Recipes

Friday, November 27, 2009

The Sweet Stuff

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family :)  I know I did!

Back to my friends-Thanksgiving!

Let’s get to the goods…the desserts!  Because I don’t like to change up my classic Thanksgiving side dishes, the desserts are where I can get creative each year. 

I may have disappointed a few with the lack of a chocolate pecan pie…BUT I had other plans :)

I’ll just start with my favorite this year…this recipe came from the wonderful Giada!

Profiteroles with Ricotta Mascarpone

Thank you Giada!

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I started with wanting to make a cream puff but when I read this recipe I knew it was a winner. 

Puff pastry always sounded like it would be hard to make but I’ve heard it was easy and easy it was!!

I made the filling Saturday:

Ricotta+Mascarpone+sugar+vanilla:IMG_7219

The next morning I baked the pastry puffs before the Turkey needed to go in.  Profiteroles/Cream Puffs are actually very easy to make.

Basic Ingredients:  Water, butter, flour, sugar, salt, eggsIMG_7242

All ingredients except the eggs are cooked together on the stove.

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Then each egg is added 1 at a time and beat in until the dough is smooth and sticky.

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Spoon onto sheet pan, lined with sil pat or parchment

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I smoothed out the tops with a finger dipped in water, then gave each an egg wash for shine

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Puffs (in sunlight)

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Later on I got out the filling, sliced the top off each puff, and filled the profiteroles

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The recipe called for a topping of Nutella + cream, heated together.  For me, the cream and Nutella were just NOT getting along well, so I heated up straight Nutella for my topping.  Just as good or better in my opinion!

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YUMMMM the filling tasted just like a cannoli!!!

 

With my extra Ricotta, I was reminded of another simple Giada recipe I wanted to try…

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The Ricotta Cappuccino

I had all the ingredients on hand:

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The process couldn’t of been simpler…

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And I finally got to use my cute set of espresso cups!

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Delicious…I am so making these again in the summer!

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My final dessert was Mini Pies!!  I love all miniature desserts :) 

Basic pie crust recipe my fam always uses:  flour, shortening, water, salt.

I chilled, and was ready to roll it out Saturday:IMG_7234

Rolled out discs, placed into muffin tin, lined each with foil and filled with dry beans to use for weight so the crust doesn’t puff up!IMG_7236

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Brian requested banana cream and I was thinking coconut cream since I’ve never made it before.  Luckily they are VERY similar and I was able to make 1 filling for both pies. 

I ended up with an Emeril recipe for Coconut Cream Pie

Basic vanilla custardy pie filling…

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Just before I added any coconut, I filled half of the pie crusts with a little filling, topped with some sliced banana, and filled to the top.IMG_7261

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Then added some sweetened coconut as well as some I had toasted earlier.  P.S. Toasted coconut is AWESOME in yogurt!!!!IMG_7255

Then I filled the remaining shells with the coconut filling.IMG_7264

Later on, these got topped with meringue and toasted with my torch!

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I dusted the tops of the coconut creams with more toasted coconutIMG_7320

Others brought apple crisp and pumpkin pie!

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Hope everyone is having a great little vacation :)  Now we’re off to the in-laws for Thanksgiving #3 tomorrow!

Monday, November 23, 2009

That Time of Year again…

For Apartment House Thanksgiving!!!  The annual big Turkey dinner I’ve been hosting with my old college roomies (+more friends), since it started Junior Year of college.  I kept it going after college and was EXTRA excited this year that dinner would be in my new house, people could sit at a table, and eat off of real plates, real silverware, and even cloth napkins!

Check out last years Apartment Thanksgiving!  Most of the recipes are continued this year

Thanksgiving part 1

Thanksgiving part 2&3

Thanksgiving part 4

Final recap

Items that remained the same were:

Turkey, of course, BUT this year I did decide to go with a Free Range bird from Whole Foods.   It did cost a LOT more, but I felt good about buying it knowing it wasn’t living it’s life crammed in a cage.  IMG_7248

A 22 pounder this year!!IMG_7250

Gotta tent the turkey!       IMG_7251  

Stuffing:  this will never change, and you can see the recipe written out from last year in part 4.

celery and onion

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White bread…which again we loved eating a nice soft piece of while cutting it for the stuffing.IMG_7228

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Sauté onions and celery in butter :)

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then after seasoning, mixing, baking…

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Last year I did these mashed potatoes and they were a huge hit, so I couldn’t not make them.

I once again used Rosemary instead of sage because the sage is used in the green beans!

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Those green beans were another repeat from last year.  This recipe is so flavorful and such a welcome change from the heavy cream-laden casserole that we used to have.  I mean don’t get me wrong the casserole is classic and delicious but with all the heavy dishes, this one just tastes a little fresher. 

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Sage:

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Final product with delicious Pancetta

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Squash Soufflé was also repeated from last year.  And once again, same as last year, I had some issues.  It always tastes delicious, but there was a little separation,  IMG_7287

I describe the recipe here.  Once again no progress pics, probably because I’m usually frantically making this once the Turkey comes out of the oven. 

Next up…desserts!!  Then the final reveal :)  For now I’ll leave you with my lovely table.  I was so excited to decorate it!!!  I “nicely” set it for 8 (even though when it was time to eat we squished 11 at it)IMG_7294

New end chairs!!!

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yes I bought a bag of pinecones…I’ll have to get a close up of the centerpiece :)

What’s your FAVORITE Thanksgiving dish??