A Great Team

Being at a new school, has had its ups and downs! By far, the biggest "up" is the new family I have joined, namely Jami, Claire and Tammy. To further foster this new and exciting relationship, we decided to break bread, or, to be more specific, drink wine with really delicious appetizers! We decided to meet at Tammy's house after school and the rest is, as they say, school history! What is the perfect dessert to accompany this menagerie? Well, cheesecake dreams! I had made them for the Charger Party and thought they would be delicious with the girls.

To get started, I had to poke my head out the window to my wonderful neighbor, "Janelle, do you have an 8" by 8" dish?" "Of course, I do!" she says. And, like many other times before, our neighbors always seem to have what we need and vice verse!

On to the dreams, I mixed the brown sugar, flour and walnuts. I just needed to melt butter, so I threw the amount in a ramekin and hit the start button. Apparently, it wasn't long enough, so I turned it on for a few more seconds and, unfortunately, it frothed all over the place. Argh! Now, how do you measure the melted butter that frothed up and over? I asked myself. At this point, most people, including myself if I were sane in the kitchen, would just dump it and start over. No, not me. I tried to quantify it and then add it to the ramekin. Oh, and by the way, Tracy has mastered this technique so I got to hear all about how I was doing it wrong. Huh, melting butter will have to be added to my "not that good at" list.(And, yes, this is a lot of talk about butter...you may think it silly but Julia Child would think it a proper discussion! Hee hee) Ultimately, the butter created glorious crumbs! Glorious crumbs!

Now, to the cream part. Mmmmm, cream. This needed lots of blending and a few dashes of fun things before it was all ready for the oven. Since, I haven't baked much this is a real exciting point because you just know it's going to be yummy...maybe that's why I haven't baked much...how can you be a skinny baker? No, seriously, it just isn't possible; it would be like nailing Jell-o to a tree, like Tracy leaving the house with her first outfit on, like Susan not farming on farmville, like me melting butter, like Sue leaving my house without stealing anything, like Chewy walking up to strangers and licking them, like Wendy saying no to a pair of shoes, like Autumn thinking she can draw cheese, like Dave walking out of Best Buy with nothing...I could go on, but I probably shouldn't. (Boy, that was fun!)

Ding (or would that be dong in past tense? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I'm crying right now). The dreams were ready. And, yes, they were dreamy! Bet, you knew that was coming.

By the way, everybody loved them, and it was a wonderful night with a wonderful team, "The Bobkittens." "Absolutely," said James.

As it stands~
guests- 3
emotions- 1 (it was a Julia Child emotion= melted butter smell)
mistakes- 1
meltdowns- 0 (happy to report)
recipes- 1
recipes to date- 7

The Recipe~

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
8 oz package of cream cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup melted (hee hee) margarine (used butter)

Grease 8" by 8" square pan. In small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and walnuts. Stir in butter until well combined. Reserve 1/3 cup crumbs. Pat remaining gently in pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 12-15 minutes. In same bowl, at medium speed, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in remaining ingredients. Pour over crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top. Bake 25 minutes more. Cut into 2" squares and then cut diagonally in half.

The Baked Bean Debate

So, the Chargers were one game away from a Super Bowl opportunity and I thought, "Let's throw a party." After a few emails, our house was full and the french onion dip was made. I left the menu up to Tracy so my fancy self was shlepping over chunks of cheese and fried chicken. I think baked beans would match nicely. I found three recipes and one of them required eight hours of cooking. Really, eight hours! I don't think I am going to make that one. Ever.

Okay, imagine standing in a grocery store in front of tons of beans. Beans. What kind of beans should I choose...the recipe didn't say? Why does there have to be so many beans? We decided to check a baked bean can to determine that the white bean was the winner. As we were driving home, I started to panic. Remember Daryl Hannah in Steel Magnolias (use the right accent when you read the next part!)..."I was supposed to soak the beans overnight. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what will I do? I had everything ready to make 'bean and ham something.'" That's funny. But, not that funny because I am in the same predicament! Tracy hadn't brought all the groceries in before beans were flying into the pot of water. Paying attention to the quick soak version, the beans would be ready for half time. Not too bad. I told the beans to be good little beans and cook, cook, cook.

By the time the guests had arrived, the beans were on round two of the cooking process. I did enjoy that they could be left alone for awhile because I wanted to get into the game, enjoy the guests and, yes, eat the french onion dip! hee hee Apparently, everone else wanted to eat french onion dip because we went through a ton of it. Back to the beans, I mixed up the rest of the ingredients. As Sue and I were looking at it, it seemed too "tomatoey." The proportion was all tomato and only a little brown sugar and molasses. We decided to double the brown sugar and the molasses. When I poured in the molasses, it kind of poured a lot. Ooops. This recipe was doomed. Take that last comment as foreshadowing...no, really, I mean it. The recipe called for 7 cups of boiling water, but that would be too "liquidy." We, I mean Sue and I (I didn't want to take the blame, so I made her help with the decisions!), only put in 2. Once again, I was faced with a recipe that looked weird and, might I add, needed to bake for one hour on NO SPECIFIED TEMPERATURE...huh, did I say doomed? It was covered and in the oven.

Everybody enjoyed lots of snacks because, yes, you guessed it, the beans wouldn't be ready for a long time. Now, I could turn my focus to the game...Oh no, we're losing! The team needed my full attention and so did my forgotten Blue Moon beer. With a few screams and lots of jumping up and down, we were on our way to...nowhere. Ding. The beans were ready. Out came the fried chicken, amico mio pasta and the AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I forgot to put the onion in the beans!! In went the chicken and the pasta. I threw in a cut up onion quickly and then had a mini meltdown. Did I mention doomed? I told everyone just a few more minutes in my most Julie McCoy coy voice. I decided to add some cornstarch as well. It needed to thicken up and, based on the recipe, that was supposed to happen as it cooked, but that didn't have a specified time either. Really? Really.

Okay, enough stalling and enough onion seepage into the beans. Time to eat. Finally. Everyone started digging in. And, fortunately, the game was still on. Unfortunately, my Chargers were losing.

Everybody tried the beans (well, not everybody- Melissa hates beans and she gets a free pass because she's pregnant.) and here are there comments:
Mike- They taste fresh and healthy.
Wendy- I like 'em better than in a can although they're a bit too sweet. (Apparently, I shouldn't have doubled the brown sugar---that is surely Sue's fault!)
Tracy- The sauce is sweet and delicious...I had to spit out the beans cuz I don't like 'em.
Sue- I like the onion the best. (Jerk!)
Autumn- I like them. I've never had homemade baked beans. (She's the cutest!)
Janelle- I don't really like baked beans. (After tasting them quietly, she said, "Hmmm, good.")
Dave- Bacon. Bacon. Bacon. (But he had 2 helpings.)

By the way, the beans were good if you like Spaghettios (my verdict). Big picture, everybody enjoyed them and Mike took the rest of the them home. He's my new best friend!

The final score- Beans- 7 fans out of 11; Chargers- 13 and Jets- 17
Regardless of the beans or the Chargers, it was an amazing day with absolutely wonderful friends. I am smiling just thinking about it.

As it stands~
guests- 19
mistakes- 2
emotions- 3
meltdowns- 1, no 2, maybe 3
recipes- 1
recipes to date- 6

The Recipe~

Baked Beans
2 1/2 cups dried beans (used white beans)
7 cups boiling water (used 2 cups lukewarm)
3 1/2 cups tomatoes (used canned diced tomatoes)
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar (doubled, but Wendy said it was too sweet, go figure!)
2 tbsp molasses (doubled)
2 tbsp oil
1 large onion
1 tsp basil (OMG! I JUST realized that I forgot to add this! Did I say doomed?)

Cook beans as directed. Add all ingredients except onion and basil. Mix well. Put in bean pot. Place whole peeled onion in the center. Bake for 1 hour (started at 350 and then elevated to 425 degrees) covered. Remove cover. Add basil. Stir with a fork. Bake, uncovered, until liquid is thickened.

Boxing Up Christmas

I am such a fan of setting up Christmas, but boxing it up has to be low on my list of things I like to do. It has a sadness to it...like that yummy, sparkly, festive, eat-anything-you-want moment is over. So, in honor of ending a chapter, I thought I would cook up something really fattening and delicious...something cheesy! I perused the recipes and "Golden Potato Casserole" was the ticket. It was requiring a whole tub of sour cream, a half stick of butter and cups and cups of cheddar cheese. Yum. As I've gotten older, and shall I say wiser (okay, let's say prissy), I am all about the fancy cheeses- brie, gruyere, gouda- but when it really comes down to it, cheddar rules the world.

So, on to my cheddar escapade. My grandma's recipe called for potatoes that had been cooked & chilled then grated, but I decided to use raw potatoes. I threw them in the food processor and had grated potatoes in seconds. I used a trick I saw on Tyler Florence's show- wrap shredded potatoes in paper towels to squeeze out all the moisture. (I thought I was so cool at this point.) I then followed the recipe and melted butter and cheese together; I let it cool and added the sour cream. I omitted the green onions for two reasons- 1) my wife is really picky and 2) I didn't have any. For the record, if I had them I would've added them. Hee hee.

I poured my dreamy, cheesy mixture all over my potatoes and kissed them into the oven...just 45 minutes until dinner.

Well, 45 minutes came and went. Apparently, my grandma knew what she was talking about. You have to cook the potatoes first. They were still crunchy, but the cheesy mixture was delicious (but you already knew that). Maybe 15 more minutes...no...maybe the microwave for a bit. Huh. Since we were starving and Christmas had now been crammed in any and all tubs and dragged kicking and screaming into the rafters, we decided to eat, regardless. Funny how melted cheese, sour cream and butter fixes everything- we decided they were delicioius, not revolutionary, just delicious. With every bite, I snickered to myself because I knew my grandma would get a kick out of this.

By the way, I added a Polynesian marinade to a piece of salmon. It had a great flavor; I mean it tasted Polynesian...who am I kidding! I don't even know what Polynesian tastes like. For crying out loud, I have never even been there. And, yes, I said, "for crying out loud." It reminds me of that movie where Hugh Grant says, "whoopsadaisy"! Bugger, I can't remember what that movie is called. Anyway, the salmon was great.

As it stands~
guests- 1
mistakes- one big one
emotions- 2
meltdowns- one big one
recipes- 2
recipes to date- 5

The Recipes

Golden Potato Casserole
6 potatoes, cooked and chilled
1/4 cup butter
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart casserole. Grate potatoes into a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, over low heat, combine butter and cheese, stirring occasionally, until almost melted. Remove from heat. Blend in sour cream, green onions and salt and pepper. Pour over potatoes. Stir lightly and turn into a casserole. Dot the top with butter and bake for 45 minutes.

Polynesian Marinade
1 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup of honey
1/2 cup of sherry
1 clove of garlic, minced

Combine ingredients. Mix well. Pour over meat and let stand about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Drain. Brown meat lightly. Then add a 1/4 cup of the (reserved) marinade. Cover skillet and and simmer until meat is tender.

Ding, Ding, Ding, Round Two

Okay, so I wanted to make something for our New Year's Eve Game Night. Unfortunately, my grandma didn't make a lot of appetizers. I think, as a matter of fact, there are nine recipes in that section, and 3 of them are versions of guacamole. Funny, I don't know if I even needed a recipe for guacamole. Oh well, enough about that, let's get on with it. So, I needed an appetizer for the party and I would have to fish through another section...breads, No; vegetables, No; seafood, Maybe. After flipping through every card, I stumbled on Sweet and Sour Shrimp. Sounded good. I read over the recipe and, after seeing catsup (I thought it funny that they called it catsup and not ketchup...huh? How did that come to be? I'll have to google that later.) and apple juice, I thought I should call in some reinforcements! Foodnetwork.com would lead me on the right path to culinary nirvana. I checked out a couple of recipes and it looked like Grandma wasn't crazy, well at least not crazy when it came to Sweet and Sour Shrimp. Alrighty then, on to cooking.

As instructed, I combined the catsup, apple juice, vinegar, sugar, butter, salt and soy sauce in a sauce pan. I brought that to a boil. It didn't look that good. In fact, I thought it looked kind of gross. The catsup was a little clumpy. Oh well, one must forge on. I boiled it for about three minutes. The recipe wanted me to basically cook all the veggies in this "concoction," but, remembering what Tyler Florence said on the food network (my culinary college, if you will!), "more color equals more flavor," I must grill them first. I was actually excited about this part because I got a grill pan for Christmas. I chopped up the carrots, yellow peppers (Green peppers were the recipe's choice, but I think they are yucky.), and green onions. I kind of cheated because I had leftover "stuffing mix" celery and onions. I thought if I just rinsed them off, then I would wash away the Thanksgiving flavor. Hee hee. It worked. So, I threw all the veggies, with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, on the grill pan. Everything sizzled with delight, even me! I can't believe how beautiful grill marks are!!

Back to the sauce, hmmmmm, about the sauce...it looked, well, weird. I just kept on cooking it. I didn't know what else to do with it. I added the cornstarch to a bit of juice and added that to the pan. It instantly thickened. So cool. I love cornstarch. I really, really do; it's magic! The sauce still looked weird, but at least it was thick now. When I tasted it, it kept its weird verdict. I think its time to cheat. Ginger would be my hero...lots of ginger and a pinch more of sugar and a couple dashes of soy sauce. Taste number 253 and, yes, yes, yes, Houston we have lift off! Tracy, the pickiest eater on the planet next to her mother, said, "It's delicious...tastes warming...like home." Wow, that's a compliment considering that her favorite bread is Wonder bread. Scary, I know. Okay, so my sauce is amazing...how the heck did that happen?? Veggies in the pool!

It was time for the shrimp. I peeled them and tossed with garlic and salt and pepper. Back to the grill (love the grill!), I threw them on for a couple of minutes on each side. Delicious. Then I threw them in the pool too. I think it's party time. No, it actually is time for the party. AHHHH! I am not ready. Ding, ding, ding, dong.

By the way, everyone slurped up the shrimp...it was like a party in your mouth with the sweet, the salty, the sour...huh, I guess I know where it got its name. Duh!

As it stands~
guests- 7
mistakes- 1
emotions- 2
meltdowns- 1
recipes- 1
recipes to date- 3

The Recipe

Sweet N Sour Shrimp
3 5 oz. cans shrimp (used 2 lb. raw, frozen shrimp, 16-20 count)
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup catsup
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup apple juice (dissolve cornstarch)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp melted margarine (used butter)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup diagonally cut carrots
1/4 cup sliced green onions
(added diced white onion and celery)
1/2 cup cubed green pepper (used yellow pepper)
2 cups cooked rice

Drain and rinse shrimp (Defrost and peel shrimp). Combine apple juice, soy sauce, salt, catsup, sugar, vinegar, and margarine in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and simmer for 15 min. Add green pepper and onion. Cook 5 min. more. (Grilled all the vegetables before putting in sauce.) Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup apple juice and add to the sauce pan. Stirring constantly. Add shrimp (grilled shrimp first) to the sauce. Heat. Serve sauce over rice.