Christmas recap and blogiversary

So, I've had a bit of a hiatus from the blog. Have you noticed? There's no good reason for the looooong break other than I was bored and uninspired. Since October.

But now that Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, I figured that I couldn't ignore the wonderful food and cooking that has been going on around me. Food is a key player during the holidays. Almost as big as presents and the tree.

I will take you back to Thanksgiving. This holiday was spent aboard the Crystal Serenity, so I had to do zero cooking, zero cleaning up, and 100% eating. Lovely!

Meals on either of the Crystal ships is an event. The food is mostly prepared with a French influence and technique - sauces, meats, veggies - but there is always a wide variety of dishes from which to choose. In addition to the dining room, there are two restaurants on board. One, called Prego, is the Italian restaurant with menu choices created by Pierro Selvaggio, of the Valentino restaurants. The other is Asian called Silk Road and The Sushi Bar. The menu features dishes created by Nobu, and sushi chefs trained by him.

With all these choices, what in the world did I eat? Some of the dishes I had are:
-pumpkin ravioli
-iced Malossol Caviar
-Pate de Foie Gras
-Pan-Fried Fillet of Atlantic Halibut
-Whole-Roasted Tom Turkey with all the trimmings
-bisque of Fresh Sweet Corn
-Tortiglioni Pasta with fresh tomato sauce, cream, Fontina, and parsley
-a wide selection of sushi rolls, sashimi, and delectable Waygu beef sashimi style
-Nobu Udon

These are just some of the things I had for dinner. Breakfast was usually at the Lido to make selections from the large and diverse breakfast buffet. Lunch was a meal that I don't recall eating very much. I guess I did, but it seems like we were usually doing something or off the ship at lunch time. We did partake in tea on the days we were at sea. Tea consisted of finger sandwiches - cucumber, cheese, beef, ham, egg salad - and lots of mini-pastries. And scones with cream and berries, of course. Tea was a favorite activity.

Besides mealtime and tea, there are also seemingly unlimited supplies of fresh fruit, cookies, ice cream, breads, charcuterie, and drinks.

To work off all this food, the ships have a 360 degree promenade deck, a gym, paddle tennis courts, and swimming pools.

We also ate one meal while off the ship. That was lunch in Grand Turk. We were fed by a real local lady - although she was American - at a dive-y beach bar & restaurant. It was a strange mix of food she presented us with, but it tasted good. I had the grilled chicken, beans & rice, conch fritter, and key lime pie. We also ate just caught, maybe still alive conch on a boat in Grand Cayman. Our guide pulled this conch right out of the ocean, popped it from it's gigantic shell, and cut it up for us to taste right there. It didn't really taste like much except salt. But not overly salty. The texture was smooth, not slimy, and slightly firm. Later, the guide cut up the rest of it and made a ceviche on the boat using hot sauce, limes, cilantro, and who knows what else. We were all snorkeling while he made it.

Upon reaching Key West, we of course, also had to have key lime pie. We partook of some at the Blond Giraffe. Delish!

After Key West, we were home and the gravy train stopped. It was back to the real world which meant cooking and cleaning up. I was not thrilled about this as I loved my week off from kitchen duty.

Since we've been back, I don't feel like I've made very interesting food. Or at least, nothing interesting enough to tell you about. I've done the requisite holiday baking, but again, it's pretty standard fare.

I did make something new that I will tell you about. Steve's dad loves turtle candy but it's one of the items his mom does not make at Christmas or ever. So Steve thought it would be a nice gift idea to make turtles for his dad. I had concerns about making them and then having them set properly and also not have all the caramel ooze out the sides and basically result in a big mess. So I found a recipe for tipsy turtle bark. It was easy as pie to make and set beautifully. I let it set up overnight and then cut it. I did taste the melted caramels with the rum and it's divine. How can these not turn out delicious?

One other thing to mention, this blog is now over a year old. Whatever that means.

The mac and cheese testing continues

As you know, mac and cheese is one of my favorite foods. But it isn't something that can made and eaten everyday thanks to the butter, milk, and cheese usually required. And sometimes bacon.

I own exactly one "light" cookbook. It's from those good folks at America's Test Kitchen, so you know they are going to try to make the best possible light recipes they can possibly make and still call them light. Nothing will be tasteless or lacking. I've made a couple things from this cookbook, but for some reason, I hadn't tried the mac and cheese yet. Two nights ago, I did.

Everyday Macaroni and Cheese
from The Best Light Recipe
by America's Test Kitchen

Serves 5

salt
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
1 (12-oz) can reduced-fat (2%) evaporated milk
3/4 cup 2% milk
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp garlic powder or celery salt (optional)
Pinch cayenne
2 tsp cornstarch
8 ounces 50% light cheddar cheese, grated (they like Cabot)

1. Bring 2 1/2 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in 2 teaspoons salt and the macaroni; cook until the pasta is completely cooked and tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the pasta and leave in the colander; set aside.

2. Add the evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of the 2% milk, mustard, garlic powder, cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt to the now-empty saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Whisk the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup milk together, then whisk it into the simmering mixture. Continue to simmer, whisking constantly, until the sauce has thickened and is smooth, about 2 minutes.

3. Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cheddar until melted and smooth. Stir in the macaroni, and let the macaroni and cheese sit off the heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, 2 to 5 minutes before serving.

Notice anything about this recipe? No butter. The write up in the cookbook about their development of this recipe goes into detail about eliminating the traditional roux used to make the bechamel for the mac and cheese. They figured out that if they made a cornstarch slurry and instead of a butter based roux, that it worked just fine.

I was also wary of using the evaporated milk and reduced fat cheese. But I have great faith in ATK. The grocery store here had the Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar, so I used that. Actually, according to ATK, they think that most of the time, using a 50% reduced fat cheese is okay. Just check the package to see if the fat content is about half of the regular product. I used this method to compare the reduced fat cheeses at the store. While hardly any are labeled as 50% less fat, most are in the right ball park. I was also surprised to see how the fat content varied between identically labeled reduced fat cheeses. As I grated the cheese, I tasted some straight up. It's really not too bad.

So how does this recipe really stack up according to the numbers? I'm glad you asked. The folks at ATK have a handy "makeover at a glance" box included for this recipe that pits the numbers of the traditional version against this light one. They based their original recipe on their own from Cook's Illustrated. (Incidentally, I've made another one of their mac & cheese recipes.)

Per serving
Classic: 650 calories
Light: 360 calories

Cholesterol
Classic: 200 mg
Light: 40 mg

Fat
Classic: 40 g
Calories 10 g

Saturated Fat
Classic: 27 g
Light: 6 g

The end result is a very yummy, creamy, cheesy, and flavorful mac and cheese. The sauce is saucy, similar in consistency to a fake cheese like Velveeta - but tastes so much better. It also tastes way better than Kraft mac & cheese, but really, only takes a teensy bit more effort and time to make than the Kraft version. It's worth that little extra effort.

This mac and cheese isn't baked. I would like to have the crunch of bread crumbs on top of this, so maybe next time I'll put a smidge more milk in and then top with bread crumbs and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to get that crunchy top. All in all, very good and very easy to make. One pot, no knife. Excellent.

Have a little puddin'

The holidays are coming. Besides the Halloween and Christmas decorations at Target, and pumpkins in the grocery store, the other indicator that the seasons are changing is when Trader Joe's starts to stock their fall/holiday items, expensive meats/appetizers, and expands the baking section. Some of my favorite TJ products are only available this time of the year and that makes them extra special. Favorites include peppermint Jo-Jo's (cookies) and pumpkin butter. I didn't see the cookies yet, but the pumpkin butter was sitting prettily on the shelf so I picked one up. I also noticed in the cookie section maple leaf cookies. These are maple cookies sandwiched around a maple vanilla filling. Oh. Yum. Alas, the nutrition information is quite terrible, so I didn't buy a box, but I will at some point for a get-together or other "special" event when they can be shared.

I did, however, buy a new product that I hope will be a year-round product and not a seasonal one. Whenever I do my shopping, I make sure to peruse "new product" end cap by the dairy section. I'm familiar enough with TJ products that I can usually spot new ones as I stroll the aisle, but I always check this end cap just to make sure I didn't miss anything interesting. This week, I spotted retro-designed boxes of instant pudding. I couldn't help myself. The decision was not to buy a box or not, but whether to get vanilla or chocolate. I opted for chocolate.

Instant pudding is one of those simple-stupid things to make. Really. Can't screw it up even if you tried. I whisked the pudding with the called for cold milk (nonfat in my case even though the box wanted 2%) in my brand new 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup with the non-slide bottom. This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted this cup for. I only got it a couple weekends ago and this was my first recipe putting it to work. The sticky silicon ring on the bottom of the cup held like glue to the counter while I whisked. The size was perfect for whisking, and the spout allowed me to easily pour the pudding into the cups.

Here is the box and measuring cup at work:


After dinner Monday night, we had pudding for dessert. I'm no connoisseur of instant puddings as the only time I eat it is when it's in a berry trifle, but I thought this TJ instant pudding was very good. The chocolate was almost the exact same chocolate flavor as a brownie batter which means it's very chocolate-y. We both thought the pudding was just a teensy bit grainy. I'm not sure if that's because I didn't whisk it enough or if that's just how instant pudding is. The little bit of grain didn't bother us in the slightest. The second day we had the pudding, a little skin had formed on the top but nothing too disgusting. The box says this pudding makes excellent pie filling, so I think Steve will get a chocolate pudding pie sometime in the months ahead. But before that, I want to give the vanilla a try, too.

All in all, I would highly recommend this instant pudding for it's very satisfying chocolate taste, creamy consistency (even if using nonfat milk), completely idiot-proof instructions, and friendly price.

"Salad" for dinner. No really, there was something green in it.

Usually, I think salad recipes are silly. Really, does anyone need a recipe to tell them how to make a salad? It's lettuce, dressing, and whatever other veggies and toppings you want, right? And dressing is oil and and acid of some kind, whether it's a vinegar or lemon juice. Salads are idiot proof dishes. All that being said, a salad recipe from my Sept. issue of Bon Appetit caught my eye. Perhaps it was all that bacon, goat cheese, and egg. Not much of a salad after that but rather a "salad." (PHOTO above from bonappetit.com)

Warm Escarole Salad with Goat Cheese, Hard-Boiled Eggs, and Bacon
from Bon Appetit, September 2009

6 servings (Actually, we ate all of this in one sitting. I guess it's six servings if you have it with something else but we didn't. Think it would be good with some grilled chicken or grilled shrimp if you like that sort of thing.)

1 head of escarole, torn into large bite-size pieces (about 8 cups)
2 bacon slices
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 5.5 ounce log soft fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled

Divide escarole among six plates. (*I just dumped all of into a large mixing bowl as I later combined ingredients, dressed, and tossed in the bowl and served from there.) Cook bacon in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain: reserve skillet with bacon drippings. Finely chop bacon; set aside.

Whisk olive oil and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Heat bacon drippings in skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; saute until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add olive oil mixture and whisk just until heated through, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Drizzle vinaigrette over escarole. Sprinkle with eggs, goat cheese, and bacon.

Lobster cookies, the no guilt way to eat lobsters

In my weekend blog updates, I mentioned that we picked up a lobster shaped cookie cutter at Sur La Table.

With a little help from Steve on Sunday, the cookies got made. I have to say, rolled cookies are not my favorite things to make. I do like the novelty of them, decorating, and of course, eating them, but making them is sort of a pain. The dough for this kind of cookie usually has so much butter in it that it immediately starts to soften even after it's been in the fridge for a while. This dough has to be rolled to a certain thickness, which is usually so thin that it easily tears when you try to pick it up and move it to the baking sheet. I can't tell you how many lobster claws and tails we ripped off before I decided to just roll the dough directly on the baking sheet. Even though this only resulted in four or five lobsters in a batch, it was less stressful than trying to successfully move the cut lobsters to the sheet. (Michelle V. - if you read my blog, could you please leave a comment about your roll cookie method? I remember you told me your secret that involved cutting them out directly on the baking sheet but I can't remember if you did it after freezing the dough on the sheet or par baking? And anyone else who reads this, if you have tips for handling roll cookies, please let me know. I'm all ears!)

By the time I got to my last batch, I had morphed the roll-directly-on-the-sheet method with the roll-out-on-parchment-and-then-cut-the-paper-around-each-cookie-and-put-that-on-the-sheet method. This second method allowed me to get more cookies in each batch but it was a little tedious.

By the time these little buggers were all baked, I was done. They would have to wait until Monday to get their shells.

So this afternoon, I got out the required items for the frosting and went to work. I was trying to get a red color that is nothing like what I got. In person, the frosting is more of a dark salmon color rather than a deep red. Oh well.

I had read a hint about frosting cookies that said to use the back of a spoon rather than a spatula. Deciding to try it, I first used the tablespoon. Way too big. Switched down the the teaspoon. Better, but still a little sloppy. Finally, ding ding ding! Use my favorite spoon of all - the demitasse! The baby bear spoon was juuuuust right. I used the new one I got over the weekend and it worked like a charm. Before I had tested all the spoons, I also tried painting on the frosting. Eh, it was okay because there was no room for sloppiness, but I liked how the spoon coated cookies looked better. Here are my sad test cookies. These were casualties of broken claws and tails which resulted after baking. Delicate little things.

When I got them all frosted, I was not satisfied with the color. Salmon pink on lobster? No, that will not do. Sprinkles! Red sprinkles will help punch up that color a little bit. I was saved from having to make my own red sprinkles - which would probably turn out pink anyway - because I just happened to have a large container of them that I had bought on sale at Target from the post-Fourth of July discount bin. I believe that was Fourth of July 2008. I have no idea what compelled me to buy these at that time, but something in my subconscious must have been clairvoyant to know I would need them nearly fifteen months later.

Here are the finished cookies all jazzed up.


Those round ones are from the scraps and are cut using a ravioli cutter. I have yet to use it to make ravioli.

Nom nom nom

These videos have to be some of the strangest things I've ever seen a cat eat, or attempt to eat. What weird things to your cats eat? You should film it and put it on YouTube and then the world can see it and say, "what a weird cat."

Saturday around town

This morning, I used orange juice to wash down a cinnamon roll, some eggs, and bacon before heading to the big island of Manhattan today. We were hitting up Crate & Barrel and CB2 to look for lamps. Lamps aside, our trip today really revolved around food, or at least the things that go in a kitchen to make food.

We went into a few shops - Muji, CB2, and finally Sur La Table. It was at Sur La Table where I really oohed and ahhed over bake ware, Le Cruest dutch ovens, All-Clad saute pans, gadgets, knives, cutting boards, and dishtowels. I ended up buying these two Halloween yet food-related towels that I think are so cute.


Pretty cute, huh? I picked up a gift for someone, another small stocking stuffer (I bought my first present yesterday, so the shopping has begun. In fact, in Muji, I even heard Silent Night playing on some sort of Japanese new-agey CD over the store speakers. Weird. Sur La Table also had some ornaments out already. Has anyone been to Target lately? Two weeks ago, our Target had one side of an aisle hanging with Halloween costumes and the other side had over sized Christmas ornaments. Steve took a picture because it was so bizarre.) At Crate & Barrel, got myself a new corkscrew for $3, a tiny white and stainless demitasse spoon for $2 (they are the best spoons with which to eat ice cream), and a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup with a non-slip bottom. At Sur La Table, we also got a $1 lobster cookie cutter (Steve's idea. I told him he would have to help make them), and I found 9-inch parchment paper rounds for my cake pans. No more tracing my pans and cutting out and wasting paper.

Rewind to last night. We tried out a new Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. Or at least what we thought was a new place. We first went to Clover Club for a drink and snack, and then over to Court to this Thai place. As we left CC, I noticed that the Thai restaurant next door had the same name as the place we were going to on Court Street. Now, you have to understand, Court Street is only one block over from where we were. And the new restaurant was one block north on Court, so we are only talking about two blocks from where we were standing outside this same-named Thai restaurant. We get to the new place and double check the name. Yup, same name. Same sort of interior look, too. Sit down and eat our standard green curry. Our waitress asked Steve if we had eaten at the "other one" so we're pretty sure they are sister restaurants only two blocks apart. How weird is that? It got pretty busy as we ate, so maybe both places can do enough business to stay open. The new place has a nice windowed back wall and ceiling as well as a private outdoor deck. The food was fine but service was very slow, so I think they still need to work some things out at the new location, which has only been open about a week.