Celebrate a good year with elegant pasta

I loved 2007. What a great year. I turned 50, we had a dream trip to France, and at the end of the year I started a wonderful new job. This was the year daughter Jessie married Jake in Virginia-- what a picture perfect event. Our other children in all corners of the country are doing well. We adopted a puppy girl who is fun every minute. And in 2007, I started this blog.

My goals for 2008? Make more time for exercise, do what I can to make my new bosses happy they hired me, be a better wife, daughter, mom and friend, read more books, train the pup well, and keep cooking so I'll have lots to blog about.

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for your great feedback and kind comments about the blog. Let's end 2007 with a recipe that I like to make after the holidays, when I always seem to have leftover ham on hand and half a carton of heavy cream in the fridge.

Pasta with ham and peas in cream sauce

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1-1/2 cups cooked ham, chopped
1-3/4 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
16 ounces rotini pasta

Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, prepare sauce. Melt butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add onion and water; cover and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic. Cook, uncovered, two minutes more. Add ham and cream. Cook until thickened, about 7 minutes. Stir in peas and spices; cook until peas are heated through. Drain pasta, add to sauce and stir well. Stir in the Parmesan. Serve immediately with crusty bread and a nice salad.

Peppers add holiday color to potato medley

It's not often that a vegetable dish catches much attention at a holiday buffet. But at my company's Christmas party this season, I was struck by how pretty one potato side dish was. Red and green bell peppers provided a little Yuletide color. Sweet potatoes and new potatoes made for a nice combination. So, when I cooked our rib roast for Christmas dinner, I did my best to duplicate this dish. The results were yummy:

Holiday potatoes with red and green peppers

Wash three large sweet potatoes, and pierce several times. Bake these on a foil-lined cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about an hour. Let them cool completely, then peel and cut into 1-inch chunks. Boil five or six new potatoes for 15 minutes. Cool completely and cut into 1-inch chunks. Chop a large sweet onion, a red bell pepper and a green bell pepper. In a wok, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add peppers and onions and cook for about 4 minutes. Then add sweet and new potato pieces and stir-fry. Add salt, pepper to taste. If you like, top with a little fres-grated parmesan cheese. (Since Christmas doesn't officially end until the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, I see no need to wait 'til next year to try this again!)

White Christmas calls for spicy white chili

We're having a white Christmas in Wichita this year, and this weather put me in the mood for a steaming spicy pot of white chili. I cooked this in the slow cooker day before yesterday and it made for a nice supper before we headed to church last night. I tell ya, slow cooking is the way to go when cooking dry beans. They just cook up perfectly on low in about 8 hours. I adapted this from a recipe Dave's had in his files for many years. It's best to make this a day before you're going to serve it. Cover and refrigerate 'til ready to reheat.

White chili

4 15-ounce cans chicken broth
16-ounce package of dry navy beans
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 to 1/2 cup canned jalapeno peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons oregano
1-1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces (or leftover Christmas turkey)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Soak beans overnight according to package directions. In a heavy skillet, stir-fry chicken pieces in olive oil over medium high heat about 8 minutes, until evenly browned. (If using leftover chicken or turkey, you can skip this step.) Put meat into slow cooker with beans. Add remaining ingredients and stir things up. Make sure broth covers the beans completely. If it doesn't, add a bit of water or open another can of broth. Cook for 8-10 hours on low heat. Serve with grated Monterrey jack cheese and chopped cilantro. Add red pepper flakes if you prefer a little extra heat.

A happy accident: Pumpkin bread pudding

Here's a recipe I came up with by accident, after I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread the other day that stuck to the pans. Trying to pry the loaves out, I broke them into pieces unsuitable for packaging up as the Christmas gifts I'd intended them to be. The bread was delicious though (Click here for the recipe from Epicurious.com) and I didn't want to throw it out. So I made pumpkin bread pudding. I took this to a dinner party last night; we heated it up and served with whipped cream. I have to say, this is a good way to use up any extra pumpkin bread you may receive from friends this holiday season.

Pumpkin bread pudding

Two small loaves pumpkin bread, broken into 1-inch chunks (about 4 cups)
8 large egg yolks
1-3/4 cups whole milk
1/3 cup maple syrup

Place pumpkin bread pieces into a buttered 8-by-8-inch baking dish. Toast at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turning once. In medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, milk and syrup. Pour mixture over the bread chunks, pressing on bread to completely coat. Cover with foil and refrigerate 30 minutes. Bake covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until pudding is set and firm to the touch. Serve immediately, or refrigerate and reheat when ready to serve.

Happy Holidays: Cinnamon apple roll-ups

I love these days right before Christmas, when our packages are mailed off (most of 'em, at least...) and I can decorate the cookies I've already baked and we can enjoy the treats friends have given to us, and relax a little. My neighbor Lisa trudged through the snow drifts this morning to bring over a beautiful tray of cookies. I had bread dough rising and decided to use some of it to bake apple bread rolls to take over to her. They're just out of the oven, and I tried one; they're nice-- not too sweet. I ended up with enough to make a couple of gift plates of a half dozen or so.

To make the rolls, roll out yeast dough on a well-floured piece of waxed paper, then brush with melted butter. Peel and dice an apple and combine the pieces in a bowl with some finely chopped walnuts, a tablespoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons granulated sugar. Spread this evenly over the bread dough, and rolled it up tight. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut into 1-1/2 inch slices. Space these evenly on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons melted butter with about 1/4 cup brown sugar. Sprinkle this over the top of the rolls and bake at 350 degrees in a convection oven for 20 minutes. (In a conventional oven, adjust heat to 375 degrees.) Cool on wire rack until ready to package up and deliver to the neighbors.

Sort of from scratch: Eagle Brand cookie kit

As I was shoppping for groceries this weekend to fill a basket for a holiday food drive, I found myself checking out some mixes in the baking aisle. I found a kit that wasn't so much a mix as a box of pre-measured ingredients to make "Magic Cookie Bars."

I remember as a kid making these treats with chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, a graham cracker crust and sweetened condensed milk. So I bought a couple of these kits, one for my food basket and one to try out myself. The kit included a packet of graham cracker crumbs to mix with butter to make a crust, and individually wrapped packets of chopped walnuts, sweet coconut, chocolate and butterscotch chips and foil-sealed packets of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. Obviously, these were pretty easy cookies to put together. And they turned out exactly like what I used to make as a kid.

The price seemed a little steep to me-- around $5 for enough ingredients to fill an 8-by-8-inch baking pan. But if you're in the market for quick holiday baking that doesn't involve measuring anything, you might want to try a box.

You'll feel like a kid again: Mac & cheese

I started a new job this week, and I've been so busy I haven't done much cooking. We had takeout Chinese last night, and ordered pizza the night before. Finally tonight, I managed to cook dinner, even though we didn't have a lot of groceries on hand. What to fix? On hand, I found cheese, pasta and some milk and butter. So I made macaroni and cheese.

I'm kind of a purist about mac & cheese. I don't use processed cheese. I keep ingredients to a minimum. Noodles, cheese, milk, a few bread crumbs. That's about it.

This is a dish I don't cook often (especially since my kids left home) though I love it just about better than any other food available anywhere. Does mac & cheese have any redeeming social value? Not that I know of, but it's so go-o-o-ooo-oood.

Here's my basic recipe:

16 ounces macaroni or other pasta (such as penne or rotini)
2 to 3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 stick butter
1 cup milk
Dried parsley flakes
1 cup saltine cracker crumbs or Panko crumbs
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain. Return to cooking pot, add butter and mix well. Add cheese. Stir. Then add milk. Butter a 9-by-11-inch casserole dish. Add pasta and cheese mixture to casserole dish. Top with crumbs and parsley. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (And then just try to limit yourself to only one serving!)

Sweet holiday aroma: Gingerbread cookies

Nothing says Christmas like the aroma of ginger. One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking cutout cookies, and today it was bitter cold outside, so I stayed inside and baked about 5 dozen gingerbread cutouts. These taste so good with coffee or hot cider or a steaming cup of cocoa.

I don't do anything fancy when it comes to icing cookies. I mix just a few drops of milk into a cup of powdered sugar and mix that with a fork. Then I spread this icing on my cooled cookies. I don't usually add food coloring, but I like to sprinkle iced cookies with colored green and red sugar.

This recipe, from "Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook" produces a pretty dry dough that can be a little crumbly when you try to roll it. Work the chilled dough with your hands a bit to make it easier to handle before rolling out. Double this recipe so you'll have plenty of cookies to decorate. These freeze well too. I froze most of what I made today to decorate later.

Gingerbread cutout cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Beat shortening on high speed with electric mixer 30 seconds. Add half the flour, and all remaining ingredients. Beat 'til thoroughly combined. Beat in the rest of the flour. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill at least three hours.

Divide dough in half. On a flour piece of waxed paper, flatten dough with your hand. Then roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired cookie cutter shapes. Place 1 inch apart on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake in 350-degree convection oven for 5 or 6 minutes (375 degrees for conventional oven), 'til edges are slightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for a minute, then cool on a wire rack. Wait to spread on icing 'til the cookies are completely cool. Makes 36-48, according to the cookbook.

Mmm... Chocolate-coated sugar cookies

Today we got our Christmas tree up and decorated, and Dave braved ice and drizzle to string lights up outside. And I made this season's first batches of holiday cookies; cream cheese sugar cookies.

I usually go way overboard with cookies at Christmastime. For the next few weeks I will fill the freezer with cookies, some to mail out to the kids, some to decorate just before Christmas for friends in town. I freeze cookies by the dozen in gallon Ziploc bags, and don't decorate until I pull them from the freezer ready to use.

One tip for cookie baking-- always line cookie sheets with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Your cookies will never stick and you don't have to ponder whether to grease the pan.

One of my favorite ways to decorate sugar cookies is to melt chocolate chips in the microwave in a small bowl, and drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies. Then I sprinkle with just a few walnut crumbs. To crush the walnuts, put a handful of nutmeats between two sheets of waxed paper and flatten with a rolling pin. Works great.

Here's the recipe I used today for cream cheese cutout sugar cookies, adapted from "Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook."

Cream cheese cutouts

1 cup butter
6 ounces cream cheese
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat butter and cream cheese 'til smooth. Add half the flour and all the remaining ingredients. Beat 'til well blended. Beat in remaining flour. Form into two balls, wrap each in plastic wrap and chill at least an hour.

Divide each ball in half. On a sheet of floured waxed paper, roll out dough one half at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters into desired shapes. Set 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in 350-degree convection oven (375 degrees for a conventional oven) for about 7 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Let cool completely before freezing.

According to the cookbook, this should yield 120 cookies. I'd say 60 to 80 is more likely.

Fried catfish tastes deliciously like summer

Sorry I have been distracted and not blogging. I am starting a new job Monday, haven't started thinking about the holidays at all-- and we got a puppy! Her name is Bella and she's wonderful; a 12-week-old boxer/terrier mutt. She's the greatest.

With so much going on, I think I'm in denial about the holidays. I need to be baking cookies on a daily basis and freezing them. Haven't started. Last night I did cook us dinner, but nothing with a holiday feel-- we finally ate up the catfish we caught on our memorable excursion in northern Kansas last summer.

We never got around to having a fish fry with all the folks who went on that trip, and now that I'm leaving one job to start another, the co-worker who had custody of the frozen fish brought me my share this week. I coated it in excellent cornmeal coating mix that my (soon-to-be-former) boss gave me that is not available in Wichita. I'm almost out and I'm trying to figure out what exactly goes into this perfect fish breading. I dipped the fish fillets in ice water, then coated them with the breading, and fried in hot vegetable oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes per side. It's important not to flip the fish before that five minutes is over. Mmm. I gotta say, eating this fish was a lot more fun than catching it.

Calf's liver: More delicious than you think

Liver. Most people turn up their noses at the thought. I never prepare this dish, because Dave is one of those liver eschewers. But I like liver. One of my favorite dinners as a kid was calf's liver with bacon and onions; my mother chose calf's liver because she was not a fan of liver, but my dad liked it, and calf's liver is somewhat milder than other varieties.

I've been feeling a little weary this week, a little stressed, a little light-headed. So I started popping multivitamins, and thought a dose of iron-rich liver might help pep me up. Tonight that's what I cooked for dinner.

I found calf's liver in the frozen food section at my grocery store. Here's how I prepared it: I dredged the liver pieces in flour, dipped them into a beaten egg, and then coated with Panko bread crumbs. Then I fried in hot oil in a skillet over medium high heat for about four minutes a side. I topped with bacon and fried onions. And even Dave had some; he said it tasted better than he expected. (I considered that high praise!)

Dave's beef stew warms up a winter night

I haven't cooked a thing since Thanksgiving. We enjoyed turkey leftovers for several days, then we had takeout a couple nights last week and yesterday, Dave cooked up really good beef stew for supper. It was lovely to have a homecooked meal, even if I wasn't in a mood to cook anything myself.

This recipe is one Dave's had for years, from an Internet recipe that credits "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook."

2 pounds beef stew meat
Unbleached flour season with salt and pepper
1 tbsp. shortening
1 quart boiling water
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, diced
1 cup celery, sliced
2 cups potatoes, diced
2 cups carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup parsnips, peeled and diced
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme and parsley, chopped
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon unbleached flour

Dredge beef chunks in flour and sear them in melted shortening in a heavy pot. Pour 1 quart boiling water over the meat, then add the garlic. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding more water as needed. Add the vegetables, bouillon cubes and herbs and season to taste. Simmer another hour until the vegetables are tender, adding a little red wine if you like or more water if necessary. Thicken with more flour, by adding some of the gravy to the flour and then stirring the thickener into the pot. Simmer a few more minutes before serving. Great with homemade bread.