Our kitchen was so full of hustle bustle this year (hey, let’s face it…every year!) that I just couldn’t even think about taking pictures of the cooking process for most of our dishes. I did manage to sneak in a few shots of the bacon-wrapped brussels sprouts, but I’ll do that as a separate entry. Here, I’m going to focus on the bread-like dishes. These pictures are just mined from the interwebz. All of these recipes were tried for the first time and all turned out so good I simply have to share the joy! Go and make them…then come back and tell me how your family liked them! By the way, comments making any reference whatsoever to calories, fat content, or weight gain will be immediately deleted! Other than that, comment away! LOL!
I’ve tried at least a half dozen recipes for spoon bread and have been disatisfied every time. Then, my stepson Matt mentioned he’d had the perfect spoon bread at a Thanksgiving table several years back. He got the recipe for us and we made it this year to RAVE reviews! The key…and I am telling you this is key…is the use of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix. From scratch recipes and other corn bread mixes just didn’t come out with the intense flavor and texture that reminds me of my favorite Mexican restaurant’s spoon bread. This one is da bomb!
Kentucky Spoon Bread Ingredients
1 Box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 8 oz. can of whole corn, drained
1 8 oz. can of cream style corn
1 cup sour cream (I prefer Daisy brand)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Instructions
Melt the butter and combine the Jiffy mix, corns, sour cream, and beaten eggs in a large bowl. Pour into a 1.5 quart greased casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until center is firm. Serve warm.
I doubled this recipe and used a 9×13 glass baking dish with outstanding results. The bread will be dense, very moist, and utterly delicious!
For our follow-up Thanksgiving dinner Sunday evening with a different group of family, I tried a bread pudding recipe from Penzey’s One magazine. If you haven’t yet discovered the amazing world of Penzey’s Spices, I encourage you to go visit their website, subscribe to their magazine, and…most importantly…throw away every dried herb and spice in your cupboard and replace them all with Penzey’s. You will be astounded at the difference in your tried and true receipes. The magazine always has great receipes…many from readers…and I have never, ever, had a bad result using their recipes and spices. Going Penzey’s has transformed our kitchen and our culinary life!
This recipe is over 100 years old and was contributed by a Penzey’s One reader whose family has passed it down. I can see why it has endured, though I have modified it slightly to round out a few ingredients. It calls for a whiskey sauce, which I made the first night, but then made a non-alcoholic vanilla sauce the next night. Both versions are included below.
Bread Pudding Ingredients
16 day-old hamburger buns, torn in large pieces
(Leave them exposed to the air, opened up and spread out on a baking sheet overnight. You want most of the moisture out of the bread. Big pieces yield lots of texture, smaller pieces make a smooth, wet pudding. I prefer the large chunks.)
1 14-oz can evaporated milk (not sweetened, not condensed)
4 cups milk (lower fat milks are okay, not skim)
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbs cinnamon (oh, yes…go heavy here)
2 tbs plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
Whiskey Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 - 1/4 cup whiskey
Non-alcoholic alternative is to substitue 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp imitation rum extract for the whiskey, or 1 tsp vanilla extract and leave out the rum extract altogether.
Instructions
Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a large bowl (I needed a punch bowl as my largest mixing bowl was too small), combine the ripped up buns, canned milk and evaporated milk and let soak for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla to make a gorgeous goop! Add to the bread and milk and mix well with a wooden spoon. Take care not to mash the bread chunks too much. Pour into an ungreased 9×13 pan and drizzle the melted butter over the top. If you have a larger one, you may want to choose it, or else place the pan on a lipped cookie sheet. This will rise high in the oven. and some of the butter may spill out. Bake until lightly browned and no longer wiggly, about 50 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Bread will settle and melted butter that may be pooled on top will soak in.
To make the whiskey sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Pour 1-2 tablespoons over individual servings of warm bread pudding.
Well, there you have it. That oughta keep you away from the scale for a while! I must confess, I’ve been going back for midnight snacks of this bread pudding…and I never do that! Something about the warmth and the texture and the cinnamon flavor tastes even better snuggled in bed in front of the tv! Note that I am not officially recommending that to you…it’s more of a confession, really.
Please comment…they are my favorite snack food of all!
Deuteronomy 16: 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.
My last recipe post included a complaint that we haven’t been able to find good Chinese food in Jacksonville. New Yorker’s are pretty finicky when it comes to food. Well, if there’s anything more scarce in Jacksonville than good Chinese food, it has got to be good pizza. That stuff you see advertised anywhere outside of New York as, “New York Style Pizza?” Fuggedaboutit! Gimme a break! So, once again, this household coped with the problem by simply making what we wanted in our own kitchen.
My husband makes his own bread regularly. He enjoys messing with yeast and kneading and waiting for stuff to rise. I, on the other hand, do not. So, that’s his department. He found a recipe for “New York Style Pizza Dough,” at Recipe Pizza online. That link will take you to their version, but I’ve reproduced it here with a couple of modifications we’ve made after making it about a half dozen times.
Now, I’m not going to tell you this tastes exactly like the best pizzaria pizza in New York, because it doesn’t. However, it does taste unbelievably good and close enough to satisfy us! We discovered last night that the fresher your flour is, the easier the dough will be to work with. Hubby prepares it a couple of hours before we want to eat and then I roll up my sleeves and take over
This recipe makes 1 15-inch and 1 12-inch pie
the shell forming and assembly. He handles the baking peel (that wooden paddle) and the actual baking. The system works flawlessly!
New York Style
Pizza Dough
Ingredients Required
1 1/2 cups warm water (105F) 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 tablespoons of olive oil 2 1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar 2 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon of yeast
Step by Step Procedure
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in water.
Add oil and flour and mix with a dough hook in a heavy duty mixer until dough forms.
Turn out to a lightly floured surface and press into a circle.
Sprinkle yeast evenly over dough and knead for 12 minutes.
Divide dough into portions: 6 oz. for Calzones, 18 oz. for 12 inch, 25 oz. for 15 inch
Roll each portion into a ball. You want a dough ball without visible seams except the bottom.
Place dough balls in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to proof for 1−2 hours at room temperature to use the same day, or store in refrigerator to use the next day.
Place dough ball on lightly floured surface, and lightly flour the top. Use fingertips to evenly flatten out the dough ball. Work from the edges to the center press dough into a 12″ circle. Place both hands within the shell edge and stretch with fingertips and palms maintaining an even pressure. Or, use a lightly floured rolling pin to stretch to desired shape. (I do both)
Lift the shell onto a square of baking parchment placed on your pizza peel.
Add desired toppings to the pizza.
Carefully slide the pizza and parchment onto the stone in the preheated oven.
Bake in a 550 degree oven for 10 minutes for a 15″ pie and 8 minutes for a 12″ pie, until crust is golden.
Additional Information
Cooking pizzas with this dough should be done on a baking stone. Using a pan will produce a very soft “doughy” crust. The stone in the oven should be preheated to 550F for an hour prior to baking, and should be placed in the middle of the oven.
Now, let me tell you about the toppings we put on last night’s pizza. I’m telling you, you should have been there! Since you weren’t, please enjoy this slide show of the process, featuring my step-son Matt sampling the meaty, cheesey goodness!
You can click on the slideshow to visit the web album and see these shots full size.
We had some leftover barbequed bratwurst in the refrigerator. I cut that into thick slices, then tossed those into my food processor and pulsed for about 20 seconds until I had a nice, course, crumbled result. I also had about a half dozed strips of chicken breast I didn’t use when I made the Pad Thai the other night, so I breaded and fried those in olive oil, drained them and cut them into bite-sized chunks. We always have onions and jarred sliced mushrooms on our pizza. I prefer to sliver my onions by cutting them in half, removing the centers and then slicing lengthwise as thin as possible.
So, the large pie got topped in this order: sauce (Ragu Pizza Quick Sauce has worked fine for us), mozzarella (I prefer part-skim and always buy it pre-shredded for this purpose), bratwurst, chicken, a little granulated garlic and a little oregano, onions, mushrooms. Just look at that picture at the top of the post! Doesn’t that look amazing? It was, by a wide margin, the best pizza I have ever had in my life, New York or anywhere else!
We decided the smaller pie would be a white pizza. I dumped an entire pint of ricotta cheese onto the shell (again, part skim) and spread it around with a tablespoon, nearly to the edge. Then, I added minced, jarred garlic (crucial to the flavor of this one) and some fresh ground black pepper. The mozzarella was next (I went light on this layer) and then topped it with some freshly sliced, ripe plum tomatoes.
Of course, pizza toppings are a very personal thing. We often like to crumble crisp bacon on ours. If you haven’t tried that, and you’re not the slightest bit concerned about packing on the calories and making your pizza exponentially fattier (lol), you really must try this! Hubby likes sliced black olives and pepperoni. What are your favorite toppings and, have you ever made your own pizza?
Leviticus 23:17 You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.
I’m a New Yorker, born and raised. There, if you walk into just about any Chinese take-out restaurant, you can order Cold Sesame Noodles (sometimes called, “cold noodles with sesame sauce,”). In my single years, a pint of that and a pint of roast pork fried rice made a perfect dinner for me. I could pick it up on the way home, walking from the subway to my Queens apartment and it filled me up for very little cash. In fact, that Chinese place on 108th Street in Forest Hills at about 65th Avenue made the best cold sesame noodles anywhere! I wonder if they’re still doing that.
Since we moved to Jacksonville three years ago, not only is it really tough to find good Chinese to begin with, but my husband and I have never seen this culinary delight on any menu. Three years is a long time to go without that kind of taste sensation. So, I just got fed up about six weeks ago and decided I’d figure out a way to duplicate that flavor, by hook or by crook. I knew I needed peanut butter and something with sesame flavor that was dark in color. But what?
At Publix (the coolest supermarket in the universe, IMHO), I browsed the “Ethnic Foods,” aisle - the Chinese section in particular. Soy sauce…terayaki sauce…chili sauce…fish sauce…AHA! There is was, and I don’t know why I’d never seen it before. Sesame Garlic sauce by “Iron Chef.” Who knew that was a brand (then again, of course it is). I read the ingredients and they sounded like exactly like what I’d need to make the famous, yet elusive sauce. I picked up 2 bottles and headed home.
I already had angel hair pasta (a nice, big, 16-oz box from Mueller) and Jif creamy peanut butter in the pantry. Seemed like I was set. I put on my white lab coat and got busy (not really ). I figured about 2/3 cup of peanut butter was right. A full cup would be too much. I started light, but ended up pouring about half the bottle of sesame garlic sauce in. Then, I added a few tablespoons of HOT water until the consistency was thick, but not gummy. Meanwhile, I cooked the angel hair in salted water with a little olive oil (this only takes about 4 minutes, so don’t get distracted!) after breaking it in half. I drained the pasta and ran cold water over it to stop the cooking process and cool it off. That’s why the sauce can’t be too gummy…you’re gonna try to evenly distribute it in the cold noodles without making mush out of everything.
Two tablespoons worked well for me to get the stuff properly mixed. I don’t recommend using forks. The pasta is delicate while still a bit warm and you don’t want to shred it. Once mixed, I covered it with plastic wrap and put the whole bowl in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Serve it in the bowl with bean sprouts and slivers of cucumber on the side or piled for guests to put on top. I didn’t have any cucumbers when I made this for the second time last night, so we’ve just got the sprouts in this picture.
I also made Pad Thai using noodles and sauce from a box. The shrimp goes with the Pad Thai, but since my stepson is allergic, I served them on the side. It was certainly a noodle-intensive meal, but the hot dish with lime and cilantro flavors complimented the cold dish with peanut and sesame flavors perfectly!
Once again, the pictures are clickable to view full size. I’d love to know if you make this. I know if you do, you’ll be back here thanking me. This stuff is heavenly! If you want my Pad Thai receipe, just say so in the comments and that will be my next cuisine post, though I mostly follow box directions and enhance, enhance, enhance.
Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.” 3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
This is what I made for dinner last night. My mother always made an excellent meat loaf when I was growing up. I stuck to her recipe faithfully until I became vegetarian in my 20s. Let me just say right now that most vegetarian alternatives to meat loaf are to be avoided at all costs unless that’s all you have in the vaccuum-sealed bags in your bomb shelter and the alarm has sounded. Seriously. However, I did make a few interesting discoveries during that decade of my life that carried over to my kitchen life when I climbed back on the meat wagon. One such thing is using oats in meat loaf rather than bread crumbs. Of course, using oats when the other ingredients are tofu and sunflower seeds and…well…NO MEAT…doesn’t make for a very tasty dinner. But, just swapping the bread crumbs for some oats works really well!And, I’m led to believe it may help reduce cholesterol if used for 30 consecutive days!
Truth be told, I had not done this for several years. My meat loaf was still widely appreciated, so I stuck with Mom’s recipe most of the time. But, yesterday afternoon I was hanging out with Rhett & LInk on UStream during their live broadcast and I mentioned my dinner plans. Link noticed my comment in the chat window and said, “Meat loaf? Don’t use bread crumbs…use oats.” And, I figured, hey…why not use oats?
So, here’s my recipe, which is mostly Mom’s, slightly modified over the years, and most notably modified by the use of Quaker 1-Minute Oats,
Ingredients and Assembly
though, you can use long-cooking if that’s what’s in your pantry. (Images are clickable for full-sized view.)
Ingredients
2 lbs fresh meat loaf mix
(I use 2 parts ground chuck to 1 part ground pork)
2 eggs (beaten)
1-1.5 cups coarsely chopped onion
(I used Vidalia here)
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
(nothing labelled “catsup” has ever been in my pantry…who knows what that stuff is?)
2 cups dry rolled oats, very briefly processed (like, 2 pulses)
1/4 cup dried parsley (or 1/2 cup chopped, fresh, flat-leaf)
salt, pepper
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. I start with the meat, add the wet ingredients, then the dry on top, though I have no idea why. Wash your hands well, remove rings and watches, then get in there with both hands and SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH until everything is uniformly blended. Really, it’s the only way. Then, pick up the whole meaty mess and slap it between your hands a few times to remove any air pockets that might make crevices in the loaf during baking. Form it into a loaf and place on a prepared pan.
Voila! Gorgeous!
Here, you can see I’ve used my broiler ban with the bottom portion lined with foil for easy cleanup later and the top portion prepared with cooking spray. I made a double recipe here, so there are 2 loaves shown. I like to shape the loaves with squared ends and a flattened top because then all the slices come out about the same height and width except for the very ends. I have found I get more bang for the buck that way. I never use loaf pans. I find the loaf is difficult to extract and all the fat is trapped on the bottom.
Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 50-60 minutes until nicely browned. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
I served mine with mashed potatoes last night. We ate very late, so there was no veggie, but I usually serve this with broccoli first steamed, then tossed in some olive oil with a little garlic and oregano. I eat my meat loaf with ketchup which offends my husband nearly to the point of distraction. If I haven’t remembered to heat up some jarred beef gravy, he will use A-1 Steak Sauce on his.
Please comment! Let me know if you like meat loaf, if you have a cool meat loaf recipe, or of you think you might try this one!
Acts 10:9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” 15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”
I had something called “Asian slaw,” in a restaurant a few months ago…it might have been a Panera or some place like that…I don’t recall. Anyway, I loved it. “I wish I had a receipe for that, ” I said to myself. Then one afternoon I was planning a cookout and I had a bag of shredded cabbage & veggies. I just wasn’t in the mood for mayonnaise that day. I tend to prefer vinegar salads while my husband is a mayo man. Since there is no accounting for taste and since I was the one in command of the kitchen on that day (which is not always the case…hubby is an awesome cook!), I decided to experiment with an asian dressing for the slaw. We’re both fairly good at deconstructing flavors in a dish and have had some success at reproducing more than a few dishes we’ve enjoyed in restaurants. Here’s what I came up with. I’m very slightly modifying the dressing recipe based on the taste, so I haven’t actually tried the version I’m giving you here, but I know this is how I’ll make it next time and that it will be awesome! Let me know if you try it!
Here’s what yesterday’s batch looked like, presented in hubby’s grandmother’s awesome footed bowl:
And, here’s the recipe:
1 bag cole slaw (or veggie slaw)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Dressing
1/2 cup rice vinegar
3 TBS sesame oil (dark)
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely minced
(or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger)
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seeds
Combine all ingredients for dressing and pour over slaw and almonds. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
There you go. So, are you a vinegar person or a mayo person?
Genesis 1:29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
Okay, so the nutritional information on the Ben & Jerry’s website clearly informs me that a 1/2 cup serving of this heavenly product contains 310 calories, 160 of those from fat.
Heaven
But, I just tasted this flavor for the first time tonight and I am simply not thinking about that. Just not dealing with it in any way, shape, or form.
Creme brulee has been my favorite dessert for a very long time. I think it was the early ’90s when I sat in a restaurant in Manhattan called “The Back Porch,” a couple of blocks from my Aunt Rose’s apartment, and she suggested I try this for the first time. It was the best thing I had ever tasted in my entire life. I actually picked up the little ramekin it had been served in and licked it clean right there in the restaurant! I was such an upstart then.
Since then, I have considered myself a creme brulee conessouir, which, of course, means I have had more than my share of disappointments along the way. In my quest to repeat that first awesome dessert experience, I have unhesitatingly ordered the creme brulee whenever it has been on the dessert menu of any restuarant. Recently, my husband has been successful at influencing me away from that policy and convincing me I’ll be a happier human being if I consider the likelihood of getting great creme brulee based on the restaurant itself. It continues to amaze me how many ways there are to get creme brulee wrong. For the record, it is supposed to look like this:
Properly prepared creme brulee
The custard is supposed to be made from scratch (not instant pudding) and the carmelized sugar is supposed to be thin, crisp, and added just before serving. It is not supposed to be something drizzled over the top or - worse - squirted in a squiggly pattern beneath. And, it is supposed to taste like heaven.
Now, in the world of things claiming to be creme brulee flavored, I have had a whole separate set of disappointments. I keep going for it like a Pavlovian dog, most of the time knowing I’m going to throw the thing away and mutter under my breath for half an hour! Yesterday afternoon, in the supermarket, I wandered down the ice cream aisle and actually decided to browse the Ben & Jerry’s section because I wanted to taste the “Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream” flavor, being a big Colbert fan and having not gotten around to showing my solidarity in this particular fashion to date.
Not yet tasted, but probably awesome!
Apparently, my local supermarket doesn’t feel the same, since the only “named” flavor in stock was “Cherry Garcia.” But, oh happy day, I spotted the creme brulee and responded in my usual, impulsive way. Just to distract my husband from my act of impetuousness, I picked up a quart of Haagen Daas Coffee (his favorite) to accompany my purchase.
So tonight, the subject of ice cream came up after dinner and I told everyone what I had. My husband and stepson were both curious about the new flavor, but said they wanted a good portion of the coffee flavor and a tablespoon or so of the creme brulee. Fine. I peeled the lid off of both containers and was instantly encouraged by the creamy appearance and the healthy speckles of what appeared to be actual caramelized sugar…and by my husband’s raised eyebrows (not unlike Colbert’s in that picture over there!). Still, we dished lightly…just in case.
Well, dear friends, let me tell you, all three of us were in love with this dessert by the time we swallowed our first spoonful. The creamy vanilla custard (which is how both proper creme brulee and proper vanilla ice cream begin anyway), the crunchy crystallized caramel-colored sugar swirled in, even the way it complimented the coffee flavor made for the most wonderful and complete dessert experience in recent memory. Of course, recent memories are just all messed up now because my brain is soaked with creme brulee!
Apparently, I am not alone with my family in this feeling. Several bloggers have already beat me to the punch reviewing this flavor. Among them are Tina Rice, Shark Like a Fox, Opinions for Nothing (all the way back in January) and Keith Moore. If you check those out, I offer you the caveat that a couple of these blogs use words you will not find on this one, though their hearts are definitely in the right place on the subject! Sure, I found as many blogs that feel strongly this is a terrible flavor, but what do they know?
This post wouldn’t be complete without an expression of my deep appreciation to my hubby for making Emeril Lagasse’s creme brulee recipe for me on special occasions. You rock, honey! For those of you fellas out there with some cooking prowess who would ilke your wives to tell you how much you rock (unless they’re on Jenny Craig right now, in which case, please skip this paragraph), here is that recipe:
Ingredients
1 quart heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
8 teaspoons raw sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (see note)
8 large egg yolks
In a medium nonreactive (don’t use any bare metal) saucepan, combine the cream, 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, and the vanilla bean and pulp over medium heat. Bring to a gentle boil, whisking to dissolve the sugar.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining 1/2 cup of granulated sugar together. Whisk 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture until smooth. Slowly pour this mixture into the hot cream mixture, whisk for 2 minutes, and remove from the heat. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Let cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Fill eight 6-ounce custard cups with equal portions of the cream mixture. Place the cups in a deep baking dish large enough to accommodate them comfortably without touching. Fill the baking dish with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the cups.
Bake in the lower third of the oven until lightly golden brown and just set, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours.
Before serving, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the raw sugar on the top of each custard. One at a time, using a kitchen blowtorch, approach the sugar with the torch at a low angle until the inner blue flame is 1/4 inch above the surface and move the flame in a continuous motion over the surface until the sugar has caramelized. Or, preheat the broiler, sprinkle the sugar over the custards, and slide the dishes under the broiler. Broil until the sugar caramelizes, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove (carefully!) and allow the custards to cool again. Refrigerate and serve chilled.
Note: Vanilla bean is long and thin. To get the essence of the bean, it must be split lengthwise, then scraped to remove the resinous, pasty insides. Lay the bean on a flat surface with its seam as the center and split toone end. Place the point back at the center and split it to the other end, Use teh blade of the knife to scrape the pasty seeds out.
Do you see how much a husband has to rock to do this for his wife? Great. Now, go get the ice cream and let me know what you think!
Ephesians 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church– 30 for we are members of his body.
Have you guys heard of Cecil Adams, famous for his “The Straight Dope,” syndicated newspaper column and books? I’ve been a fan for years. The guy says he knows everything about everything and, with very few exceptions, seems to have backed that up impressively. Not that he carries all of that information around in his head. He uses lots of experts and resources…and is very fond of the personal experiment. I get an email from his website every week with a few highlights of his online version of the column.
This week, I was particularly fascinated by a column about the proper way to wrap a baked potato in aluminum foil. Should it be shiny side in or shiny side out? For my part, I had no idea there was such a controversy. But, apparently there is. I’ve always wrapped mine shiny side out and no one has ever given me any flack for it.
Seems, sour cream or butter is no longer the touchest choice we have to make!
Cecil covered this one from all angles, from consulting foil wrap specialists to actually wrapping potatoes both ways and cooking them side by side. If you’re not itching to know the answer for yourselves by now, you must at least be hungry! Go and check it out for yourselves here. And while you’re there, I suggest poking around the site for more fascinating articles about any topic you can think of (and many that have probably never crossed your mind). There’s a forum you can sign up for if you’re willing to fork over a few bucks, but subscribing to the weekly email blast is free and fun. Hey, you might even get smarter in the process!
If you’re already a fan, leave me a comment and tell me why.
~JardinPrayer
2 Chronicles 1:11 And God said to Solomon: “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life–but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king– 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.”
This one is da bomb!
Both versions are included below.
). I figured about 2/3 cup of peanut butter was right. A full cup would be too much. I started light, but ended up pouring about half the bottle of sesame garlic sauce in. Then, I added a few tablespoons of HOT water until the consistency was thick, but not gummy. Meanwhile, I cooked the angel hair in salted water with a little olive oil (this only takes about 4 minutes, so don’t get distracted!) after breaking it in half. I drained the pasta and ran cold water over it to stop the cooking process and cool it off. That’s why the sauce can’t be too gummy…you’re gonna try to evenly distribute it in the cold noodles without making mush out of everything.
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