Posts tagged Food
Mama’s White Christmas
Dec 25th
What better day to renew my blogging life than a snowed in Christmas Day?
The roads are deep in snow, and the only people I see out there are in really big trucks (and one Subaru). So we’ve postponed Christmas dinner at my parents’ house until tomorrow night. With only light continued snow flurries expected we can presume that, by then, the city will have cleared roads sufficiently for us to creep around a little. Hope so. I can only stay housebound for so long before the family starts paying for it.
Plus, I will absolutely need to get to the gym by tomorrow to resume my workout routine. I’ve had two days off for the holiday, and have exercised absolutely NO RESTRAINT around any food.
So what are we doing today? Everyone has his or her own little project going on.
Quent is furiously studying post-holiday sales online. In true college-student fashion, she requested cold, hard cash for Christmas. Now she’s figuring out how to get the most fashion bang for her new bucks. She and her friends will be heading for the mall as soon as the roads are drivable.
Anthony is working out his new Wii.
Snacks is working out his new ITouch.
The hubby is holding down his favorite living room chair, eating and watching some fairly boring NBA games.
Me? Other than renewing my blogging career, I’m spending time in the kitchen. Cause I do love to cook. I’ve baked the pies for tomorrow’s family holiday dinner at mom and dad’s. So I got a head start on that part of the game, anyway. Plus I’m baking an extra pumpkin pie for tonight (can’t make my babies wait until tomorrow for pumpkin pie, can I?) FYI, because I know you are absolutely dying to know, I use the recipe on the back of the Libby’s Pumpkin can for my pumpkin pies, because I haven’t found anything better yet and it’s SO easy. Today, I used the leftover (homemade, of course) dough — from the best pie crust recipe ever — to make little miniature cinnamon sugar roll-ups for one of the boys’ many afternoon snacks.
Cinnamon Sugar Roll-Ups
1) Roll leftover pie dough flat.
2) Sprinkle dough with sugar and cinnamon, to your taste.
3) Cut dough into strips and roll into spirals.
4) Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until flaky.
Given the fact that I’m newly responsible for my family’s Christmas dinner tonight, I’ve been working on that, too. I found a package of beef stew meat in the freezer, and I did the quick defrost. Then I built a nice tomato sauce around the meat and I’ve left it to simmer until the meat is nice and tender. To be served with spaghetti, of course. And a green salad, with a simple homemade vinaigrette.
Today’s Meat Sauce
Spray the bottom of a cookpot with Pam, or coat lightly with olive oil. Saute 1 pound beef stew meat, 1 finely chopped onion and 6 finely chopped garlic cloves until the meat is browned and the veggies are tender. Just stir from time to time and pay attention — it doesn’t take that long.
Once the meat is browned and the veggies are tender add dried oregano (to your taste, but I used about two teaspoonsful); a generous pinch of red pepper flakes; and salt and pepper (again, to your taste, and I tend to be pretty liberal with the salt and pepper).
Next add one 14.5 ounce can of tomato sauce and 2 14.5 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes.
Let the mixture simmer on low heat until the cows come home — or until the stew meat is really nice and tender. About 2-3 hours, depending on the size of your meat chunks. Just keep testing the meat for tenderness after it’s been cooking for a while. Remember to keep the heat low so the sauce doesn’t scald.
Homemade Vinaigrette
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
pinch sugar
Plus add chopped scallions or garlic, if you like — I added the scallions today.
Throw all ingredients in a small jar and shake well. Use any amount desired on your salad.
So as I’ve spent my afternoon updating my blogs and baking and cooking, the day has faded and evening is here. But the natives are restless (especially me), and I still haven’t seen the street crews out front. A light snow continues to fall, but it’s nothing like last night’s deluge of white stuff. So we’ll hunker down tonight, and hope we can get out and slog around tomorrow.
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Blackeyed Peas!
Dec 31st
New Year’s Day is just around the corner, and Mama’s gonna advise you to eat your peas — blackeyed peas, that is. Blackeyed peas are the culinary symbol of good luck for the New Year, and I make them and force the family to eat them every year. Even my youngest, who hates them, eats at least one single pea for New Year’s Day (mostly to make his superstitious Mama happy).
To be honest, I never even thought about blackeyed peas until I met my husband. His family on his mother’s side migrated north to East St. Louis from Mississippi, and he grew up surrounded by Southern cooking traditions. According to this Southern tradition, blackeyed peas served with greens (I prefer collard) symbolize financial good fortune for the New Year — the peas represent coins and the greens represent paper money. Anyway. The hubby let me in on the blackeyed pea good luck tradition, and we decided to pass the tradtion along through our family.
This year, as usual, I’ll be serving my blackeyed peas with a pot of collards and a bigass ham.
Here’s my simple and tasty recipe for blackeyed peas.
First of all, try to find Melissa’s Blackeyed Peas in your grocery store produce section. They are ready to prepare, and cook well in just about an hour or so minutes. For my family, I get two of the 11 oz. containers.
Spray cooking spray on the bottom of a soup pot. Finely chop one medium-sized onion, one small jalapeno and 6 cloves of garlic (more or less of the veggies to your taste, of course). Saute the onion, jalapeno and garlic in the soup pot until they’re tender. Next, pour 5 cups of liquid into the pot. I use about half and half proportions of both chicken broth and the pot likker from my greens, and throw a cup of the greens in, too. Then, add the two containers of blackeyed peas. Add any combination salt (or garlic salt) and pepper that suits your taste, bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour or so, until tender. Viola. They’re done. I don’t add meat to the blackeyed peas, since I serve them with both ham AND greens cooked with ham hocks. When serving, splash Louisiana Hot Sauce on your peas snuggle them up with the greens on your plate.
Additional recommendation: cornbread is a MUST with this meal.
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Mama’s Apple Pie
Dec 26th
Holidays. I reward myself for spending too much money by eating too much food. But when the spending/feeding frenzy dies down, I can still look myself in the mirror b/c I’ll be in the gym tomorrow. And you should be, too.
Every year I think about doing something different than pies, but I always fall back on my standards, pumpkin and apple pie. For the pumpkin pie, I really haven’t found anything I like better than the recipe on the Libby’s Pumpkin Pack label. The apple pie is my own creation, though, refined after years of tinkering. Because I’m the generous type, and ‘tis the season for giving, I’m going to share my masterpiece here. Feel free to comment on my culinary genius after you try it.
Mama’s Apple Pie
Perfect Crust
- 2 Cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Cup of vegetable shortening
- 3 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1/3 (approx.) milk
Place flour in a large mixing bowl. Add salt and mix thoroughly with the flour, using a fork or a whisk. Next, add the shortening. Using a fork or pastry cutter, blend the shortening with the flour/salt mixture. This takes a little time, so don’t be lazy. You should end up with a mixture that resembles small nuggets. Be sure the mixture is consistent. Next, add the vinegar. Continue with the fork/pastry cutter blending until the vinegar is incorporated. Now you’re ready to add the milk. DO NOT pour it all in at once – that would be an amateurish move on your part, and I’m trusting you to do better with my ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS pie crust. Set your impatience aside, and slowly add the milk a splash at a time, working the dough with your fork/pastry cutter. Pause after about half of the milk has been added and feel the dough with your fingertips. Is it sticking together? Not really? Continue with the milk. When the dough IS sticking together, STOP with the milk. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Take it out and get ready to roll. (You can refrigerate it overnight if you need to, just be sure to take it out and let it soften up for a while before you use it.)
Filling to Die For
- 8 Granny Smith Apples
- ¾ -1cup of sugar
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Allspice
- Flour
- Butter
This mixture will require some concentration. You will be responsible for the correct balance of sugar and spice. Every batch of apples requires a little different balance.
Peel the apples. Slice them thinly into a large bowl. Add ½ cup sugar and mix thoroughly. Is this sweet enough for you? If not, add more sugar, a little at a time, tasting periodically, until you have the right balance of sweet and tart. This is up to you because you have your own taste buds. My sweet may be TOO sweet for you. I would recommend not going over a cup of sugar, though. There have to be some boundaries, after all. Next, you will add approximately 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ginger, ½ teaspoon of nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon of allspice. Mix thoroughly with the sugared apples and taste. If the spices balance right, you’re done. Otherwise, adjust whichever spice you think is lacking. Again, trust your taste buds. Once you think you have the right balance of spices, add two tablespoons of flour and mix thoroughly.
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Roll out the dough for the bottom crust of your pie. Pile the apple filling in. Cut up two tablespoons of butter into about 8 pieces and dot the top of the filling. You will have leftover apple mixture. I do this on purpose because my kids love the “cinnamon apples.” Whatever doesn’t fit in the pie plate gets divided up between them.
Roll out the dough for the top crust. Make sure you cut slits in it. Place the top crust on the pie and seal it. Crimp aluminum foil around the edge of the crust, and place a sheet of aluminum foil loosely over the top of the pie. This will keep the crust from browning too much. Put the pie in the oven and set the timer for 40 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the foil from the top of the pie – but keep the aluminum foil on the edges of the crust. Set the timer for 15 more minutes. When the timer goes off, check the pie. It is done when the top crust is a light brown and the inside of the pie is bubbling. If it isn’t done at this point, give it another 5 minutes at a time until it is done.
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