A soup day

It is beautiful looking out the window here today. Everyone alive on the planet should get to enjoy this view. Today from my office window tucked up under the eaves I can see those amazing sunny, crisp, Carolina-blue skies. Blue so clear it almost hurts. Cold though, especially in the mornings. Cold enough for a little warm soup tonight for our rescheduled family dinner.

We are cranky. So I am making Mulligatawny. We need the bite of the pepper to bite us back and balance our mood. Two big pots. And some nan and rice to ladle the soup over.

And apple caramel cheesecake for dessert.

Ok. I can do that.

How does that sound?

Family Dinners Post One - 2010 Version

Are we still having weekly Family Dinners, you ask?

Why of course! In fact, we missed quite a few as we got into fall in 2009, and had to work to get back in a rhythm with School and Work and all. But the new year revitalized our plans, and now we are on a roll, if you will. We gather, we visit, we set the table and fill the water glasses, we sit and sing grace, we share and talk and laugh, and then we identify the menu for the next dinner based on requests.

And so it came to be that several weeks ago we has a fabulous Chicken Pot Pie. Asa requested it, and Mr. Bryant and I watched "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" - the Chicken Pot Pie episode. We read about several recipes, and finally developed a modified recipe of our own, based on the Casserole Queen's of Austin Texas. Their recipe was a great start for where we wanted to go for the family. To make this recipe super special, Mr. Bryant roasted three split chicken breasts (bone in) the night before in the oven, and then shredded the chicken for the pot pie. And then, for dinner, here is what he made -


Chicken Pot Pie - Ingredients

• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 roasted chicken, shredded
• 2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
• 8 oz. mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 bag frozen peas & carrots
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash
• A little olive oil and/or butter for saute

Directions Thaw puff pastry according to package directions. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute shallots and mushrooms in a little olive oil or butter until soft and tender. Add chicken and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in flour, salt, tarragon, and black pepper. Add milk and cream all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in wine, peas, carrots and corn; heat thoroughly. Transfer the hot chicken mixture to a large glass casserole (we used our lasagna pan). Place sheets of thawed pastry over the hot chicken mixture in casserole dish. Brush puff pastry with egg wash then cut slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes.

This was a delicious hit with not much left over. But we did have dessert, as is our once a week custom. So we followed up that yummy dinner with something that I made - surprisingly good Banana Pudding Cupcakes from the "Cake Mix Doctor" cupcake cookbook.

Ingredients

• 24 paper liners for cupcake pans
• 36 vanilla wafers
• 3 medium-rip bananas
• 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling

• 2 cups milk
• 1 package (3 ounces) cook and serve vanilla pudding mix
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping

• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 2 medium-size ripe bananas cut into 24 slices

Directions Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Count out 12 vanilla wafers for the garnish and set them aside. Place the remaining 24 vanilla wafers flat-side down in the bottom of the cupcake liners. Set the pans aside.

Prepare the cupcake batter: Slice the bananas and place them in a large mixing bowl. Mash with a potato masher or fork until the bananas are smooth, 1 minute; you will have about 1 ¼ cups. Place the cake mix, oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl with the banana puree. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes mode. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it ¾ of the way full. (You will get between 22 – 24 cupcakes.) Place pans into the oven.

Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool. [At this point, the recipe has loosen the paper liners so you can ultimately remove them – I didn’t do that.]

Prepare the filling: Place the mild in a medium size saucepan. Whisk in the pudding mix and place the pan over medium heat. Continue to whisk as the mixture comes to a full boil, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and the vanilla. Pour the pudding into a bowl to cool for 20 minutes.

Prepare the topping: Place a large mixing bowl and electric mixer beater(s) in the freezer to chill. Put the 12 vanilla wafers into a plastic bag and crush. Remove the bowl and beaters from the freezer. Pour the cream into the bowl and beat on high speed until thickened, 1 ½ minutes. Stop the machine and add the sugar. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, 1 – 2 minutes more.

Assemble the cupcakes: Remove the paper liners if desired. Spoon ½ cup of the cooled pudding into a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip. (I used a plastic bag and a funnel). Pipe a generous amount of pudding into the cupcake through the center of the top (1 to 2 Tablespoons), allowing about 1 teaspoon of the pudding to overflow onto the top surface of the cupcake. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes. Sprinkle the vanilla wafer crumbs on top of the pudding. Dollop about 1 Tablespoon of whipped cream on top of the crumbs.

At this point I stopped and covered the cupcakes and put them in the fridge. The next day, just before serving, I stood a banana slice in the whipped cream. Everybody loved them for dessert, and the leftovers went home for next day treats with ADR, SRR, JPR, and ADR!!!

(Next week - Mediterranean Garlic Grilled Chicken)

Who was that man?

It was family dinner night, and a stranger appeared. He came, he shared our meal, and he left on wings of night music.

Who was the long haired wise-crackin' country-talkin' man?

We whispered among ourselves. Was he one of the famous brothers? Was he a distant cousin? Did he really look familiar? Maybe we will never know.

What is that?

That, dear friends, is my sad and empty looking tupperware cabinet, after all the kiddos have taken home leftovers from family dinner over lo these many weeks.

When, oh when, will I have a full tupperware cabinet again?

Sigh.

(Dearest Ones, you know I am kidding.  I LOVE YOU!  :)

Cincinnati Five Way Chili

Cincinnati Five Way Chili is a spice intensive recipe that we absolutely love at our house.  We make it at least once a year, and thank Mr. Bryant every time for finding the recipe for us. 

There is a long history related to Cincinnati Five Way, but the most interesting that we have found follows - 

In 1922, a Macedonian immigrant, Tom Athanas Kiradjieff settled in Cincinnati with his brother, John. He opened a hot dog stand, which he named 'Empress' and sold hot dogs and Greek food. He did a lousy business because, at that time, the large majority of the inhabitants were of German heritage, and nobody in the area knew anything about Greek food, and weren't thrilled by it.

Tom was not to be defeated. He took a Greek stew, maintained the Mediterranean spices of Cinnamon and Cloves, changed the meat to ground beef, added other spices, such as chili powder, to the mix and began to sell this stew over spaghetti and called it 'Chili.' It proved to be a successful experiment. He also came up with the idea of selling his Chili in 'ways'.

Today, Cincinnati Chili is still assembled and sold the way Tom used to sell his: 

• Two Way means spaghetti topped with chili
  
• Three Way is spaghetti topped with chili and grated cheddar cheese
  
• Four Way is spaghetti topped with chili, grated cheese and chopped onions
  
• Five Way is kidney beans or chili beans, heated separately, placed on the plate then topped with spaghetti, chili, onions and grated cheese.
  

There are lots of ways to interesting recipes for Cincinnati Five Way, but our favorite is below.

This year, 2010, we are having this yummy chili for family dinner on Wednesday.  So we will prepare in advance by doing an inventory of the entire spice cabinet (we need mace!  egad!), make the meal on Tuesday, and heat it up for all to enjoy on Wednesday.  It is always yummiest the second day, seems like.  Cooking photos and tips coming (on Tuesday).  So for today, here is the recipe....

1 pound medium ground meat (chuck, beef, turkey)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomato sauce
2 T ketchup
1 cup water
1 T red wine vinegar
1 T chili powder
1 T paprika
1 t ground black pepper
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, grated
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t turmeric

1/2 t marjoram

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t ground cloves

1/4 t mace

1/4 t ground coriander

1/4 t ground cardamom

1/2 dry bay leaf, crumbled

1 t salt

Tomato Juice as needed

9 ounces thick spaghetti, cooked and buttered

1 (16  ounce) can kidney beans, heated

2 chopped onions

1 pound finely grated Cheddar cheese

Salt large skillet.  Turn heat to medium, add meat, onion, and garlic.  Cook until all meat is browned.  Add tomato sauce, water, vinegar.  As mixture begins to boil, add remaining spices. 

Adjust to taste, adding more salt if it needs perking up, cumin for a hotter chili flavor, cinnamon and mace if you want it sweeter, cardamom for more bang, unsweetened chocolate for body.

Cover and simmer at very low hear for about an hour, stirring and tasting occasionally, adding tomato juice if it is getting too dry to ladle up easily.

(This is where we will stop, giving the chili a chance to "age" overnight in the refrigerator.)

To construct the plate of Five-Way, layer the spaghetti on a place (a small oval plate is traditional), top it with chili, then with a sparse layer of beans, then onions.  Put on the cheese while it is still hot, and serve immediately, with oyster crackers on the side.

If desired, omit either the beans or onions or both, for three-way or four-way chili.

Yum, coming up!

The Mint

Is that Mr. Bryant, holding up bunny ears? I think it is!

It was free museum night at the Mint, and they had Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum on display. We ate a SUPER FAST dinner of Turkey Chili (fast and yum!) with cornbread and then mini-cheesecakes for dessert. Asa first hesitated on the cheesecakes (Is that JAM on there? I am allergic to JAM.) but ultimately ate two. Jaya slept through dinner, but woke up to have a cheesecake before we left for the museum.

We arrived at the Mint about 7:00 and only had until 9 so we rushed through some of the coolest displays to get to the Masterworks. According to the flyers, "the exhibition represents the prized names in European and American art history – ranging from the 16th through the 20th century – including: Degas, Gauguin, Giacometti, Giordano, Kandinsky, Lipchitz, Lorrain, Matisse, Monet, Nattier, O'Keeffe, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Rodin, Sargent, Vigée-Lebrun, and Vlaminck, among many others" - and we saw them all. The Degas are so beautiful and subtle, his sculptures are amazing. The Picasso's are really interesting, and the Pollack was really fabulous. But the Monet? Oh my oh my.

Aunt Amanda and Jaya checking out the art.

After we checked out the Masterworks, we had time for a little bit of a walk through the rest of the museum, and ended our visit by checking out the Face It! exhibit, which cracked us all up with the "face jugs!"

It was a whirlwind evening and lots of fun! I encourage you all to check out the free cultural events near you - you may be surprised at the fun you find!

I made it!

So, ever since I saw the Lemon Custard Cake on the internet blogs, I wanted to make it. It looked FABULOUS, and I really wanted to give it a try. And so, on Wednesday, I did. I encourage every one of you to try it. It was one of the most fun "science experiments" I have done in the kitchen in a long time - where every step made something turn into something else. It took some time, though, so make sure you have time to bake and time to cool.

The receipe follows for this wonderful, light, airy, super good confection. I have added a few clarifying notes along with pictures so you could see what I learned....

Lemon Custard Cake

8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons ice water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Combine all above ingredients in a large bowl.

With an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, start beating the egg yolk mixture on low speed. Gradually continue whisking while increasing the speed slowly.

Beat until very thick. This will be thicker than pudding, and honestly took about 10 minutes with my kitchen-aid mixer on about 7 speed.

Sift in:1 1/4 cup sifted cake flour

In a separate large bowl, combine the following ingredients:

8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt

With an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, start beating the egg white mixture on low speed. Gradually continue whisking while increasing the speed slowly. Slowly add 1 cup sugar.

Beat until the mixture resembles stiff glossy peaks. Gently fold the egg white mixture into the flour/egg yolk mixture. Be very gentle with the batter (do not overmix!).

Pour the batter into an ungreased Angel Food Cake pan. With a knife, carefully cut into the batter to remove air pockets.

Bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes.

Remove cake from oven and invert immediately. Let cool for at least 2 hours while inverted. I put the center of the pan on a bottle neck and it sat upside down quite happily for the two hour cooling period.


Once completely cool, remove the cake by gently cutting around the sides of the pan. Remove the cake and cut into 3 equal layers (use toothpicks on all 4 sides to make even layers). Spread with chilled lemon custard filling (recipe follows) in between each layer. Dust with sifted powdered sugar before serving. Garnish with fresh fruit (I used strawberries) and serve immediately.

Custard Filling
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
1 small box (3.4 ounce) instant lemon pudding mix
1 cup cold milk

Combine pudding mix with the cold milk. Follow box instructions to whisk the milk and pudding together. Let sit 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat whipping cream until thick cream. Gently fold into pudding and chill.

Really do try it. You will have fun, and I know you will enjoy the completed creation as much as we all did!

Asa is 10 - so...Baked Alaska!

Mr. Bryant, Asa, Jaya, ADR, and SRR having an after dinner stroll.

Asa turned double digits this weekend. Now his dad says he is an "even steven," and I am so very proud of our 10 year old! He had a party at his house on Saturday, and before the party I called him to sing Happy Birthday and talk to him about Sunday dessert. I had already talked with his mom and dad about Sunday dinner, and we had the menu pretty well planned. But I wanted to know if Asa might want something special for dessert, in honor of his birthday.

Me - "So sweetie, would you like a special dessert for your birthday?"

He - "YES!"

Me - "What would you like?"

He - "Baked Alaska!"



Me - "Um, well, ok then! Baked Alaska it is!"

Dad - "I don't think he really knows what Baked Alaska is, Mom. You don't have to do that."

Me - "Well, he will know what it is soon!"

So I prepared for Baked Alaska. Since Asa had given up chocolate for lent, I needed to choose flavors very carefully. I decided that since it was his birthday we could probably call it a celebration day and he could have a little chocolate, but I didn't want to overdo it. So I settled on a yellow cake and Cookie Dough ice cream.

Everyone gathered for dinner (Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Tossed Salad, beans and cabbage on the side) to enjoy company and celebrate. Asa got some goodies for his birthday (even money) and we really had a fun time.

ADR, ARR, R. :)

Dessert was a fabulous hit, and the recipe for this amazing delight is really very straightforward. I highly recommend it as a surprise for your family - it looks much more astounding than the work put into making it! I didn't get a picture of the Alaska in all its glory as I was serving it - but here is a photo of the half that was left over for tomorrow!

Asa's 10th Birthday Baked Alaska

Simple Recipe, Baked Alaska (I based my dessert above on this recipe from Betty Crocker, who encourages us to experiment with flavors. This is from my very well used Betty Crocker Cookbook printed in 1974.)

1 package (18.5 ounces) devils food cake mix
1 quart brick chocolate chip ice cream
4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar (packed)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cake mix in 1 round layer pan, 9x1 ½ inches, and 1 square layer pan, 9x9x2 inches. Bake round layer 30 – 35 minutes and square layer 25 to 30 minutes. Freeze round layer for other use.

COOL COMPLETELY.

Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place cooled square cake on baking sheet. Place ice cream on cake. Leaving 1-inch edge, trim cake around ice cream. Freeze cake and ice cream.

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Beat in brown sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Completely cover cake and ice cream with meringue, sealing it to foil on sheet. (If desired, cake can be frozen up to 24 hours at this point.)

Bake on lowest rack in oven 3 to 5 minutes or until meringue is light brown. Trim foil to edge of meringue; transfer to serving plate. Cut into 6 slices; cut each slice in half. Serve immediately.

12 servings.

Preview - family night dessert

Banana Pudding Squares

The view from the top

Recipe here

The layered view from the side.

Lookin' Good!