes green beans with ham and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. For dessert, Drew is making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie, and Mom is making creme brulee.

I have lots of thoughts of how we could update some of these dishes, make them lighter, etc., but tradition will not allow it (at this point). So, what else can I fit into this meal, particularly something healthy that can be made ahead so I am not using up kitchen space? I thought about a salad, but, unless it is served ahead of the dinner (which it wouldn't be), I just don't think it fits in.

So, in the end, I have decided to make a couple of snacks for before the dinner. I am going to make this Camembert mushroom dish from Food and Wine. Also, I got ahold of a lot of shrimp, so will probably make some sort of cold shrimp appetizer.

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving, and please send me recipes, comments or pictures of your Thanksgiving.

Update

Yup, ended up making the cheese/mushroom appetizer from Food and Wine. I also made a shrimp salad of shrimp, tarragon, celery, green onion, cayenne, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of mayo. I served them with french bread toasts. Both were a hit, especially the first one - who doesn't love melting, gooey cheese?

Prost!

This past weekend we had our annual Oktoberfest party and, if the empty beer bottles are any indication, the party was a great success. Our guests brought their own beer and their own sausages, which we cooked for them in a big pot of sauerkraut and beer. We also served potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce, Drew’s gorgeous red cabbage, a cheesy baked spaetzle, liptauer with German rye and wilted cucumbers. We offered a few different mustards for those who like to screw up sausage with it, and had two desserts: gingerbread and a pear kuchen (see picture above). The kuchen recipe came from Gourmet.

Yummy Pork, Yucky Rice

So, the past couple of days have had some cooking successes and some cooking duds. The successes were the dishes I made for our Fourth of July get-together. I made a grilled pork loin with a peach chutney (still trying to use up those peaches) and a tomato tart. First, we put the marinated loin on the grill. It got pretty black and crispy on the outside, and after 25 minutes and after taking its temp repeately we thought it was done. Then we cut into it and it was clearly not, so we stuck it in the oven. Took another 45 minutes there, but when it came it was perfectly cooked. The chutney was our really ripe peaches with lots of Indian spices - a great compliment to the pork.

The tomato tart was a homemade pastry crust that, just before serving, I layered with sliced red and yellow tomatoes, homemade arugula pesto, and fresh mozzarella. Well, it wasn't quite as good as it has been before and I cite two problems: One, I LOVE garlic, don't get me wrong, but there was an insane amount of garlic in my arugula pesto - sadly overwhelming. Two, I should have had more cheese, for another layer. But, all in all, the Fourth was a success, and I was very thankful for the delectable dishes my friends brought.

And now to my complete failure the next night. Obviously I tweak recipes I get from cookbooks or the Internet or cookbooks all the time based on what I can find, afford, and personal tastes. But I guess when a recipe specifically says not to substitute something I should listen to that. I made a dish from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer - Shrimp and Black Rice Salad with Vietnamese Dressing. She clearly states not to substitute wild rice for the black rice, but I couldn't find black rice, and I thought, 'oh, I'm sure it'll be fine.' Nope. It sucked. You shouldn't have to work this hard to eat. The dressing was yummy, the shrimp was fine, the rice was crappy. Chew, chew, chew. chew. chew. Pretty miserable.