Favorite Things 6: Attempting to make tasty treats. And other stuff.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. Today is Christmas Eve Eve, my favorite day of the year. I hope my Christmas planning has been sufficient. I guess we will see in 36ish hours.

Today we had a family party with Shane's side of the family. I spent yesterday making Amy's favorite chocolate cake. It turned out good despite my attempts to sabotage it (I used Pam instead of butter to grease the pan, which made it stick. I tried to make it festive by sprinkling candy cane on top and then though better of it after it was done.) It looked like this:

I also made Swedish butter cookies, which was a new recipe I tried for the first time last year. So that I don't forget how to make them the right way again next year, here is the recipe and instructions:

1 lb butter
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp almond extract

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs followed by the almond extract. Mix and then add the flour. Put them through a cookie press and bake in an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Don't refrigerate the dough before putting it through the press - cold dough does NOT work.

This is how I made them - I was trying to half the batch because I didn't have enough butter:

1/2 lb of butter cut into the flour (not the sugar.) Added the egg (almost added all 4 eggs before I realized I only needed  two.) I realized my mistake when I still had sugar left to add. I dumped it all into the mixer, added the sugar, and somehow put 2 teaspoons of almond extract - you know, 4 times as much as I needed. My hands still smell like almond.

It was not a good baking day. But they both tasted just fine for the party.

This morning we went to church. The program was lovely. I wish every Sunday could be as wonderful as the Christmas program. One of my favorite Christmas songs is the Christmas Canon by Trans Siberian Orchestra. The piano melody is so beautiful. Our choir had a flute and a violin in addition to the piano to play the melody but sang the words The First Noel. I love it when choirs surprise you like that with music and words that don't belong but end up complimenting each other perfectly.

Other stuff we have done lately that I wanted to blog about but didn't:

•  We went and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was rainy but fun. And, we somehow were in the right place at the exact right time in time to find my mom, who was with my sister and her kids and grandkids. It was fun to walk through Temple Square with them.

 

• Made 20 nativity scenes out of sticks for neighbor gifts.

• Ate at Desert Edge, our favorite restaurant at Trolley Square.
• Decorated my dad's grave with a bunch of family.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you all. I hope that the last day before Christmas that has no expectations about it whatsoever was wonderful and you did something that made you happy.

Gratitude 8: The smells of Thanksgiving...

I've just spent the last 6 hours enjoying some of my favorite smells. They include:

• Butter, flour, and salt when making a pie crust

• Scalding milk cooling with the help of butter and sugar for crescent rolls

• Fresh grated lemon while cooking the pudding for a lemon meringue pie. This pie is the only reason I have cornstarch in my pantry - I use it once a year.

• Egg whites and sugar for meringue 
• Sweet potatoes boiling on the stove

• A nice pizza for dinner (okay, that isn't Thanksgiving, but I wasn't about to make dinner after baking two pies and a batch and a half of rolls.)

Here are my pies. Apple crumble and lemon meringue. (Sorry about the apple pie picture - it's in my garage between a bag of wood chips and a baseball mitt. The garage is warmer than the fridge but cooler than my house!)

And no post is complete without a picture of the mess and a self-portrait.

It's only 9:52, everything is done and cleaned up and I'm hanging out, excited for tomorrow. I love Thanksgiving Eve. I'm grateful for the tradition of it - the recipes that are both new and old, the knowledge that my mom, sisters, and nieces are making the same recipes, the feeling of excitement for the holiday tomorrow. The only glitch for tonight was when I discovered that the beater was stuck on my mixer. I thought I was doomed, but some WD40 did the trick after 10 minutes of frenetic trying and everything was back to normal.

The recipes:

Crescent Rolls

1T yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 c milk
1 1/3 cubes butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1t salt
4-5 cups flower.

Mix the yeast with the warm water and 1t sugar. Set aside.

Scald your milk. Remove from heat and add sugar, butter, and salt. Beat eggs. Add milk and yeast mixtures - beat for a while. Add flour 1 cup at a time.  Put in tupperware bowl overnight.  3-4 hours before eating, roll out into 3 circles. Melt some butter and pour over the top of each dough circle. Cut the dough circle into 12 pie-shaped pieces; roll from the outside in and lie on a greased cookie sheet with point side down. Cook at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Pie Crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup butter
5-6 T cold water
1T vinegar (I forgot the vinegar this year!)

I like to use I Can't Believe it's Not Butter (even though I hate the name!) When I use it, it somehow turns out perfect - the dough is stretchy but not too stretchy, and the crust is flaky.

I cooked one pie crust to make the lemon meringue because the recipe calls for a pre-baked pie crust. The recipe I use is from the Better Homes and Garden's New Cook Book. For the apple pie, I used 1.5 cans of pie filling and topped it with a recipe of Pie Crumble from the same cook book. I can't wait to have a piece of this pie with some freshly whipped cream tomorrow!


What are your favorite recipes, traditions, or smells for Thanksgiving?

Sauerkraut, sausage, and dill - Oh my!

Last week, my neighbor let me take a sample of the soup she was making for dinner home to taste.  I admit that I wasn't at all excited to do this; she told me it contained sauerkraut, sausage, and dill - three food items that I usually try to avoid individually, let alone collectively.  But, to be polite, and because I said I would, I gave the soup a taste.  And then another, and another, and then I called Shane over who also tasted most gingerly and then eagerly.  So, even if you aren't a fan of these items, or even soup in general, I think you will like this.  She calls it "Edie's Angry German Soup" and it is delish.

Ingredients: 
4 Cups chicken broth
1 Can cream of mushroom soup
1 – 16 Ounce can sauerkraut – drained and rinsed
(Or just drained if you like it kicked up a little)
8 Ounces Sliced mushrooms
4 Carrots chopped
2 Potatoes cubed
1 Medium onion chopped
4 Stalks celery chopped
¾ Pound smoked sausage chopped
½ Cup cooked chopped chicken
2 Teaspoons dried dill
½ Teaspoon pepper
Salt to taste

Her instructions:  Simmer in a crock pot or on a stove until the vegetables are done. Serves 6 – 8

My variations:  I bought two recipe-ready chicken breasts and boiled them for about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, my awesome husband cut up all the vegetables (he likes to do this so that he can snack on them along the way. It works for me!).  I chopped the onion (don't anyone die of shock that I actually cut up a real live onion; usually I use the canned ones!) and added it to the chicken broth (here, again, I used water & chicken bullion cubes, and I increased the water to about 8 cups just because I didn't want all the vegetables to suck up all the water.) I added an extra can of cream of mushroom (to make up for the extra water.)  I added the vegetables once the water was boiling, then the sausage and chicken (which I cut up before hand.)  I added the mushrooms, then the sauerkraut (which I drained and rinsed for good measure) and last, the dill and black pepper.  I let it cook for about an hour until all the veggies were cooked.

My kids weren't completely sold, but Shane and I enjoyed it a lot.  It made enough for tonight and we'll have leftovers tomorrow.  The dill, sausage, and sauerkraut give this soup an amazing flavor.  Seriously - I wouldn't touch sauerkraut in most situations if you paid me to.  Well, maybe if it was like a million dollars or something, but...yeah.  Trust me. 

Let me know if you try it!

A welcome dinner guest

It doesn't happen often that I get casual, hang-out time with my family.  With the exception of the year that one of my sweet nieces lived 4 miles away from me, I live at least 30 miles from any of my sisters, and 50 from my parents. 

But as fate would have it, my mom needed a day away from her house, so after spending some time with my niece this afternoon, my mom came up and visited at my house for a while.  We drove the kids to their karate classes.  We stopped at the library for two of my holds (I am Number Four and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, in case you wondered).  I made some cookies and cooked dinner while she played dominoes and slap jack with Ben.  It was awesome.

I loved the casualness of it.  I loved Ben showing her magic tricks and Thomas showing his sparring moves.  It was fun talking about the snow storm (April 7th and snowing for crying out loud!) and the possibility of rag quilts with half square triangles (oh the madness!)

It was fun.  We ate chicken tacos and cookies and listened to my kids make inappropriate comments during dinner.  I liked having her make memories with us at our house, all unplanned, all unscripted.  I liked making dinner for her and having her eat with us.  (I made a lame attempt at a vegetable by sticking some baby carrots in a bowl on the table.  My mom never cooked a meal without a vegetable, so I was feeling a little self-conscious about my lack of edible greens on the table.) 

Sometimes it's nice to just have fun with your mom, right?

And, just in case you ever want an easy taco recipe, try this one:

Easy Chicken Tacos

1 large can chicken (I like the Sam's Club kind.)
4-6 ounces (or so) salsa
2-3 ounces sour cream
1 packet of Uncle Ben's Mexican Rice
Cheese
Soft taco shells
Angel hair cabbage

Drain the chicken and put in in a skillet pan.  Add salsa and sour cream, cook until warm and bubbly.  Cook rice according to the directions on the package.  Layer rice and chicken mixture in a soft taco shell with cheese, olives, cabbage (I prefer the angel hair cabbage to lettuce.  It give a most satisfying crunch!), and anything else you like on tacos.  They are warm and smooth and yummy on a cold, snowy spring night.  My kids tolerate them, but Shane and I (and I think my mom!) love them.