Lazy Holidays

I haven't really been cooking much in the last few days, surely all based in seasonal laziness. The things that I have cooked haven't really been beautiful things or anything new, so they don't get pictures or entries. Here's something interesting, though:



My little brother is a big fan of broccoli and picks it up nearly every time he goes shopping, and I had some prosciutto that needed to get used (and still do) so I steamed up the broccoli and threw it in with the pasta after it had been drained. A couple of sundried tomatos, a lightly cooked prosciutto and, and a grate of Parmesan later and this dinner is good to go.

ICSA XXXVIII

I finally made it into an Iron Chef Something Awful competition, even though I was kind of pushing the time limit a little bit.

ICSA XXXVIII: My Ricer needs new turbos

Butterscotch Whipped Cream

I had a vision, A VISION I TELL YOU of this confection. I riding in the car on the way back from Thanksgiving and I set my phone down for a moment and just sort of gazed forward, and suddenly: WHAM! The cosmos presented to me a luxurious field of twisted light brown fluff in the shape of Churro. "What is that?" I pondered about this lovely sight that had flooded my inner vision. Then, it suddenly came to me. BUTTERSCOTCH Whipped Cream. Destiny is soon to be at hand. But I'm not about to try to make whipped cream by hand again, so it will have to wait. Besides, I'll have to think about what to use it with...Hmm...

Vanilla Extract

The holiday season has arrived, and the best gifts to give are ones you make yourself, so let's start some projects, shall we?

Good Vanilla Extract is very expensive in stores, as are Whole Vanilla Beans...but the same is not so on the wonderful World Wide Web. For the same price as two beans at the supermarket, you can have your self one of these luxurious 1/4th lbs packages:



So, now that you've got that, here's what else you'll need:



Small Bottles (I've got an old Balsamic Vinegar Bottle I cleaned out, and some old Watkin's Vanilla Extract bottles)
Vodka (You can probably use something cheaper, but I'm a believer in 'Better Ingredients, Better Product')
Whole Vanilla Beans
Sharp Knife
Happiness
Helicopter
Breitling Navitimer



Step One: Cut seeds lengthwise. You can leave them attached at the little curve for added flair.



Step Two: Scrape out the little seeds (called 'Caviar') and deposit them in your bottle



Step Three: Stuff those bad boys in there. Fold them up if you need to (you need to.)



Step Four: All that lovely flavor has to go somewhere. How about into some Vodka? Yeah, that works.



Step Five: Shake it every day for the first week, and then just whenever you open your pantry for the next two months. Sure, it won't quite be ready by Christmas, but the recipients will have the fun of watching it complete its conversion. Refill as necessary for the next six months, and then extract the beans and toss them in with your sugar for Vanilla Sugar.

Mad Face McBreakfast!

Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed.



DON'T CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH OPEN!! Where are your MANNERS?

Sun-Dried Tomato Omelette
Whole Wheat Biscuits
White Bacon Gravy

Cook, Eat, Share - Kyle's Departure Party Part 1

One of Cook, Eat, Share's members is soon to be leaving for Korea to teach English to youngsters. We've got to see him off the only way we know how: with a full belly.



It's looking like a wonderful turn out. I can't tell you want everything is, but I do know that the dark noodles dish is Thai Yakisoba, and below that is fried rice. Over to the right is Pumpkin Bread. I'm not sure what the other dishes are called. I'll try to get the cooks to fill in the blanks.



You want some of this?



Let me dish you up. (I made the Brussels Sprouts, some steamed and some Roasted [not pictured])



Oh, looks like someone beat you to it!



Early eaters get the shake down for their misdeeds!

It was actually the first potluck I've had at my house, and I felt it was very successful. Luckily, Kyle isn't leaving quite as quickly as expected (so I hear) so we'll get to see a bit more of him in the coming days.

For Father

I haven't seen my father in some incredible amount of time, perhaps even in excess of a year. So, when I was present with an opportunity to spend some time with him very near home (In my brother's house, actually) I was very excited about seeing him, and being able to show him the progress I'd made in my cooking skill. I decided to make some dishes that I thought he would be craving having not had them available to him in quite some time. Steak is thought to be a luxury meal in the states, no? So, that choice was natural, and I'd been wanting to make a green peppercorn port sauce for a while, so that was easy enough to decide on. And, the moment I spotted a recipe for this Roasted Leek Potato Soup, I knew I had to make it my own.



Of course, I had to add some bacon in with those shallots. No potato is complete without bacon. Mmm...bacon. I think I stuck to the recipe for the most part, besides. I forgot to bring my immersion blender and had to use this wacky little drink blender that Kevin had and do it in about five different batches. It wasn't incredibly difficult, but it was tedious.



This was incredible. It was everything I could have hoped for. The salt-denaturing worked its magic so well that we could cut our steaks with a butterknife (which was good, because Kevin didn't have any steak knives). I made a garlic, rosemary and bleu cheese butter to put on these, and then forgot about it. The port sauce could have been thicker, but that will have to wait for another day. The shallots and green peppercorns worked out wonderfully, especially with me just guessing at how much to use, as I lost the recipe some time ago.

For desert, I was going to serve the rose crackies, and I brought all the ingredients for them, with the exception of the rose petals...so, they had to wait. Luckily, there was a pecan pie in the car from a local Dutch Bakery (run by the local Amish!) that was wonderful, and I used a bit of the Lemongrass Whipped Cream to enhance it. It couldn't have been better.



Happy Campers!