Peanut Butter & Jelly - Not What You're Thinking...

WoW!

We received The French Laundry Cookbook from Thomas Keller's most famed restaurant (in my opinion) for Christmas and decided to try a dessert recipe for New Year's eve. The main course recipes intimidate us a little at this point, so we thought we would start of easy. His recipe did not disappoint and will be one we use again in the future. We give this dessert two very enthusiastic thumbs up!!!

New Year's Eve Peanut Butter and Jellies

We selected a dessert of Peanut Butter and Jellies or in layman's terms - chocolate truffles and high end gummies/jello. I feel bad referring to the jellies as gummies/jello because they are SO MUCH better than gummies or jello since they are made from real, fresh ingredients instead of polybiphospatecarbonate... (you get the point).

The peanut butter truffles and grape jellies we made turned out fantastic. It is recommended to serve the truffles immediately after pulling from the refrigerator, but if you let the truffles warm up a little, the peanut butter inside becomes extra creamy and soft and just melts in your mouth - very good and very rich. I'm convinced that this creaminess in part is attributed to using natural peanut butter.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

The concord grape jellies have a texture not unlike jello, but much stronger. The jellies are coated with granulated sugar at the end, which is the perfect finishing touch and does not make them overly sweet. Keller is right when he says to use unsweetened juice in this recipe, otherwise your jellies would probably give someone sugar shock.

Concord Grape Jellies

Jellies in the pan - setting

Simple presentation - not nearly as pretty as what we saw in The French Laundry cookbook.

More Feasting...

For dinner, Dave and I went simple - steak and eggs. Even Kaitlyn got to enjoy this feast. Dave made homemade fries from red skin potatoes and added a touch of season salt at the end. We used sliced filet mignon for the meat and he made me a fried egg while his egg was over easy. All in all, a delicious way to end 2008.

Steak and 'fried' egg

Steak and 'over easy' egg

And They'd Feast, Feast, Feast, Feast!

Wow! Our whirlwind holiday tour concluded this Sunday after two and a half weeks of visitors. Even though we did not travel this year, our families were kind enough to come to us to celebrate Christmas. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed cooking with each other in the kitchen. Below are some photos of all the fun meals we made and ate. Cheers!

Cookie Decorating for Kids
Kaitlyn and our neighbor decorated holiday cookies - so cute!

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Check out this beautiful cutting board that Go Blue Dad received for Christmas...

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Homemade sauce by G'pa Clinton and homemade meatballs by Dad and G'pa Clinton

Stuffed Pork Loin with fresh Green Beans and Biscuits
The pork loin was stuff with dried cherries, raisins, dried apricots, sauteed onion, sauteed apples, bread and nuts. We used the pan drippings to make gravy.
This meal was so good, we made it twice.


Homemade Donuts
The recipe came from The Joy of Cooking under Sour Cream Donuts.

Christmas Eve Tradition: Corned Beef and Latkes
Our families changed for the better in 2003 and the tradition of corned beef on Christmas Eve was born. We have had it every year since then and it is good! Depending on the person, you eat the corned beef with latkes (potato pancakes) or rye bread. We simmer it all day using G'Pa Clinton's special seasoning. It falls apart at dinner time.

Hope you enjoy the photos. As you can see, cooking brings our families together. I apologize for formatting errors - I'm having trouble with blogspot.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Spirit

If you enjoy holiday music, check out his instrumental version of "O Holy Night" performed by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and other New Orleans musicians back in 2006 on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

It's a free download: http://www.tromboneshorty.com/studio60.html

Chili - Great meal on a cold day!

Having lived in several places throughout the U.S. - southwest, Midwest, mid-Atlantic, northeast, etc., I found out that chili means different things to people in each area. This wikipedia article is interesting (and yes, I know wikipedia isn't necessarily an accurate resource, but this is just for fun): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne.

In the southwest, some colleagues and I had a discussion about the types of chili we grew up eating. I didn't realize at that point that 'chili' could be green - from green chili peppers. Contrary to my belief, green chili peppers can be tasty and hot if you eat the real thing and not the canned version found in the grocery store.

While I have not tried the New Mexico green chili, I have sampled Texas Chili (no beans, just meat), Cincinnati chili (Cinnamon spice is the key ingredient), white bean chicken chili, and my family's chili with ground beef,beans, onions, green pepper, etc. Yes, we like a chunky chili that is served as a stew and maybe topped with cheese, sour cream, oyster crackers and/or green onions.

So, since the weather has cooled off, I made my family's version chili and we served it over spaghetti noodles to mix it up a little bit.

Go Blue Mom's Chili Recipe
1.25 lbs ground beef (90% lean)
1 big can Bush's chili beans with liquid (flavored pinto beans)
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with liquid
1 15 oz. can Rotel tomatoes with green chili's with liquid
1 -2 sweet onion(s)
1 green pepper
1 T celery seed (I forgot to buy the celery, but you could use it)
3 cloves garlic
1 packet McCormick chili seasoning
6 laps Worcestershire sauce
3 dashes hot sauce
20 grinds ground black pepper
kosher salt
1 T olive oil
1 t honey (add as needed)
1 T lemon juice (optional: add a little lemon zest)
1 T ground cumin (add as needed after this)
1 T chili powder (add as needed after this)

Heat a skillet and brown the ground beef. Drain the beef and set aside.

Roughly chop the onion, green pepper, and celery (if using). Mince the garlic. In the chili pot, saute the green peppers and celery seed (or real celery if substituting) for five minutes in olive oil before adding the onion. Saute peppers and onion for 3 more minutes. Add the minced garlic and saute for a minute or minute and a half.

Add the ground beef, crushed tomatoes, Rotel, and beans and bring to a simmer. Stir chili and add the Worcestershire sauce, pepper, honey, lemon juice, McCormick's chili seasoning, hot sauce, cumin, chili powder, and salt (if needed). Turn the burner to low and let simmer for 30 minutes to six hours.

Serve in bowls as a stew, serve over noodles, or serve over rice. Potential toppings: red onion, green onion, cheddar cheese, sour cream, or oyster crackers.

Enjoy!!