Saturday, December 31, 2011
Christmas Presents
After much debate on how to cheaply send quite a few of my friends Christmas presents, I finally decided on attempting to make some chocolate bars. I bought some molds and went to work.
I have a TREMENDOUS addiction to S'mores anything. My favorite desserts include S'mores ice cream sandwiches and S'mores cupcakes. So... sorry friends, out of some slight self interest, I made you S'mores chocolate bars (and horded several for myself). However, making a chocolate candy bar by tempering some chocolate, melting some marshamallow and opening a box of graham crackers to make these creations seemed too simple and involved enough to be considered a present. To bump up the challenge, I decided to make my own marshmallow fluff. Other than that, I pretty much just followed the recipe from Not So Humble Pie.
Some thoughts: I think I made the chocolate bar too thick. You couldn't really taste the marshmallow and graham cracker. Ah well, I have no qualms about making them again. ^_^
Merry Christmas!
I have a TREMENDOUS addiction to S'mores anything. My favorite desserts include S'mores ice cream sandwiches and S'mores cupcakes. So... sorry friends, out of some slight self interest, I made you S'mores chocolate bars (and horded several for myself). However, making a chocolate candy bar by tempering some chocolate, melting some marshamallow and opening a box of graham crackers to make these creations seemed too simple and involved enough to be considered a present. To bump up the challenge, I decided to make my own marshmallow fluff. Other than that, I pretty much just followed the recipe from Not So Humble Pie.
Some thoughts: I think I made the chocolate bar too thick. You couldn't really taste the marshmallow and graham cracker. Ah well, I have no qualms about making them again. ^_^
Merry Christmas!
Christmas Dinner
Happy Holidays All!
I realized recently that I have not been keeping my blog up-to-date. (Again!) My New Year's resolution is to post about my experiments ASAP. I've gotten into a bad habit these past few months of choosing gaming over logging these fun-time cooking adventures.
Lots of firsts for me this Christmas. Number one: I made prime rib. Number two: I made a yule log. What the hell was I thinking?! Not all is lost! It all came out amazing... and you couldn't see the cracks in my yule log which is always a plus.
Things to do if I attempt these recipes again: 1) Get a new oven. 2) Get a new oven. Ok, I should explain... Our oven does not keep an even temperature in addition to not actually being the correct temperature. This made (at the very least) the yule log way too difficult.
The spread: prime rib with an herb paste, potatoes, glazed carrots, green beans with bacon, and french onion soup. If the holiday gathering is small, I am inclined to make the prime rib again (purely financial reasons). The potatoes were good, nothing fancy; just cooked in the drippings from the roast. Green beans were pretty standard (well, for Southern green beans). The carrots are now a required side dish at any holiday meal. Thankfully, they are super simple to make. The French onion soup recipe was different from my previous one, but I like the recipe I had previously posted better. This one was good... just not great.
As far as the desserts go for flavor, the gingerbread cake... is a must try! It was fantabulous! I made it with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. The yule log was very tiramisu-like in flavor. Although, I am inspired to try filling it with different creams. This will also give me opportunity to practice baking and rolling the actual cake (without cracking it). I want to try a hazelnut cream as well as a peppermint cream. If anyone has any tips on not cracking the cake when rolling it, let me know.
I realized recently that I have not been keeping my blog up-to-date. (Again!) My New Year's resolution is to post about my experiments ASAP. I've gotten into a bad habit these past few months of choosing gaming over logging these fun-time cooking adventures.
Lots of firsts for me this Christmas. Number one: I made prime rib. Number two: I made a yule log. What the hell was I thinking?! Not all is lost! It all came out amazing... and you couldn't see the cracks in my yule log which is always a plus.
Things to do if I attempt these recipes again: 1) Get a new oven. 2) Get a new oven. Ok, I should explain... Our oven does not keep an even temperature in addition to not actually being the correct temperature. This made (at the very least) the yule log way too difficult.
The spread: prime rib with an herb paste, potatoes, glazed carrots, green beans with bacon, and french onion soup. If the holiday gathering is small, I am inclined to make the prime rib again (purely financial reasons). The potatoes were good, nothing fancy; just cooked in the drippings from the roast. Green beans were pretty standard (well, for Southern green beans). The carrots are now a required side dish at any holiday meal. Thankfully, they are super simple to make. The French onion soup recipe was different from my previous one, but I like the recipe I had previously posted better. This one was good... just not great.
As far as the desserts go for flavor, the gingerbread cake... is a must try! It was fantabulous! I made it with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. The yule log was very tiramisu-like in flavor. Although, I am inspired to try filling it with different creams. This will also give me opportunity to practice baking and rolling the actual cake (without cracking it). I want to try a hazelnut cream as well as a peppermint cream. If anyone has any tips on not cracking the cake when rolling it, let me know.
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| Herb-Roasted Prime Rib & Potatoes |
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| Glazed Carrots with Bacon and Pecans |
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| Bittersweet Chocolate Yule Log |
Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving was pretty good again this year. We used the same turkey recipe as the last few years. I did vary up the side dishes a bit: broccoli and cheese casserole and cauliflower gratin. I also tried making stuffed mushrooms, but they didn't have a very good flavor. I will definitely make the broccoli and cheese casserole again, but the cauliflower needs something better. It was very bland (granted they look gorgeous).
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| Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Spinach and Goat Cheese |
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| Cauliflower Gratin |
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| Broccoli and Cheese Casserole |
However, I did make this amazing pumpkin-bourbon cheesecake. I think I ate 3/4 of it. Sooo delicious. Definitely an autumn dessert winner. Granted, I didn't homogenize the cream cheese enough and I did over bake it a smidge (I had a nasty crack on the top).
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