Pies

The pies I made for Thanksgiving turned out really well. The black bottom bourbon pecan pie was a hit and the other one seemed to tp be well received too. I didn't use that pie crust recipe and I used dark chocolate for the bottom.

Now I'm trying to figure out what cookies to make for turducken. My traditional chocolate chip are a given and I'm probably going to do a rolled sugar cookie since Rory gave me one of my Christmas presents early. But I would like one more and am stuck. Any ideas?

Turducken Part Three: Revenge of fowl

So I've been badly neglecting the blog with no really good excuse. Work was busy, and there were the holidays but I need to be better about keeping the four people who visit here better updated.

I probably have close to half a dozen posts from last year to catch you all up on, but I'll start with turducken, which was a little more than a month ago.

We had 21 this year for the feast in which I once again made my own bird(s). It is the last one in our apartment as well as the house hunting in the suburbs had begun in earnest. It'll be curious to see how this evolves next year. I like it being a sit down dinner and one of the things we're looking for in a house is a large dining room. Now 21 people is tight just about anywhere you go but with more room may expand next year.

Everything went pretty smoothly this year, especially compared to last year. Putting it together was pretty easy, I deboned the chicken and duck myself but ordered the turkey deboned from Paulina Meat Market.

I also made mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin and tiramisu ice creams. The latter two deserve their own posts, which will happen soon.

Another edition to the turducken was a wedding goft from Rory's college friends, a kegerator. We started out with a five-gallon keg of Two Brother's Ebel Weiss and then switched it out with a five-gallon keg of Two Brother's Domaine Dupage. I'm becoming a huge fan of Two Brother's brewery and may have to make a road trip out there soon.

Now for the food porn and hoping to be a better blogger in 2010.

Cookies

I know we aren't even through Thanksgiving yet, but I'm trying to plan December and want to do some baking. I'm going to make my usual chocolate chips cookies and chocolate crinkles but am wondering what else I should make?

So please leave your suggestions, links to recipes would be helpful too, in the comments. Cookies with raisins will automatically be disqualified because I think raisins suck.

The perfect chocolate chip cookie

The New York Times did a piece this week about its quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I actually whipped up a batch of my very own on Saturday to bring to a couple of BBQs we were attending. Reading the article, I want to make some more. I especially want to try some sprinkling some fleur de sel on them before they go into the oven.

One interesting part of the article was the one baker who lets the dough sit for a day before baking. Last year when we were making holiday cookies Rory and I had an oven issue. I had made the dough, but couldn't bake so it sat in the fridge for a day. I didn't notice any real different in the taste or texture, but then again it may have something to do with the unsweetend coco I add.

The Turducken Chronicles: An Epilogue

It was a lot of work but the party was a success. Prior to Saturday I had a few more people tell me I was nuts. I don't really want to cook for 18 people again, unless I'm getting paid, and this will make the turducken guest list for next year interesting.

Rory and I were pretty organized. The prep started on Friday with a trip to the store and some baking. The monster cookies turned out well. Four and a half cups of oats makea for a pretty chewy cookie. I thought they were ok, but others really enjoyed them.

The apple caramel cheesecake was incredibly easy and was probably one of the best desserts I've ever made. I had some doubts about this right before I made it, apples and caramel go together well, but I wasn't sure how it would work with the cheesecake. But it was great, the flavors melded together nicely. If you like apples and cheesecake you need to try this recipe.

On Friday I also made bourbon barbecue sauce. Bittman had suggested this as an extra sauce for Thanksgiving so I decided to give it a shot. It definitely had some kick to it, but it was a nice addition. I can't wait until the summer to put it on some grilled chicken.

On Saturday we tidied up and got ready. I put the turducken on around 2:15 pm and we peeled potatoes. I also blanched some broccoli for the broccoli parmesan. We put the potatoes on around 5 pm and they were done and ready to go before everyone arrived.

I wish I could have said the same about the turducken. It was supposed to take four to four and a half hours but it took five and a half. I let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving it, I know it should have been more but I had to get moving. And as you can see from the photos below I did cover it in bacon to give it a bit of extra moisture and flavor.

Once the turducken came out of the oven things started getting a bit hectic. I started making gravy from the drippings. At the same time I was putting stuffing that Sarah brought into the oven for reheating and then putting in some corn casserole that Ed and Karen brought. After that I had to take the broccoli and put it on a baking sheet with some butter and parmesan and get that ready for the oven.

And while it was hectic for a good 30 minutes or so everything turned out extremely well. Everybody had a great time. After all the food and desserts we ended up drinking till the wee hours. The last guests left about 4 am. I got to bed around 5 am after cleaning up.

It was a lot of work but I would do it again. I cook for myself, but I really enjoy cooking for others. And seeing how much people enjoyed everything really made me quite happy and realized that all the work was worth it.

Turducken: The Photos

The table before everyone shows up.

Our tree.

Yes, I covered the turducken with bacon.

Me taking the turducken out of the oven.

Another turducken shot.

To the cook goes the tuducken leg.

(Clockwise around the plate) Mashed potatoes and gravy, sausage stuffing, broccoli parmesan, turducken with bourbon barbecue sauce and corn casserole.

(Clockwise around the plate) Chocolate crinkles, ginger cookies, crack cookies and monster cookies.

Apple caramel cheesecake.

Chad's chocolate truffles.

Chocolate truffle and wreath cookie.

The Turducken Chronicles: Part Three

The beast has arrived. Good thing too since it’s my last day in the office for the rest of the week. The next couple of days will be spent preparing for the party as well as running some other errands and taking care of holiday stuff.

The reality of this party has hit me though. I can’t believe I’m hosting a sit down dinner for 18 people, 20 including Rory and I. My friend Jay, a trained chef, told me I was nuts. Last year I had 13 or 14, I can’t remember and it was a much smaller space. It should be fine. I have a stove that works, last year the beast took entirely too long to cook, and know what needs to be done. It all about the preparation or as the chefs’ say, mise en place.

And while I have a little bit of fear, I’m looking forward to the challenge. After I’m done running around Thursday I’m going to do some baking. I want to make biscotti and monster cookies.

On Friday I will hit the grocery store to pick up the rest of the fixings and what I need for a caramel apple cheesecake, which I’ll make on Friday. I also need to hit the liquor store to pick up some Jameson for Irish coffee and bourbon for the muld wine. I’ll also clean the place from top to bottom on Friday. (And yes, I know I'm making two Paula Deen recipes, I believe this is the first time I've made anything from her, but both look too good to pass up).

Rory's cookies: ginger snaps

I believe these cookies are the first ones Rory ever baked for me. She got the recipe from her mom. I don't recall having a ginger snap before but I'm a huge fan of these.

The recipe involves a number of ingredients and makes a pretty doughy batter. I wouldn't want to mix this up by hand, a stand mixer is highly recommended.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups Crisco
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 TSP vanilla
1/2 cup molasses
2 TSP cinnamon
2 TSP nutmeg
2 TSP cloves
2 TSP ginger
2 TSP salt
4 TSP baking soda
4 cups of flour

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream the sugar and Crisco until smooth. Add eggs one at a time until blended. Add vanilla and molasses, mix well. Add spices and then baking soda. Gradually add the flour until it's all combined. Make sure to stop the mixer every once in awhile and scrap down the sides of the mixing bowl.

Roll the dough into little balls and roll in sugar. Rory decided to be festive and used green and red sugar. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and bake for seven to seven and a half minutes. Place on a rack to cool. This recipe make a buttload of cookies.

Holiday cookies

Rory baked some holiday cookies Wednesday night. I need to go home tonight and take some photos. She made ginger snaps, which are the best ginger snaps I've ever had, and some coconut wreath cookies (I'll post recipes and picture later).

All said we have four batches made. We're heaindg up to Michigan on a day trip tomorrow to see my garndfather and will bring some for the family. We'll also have some for turducken, which is just eight days away. I will probably also make some biscotti between now and then and maybe something else as well.

It was always a tradition around my parent's house to have a lot of home-baked cookies around before Christmas. This week I have spent some time looking for different recipes seeing if there's anything new I want to try when I ran upon the Chicago Tribune's 2007 Holiday Cookie Contest winners.

The second and third place winner looked pretty good, though I would substitute the dried fruit in the last one, but the winners recipe didn't appeal to me. I'm not a fan of dried fruit. Also, all that work and you get 18 cookies? I guess the second place winner only gets a dozen from her recipe too. That's a lot of work for a little reward.

What's you favorite holiday cookie?

Chocolate crinkles

These are my favorite childhood Christmas cookie. They're like a cookie brownie. If you like chocolate you'll love these cookies. Typically my mom will make them for me around the holidays and if she doesn't I try to make her feel guilty (every once in awhile you have to try, right?)

When Rory sent me the recipe I was psyched. It's a simple looking recipe and with the old KitchenAid, which we have named Gloria, they're simple ... kind of.

They key to this recipe is the dough need to be cold, very, very cold. I made it before the Bear game and then put it in the fridge. After the game I took it out and started rolling it into balls and then in the powdered sugar. The first few were easy, but as the dough warmed up it became sticky and hard to work with. If I make these again, and I probably will, I'll make the dough the day before and let it get nice and cold.

Crack cookies

While it may not be the most appetizing name they received it because they're addictive like crack. Seriously, you can't just have one.

They're basically chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. It's a pretty simple recipe. For the most part you follow the original Nestle Toll House cookie recipe with a couple of changes. First, after creaming the butter with the sugars add half a cup of unsweetened coco. Second, and this may vary depending on your oven, cook for nine minutes and not any longer. This makes the cookies chewy and that's how I like my chocolate chip cookies.

Rory calls me an evil bastard every time I make some and I've had people offer to invest in a bakery if I make those cookies. Try them for yourself.