Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

my friend blu is a professional cake decorator. she creates these beautiful, fancy cakes - and it's far beyond my comprehension how she does it. granted, baking isn't something i get very excited about, so i'd rather just admire her work than try to emulate it. :)

anyway, i bake christmas cookies with my mom every year, which we did this year, but blu suggested we have another cookie decorating evening. i was excited about this because mom and i tend to make the same recipes every year - they're really good, and they're our traditional christmas cookies, so it's hard to give any of them up in order to try new ones. so, this was my opportunity to try something new! i've seen (and enjoyed!) blu's christmas cookies from past years, and they are something special. they look super fancy, and taste fantastic.

this year, blu and her friend rebel made gingerbread cookies in a variety of shapes, and brought them down to decorate. she brought royal icing (which i've never worked with) and food coloring. she also brought glitter, which was my favorite part of it all. that sounds odd, i know - but it's food glitter! you use little paint brushes to apply it to the gingerbread - it's easy to apply whatever design you like, and it's totally edible. it doesn't actually have any taste.

i was quite challenged by the application of the royal icing. to ice the cookies, blu made two separate batches of royal icing base - one thick, and one thin. she then separated the batches and created a couple different colors out of each. to apply the icing, you create a thin border around the outside edge of the cookie using the thick icing. you then fill inside the border with the thin icing. after you do that, you can create designs in the icing (which was WAY beyond my capability!).

we started the project by applying the icing, and then blu brought out the glitter. i found myself feeling rather stressed out by the icing application. a steady hand and a lot of patience is required - neither of which i had much of. i think i could enjoy it more outside of the chaos of the holiday season.

i loved the glitter application though. it was really easy to create fun designs, and, well, i love glitter. i'm not ashamed. :-)

these pictures are blurry! in the one below, blu and rebel are mixing the icing, and i'm just watching from the sidelines. with my shot o' vodka.




here blu is showing us how to apply the icing.



below, on the right, are some completed gingerbread cookies. (on the left are date pinwheels, which i made with my mom.)

the gingerbread cookies in this photograph don't have icing, just glitter. the one underneath is a purple present box with polka dots. the one on top is my gingerbread version of tony. :-) yup, that's correct, gingerbread tony is wearing a gold tank top and striped shorts with a green belt. how stylish.



all in all, i had a good time visiting with rebel & blu, and using glitter to decorate the cookies. the icing application, however, was just a bit too ... what's the right word? meticulous or nitpicky are close enough, i guess ... i'd have to be in a very particular mood to try it again. :)

Spiced Chicken Thighs + Asparagus - 4 stars!

boneless, skinless chicken thigh is my favorite part of the chicken. the meat is far juicier and much more flavorful than the breast, and so long as you buy skinless, the fat content isn't much higher than the breast either!

for this meal, i pan-seared the chicken thighs instead of grilling them (i think the grill ran out of propane?). i prepared a dry rub out of cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, red pepper and a little salt and rubbed it all over the meat. i cooked them over medium high for ~ 5 minutes on each side in a non stick pan with a bit of cooking spray. SO easy, and far tastier than you'd expect.

i steamed the asparagus, and tossed it with this fantastic balsamic vinegar that my parents gave me for christmas - it's fig and meyer lemon balsamic vinegar. ooooh, yummy.

i also assembled a spinach salad, as i do for the nearly every meal. this picture is crappy, so i can't tell what i topped the salad with. i'm guessing avocado, tomato, dried cranberry and onion of some sort.

it was such a healthy, flavorful, and light but still satisfying meal!

the recipe that i pulled the spice rub from suggested serving this with a yogurt sauce (to tame the spice) over couscous. since i can't eat dairy, i skipped the yogurt sauce - i don't think the rub is very spicy anyway, so i gave up trying to create a soy version.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs, about 1/4 cup yogurt mixture, and 1/2 cup couscous)

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked couscous
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
• 1 (6-ounce) carton plain fat-free yogurt
• Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Preparation

Cook couscous according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Combine cumin and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle spice mixture over chicken. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, chopped cilantro, garlic, and yogurt in a bowl, stirring well. Serve with chicken and couscous. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Courtesy of cookinglight.com

Beef Leaf (Thai Beef Salad - Yam Neau) - 5 stars!

tony claims that i've made this dish for him more than any other of my favorite recipes since we started dating a couple years ago. i'm sure it's because it's my favorite meal! :-)

the correct name for this recipe is Yam Neau, or thai beef salad. there are so many different ways you can make thai beef salad - i make mine using grilled top sirloin, sliced cucumber, shallots, jalapeno or thai chile, and garlic, fresh lime juice, fish sauce, fresh mint & cilantro, and a dash of palm sugar. i serve it with steamed jasmine rice and romaine or butter lettuce leaves. i put a bit of the jasmine rice in the center of the lettuce leaf, top it with the beef mixture, and i thoroughly enjoy every last bite of it!

one note about the recipe (i've included it below) - i always have a hard time putting the correct amount of sliced jalapeno or thai pepper in - and i tend to err on the side of too spicy, which is never good! the recipe calls for TEN THAI PEPPERS! i can tolerate an extremely high amount of spice - at the most, i think i used three whole jalapenos (or maybe it was serranos that time) for one batch of this, and it made me cry tears of pain. never, ever use that many peppers. i now resist the urge to put a lot of pepper in, and just start with a single jalapeno. it's normally plenty. :) if i'm feeling wimpy on a certain day, or sharing the dish with people outside of our household, i'll scrape the pith and seeds out of the inside of a pepper, since the pith contains the majority of the capsaicin (what gives peppers their heat).

Ingredients

• 1-lb decent quality steak, sirloin or other
• 10 (or more) 'prik kee noo' (fresh hot Thai chili peppers), slice crosswise very thin (or substitute jalapenos or serrano chilies, minced)
• 2 large cloves garlic, sliced crosswise very thin
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp fish sauce
• 5 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
  
• 1 head Bibb or Boston; or 1 heart of Romaine lettuce.
• 12 sprigs fresh mint (optional), remove the leaves and discard the stems
• 1/2 hot house cucumber or 1 small cucumber (seeds removed), peeled and sliced thin
• 2 to 3 shallots, sliced crosswise very thin or 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
• 3 or 4 sprigs cilantro, stems removed

Preparation

Grill or broil the steak until medium-rare. Trim off any fat. Cool and slice thin, into pieces approx. 2 inches across and 1/8 inch thick.

Mix garlic, chiles, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a small bowl. Add the sliced meat and toss with the cucumbers and shallots. Taste and add more fish sauce if desired.

Make a bed of the lettuce on a serving plate. Place the beef on top. Garnish with cilantro. Serves 2 to 3 as an appetizer or as part of a meal.

(Courtesy of templeofthai.com)

Copyright © 1999 Temple of Thai

there's a silly story about the name of this dish - tony began calling it "beef leaf," because you wrap beef up in a leaf and eat it. we have a little kitty (below) named belili (pronounced beh-lee-lee). when tony said "beef leaf" loudly, belili came running over because "veef leaf" sounded similar enough to her real name, belili. poor little belili is now called beef leaf, or the lazy version - beefy - more often than not. :-)

Chipotle Pork Tacos - 4 stars

oh, pork soft tacos, how i adore thee. four stars!

i was afraid that my long break from blogging would cause problems, and... it has! it's been too long since i made these, and i don't remember them very well. i'm reviewing the recipe now to jog my memory. :-)

ok. i used pork tenderloin, my favorite cut of pork, to make these. the pork was so tender and flavorful! i sauteed sliced onion, chopped garlic and the sliced tenderloin together for a few minutes. i then simmered that in chicken broth with cider vinegar, dried oregano, cumin, a couple chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - first covered for ~ 10 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes. the flavor was fantastic, the meat tender, but the chicken broth / spice mixture never thickened - it was a bit too watery. if i make it again, i'd thicken that up - though i'm not quite sure how! i'd probably try reducing the quantity of chicken broth and increasing the uncovered portion of the simmer time. other than that, i'd leave it alone!

oh - the recipe did call for a fresh pineapple salsa, which i'd like to try as well (if only there were more hours in the day!). we just had it with cheese (soy for me!), cilantro & salsa, and flour tortillas.

Chipotle Pork Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Pork, a common taco filling throughout Latin America, takes well to spices. A slightly sweet fruit salsa helps balance the heat. Serve with lime wedges.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 2 tortillas, 2/3 cup pork mixture, and 1/2 cup salsa)

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 2 cups minced pineapple
• 1 cup minced apple
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  Tacos:
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed

Preparation

To prepare salsa, combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir until well blended. Cover and chill.

To prepare tacos, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 2 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes or until pork loses its pink color, stirring occasionally. Stir in broth and next 7 ingredients (through chipotles). Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer 10 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Serve pork mixture with tortillas and salsa.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

391 (19% from fat)

Fat:

8.3g (sat 1.8g,mono 3.6g,poly 2g)

Protein:

29.3g

Carbohydrate:

50.8g

Fiber:

6.9g

Cholesterol:

74mg

Iron:

3.6mg

Sodium:

420mg

Calcium:

161mg

Mark Scarbrough, Cooking Light, MAY 2007

Chicken Biryani - 4 stars

Four Stars!

mmmmmm.... chicken biryani. this dish was so easy to make! a friend of mine introduced me to the recipe a few years ago, and she always made it in a 9x13 glass dish in the oven. the recipe that i found suggested making it in a large saucepan on the stovetop, which is what i ended up doing.

it was a great dish, with rich flavor. i used a pre-made biryani paste to simplify - basically sauteed everything together, stirred in the rice, and let the whole thing simmer for ~ 20 minutes until the liquids were absorbed. YUMMY!

i didn't have basmati rice though! oops. only arborio (for risotto) and jasmine were in the cupboard. i used the arborio because i was afraid the flavor of the jasmine would hurt the dish... the arborio melted into a creamy texture like it does in a risotto (disappointing, but not surprising! :) ), but the flavor was still phenomenal.

outside of the rice issue, the only other disappointing thing in this dish was the fat & calorie content. i'm not sure what led me to believe that the biryani paste would be low in fat and calories, but it was not in the slightest! :-S i ate a small bowl of it, and had a big salad to round the meal out. :)

perhaps using the sturdier basmati rice, plus a homemade biryani paste (to control the fat & calorie content) would propel this to five stars.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Potatoes - 2 stars

this meal just didn't do a whole lot for me. my goal had been to roast the pork over the vegetables so that the meat juices would drip down onto them and give them a flavor boost. i think the problem was that the pork tenderloin really wasn't fatty enough to give off the juices that i wanted.

to make this, i rubbed a dry chinese 12-spice rub all over the outside of the tenderloin. i tossed together baby red potatoes, whole garlic cloves and hunks of white onion in a little olive oil. i spread that in the bottom of the pan and put the tenderloins over it. here's what it looked like in the oven.



see? it looks good! i was excited for it, and then so disappointed! :)

one of my challenges with cooking larger cuts of meats is figuring out when they're done. i often use a thermometer to help me with this - however, i must not have inserted it properly into the tenderloin here, so the pork registered as being done MUCH too early, and was way undercooked. the onions came out totally soggy, not crisp roasted as i expected (i roasted at 425 degrees F). the potatoes were hard as a rock, and took an additional half hour to finish roasting.

i ended up pan searing my portion of the tenderloin to finish the cooking process, while the potatoes finished cooking. i left the nasty onions in the pan and ate only the potatoes and pork. :) i rounded it out with a salad and steamed green beans - both of which were good.




the best part of the meal was the green apple lambic!!! :-)

1/12 follow up - i read a favorite cookbook of mine over the weekend, and there was a recipe that was similar to what i was attempting with this one. that recipe suggested boiling the baby red potatoes for 15 minutes, then thin slicing them and layering them on the bottom of the baking dish. you can then put your meat (the recipe actually called for salmon steaks - YUM!) over that, and both the potatoes & the meat will be done properly, and the potatoes will absorb the meat juices.

thanksgiving!

the holiday season made me quite absent from blogging! but, i'm ready to do some catch up now. i am hoping that the time lag won't dull my memories of the meals.

i find the normal thanksgiving fare to be dull. perhaps it's the repetition of it, year after year after year after year of small variations on the same menu, perhaps it's the unappetizing way the hodge podge of food looks on my plate, or perhaps it's something else entirely. to avoid this, i planned a latino-themed menu for 2008. it seemed so far from a traditional thanksgiving that i thought i would actually enjoy the meal. ultimately, i had a fantastic time preparing it, but did not enjoy the actual consumption of it very much. ah well. i'll try again another year! the menu was very good though.

appetizers:
5 star - chipotle meatballs
5 star - mango pomegranate guacamole

main course:
3 star - coconut sweet potato puree
4 star - roasted chayotes with garlic
2 star - chorizo cornbread stuffing
3 star - cranberry salsa with roasted pineapple
2 star - aromatic spiced ham with red currant glaze

dessert:
1 star - pomegranate pear pie
3 star - chocolate hazelnut tart

Chipotle Meatballs (5 star):














these were amazing! a bit greasy, and the combo of meats (ground veal, ground pork & bacon) and spices used made them out of this world. there were four of us eating a quantity that was supposed to be enough for eight, and we gobbled them up extremely fast! Yum!! i hope to find an opportunity to make them again soon.

Mango Pomegranate Guacamole (5 star):












this was also phenomenal. i served them with plain old tortilla chips (the recipe suggested making fried plantain chips - too much work for this particular occasion). when i first found the recipe, i was not sure that the mango + the pomegranate would both go well with the avocado. but they did! the crunch of the pomegranate, with the creaminess of the avocado, combined with the sweet smooth mango, the onions, garlic, etc., was superb. the next time i make guacamole, i want to make this recipe again!

Coconut Sweet Potato Puree (3 star):



(Roasted Chayotes are on the left, Sweet Potato is on the right)

the flavor of this surprised me - it was really, really good. i accidentally used yams instead of sweet potatoes, and i'm not sure what difference that made with it. i haven't differentiated yet between the tastes of sweet potatoes and yams - i've only used yams in my cooking lately. guess it's time for an experiment! :)

i really enjoyed how this tasted, but not how it looked. yams have a strong flavor, which i love, and i also love coconut. the two went together extremely well. i pureed the dish in a food processor though, so of course, it reminded me of baby poo. the texture of it is what gave this dish 3 stars. i'd like to think of a way to capture the flavors of it, without having to puree it. perhaps i will get some real sweet potatoes and make mashed, instead of pureed, potatoes.

Roasted Chayotes with Garlic (4 star):

chayotes are a small, mild green gourd with a sweet taste to them. i realized a couple weeks ago that i actually didn't purchase chayotes when i made this, i purchased some other small, yellowish gourd. oooops! it still tasted phenomenal though. to prepare it, i peeled the skin off the outside of the gourds, sliced them in half lengthwise, scooped the seeds out of the middle and cut them into wedges. there was very little flesh left after peeling and scooping, which made me nervous that they would just disintegrate and burn up in the oven. perhaps if i had used real chayotes, there would have been more flesh left. :)

i spread them out on two baking sheets, tossed them with thin sliced garlic cloves, sea salt and vegetable oil, and roasted them for just under an hour, turning them once. they were crispy and small, but very, very tasty.

Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing (2 star):



i had such high hopes for this dish. it was supposed to be greasy, salty and decadent, as most chorizo dishes are. what a disappointment it was to me! to make it, you bake cornbread, break it into small chunks after it's baked, bake those small chunks some more to dry them out, toss them in a baking dish with the cooked chorizo & other vegetables, and pour chicken broth and whisked egg over it all. it was dry, and didn't have nearly the spicy chorizo flavor i wanted it to have. the cornbread was too crumbly as well. i doubled the amount of chorizo the recipe called for, and it still was not enough. also, i can't use buttermilk in my cornbread, because i don't eat dairy. the non-dairy cornbread recipe that i have really needs to be made a day or two in advance in order to stick together (which i did not do). oops!

this recipe was part of menu that included an adobo turkey with red chile gravy, and i imagine if i had made the gravy, this stuffing would have been much better. i'll make some major modifications to the recipe and try it again!

Cranberry Salsa with Roasted Pineapple (3 star):



(Cranberry on left, Ham on right)

this had good flavor, but it was mushy, hence the three stars. the roasted pineapple sweetened the cranberry enough to make it not tart, and the fresh fruit flavors went together very well. i also roasted chopped onion with the pineapple, and added fresh cilantro to the salsa. it was good, but just didn't do a lot for me.

Aromatic Spiced Ham with Red Currant Glaze (2 star):

i definitely picked the wrong cut of ham for the recipe, or the wrong recipe for the cut of ham. the recipe called for simmering the ham in water and spices and wine with fresh fennel and onion for a few hours. i had a smoked ham, which i really should have just roasted in the oven for an hour or so to heat it up and carmelize the outside. simmering it caused it to get quite dried out. it was not good. after i simmered it, i spread my red currant glaze on it and roasted it at 425f for ~ 10 minutes. this did not help to bring moisture back into the meat. i think the recipe has potential, if i purchased the right cut of ham. and i think the cut of ham had potential, if i had used a different recipe. i'll make a ham again soon - i was really craving it, and that craving did not get satisfied with this meal.

Canned Cranberry (1 star, served at Brian's request)



one of our guests on Thanksgiving requested cranberry from a can. the idea repulsed me, but we all have different tastes, so i kindly obliged. it looks just as disgusting as it tasted to me.

Pomegranate Pear Pie (1 star):

i didn't take any pictures of my pies! how sad, because they both looked beautiful, even though they weren't the best pies in the world.

this pie was such a disappointment! it was utterly flavorless. the pie crust was SO good, but the rest was not. i made my pie dough from scratch this year, and it came out really, really well. very flaky and flavorful. to make the inside of this pie, i made a pomegranate glaze using simmered down brown sugar and pomegranate juice, and tossed it with thin sliced d'anjou pears. sounds great, right? nope - no flavor! i will not make this one again.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart (3 stars):

this was good. solid! it was a bit too hard though - hard as in, once the chocolate cooled, it became hard to bite through. the flavor was good though - rich dark chocolate combined with hazelnuts. i think it could have used some liqueur to take it to a 4 or 5 star tart though.

all in all, it was a tasty thanksgiving. this is what the final plate looked like:



i'm sure i would have enjoyed it much more if i didn't get a horrific cold that blocked my taste buds. i had a blast cooking for many, many hours though - i'd happily repeat that experience.