christmas scenes, 2010

last year I posted a few of the Christmas decorations I had around the house, and I thought it would be a fun tradition to continue. here are some of my favorite moments from this year...

 favorite ornaments:

blue and gold on the kitchen table & a beaded Christmas tree made by my grandmother

and wreaths on my doors:

happy christmas, everyone!

christmas table setting

One last post of my oh so delicious "Christmas" dinner, this time of the table setting, which I happened to pull together at the very last minute and quite enjoyed.

I'm pretty good at rummaging around the house and finding the right things to use for decorations, a technique I like to call "found object decorating". I should probably do a whole post on it sometime, because I've been pretty happy with the results so far.

For this dinner, I wasn't planning on doing a center piece but at the last minute, aka 20-30 minutes before Kevin walked in the door, I decided I should. I found this green dish towel in my linen closet, pulled the wreath off my front door, the ornaments off my coffee table, and the candles off the mantle. I threw them together and voila!, a Christmas inspired table setting!

I was also really excited to use my china and crystal for the first time! I thought the plates worked perfectly for a holiday themed table. I was lucky enough to be handed down both the china and the crystal from my grandmother, and extra lucky in that I love this china pattern, despite really disliking most china I've come across. To top it all off, Christmas songs, of course, were playing in the background.

p.s. even though he might kill me for this, check out Kev in his new Christmas attire. Doesn't he look handsome??... and happy? I think I did good this year.

roasted garlic mashed potatoes

Ok- I'm sure you've been waiting for this, but I had to get up the roasted garlic butter recipe first. Why? Well, because it's in the potatoes, of course. You can always just add the roasted garlic and butter separately to these potatoes, but why would you, when you can have the roasted  garlic butter and the roasted garlic mashed potatoes for the same amount of effort?!

I'm not fooling around when I say these are to die for. I like my potatoes creamy (not lumpy!) with lots of butter and milk and salt. It's what I grew up on and it's what I love. They're really whipped potatoes, I think that's what my grandmother called them, maybe? mom, help me out here. Regardless, it's my favorite and the only way to eat mashed potatoes in my mind, and with the addition of roasted garlic, yum!

It's also the only recipe of my grandmothers that I got just right. Her recipes/ cooking instructions usually entailed phrases like "heat oil until it's the right temperature" or "add cream until the consistency is right." I've had a hard time navigating these recipes, you could guess, and to this day I still don't have her fried chicken down. However, her whipped or mashed or whatever you want to call them potatoes, I got. The directions I give to myself usually are a lot like hers, "add enough butter until it's rich enough", "add enough milk until it's creamy enough", and finally "add enough salt until it's seasoned perfectly". Luckily for you, I measured it all out and wrote it down this time! Here you go.

here they're served alongside these beef short ribs and roasted broccoli

roasted garlic mashed potatoes

serves 2-3, but this very easily scales up! find the roasted garlic butter recipe, here

2 large yukon gold potatoes 

2 Tbsp roasted garlic butter, at room temperature

3 Tbsp milk or cream

salt and pepper to taste

Peel potatoes and cut into large pieces. Add potato pieces to a large pot of cold water with some salt and bring to a boil. Boil until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain.

Return potatoes to pot and mash pieces down with a whisk or beaters of an electric mixer. Whisk/ beat until potatoes start to break down and cream together. Add butter and milk and contniue to whisk/ beat until no lumps remain and potatoes are creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. If made in advance, reheat over double boiler. Serve warm.

roasted garlic butter

this is simple enough, but oh sooo good, and a great way to fancy up a dinner party. Why serve plain ole butter when you can serve roasted garlic butter! It's delicious spread on a crusty baguette, it's delicious in your favorite recipe (see my roasted garlic mashed potatoes coming up next post), and it might even be delicious on its own (shhh... I didn't tell you that).

I like to have basic recipes on here, because sometimes I forget things, like at what temp I like to roast garlic. So, here is my roasted garlic recipe + mixing it together with some butter and salt to make it even better! Enjoy and come back for those mashed potatoes, you know you want them for Christmas dinner!

 

 roasted garlic

1 head garlic

olive oil, to drizzle

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel extra layers of skin of outside of garlic, not peeling cloves themselves. Slice about 1/4 to 1/2 inch off top of garlic head, exposing the tops of the garlic cloves. Place both pieces in a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil. Gather foil around garlic and twist to close. Roast in oven about 40 minutes. Open foil and let garlic cool completely.

roasted garlic butter

1 head roasted garlic, see above

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

kosher salt, to taste

Squeeze the cloves out of head of cooled roasted garlic into a bowl and discard skins. Add softened butter to bowl. Mash garlic and mix with butter, using a fork, until garlic is in small chunks and incorporated into butter. Place into fancy bowl and serve!

christmas dinner - wine and sherry braised beef short ribs

Since we are heading to Minnesota to be with family in a matter of hours, Kev and I celebrated Christmas together last night. We put together one of the best meals to ever come out of my kitchen, in my opinion and had a great night of food, presents, and Christmas carols. If you're still looking for something really delicious and special to serve at your Christmas gathering, let me very highly recommend the wine and sherry braised beef short rib recipe at the bottom of this post. Oh, and also the roasted garlic mashed potatoes, served right next to the meat, recipe coming up soon!

The meat was most definitely fall-off-the-bone-tender, as one actually did fall-off-the-bone, and it was so rich and flavorful. The gremolata of orange zest and parsley (and not garlic, because I ran out, oops!) was divine and totally brightened up the rich glaze, and made for better presentation too. I find it so hard to photograph meat, mostly because it's monochrome, and beyond that it's brown. For me, the amazing flavors don't often come through in photos. The gremolata helped with that, in photos and in person, I'd say. Anyway, I don't know how else to tell you that you NEED to make this (if you eat meat, obviously), and you NEED to make the roasted garlic mashed potatoes coming up next (they're veg but certainly not vegan)! Enjoy!

p.s. we rounded out the meal with an adorable little panettone for 2 and some orange slices, yum!!

wine and sherry braised beef short ribs

recipe adapted from here

1 sprig fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 whole star anise
2 4-inch beef short ribs, tough membranes removed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
1 carrot, peeled and thinly slice into rounds
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp coarsly chopped and peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 c red wine (I used tempranillo)
1/2 c sherry
1 1/2 c beef broth
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 garlic clove, minced (optional, only because I ran out!)

Line a large baking sheet with foil and place trimmed short ribs bone-side up on pan. Sprinkle both sides of meat heavily with salt and pepper. Turn on broiler (or pre-heat first, if using a conventional oven) and broil ribs 5 minutes on the bone side. Turn ribs over and broil on meat side 10 minutes more. Transfer ribs to a large bowl then reduce heat to 350 degrees F in oven.

Meanwhile, place parsley, thyme, rosemary, and star anise on a large piece of cheesecloth. Gather cloth around the herbs and tie with kitchen string.

Heat oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Saute until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown in spots, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir for 2 minutes. Add wine, sherry, and herb bundle. Increase heat to high, bring to a boil, and let boil 5 minutes. Add ribs in a single layer, bone side up, and add beef broth. Bring to a boil then turn off heat, cover pot with foil then lid and transfer to oven. Braise until meat is very tender and falls off bones, about 2 hours.

Transfer ribs to a large bowl. Spoon off fat from surface of pan juices, reserving 1 Tbsp and discarding the rest. Pour pan juices through a strainer into a bowl, pressing on solids to extract liquid. Discard solids. Return juices to pot, boil until reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes. Whisk reserved Tbsp fat with 1 Tbsp flour in a small bowl then whisk into juices until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Season with pepper. Return ribs to pot. **Can do all this 1 day ahead. Cool then chill. Before continuing, rewarm ribs in sauce until heated through, 5-10 minutes.

Make gremolata by mixing parsley, orange zest, and garlic in small bowl. Serve ribs with a sprinkling of gremolata.

pancetta crisps with pears and cinnamon cheese

The holiday season is flying by so quick, I can hardly believe it. We've been having an amazing time checking out some of the city's best Christmas decorations, including the Opera House all decked out for the Nutcracker (with snow machines!! can you see the "snow" the photo below?) and Union Square filled to the max with shoppers and ice skaters! I love that even some of the public transit stations are decorated inside! It all has certainly kept me in the Christmas spirit.

Amidst all the holiday spirit, the time has gotten away with me and I haven't been cooking as much as I'd like. We did make these sugar cookies (but decorated for Christmas, of course) and I'm about to make a few batches of this caramel corn for gifts. Oh, also we made that Eggnog French Toast again. If you haven't tried it yet, do it!!

Switching gears a bit, if you remember back to Thanksgiving, I said I made some pancetta crisps with cheese and pears for appetizers. I also said they were delicious, and they are! How can they be bad, really? These crisps + toppings would make a quick and excelent appetizer for a Holiday party (or any party), so I thought right about now would be quite the appropriate time to post the recipe. Check out the "what I'm doing" button on the right (or click here) to scroll through other Holiday inspired ideas!

pancetta crisps with pears and cinnamon cheese
for another version, try goat cheese and figs, a la this recipe

12 thin slices of pancetta

12 slices of pear, cored and not peeled (from ~ 2 pears)

12 slices of Cinnamon dusted Toscano Cheese (@ Trader Joe's)

freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place pancetta slices in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp, 12-15 minutes. Let cool completely and then place on serving platter. Top each crisp with a slice of cheese then a slice of pear. Drizzle with jam, if using, and season with a little freshly ground pepper

eggnog french toast

I'm pretty sure my boyfriend is a genius. You want proof? Last night, I said to Kev, "let's make french toast with of that leftover baguette for dinner," a pretty great idea on it's own, right?

Kev didn't reply with the "yes!" I was so expecting, what he said was...
"No, let's make eggnog french toast with that leftover eggnog for dinner."

He blows my mind sometimes.

Also, I'm pretty sure I will never want regular french toast again. Ok, while that might be a little lie, I think my point is clear, eggnog french toast is one of the best things ever. Seriously. I kind of want it for dinner again tonight. I might have also just picked up TWO baguettes today, secretly hoping one might stale before we get to it and we'll have to make eggnog french toast again! Oops, I guess the secret's out... Enjoy!

eggnog french toast

serves 2-3 as is, but a little more bread can be added without adding more egg mixture

1/2 loaf baguette
3 eggs
1/4 c eggnog
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
lavender vanilla sugar (or granulated sugar), for sprinkling on bread
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
powdered sugar, for serving
pure maple syrup, for serving

Slice baguette into 1-inch thick slices.

Lightly whisk together eggs, eggnog, and spices in a large dish (I used a 9x13x2 baking dish). Place slices of bread in egg mixture and let sit 5-10 minutes. Turn slices over and let sit 5-10 minutes more.

Meanwhile, heat skillet over medium-high heat and melt butter. Sprinkle sugar generously over one side of the bread slices and place slices sugar side down into melted butter. Let cook 2-3 minutes or until browned on bottom. Sprinkle sugar on the second side and flip bread over to cook until brown on that side. Remove from pan to serve. Repeat for remaining slices of bread. Served with powdered sugar and/or pure maple syrup.

an activity advent calendar

It seems advent calendars are all the rage this week (see here, here, here, etc ). I was particularly inspired by Jordan's and Emily's advent calendars that are full of Christmas activities. Since Kev and I are new to the bay area, I thought having our own little activity advent calendar would be a great way to introduce us to new places in the city and our first SF Christmas. I've stocked my calendar with activities ranging from drinking hot cocoa to mixing up holiday cocktails and from singing carols around the house to going to opening night of the Nutcracker. I can't wait for every single day!

I made the calendar super simple by folding up scraps of paper into faux envelopes, marking the day with a black sharpee, and hanging them on kitchen twine with paper-clips. I really love the way it turned out!

thanksgiving recap - sweet potato casserole

oh, i've been meaning to get this post up since Thanskgiving, actually. but, i'm trying to look forward and have been completely busy decorating for Christmas around here! The tree is decorated (yay!), the stockings are up, and even a batch of cookies have been baked. This season is starting of right, to be sure, but I don't want to completely forget about the amazing Thanksgiving we had. There was sooo much delicious food (see one very moist turkey recipe, sweet and savory cornbread stuffing recipe, & a simply lovely cranberry sauce recipe), and we've finally managed to eat it almost all of it.

I loved the table, too! Complete with a soft brown runner, white plates, gold/glitter pumpkins for name cards, and white tea lights, it was a romantic and lovely setting for the big day.

The main appetizer deserves a post of it's own, so that's coming soon, but the thing I really want to tell you about is the sweet potato casserole. For me, it's a Thanksgiving must. I've always loved toasted marshmallows on the top, but what can beat a brown sugar and pecan topping? I thought this gingersnap topping would do the trick, but I was a little underwhelmed by it. What I did take from the recipe, though, is I love how folding in beaten egg whites really lightens up the texture of the dish. Next year, I'll be sure to continue this tradition but with my old school recipe of butter, milk, eggs, a splash of orange juice and/or vanilla extract, and a little brown sugar. The topping? That's always up for debate, but I'm into a little bit of everything, see!

sweet potato casserole with gingersnap topping

adapted from here

for the topping:

3/4 cup coarsely chopped gingersnaps

1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

for the filling: 

3 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 3 large), scrubbed

3/4 cup half and half

1/4 Tbsp orange juice

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

4 large egg yolks

4 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 

for topping:
Toss first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter; using fingertips, rub in until well blended. Cover; chill. Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.

for the filling:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast potatoes on baking sheet until tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool. Cut in half lengthwise. Scoop flesh into bowl; mash. Transfer 4 cups potatoes to large bowl. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before continuing

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2- inch baking dish. Add half and half and next 5 ingredients to potatoes. Using mixer, beat on low speed until blended. Season with salt and pepper. Add yolks 1 at a time, blending after each addition. Using clean dry beaters, beat whites in another large bowl until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar. Beat until peaks form. Fold whites into potatoes; spoon into dish. Sprinkle with topping. Bake until puffed and brown, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.