Made: Fancied Up Brussels Sprouts

I'm slowly cooking my way through the recipes on my Fall Food List.

Brussels sprouts and I have a complicated relationship. I've only cooked them myself one other time; it ended in a Sonic parking lot. I've cooked them with Angie before with success. It bolstered my confidence enough to try it solo.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Barley

1 lb small Brussels Sprouts
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt
2/3 C fresh cranberries (or 1/3 C dried cranberries)
1/3 C crumbled Gorgonzola or goat cheese
1/3 C freshly toasted pecans
1 1/2 C cooked barley, reheated
1 Tbsp maple syrup, or more to taste
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, or more to taste

Prepare Brussels Sprouts. Cut off tips. Remove discolored leaves. Slice in half.

Prepare broiler.

Warm a 12" cast iron skillet over medium-high heat on the stove. 

Meanwhile, toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil and salt until evenly coated in a thin layer of oil.

Dump the sprouts into the hot pan. Quickly rearrange them so the flat sides are down. Let them cook for two minutes.

Toss the fresh cranberries into the pan and transfer the pan to the broiler. Let the sprouts broil for about three minutes. Check the sprouts for doneness - their tops should be a little brown and the bottoms caramelized.

Toss warm barley, sprouts, cranberries, cheese, and pecans in a bowl.

My Notes:
This was my first experimentation with barley. It worked.

I mixed up a little extra balsamic vinegar and maple syrup to drizzle over the chicken. It worked, too.

The cheese made the difference here. I went with a high quality blue instead of a gorgonzola. I liked the bite it added; I'm not sure the goat cheese would have added that touch.

I'd make this again.

Cooking for One

alternate titles:
"Choking Back Tears at the Meat Counter"
"Crying Over Dinner"

I picked this up before I was one. I didn't open it up until I was one. 

Reading about someone else's quest to learn to cook for and with a family most definitely did not lift my spirits. 

There *may* be some tear-stained pages.

I love making dinner. Everything about it - choosing recipes, shopping, chopping, actually cooking, and sitting down to eat. I've developed little rituals that surround each part of it.

Any night that we were both home, we would eat together in a very formal way - sitting at the table, television turned off, real plates, and serving dishes. Sometimes he helped me cook, and he was almost always responsible for the clean up.

I enjoyed finding things he'd like to eat. He made a point to compliment me. He even said he missed my cooking when I first moved out.

Cooking for someone else isn't part of my daily life anymore.

I'm struggling to adjust to that.

Everything related to cooking makes me very sad. An exchange at the meat counter almost brought me to tears,
Butcher: "You want two of these, right?"
Me: "No. It's just me."

Again, I'm really struggling to cooking for one. 

Cooking and dinner are things I enjoy. Even if they are things I will now enjoy by myself sometimes, they are still things I enjoy.

So, I'm striving to develop some new routines.

Where do I find recipes for one?
How do I shop and cook in a way that doesn't consume my weekly food budget in a single meal?
Why should I cook when I'd rather sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat cereal?
What are some ways to make less of a mess when I cook? (I hate the clean up.)

Big Mouth, Big Bowl: Pasta Edition

Remember the Big Mouth, Big Bowl: Soup Edition?
the soup competition in which someone else's shrimp bisque performed better than my minestrone?
the soup competition where I discovered that I do, in fact, love split pea and ham soup?
the soup competition where I realized that rutabaga was an excellent edition to chicken noodle soup?

The success of the first Big Mouth, Big Bowl challenge made it easy to decide that this would be an annual event. Each year our cook off will feature a different food that can be served in a bowl. This year's competition (scheduled for January 2012) is all about pasta.

I have only three short months to decide which pasta recipe I want to enter. I am definitely going to go with a red sauce. I'm all tossed up, though, about which is the best contender.


I did love a bolognese from Cook's Illustrated.
(And, there is another bolognese in their latest issue that I want to try.)

And, I dream about this super simple tomato sauce with butter and onions.

But, then I also love spaghetti puttanesca.

I really liked this short rib pasta sauce. Brad wasn't a fan.

If I was going for a sauce-less pasta I would - without a doubt - make Cacio e Pepe.

Dilemmas, dilemmas. I guess I will just have to eat lots and lots of pasta between now and January.

Feast (January): Chicken

The feast tradition (some might say madness) started February 2010. Despite our best efforts, Angie and I were not selected by the Pioneer Woman for a sushi weekend at her ranch. We set aside our devastation and made ourselves a consolation feast. Since then, feasts have been a pretty regular occurrence.

(Note. To qualify as a feast, a meal must have multiple recipes (sometimes centered around a theme), complicated steps, top-notch ingredients, require at least 700 dishes, and include thousands of calories).

Our feasts are such great fun that we resolved to make them monthly events in 2011.

We kicked off The Year of The Feast on Saturday.

Appetizer
White Bean & Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Cheese (all from Nala's Fromagerie)
1. Marieke Aged Gouda (Wisconsin Cow's Milk)
2. Bra Duro (Italian Cow's Milk)
3. Beaufort Style Comte Like (Wisconsin)

(The cheddar and mozzarella are for Luke and Dottie. They like the good stuff, but we didn't want to share.

The adorable WI-shaped cutting board is from our 2009 Sconnie cheese tour.)

Main Course
Guinness Chicken with Fig Pan Sauce
Restaurant-style Smashed Potatoes
Steamed Broccoli

I actually touched the chicken! That's a big deal for me. Angie captured the moment.

 The chicken took awhile to cook. There was some time for fun.

Lots of smoke was pouring out of the oven. . . lots. The butter all burned off the chicken, but it looked delicious when it finally came out of the oven.

We (Angie) carefully hauled the chicken out of the oven. If you were like us, you would think (just like we did) from the photo above that the chicken was cooked. So, you would (just like we did) carefully take the chicken from the pot, remove the beer can, and start carving.

You would pose with the chicken for an incredibly awkward photo before carving, of course.

Then, you would promptly realize (after the chicken has spewed a steaming hot Guinness and chicken juice solution all over the counter-top) that the chicken was still raw and return it to the oven and sit at the table to eat potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms.

After enjoying the side dishes, you would (if you were like us) carve the chicken and enjoy.

Dessert
Brownie Sundaes
(made with Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter & Walnuts)

Wine
Layer Cake Primitivo (Zinfandel)

The events of the day were even better with wine.

I am so lucky. I am so lucky to have a friend that gets me (and loves food almost as much as I do). I am so lucky that she has a family for us to feed. I am so lucky to have a husband that entertains my craziness. 

Bake-a-palooza (in review)

5 women.
14 hours.
18 recipes.
Bake-a-palooza 2010.

Here is what we made:
Triple Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Eggnog Baby Bundt Cakes

Pretzel Kiss M&M Candy
Reindeer Bark
Fudge (Mama Sue's secret recipe)
Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt

7-Layer Bars
Praline Strips (Mama Sue's recipe)
Red Velvet Bars
Toffee Squares
Candy Bar Bars (Mama Sue's recipe)

PB Chocolate Ritz Cookies (Em's recipe)
PB Cookies with Chocolate Kisses
Hot Chocolate Mocha Cookies
Egg Nog Snickerdoodles
Pecan Fingers (Mama Sue's recipe)
Candy Cane Kiss Brownie Bites (made by Stephanie)
Spritz Cookies (made by Mama Sue)

And, my thoughts on what we made. (I hope I remember to come back to this post next year as I'm planning recipes.)

• The biscotti was just okay. It took a long time to bake, cool, and bake again. And, it was difficult to slice it thinly enough to make it seem, look, and taste like biscotti.
• Eggnog baby bundt cakes. This recipe was actually for an eggnog pound cake. Note to self: pound cake does rise. Only fill the pans about half full. And, the recipe was just enough for 12 baby bundts. The final product was adorable, and the glaze made with granulated sugar looked like snow. I would change the glaze a little in the future - double it and omit the rum.
• Pretzel kiss candies. I am convinced that Hershey's changed the recipe for their Kisses to make them unmeltable. Next year, I will make these again but only using Hugs. 
• Reindeer Bark. I wasn't a fan of this. It did add some nice color to the trays, but the red Oreos were impossible to find and it was really difficult to get the bark to stay together.
• Fudge. Keep this every year - although, it sure does take a lot of stirring.
• Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt. Keep this recipe, too. But, remember to make it toward the beginning of the line-up because the truffles need to sit for about 2 hours after being scooped and before being coated with chocolate.
• 7-Layer bars. I'm not so sure about this one. I think I might be able to find a recipe that is less crumbly. These just didn't stay together very well after baking and cutting.
• Praline strips. Although these cause quite the pronunciation controversy, they will stay on the list for every single year. Super easy to make and totally delicious.
• Red Velvet Bars. Keep. And, make several pans just to hoard for myself. Delicious.
• Toffee Squares. Yuck. Either find a new recipe or replace with something else in the future.
• Candy Bar Bars. Love these and must remember to make throughout the year. . . not just at Christmas.
• PB Ritz Cookies. Yum, but what a total pain to make. Luckily, Debbie did all the dipping.
• PB Cookies with Kisses. Next year, I want to try a recipe with shortening instead of butter. My mom insists on using butter, and the cookies end up totally flat and strange looking.
• Hot Chocolate Mocha Cookies. Note to self: a single batch of these makes about 36 cookies. There is, therefore, no need to triple the recipe. And, these tasted much better hot than cooled.
• Egg Nog Snickerdoodles. While great, in theory, I wasn't a fan of these. They got really flat and really crispy.
• Pecan Fingers. Family recipe. Will always stay on the list.
• Candy Cane Kiss Brownie Bites. Delicious and oh-so-cute. Need to be kept separate from other treats, though, because of their minty-ness.
• Spritz Cookies. Apparently, there are several secrets to these. 1. Soften the butter. 2. Have a good cookie press. 3. Ask your mom to make them for you.

And, some recipes I still want to try:
Oreo Truffles
Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies
Pistachio Biscotti
Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies
Almond Roca
Hot Chocolate Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Salted Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Christmas Crunch
Smoky Bacon Ginger Cookies
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Orange Icing
Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Candy Cane Macarons
Butter Toffee

Hot.

Today Angie and I turned this:

into this:

We made 48 jars of hot pepper jelly.

It sounds like kind of a crazy scheme, but it was definitely the best executed and most successful of all of our crazy schemes.

There were a few minor mishaps.

Mishap 1: Batch 1 was thrown away; we skipped 10 minutes of boiling. That was fixed by writing the recipe in giant letters and hanging it on the fridge.

Mishap 2: There was some yelling during batch 2. I picked a critical moment to visit the ladies room, and batch 2 almost boiled over leaving a sticky mess every where. Angie's quick thinking helped us avert a major crisis, though.

Mishap 3: The hot pepper facial also caused some watering eyes, coughing, and extremely clear sinuses. Turns out the peppers need to boil for awhile. The mixture lets off nothing but hot pepper steam and needs to be stirred constantly. It is great for both the sinuses and the skin. I predict it is the next big spa treatment.

Mishap 4: (not pictured) There were two minor burn injuries both of which were quickly fixed by Hot Wheels tattoo style band-aids. Turns out hot pepper jelly is hot in more than one way.

Mishaps aside, I'm really proud of us. We finished everything in about four hours (including clean-up) and had a great time.

I'm even willing to try canning other things.