New Year Nosh

I never seem to be able to stay awake until midnight on New Year's Eve, but I do enjoy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day nosh and drinks.  Here are a few easy things I'm going to make this year, followed by a few different drinks to try out.

Nosh

1. Dried apricots with goat blue cheese - This is so easy, just slather each apricot with a little goat blue cheese, maybe add a marcona almond on top, and then drizzle with honey if so desired. I use the Blenheim variety of apricots (also known as "slab" apricots) available from Trader Joe's, but most any will do.
2. Sundrops - Purchase a can of artichoke bottoms, rinse and drain.  Fill each bottom with crab meat and coat with hollandaise sauce.  Broil until lightly browned on top. Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.  This also makes a great first course when you serve it on top of a little marinara sauce. The only key is to get high quality ingredients. These days it is hard to find good canned artichoke bottoms. The only one we can find here in the grocery stores is the "Reese" brand, and it is not very good.  If anyone knows of a good brand, please let me know!  Freshly cooked would be best, of course, but this time of year good, fresh artichokes are hard to get as well.
3. Spinach balls with mustard sauce - these are so good, it's hard not to keep popping one after another into your mouth.

Ingredients

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of all its moisture
• 1 1/2 cup prepared bread stuffing, cooled
• 1 small onion, minced
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup grated parmessan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Mustard for serving (it's nice to have a variety - dijon, sweet, hot)

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together.  Roll into 1" balls and place on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Serve with mustard for dipping.

Drinkies

New Year's Eve drinks naturally revolve around champagne or prosecco. Bubbles are just the thing.  If champagne by itself doesn't do it for you, you might try these:

Korbel: http://www.korbel.com/New_Years_Cocktails.aspx

BakedBree Blog: http://bakedbree.com/cherry-thyme-champagne-cocktail

The other way to go with New Year's Eve cocktails in our house is the brown angle. Sazeracs, Manhattans, Rob Roys, and Old Fashioneds are just a few you can make in a batch and serve.

I'm inspired to try and make it to midnight this year! Wish me luck!

Chilly Morning, Hot Cereal

It was 27 degrees this morning when I took the dog for a walk.  For some of you, you'll scoff at my calling that cold, but here in the south that is cold.  It was wonderful to come home to some hot cereal that my husband put on to cook last night.  This is super easy if you have all the right ingredients and a small crockpot.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Quinoa
• 2 Tablespoons Bulgar Wheat
• Take a 1 cup measure, put in 4 Tablespoons 10 grain hot cereal mix, fill the rest of the cup with Quaker Oats (not the quick cooking variety)
• 2 1/4 cups water

Optional toppings to accompany -

• Assorted dried fruit or nuts
• Brown sugar or another sweetener
• Milk
• Dash ground cinnamon or allspice

Preparation

Mix all grains and water together in a small crockpot (one that has a 4" or 5" diameter).  Cook for ~3 hours. You'll have to play with the timing to determine how your particular crockpot heats. Some may cook the cereal faster than others. You can also put in different grains such as triticale, red quinoa, barley, etc. If you want to make it the night before, put the crockpot on an electrical timer (like the one you use to turn your lights on/off while on vacation) that will come on about 3 hours before you want to eat it.

Toss whatever dried fruit and/or nuts on top and add sugar to taste. If you like, add milk and/or sprinkle ground cinnamon or allspice over the top before serving.

To clean your crockpot, soak it in cold water until the stuck-on cereal lifts right off.  Then clean with warm soapy water.

Easy Fish and Veg

Ever have the need for a dinner that is healthy and not difficult to put together?  How about roasted vegetables and fish with lemon and herbs in parchment?  For the vegetables take whatever you have (potatoes, onions, zucchini...) and a 13x9 dish with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom.  Chop vegetables in 1" or less sized pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 425 degrees, stir every 1/2 hour until cooked as you like.

For the fish, place on a large piece of parchment - enough to completely enclose and seal.  I like a hearty white fish like cod or halibut for this, but salmon works just as well.  Season the fish with sea salt, a little olive oil and a little white wine or vermouth.  Cover fish with some fresh herbs (e.g, tarragon, italian parsley, or thyme) and slices of lemon - meyer lemon is great as it's sweeter than regular lemon.  Enclose the fish in the parchment and seal. Place on a baking sheet and bake with the roasting vegetables  for the last 10-15 minutes depending on the type and size of the fish.

 

You can even eat the meyer lemons and their rind along with the fish.  Delicious!

German Baking Tradition

For the last several years, a good friend and I have been baking traditional German holiday sweets in preparation for the festive holiday season.  Why German?  Well, she is German and I love German baked goods such as Lebkuchen, Printen, Christstollen, etc.  It's a great day of baking for hours and hours.

We usually make 3 or 4 different recipes from a German cookbook.  My friend translates them as we go and we're off and baking.  Lebkuchen is always a must. After that we try out a new thing or two each year, and one or two from the past.  This year's new item was Speculaas cookies. I had this wrong when I originally posted this - I had called them Springerle, which is the southern German version.  Speculaas is the northern version. My friend, Nina, had gotten beautiful carved wooden molds to use for them, including this beautiful Saint Nicholas.

This year we also made Printen, one of my favorites from in and around Aachen, Germany.  This recipe calls for a special chunky sugar - see the picture below.  This type of sugar is hard to get in the US, so you can either leave it off or use the more common sugar sprinkles you find in this country that are clear crystals, or perhaps use nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) instead.

 

Aachener Printen

Ingredients

• 250 g. dark honey
• 65 g. brown sugar
• 65 g. butter
• 375 g. flour
• Grated lemon peel of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each of cardamom, coriander and cloves
• 3 teaspoons baking soda (original recipe calls for 7 g. Potash, which is not available in the US, but if you get it mix it with a little water until all lumps are gone)
• 100 g. chunky sugar sprinkles, in Germany you'd purchase "grümmel" (see picture above)

Preparation

Melt honey, brown sugar and butter together over low heat in a saucepan. Cool slightly and add rest of ingredients.  If using potash add after dough is mixed and knead into it.  Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.  Roll out dough and press the "grümmel" onto to the top (roll lightly with rolling pin to press in evenly).  Cut into 3x8 cm strips.  Put on a greased baking sheet sugar side up and brush top with a little water.  Bake 15-18 minutes at 175-190c (or in convection oven at 170-180c).  Cover with chocolate, if desired.  These need to sit for several days or more before eating.  You can store them in an air-tight container with a piece of bread, an apple or something that will give off some moisture to soften the cookies if you like them chewier rather than hard. We are still eating them several weeks later and they are wonderful.

Happy baking to all my readers!  Thanks for another great baking year, Nina!

German Baking Tradition

For the last several years, a good friend and I have been baking traditional German holiday sweets in preparation for the festive holiday season.  Why German?  Well, she is German and I love German baked goods such as Lebkuchen, Printen, Christstollen, etc.  It's a great day of baking for hours and hours.

We usually make 3 or 4 different recipes from a German cookbook.  My friend translates them as we go and we're off and baking.  Lebkuchen is always a must. After that we try out a new thing or two each year, and one or two from the past.  This year's new item was Speculaas cookies. I had this wrong when I originally posted this - I had called them Springerle, which is the southern German version.  Speculaas is the northern version. My friend, Nina, had gotten beautiful carved wooden molds to use for them, including this beautiful Saint Nicholas.

This year we also made Printen, one of my favorites from in and around Aachen, Germany.  This recipe calls for a special chunky sugar - see the picture below.  This type of sugar is hard to get in the US, so you can either leave it off or use the more common sugar sprinkles you find in this country that are clear crystals, or perhaps use nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) instead.

 

Aachener Printen

Ingredients

• 250 g. dark honey
• 65 g. brown sugar
• 65 g. butter
• 375 g. flour
• Grated lemon peel of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each of cardamom, coriander and cloves
• 3 teaspoons baking soda (original recipe calls for 7 g. Potash, which is not available in the US, but if you get it mix it with a little water until all lumps are gone)
• 100 g. chunky sugar sprinkles, in Germany you'd purchase "grümmel" (see picture above)

Preparation

Melt honey, brown sugar and butter together over low heat in a saucepan. Cool slightly and add rest of ingredients.  If using potash add after dough is mixed and knead into it.  Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.  Roll out dough and press the "grümmel" onto to the top (roll lightly with rolling pin to press in evenly).  Cut into 3x8 cm strips.  Put on a greased baking sheet sugar side up and brush top with a little water.  Bake 15-18 minutes at 175-190c (or in convection oven at 170-180c).  Cover with chocolate, if desired.  These need to sit for several days or more before eating.  You can store them in an air-tight container with a piece of bread, an apple or something that will give off some moisture to soften the cookies if you like them chewier rather than hard. We are still eating them several weeks later and they are wonderful.

Happy baking to all my readers!  Thanks for another great baking year, Nina!

The Catbird Seat Review

Oh my, oh my, oh my - if you live in Nashville, you finally have an opportunity to partake of an amazing tasting menu.  The Catbird Seat, from the owners of Patterson House, is a new small, 32-seat dining option. Although you might be hard pressed to get reservations within the month, it is an experience.  This isn't going out for dinner, this is truly something different, and we finally have it here in Nashville, with all the southern charm that makes the experience unique to living in the south. The owners, chefs and beverage manager are wonderful. They make delicious, remarkable food and they warmly welcome you and explain each course and matching beverage as they place them in front of you.

The food was great, and the paired drinks/wine were fascinating.  I highly, highly recommend you get the drink/wine pairing rather than just a bottle of wine. For some of the food/drink combinations I truly wondered how they figured out, out of all the beverages and combinations they could make, that that particular combination worked.  Given the unusual creations, they have a very astute and well-drunk (is that really a word that connotes the right message - I'm looking for the equivalent of "well-read") beverage manager.

Timing between the 9 courses was perfect. I was never wondering when the next course was coming and never felt it was there before I was ready. I was satiated when I left, but my runner husband was sad it was over and still wanting more.

Here is a picture catalog of each course:



The second taste was served with a cocktail that included Cocchi Americano, dry Reisling, and carbonated Rhum Agricole.

Served with a E. Dupont Cidre Bouche from Normandy France.  It was so earthy that it paired exceptionally well with the food, but I didn't care for it on its own. However, others at our table loved it both with and without food.

 

The optional fourth taste for those who wouldn't eat eggs - Octopus in its own ink sauce

The kimchi cod was probably my favorite taste.  Kimchi was pureed and dried into a ribbon wrapped around the cod, which was perfectly cooked.  If you read my post on Spanish food trends you will remember my disparaging comments about avocado with fish.  It just didn't work in the dishes we had in Spain, but the dab of avocado here perfectly off-set the spiciness of the kimchi.  This was served with a 2007 Robert Weil Reisling from Rheingau, Germany.

The duck was served with a 2009 Monfiore Gewurztraminer from the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

This was probably my second favorite taste.  The beef had reportedly been cooked for days.  It was incredibly tender, and the little piped dollop of truffle cream was amazing. This was served with a 2006 Domaine de Durban Beaumes-de-Venise, France.  We had visited this very winery last summer and loved their wines.

This was an explosion of flavor with curry, shitake, apricot and parsley in an eye-pleasing presentation.  Who doesn't love that bowl?  This was paired with a Belgian beer.

Another amazing presentation.  The drink on top was a blend of Lucky Bucket Certified Evil, Sherry and Madeira.  I could have been satiated here, but no there was more...

Here were flavors and textures that continued to melt in your mouth.  This was paired with a Royal Tokaji.  Then we finished up as we began - with oreos - this time sweet coffee and cream oreos.

Here is the menu they present us at the end.  Awesomeness!  If I haven't convinced you yet, I would be stunned...make your reservations now!  If you don't live in Nashville and plan to visit - make your reservations well ahead of time!