apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I made some traditional holiday food. Brisket, matzo ball soup, and also, of course, latkes. The lady gave me a food processor and how could I not make latkes?

I made Plum pudding for the first time, and it was devoured! This Christmas, it was just my parents and I, and we ate 2/3rds of it in one sitting! I was thrilled, it had the traditional taste, and I even managed to light it on fire. Yay!

Some of my favorite things I made were marshmallows (http://erinsfoodfiles.blogspot.com/2008/12/marshmallows-redux.html), and gingerbread white chocolate blondies (http://erinsfoodfiles.blogspot.com/2008/12/gingerbread-white-chocolate-blondies.html). The blondies were from the amazing Martha Stewart Cookies book. They were too-die-for, and I will now make them every year!

I too have to second the marshmallows - YUMMY!!! I have made them 3 times in the past 10 days they were so popular at my house!

I had fun making curry turnovers (http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2008/12/okay-so-i-have-no-idea-what-to-call.html), tang yuan (http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2008/12/tang-yuan-or-sweet-glutinous-rice-balls.html), and hua juan (http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2009/01/by-popular-request-here-is-my-moms-hua.html).

We made loads of fantastic things this year, but I think my favorite was the Cook's Illustrated Modern Mincemeat pie. Everyone raved and we were told it was a required part of Christmas dinner from now on.

We told everyone it was "spiced apple pie" as we were worried that nobody would choose it over the flourless chocolate cake we also made...people are scared of the word mincemeat. But my dad took one bite, got this incredible look on his face, and said reverently "it's mincemeat!" That was my favorite moment all day. Better than the wii even...

I made the whiskey-soaked chocolate cake from Orangette (http://tinyurl.com/8wewax) for my New Year's party. With a little homemade whipped cream, it was the culinary highlight of the evening. It's my favorite kind of recipe--simple and rewarding!

Nigella's gingerbread with lemon icing. Which I found through this blog. I just wanted to eat it all myself.

we were snowed into our house for two weeks over the holidays. other than walking uphill in the snow to the grocery store, we watched movies and cooked. it was a great opportunity to cook with my husband, which we never do.
our biggest triumph, and project, was tackling cooks' illustrated pumpkin pie. it took awhile, but it was hands down the BEST pumpkin pie either of us had ever had! totally worth it. i also make the quick bread cinnamon rolls of theirs which were just ok. i think i missed something in the recipe because the dough was way too sticky to roll out and just stuck to my hands. they didn't taste too bad, but not amazing. i baked banana bread for a gift.
also: buttermilk pancakes, spaghetti carbonara, homemade pizza, steak au poive with a brandied cream sauce, boiled shrimp with butter, brussel sprouts with bacon, glasses of champagne garnished with grapes, and countless hot toddies...

http://threadtrace.wordpress.com

Butter-Poached Lobster for New Year's--my first truly successful French Laundry cookbook dish. Perhaps the best lobster I've ever had, in or out of a restaurant. And relatively speaking, not difficult at all.

i made some spicy maple glazed walnuts for gifts this year!
they are fantastic and soooo simple. It required NO oven- just a pan!

needless to say...I am not waiting for the holidays to make these again. They will be a staple at get-togethers.

http://www.shutterbean.com/spicy-maple-glazed-walnuts/

my hubby and i had christmas dinner at our house (my first time making a large holiday meal)

we made prime rib, creamy herbed potatoes (from pioneer womans blog- turned out to be my favorite dish so yummy!), paula deans green bean casserole, corn, rolls, and a brocolli cheese casserole thing that my moms been making for years.

everything turned out pretty good. except for the fact that all the recipes for prime rib stressed to take your prime rib out at around 120-125 degrees and allow to rest to bring the temp to med rare.... but i didnt realize it till the prime rib was already in that my thermometer have no 125 :( the temp started a something like 140. it turned out good though.

for dessert i made a couple pies (not from scratch) and paula deans strawberry pretzel salad (yummy-my other fav) and my mom brought a really good raspberry trifle.

I also made the whiskey-soaked chocolate cake from Orangette -- oh my god, so good. We took some to neighbors who are still raving a week later.

now, I'm working on stocking the freezer with chili and tomato sauce before classes start. And also cooking up some rancho gordo beans.

I made my first cake, and a three layer no less! I creamed so much butter on Christmas that I got two blisters. But it was delicious, and I finally began to understand the nuances of my new (crappy) stove.

I also made candied pecans, but I burnt about half of them. The rest were tasty though!

I am so glad that the regular Kitchn is back!

Two cooking highlights of the holiday:

-I also made the Christmas wreath. I had to remove the nuts and I subbed orange juice for the brandy, but it was a hit and really super delicious.

-I tried to make speculaas, which are mold pressed cookies. The recipe I tried was clearly not the right one, and the cookies expanded when we baked them. But using the mold was really fun, and I'll definitely try them again with another recipe.

http://thebrownwall.blogspot.com/2008/12/speculaas.html

I made a version of YOUR potato and kale gratin for christmas, and presented it to a Veeery skeptical family. They loved it, ate it up, and requested the recipe. Thank you!

We made a nice Italian meal for Christmas dinner. We were home just us, no guests, so I didn't feel the pressure for everything to be perfect or to make that gigantic meal and make everyone's favorites. It was so good that we are probably going to make this our tradition for Christmas dinner, maybe add or change up things along the way, but it was great!

http://good-life-eats.blogspot.com/2008/12/italian-christmas-feast.html

We had lots of baking over the holiday with our little family - cookies, bread, waffles, cookies, and more bread.

I definetly missed this regular posts!

I was sick over Christmas but I made up for it last week by making my own chicken stock, blackberry-stuffed french toast and a *new* New Years Day tradition - chicken verde enchiladas!

I made Martha Stewart's butternut squash lasagna, to two groups and they both loved it. It was great. The flavors are surprisingly subtle and go so well together.

The apple strudel was extraordinary this year (even though I had forgotten the dough in the fridge for 6 days!);

I am still trying to convert stuffing lovers into bread sauce afficionados;

My raspberry trifle was a triumph,

but the best thing I made was lamb shanks with olives and preserved lemons... swoon...

Olle bollen, baby! Baking is where it's at for me. I would say anything is a triumph when I get to use my sweet mixer. I am also a huge fan of marshmallows. I got bored making those after about 12 batches. I am making the chewy gingersnaps lately that were just featured. Who knew that margarine could be so undisgusting to a dairy girl. Another triumph would be the secret sugar cookie family recipe that I snaked from a good friend. She swore me to secrecy, because if her husband's family ever found out that she had given it to me, they would probably disown them.