thanksgiving: cranberry relish

I liked this more than the normal cranberry relish we have at Thanksgiving. First of all, I am not a huge fan of the skin on the cranberries and the texture that it gives the relish, and I think that cooking this down a bit made it all softer and more palatable for me. Also, obviously, the sugar and cinnamon helped make it sweet and yummy. Even my mom and grandma liked this little departure from the norm.

1 package cranberries
1 medium orange, seeded and cut into small wedges
1 cinnamon stick/1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Put the cranberries and orange pieces in a food processor (or your grandma's old hand crank food mill).

In a saucepan on the stove on low heat, cook the cranberry/orange mix with the sugar and cinnamon (I didn't have a stick, so I just put some cinnamon in) until it is warm throughout (about 5 minutes). Serve warm or cooled. 

thanksgiving: chocolate pudding pie

My second pie mainly happened because I only realized after making the pie crust recipe that I had enough for two single crust pies, not just the one (pumpkin). So I looked up another single crust recipe that sounded good and stuck with SK cause she always does me right, and I found this. It tasted pretty good, and it was overall easy to make but it does take a fair amount of time if you factor in making the pie crust dough, baking the crust, making the filling, and then letting it all chill. Is it hard? Definitely not. But do plan accordingly for the time.

Pudding filling:
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk [I used reduced fat]
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream

Bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)

Prepare pie dough: 
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp edge decoratively. Prick bottom and side of shell all over with a fork, then chill shell 30 minutes. While shell chills, preheat oven to 375°F with a baking sheet on middle rack. Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. [For pie weights, I just poured a bag of dried beans in the foil as my grandma told me to do, as shown in the picture. It worked well as far as I can tell.]

Bake on baking sheet until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove weights and foil, then bake shell on baking sheet until pale golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool shell.

Make pudding filling: 
Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk [tips alert!] in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, two minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.

Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, its surface covered with wax paper (if you want to prevent a skin from forming), until cold, at least two hours.

Nutritional information (for 1/8 of filling, with reduced fat milk)
183 total calories
8g total fat
27g total carbs
4g protein

thanksgiving: pumpkin pie

As mentioned, I made the pies this year. First up was pumpkin pie, the ol' traditional. I used an SK recipe for the crust, which was heavenly (both as dough and baked), and posted it here. As for the pie filling, I just followed the recipe on the Kroger pumpkin pie can. Yes, it tasted delicious, and I loved the pie. For the whipped cream, I just whipped 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 3 tbsp sugar, and it was perfect. You could also add a bit of vanilla to that if you wanted.

Trying to crimp the edges of my pie. 

It worked in the dough, but didn't make it through baking. Next time!

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk [I think I may have only used 1 cup since I didn't pour in the whole can]
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well. Pour into pie crust.

Bake 15 minutes at 425°. Reduce oven temperature to 350° and continue baking 35-40 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool pie before cutting. Refrigerate any leftovers.

*you can substitute 1 (12 oz.) can Evaporated Milk plus 3/4 cup granulated sugar for the Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Nutritional Information (1/8 of filling recipe)
180 calories
4g total fat
29g total carbs
6g protein

thanksgiving: pie crust

I was in charge of pies for our Thanksgiving dinner this year (I'll say it now, and I'll say it again - my first one home after 4 years away!), and I made a pumpkin and a chocolate pudding pie. For both, I used a recipe for a pie crust I found on SK that was AMAZING. I mean, buttery, a little sweet, flaky. And I'm definitely no pie crust aficionado. In fact, I really haven't ever made it before for a sweet pie. It was easy and delicious and foolproof, pretty much. I would note that it is a good idea to put a baking sheet below the pie in the oven because it will drip, and my mom mentioned that it is good to fold the crust over the pie pan to make sure it doesn't shrink up, which did happen to me with crust #1.

Makes enough dough for one double-, or two single-crust pies.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces, 16 tablespoons or 1 cup) unsalted butter, very cold


Gather your ingredients: Fill a one cup liquid measuring cup with water, and drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside. In a large bowl — I like to use a very wide one, so I can get my hands in — whisk together 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt. Dice two sticks (8 ounces or 1 cup) of very cold unsalted butter into 1/2-inch pieces. Get out your pastry blender.

Make your mix: Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and begin working them in with the pastry blender, using it to scoop and redistribute the mixture as needed so all parts are worked evenly. When all of the butter pieces are the size of tiny peas — this won’t take long — stop. Yes, even if it looks uneven; you’ll thank me later.

Nutritional information (1/2 of recipe or 1 crust)
1335 total calories
92g total fat
122g total carbs
16g protein

Nutritional information (1/16 recipe, or 1/8 of a single crust pie)
167 total calories
11g total fat
15g total carbs
2g protein

austin restaurants, part 2

I've been eating out a bit more in Austin, so I thought I would briefly mention some places I have tried out. I'm sure there are several others that I have been to, but these are the ones that came to mind easily.

G'raj mahal
I didn't really eat here since I didn't have a full meal, but I got some naan and a yogurt sauce (because I was missing Bulgaria a bit and snhezhanka) and it was delicious. I had read about it in the eat.shop austin book, and I really want to go back.

Clive Bar
This bar is across the street from G'raj Mahal and I actually ate my G'raj mahal food in the bar with a friend while having some specialty drink the bartender suggested, who then taught me about bitters and other things that were interesting but that I have clearly forgotten already. It was a cool environment though. The only downside is that it is among a group of establishments smack in the middle of a neighborhood, so there is a limited and terrible parking situation.

Toastie's Sub Shop
I went here because I was running errands and checked Living Social/Groupon for now! deals for lunch and both had something for Toastie's and it was pretty nearby where I was. I am going back. This place was delicious. Also, the people were super friendly.
Confession: I had never had a Cuban sandwich before. But, I do not regret that this was my first one. I had read about how good theirs was in a review, so I decided to try it out. I could only eat half at the time and had the second half for dinner, and both times it was just incredible. They had delectable pulled pork in it with cheese and ham and the bread was good. It definitely isn't healthy, but I want more.

Kome
I went to this sushi place for a lunch date, and it was really good. Granted, we only had two rolls, but I enjoyed them, and they had a lot of lunch specials with ramen and udon that looked good, albeit embarrassing to eat, so I really want to go back and slurp my way through one of those specials. I also just love sushi pretty much any opportunity I have to eat it.

Sago
This was a cool restaurant, and if you are into nouveau Mexican, you will probably like it. The food was good, but it was a lot of smoky flavors, and I am not the biggest fan of that sort of thing. It's in the Triangle, which is a cool little area near Hyde Park, where I live, so it was nice to try out somewhere there besides the Office Max and yogurt place.

Bouldin Creek Cafe
After a 5:30 am crew meeting that lasted until 7 am, I had an awkward amount of time to kill and could no longer go back home to bed, so I met a friend for breakfast. He suggested this place as he is obviously a regular, and I liked it. It definitely had a hip, local feel to it, and I didn't even catch on immediately that it was vegetarian/vegan. I got a mushroom, leek, garlic omelet and orange juice and was totally satisfied. He had some granola and a breakfast taco that looked pretty intense and delicious.

The Local Pub and Patio, Taco N Todo
There is a taco truck in the back patio of this bar, and it is awesome! I got a taco there one of my first days in Austin, and it was really delicious, but not as delicious as my friend's taco al pastor. I need to go back and get like 4 of those... Also the pub is nice because it has a lot of couches and tv, so we would go to watch Rangers games.

Man Bites Dog
Welcome to the hip hot dog party! I came here with the guys because, duh, they love meat, and actually, turns out I really like eating it on a regular basis too. Who knew? These hot dogs are gigantic and usually hard to finish. But they are pretty good. I tried the lamb one my first time and I didn't really love it. The Hair of the Dog was really intense, but I'm a fan of the egg on random other items trend. I also had a chili cheese dog, which was good. The guys also really love their fries. I also just realized I already posted about this. Oh well! Why bother deleting this now that it's written? We all know it is so hard for me to write anything.. ha.

Jo's
I went here today with a friend after we saw Margin Call at the Violet Crown (and sat in lazboys!), and we got Cuban sandwiches, as I now love them in spite of their unhealthiness. I actually had also been here with my mom and Clarke and Ebe when they were in town and we were wandering around a little street festival on 2nd. I can say that their hamburgers and cuban sandwiches are pretty big and pretty yummy.

asparagus risotto

Dad and Dana sent us some little care packages a few weeks ago, and in mine, there was a package of asparagus risotto. I think I helped Ebe make risotto once, but other than that, I haven't had any cooking experience with it. This was really delicious. It says there are 5 servings for the package, but I made it over, I believe, 4 occasions and was really full each time. It turned out really well and was easy to make, so as much as I prefer to try to do things from scratch, I would definitely get some of this again.

The instructions are for making the entire package. As I portioned mine out (single cooking!), I did about 1/3 of the instructed amount each time and it worked well.

Butter
1/2 cup white wine
3 cups broth/hot water
asparagus risotto mix
parmesan and olive oil as desired, to serve

Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan and add the risotto mix. Toast over low heat, stirring constantly for a minute or two.

Add 1/2 cup of white wine and stir through until evaporated.

Prepare around 3 cups of broth or hot water and add a little at a time and cook over low heat for 15 - 16 minutes, stirring occasionally until cooked.

Serve hot with freshly grated parmesan cheese and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil as desired.

Nutritional information (for 1/4 cup dry mix, from the package info)
1g total fat
30 g carbs
0 g sugar
3 g protein

tomato soup

I found this simple tomato soup recipe via a google search, and I liked that it even had an image of the original recipe, en français. To be honest, my recipe didn't turn out as well as theirs sounded like it did, but I think I know where to attribute the problems. No. 1: laziness; I didn't chop up the tomatoes beforehand, which certainly should make a difference with consistency. No. 2: I drained the tomato juice before putting the tomatoes in, and now I'm thinking that maybe it was supposed to be part of it. The recipe isn't really clear on that. But that is why I like using cooking blogs with pictures, cause I can double check things. No. 3: I actually don't have a No. 3 because I'm pretty sure I followed the rest of it. As an aside, I made 1/2 the recipe, and it was about 2 servings.

Anyway, what was wrong is that mine was too thick, but it tasted pretty good. The next time I make tomato soup, and I will, it will be from SK because I have my eye on a recipe she made that looks amazing. My only concern is my lack of oven-safe mugs.

3 pounds fresh or canned tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
several sprigs of thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch paprika
1 egg yolk
2 Tablespoons creme fraiche
salt and pepper
Garnish: 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan and thinly sliced basil leaves

In a large saucepan, stir together all the ingredients except the egg yolk and creme fraiche, bring to a boil, and cook on medium heat for 40 minutes. Remove the thyme sprig and bay leaf, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil for a minute or two. Puree in a blender, return to the pan, then reheat at a simmer. Right before serving, beat the egg yolk with the creme fraiche. Whisk the egg-creme fraiche mixture into the pot and cook, stirring, on low heat until the soup thickens.

When ready to serve, set out the soup plates (warming them is nice), ladle in the soup and top with Parmesan and slivers of basil leaf. Serve immediately.