The Winter Blues

I woke up this morning to see that more snow had indeed fallen, just as the National Weather Service had promised. I'll have to remember to cross them off my Christmas card list.

Since some of my readers seem to like seeing this stuff, I present snow for your enjoyment.

Looks like we have just over four inches of snow on my back deck.

I'm sure the birds appreciate the fact that I filled the bird feeders yesterday.

Of course, all this snow on the outside has led to me staying inside. Whatever shall I do? Oh, let's just go into the kitchen and start cooking.

Hmm, it's cold and snowy outside, so something warm and soothing and comforting sounds like just the thing to make. I decided that I wanted to make turkey potpies. This ought to be fun.

I opted to work off of yet another Barefoot Contessa recipe. However, I knew after reading the recipe that I would be making some changes. More on that later.

The mise en place consists of Half and Half, kosher salt, black pepper, turkey stock, turkey cutlets, carrots, celery, garlic clove, onion, butter, green peas, green onion and flour.

Obviously, the first substitution was the turkey and turkey stock for the chicken and chicken stock. I also decided that the recipe, as written, would be a bit bland, so I added minced garlic. I don't have fresh parsley on hand and I don't have (or like) frozen small onions, so I changed out the green onion for those items. I only had Half and Half in the fridge, so that replaced the heavy cream in the recipe. Finally, the recipe called for 1-1/2 sticks of butter and 3/4 cups of flour. I cut those amounts down to 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of flour.

And here we have the mise en place for the crust. Black pepper and sea salt to sprinkle over the crust, flour, baking powder, kosher salt, egg, ice water, butter and shortening.




The dry ingredients are mixed in the food processor before the shortening and cubed, cold butter are added.

It is important to not over-process the dough. This looks good.

The dough is wrapped and sent to chill out in the fridge for 30 minutes.

And now it's time to move on to the filling. The butter is melted and the onions are cooked until translucent. Meanwhile, the stock is heated. Just before the onions are finished cooking, the minced garlic is added.

Here comes the roux. The flour goes in and the cook goes to work, stirring constantly for two minutes.

See, I'm fast.

Then the hot stock goes in, along with salt, pepper, uncooked diced turkey cutlets, carrots, celery, green peas and green onion.

The filling continues to cook over low heat while the Half and Half is added.

The filling is ready for the next step. Looks good already.

Half the dough is rolled out and circles, about 2 inches larger than the largest oven-proof bowl I'll be using, are cut.

Now, I knew that the recipe would make far more dough than I would need, but I also knew that my daughter would appreciate a sweet treat when she got home from campus.

Some Half and Half is poured over the dough, before granulated sugar and ground cinnamon are generously added. The dough is then rolled up and cut into 1-inch slices.

These baked for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Okay, back to the pot pies.

The filling is portioned between the bowls and the circles of dough are placed on top. The edges are sealed and an egg wash coats each pot pie. Sea salt and black pepper are sprinkled over top before small vents are cut into the tops.

The cinnamon rolls are ready. And just in time for the dear daughter's return home.

Well, these didn't last long, did they?

Finally, the pot pies are ready.

Very nice, indeed.

While the daughter and I thought that the amount of butter in the filling could be reduced even more, the husband thought it was just right. In the end though, we all agreed that this dinner was a winner.

This certainly is not a diet dish, but it was good and filling and comforting.

Now if it would just quit sleeting and even more snow doesn't come as promised.

A Winter's Day

A winter storm is heading our way and we already have an inch of snow from last night. So what is a foodie to do? Stay inside and make salad dressing, of course.

Oh look, snow. Joy.

I found a recipe for Blue Cheese Dressing on the Internet, and luckily I had all the ingredients on hand. Here I have ground mustard, garlic powder, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, sour cream, blue cheese and salt.



The mayonnaise, sour cream and Worcestershire sauce were blended together before the spices were added. These too were mixed in.



I wish it to be noted that I tried to follow the recipe as written. Really, I did. However, the dressing was just too thick, so I added some Half and Half until I was satisfied with the consistency.

Ooh, looks like I get to put my new digital kitchen scale to use.

Gently fold the blue cheese crumbles into the dressing.

The dressing is bottled and labeled. The salty tang of the blue cheese underscored the creamy texture of the dressing. Bonus: my husband liked the dressing too. I score!




And now, I would like to wish Rosie Hawthorne of Kitchens Are Monkey Business fame a very Happy Birthday!

Gathering Around the Table

Once again I searched for recipes for a particular cut of meat, only to end up making up my own recipe. I guess that is par for the course with me.

I had a rough plan for a turkey tenderloin that had been waiting in the freezer. I had prosciutto on hand for another dish, so I pulled that into play. I also had homemade pesto in the freezer, so I think I have the beginnings of a plan. Salt and pepper round out the ingredients for my on-the-fly recipe. Please ignore the white wine and homemade turkey stock as I opted to not use those things in this recipe.

The first step was to carefully cut the turkey tenderloin almost all the way through so that the meat could be opened like a book. This is called butterflying the meat.

The next step was to cover the meat with plastic wrap and then pound it into a uniform thickness.

A thin layer of pesto coated the tenderloin.

Then the buttery slices of prosciutto covered that.

My daughter was nice enough to pick up the camera so you could see the rolling process. I used the plastic wrap to help roll the meat.

I worked away from me in order to get a tight roll.

A bit of salt and pepper were sprinkled on the outside of the roll. The roulade was sealed in the plastic and put in the refrigerator for a few hours. This will help the roll keep its shape when cooked.

The roulade went into a hot pan and was allowed to sear. After the sides were nicely browned, the pan was placed into the oven so that the meat could finish cooking. A meat thermometer confirmed that the internal temperature had reached 155 degrees.

After resting, the roulade was sliced.

Marinara sauce added a nice component to the pesto and prosciutto. I think I have a winner here.

Roasted green beans with shallots and bacon and homemade mashed potatoes round out the dinner. See, I really do make homemade mashed potatoes; it's just that my daughter likes store-bought mashed potatoes better. Guess I need to get a potato ricer so that my mashed potatoes won't be lumpy.

Now, if you recall, I had the prosciutto on hand for something else. This was that something else...

Cantaloupe and prosciutto. The sweet melon combined with the buttery, salty prosciutto was just sublime. What a nice way to round out this Italian-inspired dinner.

Low and Slow Cooking

I have to admit that beef short ribs are one of my favorite cuts of meat. Once upon a time, beef short ribs (with bone) used to also be a very economical cut of meat, but alas, those times are long gone. The only saving grace is that the bones will be saved for a future stock. But, as for the meat itself? I can only describe it as unctuous, beefy, sublime. This is definitely a meat that benefits from a low and slow cooking.

First off we have the ingredients for the saute. Sort of. Hey, I haven't even had my morning coffee yet; what do you expect?

Um, yeah, anyway... we have two packages of beef short ribs, complete with bones. In addition, kosher salt, yellow onions, black pepper and garlic cloves are standing by. Just in case the sleep-deprived woman needs them.


And now we sear. And no, we are not trying to seal in the juices. Instead, we are creating flavor, via the Maillard Reaction.

For some unknown reason, I like to play around with proven recipes. Gee, the thing works as is, why would you want to change it? Because I can?

At any rate, I have gathered these ingredients for the sauce du jour: classic yellow mustard, black pepper, white wine vinegar, whole grain Dijon mustard and sugar. This was mixed with some sliced garlic cloves to taste.



And the beef short ribs are still searing. This is not a difficult step, folks. In fact, I was quite busy with other aspects of the dish while the beef did its thing. Why do TV cooks pretend that this is so hard? I'm looking at you, Ina Garten.

Once the beef has eagerly let go of the pan, it is time to deglaze. I had thawed a bit of homemade beef consomme for this task. In addition, I added about 1/4 cup of dry white wine to the hot pan. Then I went to work, dislodging the tasty bits from the bottom of the pan. This liquid goodness then went into the slow cooker with the beef short ribs.

Then the onion pieces that I had left over from the onion rings from earlier in the week were laid on top, while some of the mustard sauce was drizzled over top. The lid went on the slow cooker and the temperature was set to medium. This cooked for about nine hours while I went about my day. Midway through the cooking process, I turned the ribs over and added the rest of the sauce over the top.

Just before dinner time I assembled the ingredients for Creamy Corn and Bacon. Here I have Half and Half, one slice bacon that was chopped, black pepper, salt, one tablespoon flour, corn and one teaspoon sugar.

The bacon fried in the pan.

Then the corn went into the pan with the bacon and the bacon grease.

The corn and bacon already look good. But we're not finished yet...

Some Half and Half was added, along with the salt, pepper, sugar and flour.

This heated through for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, a nice salad and the bowls were chilling in the refrigerator.

The beef short ribs are ready.

More mustard sauce finishes off this dish.

And you know what? Changing out the mustard sauce a bit was an inspired move. The whole grain Dijon mustard added just the right kick to this simple sauce.

The Creamy Corn and Bacon hit the spot. How good was it? My husband and daughter fought over the last of the corn. I'd say that was a vote of confidence.