TWD Rewind: Snickery Squares and *BONUS* Dulce de Leche

I know that you read that title and you felt like you hit the Friday jackpot! Two for the price of one! That means half off! Woo hoo! But, I gotta tell you, I had no intention of providing a bonus on this one. No sirree. But, it's fun to have a little extra now and again, so rather than holding out, I give you Snickery Squares and dulce de leche.

Snickers are not my favorite candy bar. I much prefer a Milky Way or a Twix but when those are gone, I will definitely dig on a Snickers. I made these for Dudley because he was (is) visiting and he likes cookies, "with a lot of stuff" in them. He is most definitely NOT a purist when it comes to cookies. And, I was talking to my Aunt Suzy (she's my favorite) the night before he was arriving and our conversation went a little something like this:

(me): Dudley's visiting, yay! But I'm a little bitter because he's in Puerto Rico right now where it's 80 degrees and I'm freezing my tail off here. And it's going to be above freezing when he's here and that's just not fair! He should suffer too.
(Suzy): That's so great. So, did you bake him cookies? Or other treats for his visit?
(me): nope.
(Suzy): Really? You really didn't make him anything? I just really think that's not like you, and wow, you really didn't make him anything?

So, after that conversation I felt a little guilty that I hadn't made him anything. My mom has been known to lecture me about the importance of keeping Dudley well-fed and happy, as has my grandmother, and all of these collective expectations found me in the kitchen, making Snickery Squares for his arrival. In all fairness, I had planned on making him the Snickery Squares, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. The impetus for making these squares was: 1. they were on the "short list" of rewinds and 2. I had glanced at the recipe and it called for dulce de leche. I was wandering around the ethnic foods section and there was a can of dulce de leche, I grabbed it, threw it in the cart, and my fate was sealed: Snickery Squares for Dudley.

Or so I thought . . .

This is what I really grabbed:Yup, sweetened condensed milk. Freaking a! I didn't even notice until I'd opened it up and I was like, I so thought that dulce de leche was darker than this. And I looked at the label, and sure enough, sweetend condensed milk. So, I have to backtrack and tell you that at this point I was already in for a penny, in for a pound because I'd made the shortbread and the peanuts (and no, I didn't do a very good job with the sugared peanuts but you know what, they tasted ok and so they were fine with me!). So, beyond the fact that I now have an open can of sweetened condensed milk that I need to use, I'm also 75% of the way through these Snickery Squares and I am minus the dulce de leche. But, you can make dulce de leche. So, I googled dulce de leche recipes. And here's the funny part: apparently most of the recipes call for sweetened condensed milk but on that day, the stars were aligned against me because I didn't come across any of those! But, it's pretty simple: milk, sugar, vanilla, and cook the you-know-what out of it. My recipe came courtesy of Alton Brown.

My lonely shortbread, waiting for some sweetness

Dulce de leche:
1 qt milk
1 1/2 c sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp baking soda (I have no idea what the purpose of this is. And, if you know, please tell me, I'm really curious)

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Milk, sugar, and vanilla

My vanilla beans stayed in a gross clump -- I don't know what the deal with that was.

And, lovely, right? I bet you just want to dig right in! No, I think it's supposed to do this because you have to strain it at the end of the process.

It took my dulce a lot longer to cook down but I have to say, it tasted amazing the whole way through. I did a lot of tasting. So, finally it was done and I let it cool and then I could finish the Snickery Squares. I just want to note here that Dorie calls for dulce de leche in a couple of different recipes but she doesn't include a recipe in the book (trust me, I looked). In fact, she calls for storebought dulce. It's interesting when a chef of Dorie Greenspan's caliber calls for something storebought rather than homemade and, as I discovered, there's a reason for this: homemade just doesn't cut it sometimes. Even though my dulce was tasty, it never thickened up enough for this recipe and I doubled the time that it cooked. As a result, these squares were never really squares, they had to be eaten with a fork or a spoon. And the dulce de leche just oozed EVERYWHERE!! It was a sticky, sticky mess. By the time I got to the chocolate portion of this recipe I'd pretty much thrown in the towel. I melted the chocolate but forgot to add the butter so my chocolate on top was rock hard.


The verdict: Dudley liked these but he said that they were "really rich." I guess even he has his limits. I thought that the dulce de leche was waaaay too sweet. I could only eat a little bit of them and I think that by then I was just over the Snickery Squares. My favorite part was actually the shortbread crust and I think that I'd like to make it again with strawberries or some sort of fruit. It was really good and I actually ended up scraping everything else off and eating the crust plain. And for me, that is a really strange thing to do.

Tangerine and Vanilla-Bean Marmalade

I very randomly received a box of tangerines over Christmas. They were delivered while I was home in Texas but my neighbors kindly held on to them for me and I picked them up in January when I got back. I like citrus but it's not my favorite fruit. My sister would pick an orange over almost any other fruit and for me, it's sort of at the bottom of my fruit list. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that there are so many other fruits that I like soooo much more. I also have a weird prejudice again fruits that have seeds. I suppose it's the inevitable result of growing up in a world where seedless grapes and navel oranges are the norm (and I think that they rock!) and I just hate having to navigate around a seed when I bite into something. Cherries are the only exception to this rule but give me a cherry pitter and I will gladly pit each one before I eat it. So, I had this box of tangerines and I knew that I wouldn't eat all of them before they got moldy or otherwise gross . . . what to do? Investigate recipes that call for tangerines, preferably a whole lot of tangerines. I came across this recipe for marmalade on epicurious and the reviews were pretty good, so I decided to try it out. I'll say, I did cut it in half and I am so glad that I did! It made a lot of marmalade and I don't have all of those little glass jars to give it away in so it's mine.

The marmalade is fairly easy to make as long as you have about a couple of hours to make sure that it cooks without major kitchen disasters on the second day. The first day you merely cut the fruit into thin slices and then into quaters and let it soak in water. Then the next day you boil down the fruit and water first, then add sugar, and boil it some more.



Tangerine Vanilla Bean Marmalade (from Epicurious)
Ingredients

• 2 pounds tangerines, each cut into 4 wedges
• 1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
• 5 cups water
• 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise and crosswise
• 3 1/2 cups sugar

Cut tangerine and lemon wedges crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Discard seeds from fruit. Transfer fruit to large bowl. Add 5 cups water, covering fruit. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature 1 day. Transfer fruit mixture to heavy large pot. Scrape in seeds from vanilla beans; add beans. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until rind is very tender and fruit begins to fall from rind, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add sugar; stir until sugar dissolves. Boil gently until mixture is 210°F, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Divide vanilla beans and boiling hot marmalade among four 1-cup jars. Cover tightly and refrigerate up to 2 months.

Here's where I broke with the recipe: the marmalade still tasted a little bitter to me so I added more sure (just a little bit more, about 1/2 of a cup). And, the rind gets very tender but it's still rind and I just didn't like the idea of spreading tangerine rind onto my biscuit or toast so I used the immersion blender to give it a little chop. There are still some hunks of rind and it's by no means smooth, but it's more of what I think of as a marmalade consistency. I'm not convinced that it didn't need to cook longer but I cooked it for the specified amount of time, plus a little extra.

I should mention, I'd never had marmalade before. Paddington Bear likes marmalade and I was always curious about it when I was little (and I used to watch Paddington on TV) but that curiosity passed and I've always been a strawberry jam sort of girl. The marmalade has a very nice flavor and I think that if you like marmalade, you'll probably like this. Me? I think that it might be an acquired taste, you know? It's bitter and I think that marmalade is supposed to be a little bitter because of all of the rind? It's pretty good with Greek yogurt and hot oatmeal. I might try to find a recipe for marmalade muffins so that I can use it a bit faster!

Exciting News!

I started this blog really just to keep my family up to speed on my kitchen activities when I moved to D.C. You see, they were the primary recipients of my kitchen experiments and I really missed having such willing guinea pigs around to eat my goodies. But I also knew that I didn't want to get take-out all of the time or eat cereal for dinner every night. I'm not hating, just stating! I've done cereal and take out a whole lot and I'm tired of it. Anyway, I got hooked on reading food blogs last summer and then I finally decided to take the plunge. This was sort of a big decision for me. I love paper and pens. I don't have a Facebook account (although, Dudley and I have a bet . . . if he ever follows through then Facebook is in my future), I don't Twitter or MySpace. I admit that I'm hopelessly addicted to my email but other than that, I'm a technophobe. It took me forever to figure out how to even work this dang blog!! I never thought that I would even make my blog public but then I found TWD and I haven't looked back.

Things on this blog look so much nicer now, no? And, unfortunately I can't take any of the credit because it belongs to Shannon at 8 Crazy Design. She is a powerhouse and I am still amazed at how perfect she made my blog look for me. She did such a fantastic job taking my random, very scattered thoughts, and creating a new and fun look for the Singleton's Kitchen. If only my real kitchen was as cute as my blog. Someday . . . anyway, I can't say enough great things about her.

And then, what do you know, this blog has been featured by Kim, the super creative and energetic force behind Today's Creative Blog. So, what do you know, little 'ole me, and my kitchen adventures are popping up elsewhere in this crazy thing called the blogosphere. It's sort of baffling but I will admit to being pretty tickled over it.

So, thanks to Shannon, for making my blog look so pretty! And thanks to Kim for giving me such a special shout out. Both of them have fantastic blogs so be sure and check them out! And, because a picture's worth a thousand words, here's a picture of some of my favorite people back in Texas. This picture was taken in my grandmother's kitchen over Christmas (the same kitchen that she's made crepes in for years and years), and no, I didn't cook anything the night that this picture was taken! The ladies in my family all reign supreme in their kitchens . . . so if you want to cook, you have to stake out your own territory!

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

I love ginger. I love the way it tastes and I love the way it smells. I love that it's perfect for sweet things, such as gingersnaps, and savory, such as peanut sauce. And, as much as I adore ginger, it doesn't even begin to compare to the love affair that I have with chocolate. I love chocolate in any and all forms (most particularly in the form of Crispy M&M's, which, much to my everlasting chagrin have been discontinued. I used to be able to eat an entire bag of them in one sitting -- scary, I know. So, in the absence of crispy M&M's I stick to plain or peanut these days). I was lucky enough to spend my 23rd birthday in Brussels and my brother and I spent all day visiting chocolate shops and, at the end of the day, we had an extra suitcase full of chocolate to lug around.

Suitcase packed with chocolates:

So, the point of these random musings? TWD this week, chosen by Heather of Sherry Trifle, is Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. I was pretty excited about this, given my love of gingerbread and my love of chocolate.

I followed the recipe almost exactly. Almost is the operative word. First, I cut it in half which was easy enough to do. Second, I substituted half butter, half greek yogurt because the recipe calls for a lot of butter. Third, I omitted the stem ginger because I couldn't find it very easily and it just wasn't that important to me. I baked it in two mini loaf pans and it worked out quite nicely. You'll notice that I didn't frost the gingerbread. I was going to . . . but then I took a bite of the gingerbread and I really didn't like the flavor of the chocolate interfering with the flavor of the gingerbread so I decided to omit the chocolate frosting. I tried to make a white chocolate glaze but it seized on me because I wasn't paying attention so I didn't do that either. Unfortunately, the end result wasn't quite what I was looking for. It wasn't really a magical combination of two great things. It was sort of, meh. I didn't find it spicy enough and I didn't really like the way that the chocolate interfered with the ginger-spice flavor. I also thought that the molasses flavor remained pretty strong, I'm not sure if that's just me though. I have been eating this warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert and I think that is my prefered way to eat it. I can definitely understand why Dorie promotes using the ginger whipped cream as an accompaniment to the gingerbread -- the cream definitely adds the overall experience. As far as gingerbread goes, I think that I'll stick to Fanny Farmer's recipe in the future. If I do make it again, I will for sure make the ginger infused whipped cream that Dorie suggests. That sounds like an amazing combination!

Savory Crepes

I have very fond memories of my childhood breakfasts. My mom made us breakfast every day before school and she would always ask what we wanted for breakfast. Usually we'd have pancakes but sometimes she'd make her version of an egg mcmuffin breakfast sandwich for us. Or, on occasion my dad would make us waffles for breakfast (which he would cheekily try to sneak wheat germ into, so once we got wise to that there would be some intense investigation before actually eating the waffle). I think that one of my fondest breakfast memories though, is of my grandmother's crepes. My grandmother (MawMaw) would make crepes by the dozen and we'd go over to her house and eat strawberry crepes until we thought we were going to explode. And MawMaw would always ask "how many crepes do you think that you're going to eat this time?" and I don't remember what the answer was but I know that the general idea was to eat as many as possible. Fresh crepes are tender, delicate, and delicious. They almost melt in your mouth so it's easy to eat a lot of them. We always ate ours with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar, except for my grandfather, who would put rhubarb on his. The first time that I went to France, one of the first things that I did was order a crepe Nutella and I was in crepe bliss. I've always associated crepes with sweets, even though I knew that they could be savory.

The idea of having savory crepes for dinner popped into my head and I jumped on it. I filled my crepes with fresh spinach, ham, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese and it was delicious! I was always sort of intimidated by crepes. I think that I thought that only my grandmother could make them; however, as it turns out, they're very easy to make. David Lebovitz warns in The Perfect Scoop that the first one is always going to be a dud so don't worry about that little mishap. I got the hang of it after the first couple of crepes and after that it was a swinging good time. I will say, I made an utter mess in the kitchen while I was making these so I think that I still have a lot of work to do as far as technique goes. I don't know if I will ever be as adept as the people who work the crepe stands in France but they were so tasty and versitile that I know I will make them again.

Most crepe recipes are very similar and I used the recipe in The Joy of Cooking for my first foray into the world of crepes. This recipe is fine but it doesn't account for, or warn you about, the dreaded lumps in your crepe batter. I really thought that I was going to have to toss out my batter and start over but, since I was just cooking for me I decided to try it out with the lumps and see what happened. It turns out that the crepes turn out just fine with lumpy batter. However, David Lebovitz also suggests in his crepe recipe that you make the batter in a blender which I think is a fantastic idea and I will definitely, definitely do that next time.

Savory Crepes
adapted from The Joy of Cooking

1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c milk
1/4 c lukewarm water
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
pinch of salt
Optional: fresh chopped parsley or other herbs, black pepper.

Note: for sweet crepes add 2 tablespoons of sugar and a dash of vanilla extract.

Mix together all of the ingredients with a whisk (I am definitely blending it next time!). Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 30 minutes or in refrigerate for up to 2 days. (This allows the flour to thoroughly absorb the liquid and gives the gluten in the flour a chance to relax.). For savory crepes, I added a little bit of black pepper and some chopped parsley.

Place a nonstick or seasoned crepe pan over medium heat. Coat the pan with a little unsalted butter. Stir the batter and pour about 2 tablespoons into the pan (you can use a ladle, a measuring cup, whatever suits your fancy -- this is how I made my huge mess though, the batter drips everywhere!), lifting the pan off the heat and tilting and rotating it so that the batter forms an even, very thin layer. Cook until the top is set and the underside is golden. Turn the crepe over, using a spatula or your fingers (fingers work best here, it's true!) and cook until the second side is lightly browned. Remove the crepe to a plate (my first one was sort of a crumply mess but I ate it plain and it tasted great!!). Repeat the process.

Use immediately or let cool, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 1 month.

Fill crepes with anything that you like!

TWD Rewind: Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread

I had a long weekend from school with lots of time to get things done and I also accomplished some baking as well. I don't know if I'll eventually rewind all of the TWD posts (it would be great if I did but I'm realistic) but I do have a "short list" of recipes that I want to rewind soon. One of them was the Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread. I wanted to make this recipe because it was the first ever TWD recipe and I figure that makes it eminently rewind-able. All the way back on January 1, 2008 TWD made this recipe! Also, I happened to have everything that I needed to make them without a special trip to the grocery store. I have sort of mixed feelings about shortbread. It's a really rich and buttery cookie so one is great, two are good, but after that I'm done. True to form, these cookies are rich and buttery but I definitely enjoyed them more than your average shortbread. Dorie is right, the brown sugar gives them a lovely caramel flavor and the pecans are the perfect nut to use in these cookies. I have to admit, I pondered dipping them in chocolate. I think that they'd be great with a little bit of chocolate on them. However, I managed to restrain myself and I saved some for me and gave the rest to the nice people who work in the English department office.


The dough is very easy to put together: you just mix it up and pop it into a freezer bag to roll it out and then chill it. And here's where Dorie Greenspan really impresses me: in all of her cookie recipes that I have tried so far, she very adeptly manages to avoid using extra bench flour to roll out the dough. This is great because the dough doesn't get tough or lose any of its flavor because it has all of that extra flour hanging around. In this case, you roll out the dough in a freezer bag and then you put it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours but up to 2 days (I love recipes that have this amount of flexibility built in!). Then you take scissors and cut the bag away from the dough. I used a pizza cutter to cut the square of dough into smaller squares.

As you can see from the picture, haste makes waste and all that jazz. I probably should have a) rechilled the dough after I cut it and poked it and b) paid closer attention when I put them in the oven because they got a little too brown but, no matter, they tasted great anyway. They weren't burned at all, they're just much browner than the cookies that are shown in the book. I will definitely make these again at some point. They're simple to make and very tasty!

TWD: Berry Surprise Cake

Also known as: why genoise is not shortcake . . . and never will be.

I was a little perplexed about how to size down this cake for one. I knew that I wanted to make it as I love berries, I love cake, and I love cream, and any combination of the three is fantastic as far as I'm concerned. But I didn't want to eat a whole 8" cake all by myself. For one thing, whipped cream doesn't age well and I didn't like the idea of eating this cake 6 or 7 days later. That's why I'm so fond of things that I can freeze these days -- then everything old is new again. So, I pondered getting little cake pans. Nope. I am already very low on space right now. I pondered cupcakes. Nope. I just didn't think that it would work very well. And then I spied my Nordicware Shortcake Basket pan. Maybe. This was a gift from a friend of mine who understands my love of kitchen schwag of all sorts and it's tied with my beehive cake pan (also a gift from the same friend) for the title of cutest, but definitely least multitask worthy, item in my kitchen. I liked the idea of using the shortcake pan for the cake because it produces small (individual) cakes that already have a hollow in the middle. So, I'd be cheating a little bit by going around the whole "surprise" part of the cake but I figured that it'd be a little deconstructed and the end result would be fine. We'll leave the emphasis on deconstructed.I've made genoise before, it doesn't scare me. I guess that sometimes fear can be healthy though because my genoise was pretty much a disaster. Well, I'm not sure how bad it would have been in a regular pan but in the shortcake pans -- an unmitigated disaster. I cut the recipe in half, and this is a very easy recipe to halve, got the eggs together, sifted, folded, and placed into the shortcake pans. Now, the shortcake pan professes to have a non-stick coating but I gave it a shot of extra grease because it never hurts, in my opinion. And, when I was about to put the pan into the oven, I looked at it, and I thought: "look at all of those bubbles, I've never seen a cake batter do that before, it almost looks like pancake batter."

Tiny little bubbles:

I baked the little cakes for about 13 minutes, until they were golden brown and looked ready to come out. I was feeling fine because there was no sinkage of the cakes. They were perfectly level and flat. They rose, and all was well. Ha. Ha. Ha. Famous last words. I turned the pan upside down. Nothing. Not even a crumb came out. I shook the pan gently, nary a crumb. I shook the pan hard enough to make my arms hurt, still nothing. And then, I started humming Tom Petty's song, "Don't Do Me Like That." Because, really, don't do this to me.

Don't do me like that, don't do me like that
What if I love you baby, don't do me like that
Don't do me like that, don't do me like that
Someday I might need you baby, don't do me like that

So, I was humming Tom Petty and I did what I had to do: I got out a knife and very carefully attempted to extricate the cakes from the pan. This took awhile actually. It required careful excavation because, somehow, in 13 minutes, the crust of millenia had developed around these cakes, it was like a dig of sorts. And when it was all over, here's what was left.

So, 3.75 out of 5, better than 50% and not bad as far as I'm concerned. For what it's worth, I think that I overcooked the cakes because they were sort of, actually really, dry. Maybe I should have cooked them at a lower temperature? I'm not sure.

I made the cream mixture and let me say, dang it was good! I love berries and cream. When I was little I had strawberries and cream for breakfast every year on my birthday. I love to have a bowl of strawberries with sugar and cream for breakfast or for dessert, I think that it's one of life's great things. I don't usually like sweetened cream cheese but I suppose the addition of the heavy cream is what made it so yummy to me. I just loved it and I immediately wished that I had just gone the berries and cream route that Dorie offers.

For the syrup, I used Smuckers fruit pancake syrup. I think this was a mistake. I love this stuff with melted butter on hot pancakes but it was just too sickly sweet for me in this case. I wish I'd just used a simple syrup. But, as I mentioned, my cakes were dry so I liberally applied the syrup.

Then I layered the cream cheese, the raspberries, and then drizzled a little more syrup. So, the end result was a little raspberry cake and, while it's not the most glamorous or sophisticated thing in the world, it worked for me.

So, what to do with all of those hunks that came out of my pan? When life gives you broken cake, make a trifle! I made a trifle with strawberries instead of raspberries this time.

Verdict: I liked this recipe simply for the combination of berries and cream. Am I going to make it again? I'm not sure. I like the idea of the berry surprise cake and the light genoise with the cream and berries hidden inside. But I think that if I made it again I would definitely make it a single big cake and I might use a different recipe for the cake part. It was fun to make though. Thanks to Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen for choosing this week's recipe! And, check out Tuesday's With Dorie if you'd like to see other, better, versions of this cake.

Kitchen Adventures . . . or: How to Roast a Chicken Upside Down

Or, why sometimes I am really glad that I'm a singleton because there's no one around to see my mistakes. Except then I publish them on this blog. And, then again, perhaps if someone had been around I wouldn't have roasted my chicken upside down!

I'm usually a boneless, skinless chicken breast sort of gal. And, yes, I know that the bones and skin are where the flavor can be found. I know that, I really do. But I also just think of chicken as a vehicle for other flavors. And when you're just using it as a vehicle, who really cares what it tastes like underneath? I guess that boneless skinless chicken breast is the low-end, workhorse car that gets you from point A to point B with no problems, it's reliable and it's convenient. But, on it's own, it doesn't really *pop*, if you know what I mean. Now, a roasted chicken, on the other hand, is maybe the Cadillac of chicken (if there's such a thing). It's classic, it's timeless, and it makes a statement. My brother, whom I love to bits and pieces, doesn't like chicken. But he does like whole, roasted chicken. And, after law school, while he was studying for the bar and looking for a fancy-pants lawyer job, he worked in the kitchen of Commander's Palace. This was one of the upsides to living in New Orleans in a post-Katrina world: someone with NO (!!!!!) kitchen experience could be hired and put to work in one of the most venerable, timeless restaurants in New Orleans. And, for those of you who happen to visit the city, I think that a meal at Commander's is worth every single penny. I digress. So, my fancy-pants lawyer brother thinks that he knows a thing or two about cooking (and he does) and he's been pestering me to try the whole chicken thing for awhile now. So, I was at Costco and I bought 2 whole organic chickens. The first one made its way into chicken cacciatore, which was really good but I did learn that my future is not in butchering. I didn't want to have to cut up the chicken, and I've heard that a simple roast chicken is a hallmark of a good cook, so I decided to try it. I found a recipe for Lemon & Thyme Roasted Chicken that looked great because I had all of the necessary ingredients right on hand.

It's fairly simple: you start with a sort of gremolata of lemon zest, chopped thyme, garlic, and olive oil.


And then you lovingly rub this mixure all over your chicken. I even thought that I was being super-smart because I went under the skin and rubbed all of the garlicky, lemony, thyme-y goodness there, on what I thought was the breast of the chicken. Then you quarter a lemon (the one that you got the zest from) and jam it into the cavity of the chicken.

Yes, here's my chicken, in all of it's upside-down glory, ready to be roasted. It's not like I've never seen a roast chicken before, you'd think that I would have pondered the fact that the legs were on the bottom. What can I say? It looked right to me.


The chicken is roasted at 450 degrees for 20 minutes and then at 375 degrees until it's done. Ideally, one would have a meat thermometer (and I am going to get one!) and check to see if it's reached an acceptable temperature. I just cooked mine until I thought it was done (about another hour, which is what the recipe stated too). It came out of the oven and it looked delicious and it smelled even better and I was SO excited to eat it. So, I grabbed my knife and I cut into where I thought the breast was and I hit bone. There was hardly any meat! And I thought, WTF? These organic chickens are a total rip-off! There is like, no meat on this chicken! But the little meat that I ate tasted so good and I decided that this was a great recipe.


So, I bet you're wondering, how did I finally figure out that I roasted it upside down since I certainly didn't figure it out when I was trying to eat it? Well, another thing that my brother is a huge proponent of is homemade stock. And, in theory, I'm all for it. Tastes better, economical, and darn it, Martha likes it. Also, Nancy, at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs had a really great post on making turkey stock after Thanksgiving and then I just resolved that I was going to try my hand at making stock. And, I figured that I had to at least make stock out of my chicken with no meat to get some of my money's worth! And that's how I discovered that I cooked the chicken upside down, when I was taking the rest of the meat off of the chicken, I flipped it over and, low and behold, there was all of the meat!


It turns out, making stock is really, really easy. I don't have a recipe because I just called my brother and asked him how to do it. The funny thing is, my brother never really rocked on recipes but since his stint in the restaurant kitchen, he thinks that recipes are for simpletons (like me) so he doesn't use them (but trust me, this often results in some catastrophic failures as well as epic successes). So, I called him and he told me: "well, you basically get out a huge pot, put in the carcass, cover it with water and add carrot, onion, some garlic, and if you want to get fancy you can add tomato paste and some other stuff but I don't do that." Hmm, thanks. Needless to say, we called and texted a few more times that morning. But, the great thing that he told me was to bring it up to a bare simmer on the stove and then put it in a 200 degree oven for 8-10 hours in a covered pot. This meant that I could make my stock and go about my business, leave the house, no big deal. The stock takes care of itself. Then, when your 8-10 hours is up, you remove the carcass and vegetables, etc from the stock, you strain it really well, and you put it in containers to freeze for future use. And, you pat yourself on the back because now you a) know how to roast a chicken upside down and rightside up and b) know that making stock is easy peasy.

Sweet & Sour Pork

It's freezing in Washington D.C. today and I don't know what to do about it. Where I come from, just getting below freezing at night is a big deal. I was made for heat, I love it, and I just don't know what to do about all of this cold weather that's hitting the Northern part of the country right now. You know, I almost went to school in Chicago? I really don't know what I'd do there right now! Probably eat . . . a lot. Which is what I'm doing here. It's Inauguration Weekend in D.C. and I have a 5 day weekend and I'm not going to spend a lot of time outside so I suppose I'll spend a lot of time inside, eating.
This is a great, warm meal to have. I made it because I had part of a pork tenderloin left over and I had no idea what to do with it. It was too small for roasting or grilling (that is, if I had a grill and it wasn't 13 degrees outside) and I sort of wanted to do something a little Asian. I have to say though, my knowledge of Asian cuisine is limited, but this didn't seem that Asian to me when I was putting it together. It's Alton Brown's recipe though and I think that he usually does a pretty great job of staying true to the original form.
I obviously used pork tenderloin rather than pork butt because that's what I had. I also cut the recipe in half and I left out the pineapple because I didn't have any. The next time that I make it (and I will definitely make it again) I will be sure that I have the pineapple around because I think that it would make the recipe even better! Now, I don't like ketchup. I've always been more of a mustard girl and I was never that kid that put ketchup on everything. It sort of grosses me out and I limit my usage to French fries and that's it. So, the ketchup sauce really freaked me out: I tasted it and I got out the flier for my local pizza place as a backup because I was pretty sure that this was going to be a major kitchen disaster. But, as I'd already marinated the meat it was pointless to quit halfway through the game. And, I'm really glad that I didn't. The meat is really savory and salty from the soy sauce marinade and when the ketchup sauce combines with the vegetables and meat it turns into a really yummy dinner.
Oh, the other change that I made was to sear the pork pieces in a nonstick skillet rather than dredge them in flour and fry them. I didn't notice any difference and I don't think that I would fry the pork. But, that's just me!

Sweet & Sour Pork by Alton Brown

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1/4 cup flour, plus seasoned flour for dredging
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 pound pork butt, cut into 1-inch cubes
• Kosher salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 ounce honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/3 cup large diced Vidalia onion
• 1/3 cup large diced celery
• 1/3 cup carrots sliced 1/4-inch thick, on a bias
• 1/3 cup large diced red bell pepper
• 1/3 cup large diced green bell pepper
• 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions

In a large, nonreactive bowl combine the first five ingredients with the pork and marinate overnight (or for about 8 hours).

Drain off any excess marinade and dredge the pork in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan heat 1-inch of oil to 350 degrees F. Fry the pork in batches, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Reserve on a warm plate.

In a separate bowl, combine the ketchup, sugar, vinegar, and honey. Whisk to blend.

In a small roasting pan heat the canola and sesame oils. Place the pork and vegetables into the pan and cover with the ketchup mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook until the pork is tender.

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

I was really excited when I saw that Rebecca, of Ezra Poundcake, chose these muffins for this week's TWD for a couple of reasons. First of all, I've been wanting to make these muffins since I got my copy of Baking and I didn't even have to wait that long (seriously, if you ponder the number of recipes in this book it could have been much longer before we officially baked these -- years even!). Second, a nice savory treat is precisely what I'm longing for after weeks of Christmas sweets. Although, it's not like I skipped dessert the night that I made these.


Aside from getting the ingredients together (and I am mostly referring to my trip to the grocery store here), these muffins are a breeze to put together. Once again, I cheated a little bit with the butter and subbed plain yogurt for 4 tablespoons of the butter. Other than that, I followed the recipe to a T and I was delighted with the way that they turned out. I like spicy things and I was looking longingly at the chipotle powder in my spice cabinet when I got out the chili powder. I decided to make them as written this time but I think next time I might add in 1/4 tsp of chipotle powder for a little smokey heat. Oh, I used pickled jalapenos rather than a fresh one, simply because that's my preference. I didn't notice that the 3 tablespoons of sugar made the muffins overly sweet at all. In my opinion they're definitely still savory. I like my cornbread savory or sweet, it depends on my mood and what I'm eating it with. I thought that the muffins turned out really well and the yogurt-for-butter substitution didn't seem to bother anything. I made all 12 muffins and the rest are in the freezer waiting for me!

Oh, and I'm happy to say that I ate my muffins with . . . (drumroll please) . . . turkey chili! It seems that given the season, chili was the meal of choice for many of the TWD-ers to have with their muffins this week.


Thanks to Rebecca of Ezra Poundcake for choosing this week's recipe.

TWD Rewind: Orange Berry Muffins (sort of)

It's sort of going to be muffin madness for the next 48 hours here. Tomorrow's TWD is Savory Corn & Pepper Muffins but to get things started right, I'm offering up my rewind of Orange Berry Muffins. These muffins were made by the TWD bakers almost a year ago -- that's right, 01/29/08. They're the first recipe in the book and, for some reason, the first and last recipes in a book just intrigue me a little bit more than the rest. I've never written a cookbook, and I seriously doubt that I ever will, but if I were writing a cookbook I think that the first recipe would set the tone for the book. Now, I don't know if that was Dorie's intention, but if she did want to set the tone, then she did a fantastic job! These muffins are homey and delicious and they're a great starter because they are super easy to mix up. I love my Kitchen Aid but it's been nice to give it a rest recently.
I did, ahem, make a few changes but nothing mind-boggling. I used tangerines instead of oranges because a big box of them was just dropped on my doorstep. They're small so I used 2 tangerines in place of the one orange that the recipe calls for. I also used raspberries instead of blueberries because 1) I don't love blueberries, I like them, but I love raspberries and 2) they were on sale, so much cheaper, than the blueberries at the grocery store. The third change I made was to use half butter and half plain yogurt rather than the full stick of butter that the recipe calls for.

Disclaimer: I LOVE butter and I have been known to use it with abandon in the kitchen quite frequently. However, it's just me eating all of the goodies around here (well, I do try to give it away but I always have to sample my wares) so I'm playing around a little bit. I am all for anything that's a little easier on my hips, ya know?
Anyhoozles, I pondered subbing apple sauce for half of the butter but I decided to go with the plain yogurt because I was worried that the applesauce might make them too sweet. As far as I can tell, the yogurt didn't harm anything -- the muffins were light and fluffy and scrumptious! I didn't sprinkle the tops with sugar because I forgot (doh!) but next time I will!

Beer Cheese Bread

I am a carbo-holic. If I ever post about my decision to go on the Atkins diet you can be sure that icicles are slowly forming in that fiery place down below. The other night I was looking for something doughy and cheesy that wasn't too time consuming to eat with my turkey soup and I found this recipe from November 2008 Cooking Light on Capital City Mama's blog. I have to say, the bread was great. It mixed up in no time, and those are the times when you just have to love a quick bread, and it tasted great as well. It was soft and the onions and garlic give it a great flavor but it's not overpowering at all. But I think that the best thing about this bread is that it didn't get stale right away. I used it the next night for my turkey burger and it was fantastic again. I ate it all week long and it tasted great. I'd originally planned to cut it in half and put half in the freezer for later but it's all gone to a better place -- my hips. No, it's from Cooking Light so that means that there are no calories, right? Regardless, it's wonderful and I will definitely make it again. I think next time I might make it in muffin cups and see how that goes.

Basic Beer-Cheese Bread

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
13.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3 cups)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used Pepper Jack because that's what I had and it was yummy!)
1 (12 ounce) bottle lager-style beer
Cooking spray
2 tablespoon melted butter, divided (I only used about a tablespoon and it was still very good)

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.

2. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until browned, stirrings occasionally. Stir in pepper and garlic; cook 1 minute.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in the center of the bowl. Add onion mixture, cheese, and beer to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Don’t over stir.

4. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan that has been coated with cooking spray. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of butter over the batter. Cook at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Drizzle other tablespoon of butter over batter. Bake another 25 minutes or until the bread is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool five minutes in pan on a wire rack, then remove the bread from the pan. Cool completely before slicing.

So, I was starving when it finished baking because I'd waited too long to start making it so I cut it right away. It's really, really good hot with butter. Does that win for obvious statement of the day? Because what hot bread is not good with butter?

Sweet Onion Yogurt Dip

I read a lot. I mean, it sort of goes with the English lit territory and I love reading, always have. I think that the only thing that I really miss about working versus being in school is my leisure reading time. I love magazines and I used to think that I wanted to work for a magazine until I interned and found out that reading them is so much more fun than making them (for me anyway). When I moved to Washington I canceled all of my magazine subscriptions except Bon Apetite and Martha Stewart (but I got a few for Christmas so, yippee!). Anyway, my treat to myself at the end of the semester was to get any magazines that I wanted to read on the plane on the way to Houston and I loaded up! On the way back to D.C. there weren't as many that looked interesting to me, the after-effect of my binge I think, but I did get a couple and one of them was Southern Living. I love this magazine. My mom has gotten it for as long as I can remember and I just love it. This month there's a feature called "The Dish on Yogurt" that I was excited about because I love using yogurt to cook with. And, sure enough, there was a recipe called "Sweet Onion Yogurt Dip" that I knew I wanted to try.

Another thing, I'm on locavore hiatus right now. Yup, it turns out that I'm not hardcore enough to spend my winter subsisting on greens from the farmers' market. I love the Dupont Circle farmers' market, it might very well be my favorite thing about living in D.C., but I also love fruit and vegetables year round and I like being warm too. So, for the next couple of months I am going to happily consume my strawberries from Florida and my carrots from California, already chewed into tiny little sticks for me and I'm ok with that. I just can't handle the thought of freezing my toosh off on Sunday mornings while I buy my greens and eggs. I thought that I would go all winter long but what can I say, I am a wuss. On that note, when I went to the grocery store this week I spotted yellow carrots! I'm such a sucker for things like yellow carrots so I bought yellow and orange carrots to eat. According to the nutritional information on the back of the package, they both have the same same amount of vitamins, etc which surprised me. I thought that maybe the orange carrots would have more vitamins than the yellow carrots. The orange carrots taste sweeter than the yellow carrots but I don't know, something in me just loves those yellow carrots. In Texas, Texas A&M University has developed maroon carrots which are kind of cool except that when you peel them they're mostly orange. So unless you eat carrots with the skin on (and I know some people who do) then it's sort of a waste.
The Sweet Onion Yogurt Dip is delicious with vegetables and that's how I've been eating it. It's a cinch to put together, just allot some time for caramelizing the onions.

Sweet Onion Yogurt Dip
(Southern Living, January 2009, pg 111)

1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced (or you can save yourself a step and finely dice it now)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp canola oil
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 c plain, lowfat yogurt (I used Fage 2% Greek yogurt)
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Cook onion and sugar in hot oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium low heat, stirring often, 15-20 minutes or until onions are caramel colored. Stir in garlic and cook one minute more. Let cool 5 minutes; chop onions. (This step sort of confused me, which is why I think that you could just as easily finely dice the onions from the get-go??)
2. Stir together caramelized onion mixture, yogurt, and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover and chill 30 minutes or until ready to serve.

I've been noshing on this dip with veggies all week and loving it!

Oatmeal Strawberry Muffins

In the wintertime, I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast. This sort of appalls my mother, who I guess has really horrible childhood memories of being forced to eat oatmeal, but I love it with some greek yogurt and sweetened fruit. I also love it with butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar but it's probably best not to do that too often. The only problem with oatmeal is that I like old fashioned oatmeal, like McCann's, and it takes forever to cook. Of course, one batch makes way too much for just one breakfast so I usually have enough for about a week but still, I don't like having to wait so long for my oatmeal to cook in the morning. I suppose I could make it the night beforehand but I want at least one morning where my oatmeal is hot and fresh. Since I returned to D.C. after Christmas I've been pondering muffins. Muffins could be great. They could be healthy, convenient, and I could freeze them? And then I could take one out each morning. So, I've been looking around, trolling the internet, for reasonably healthy, and tasty, muffins. I mean, I want it to be healthy but I'm not up for a bran/raisin/carrot muffin. I narrowed my searches down to oatmeal muffins and yogurt muffins and, this time, oatmeal won out. I found a recipe for Very Berry Muffins on All Recipes and I looked at the user comments to come up with my recipe. There were some other recipes that looked great too but I they called for wheat germ and I still have an aversion to wheat germ because my dad used to sneak it into waffles, pancakes, and chocolate chip cookies when we were little. I guess it worked at first but then he got cheeky and added more and more. I can still remember coming downstairs to a waffle and my brother and I would take one bite and say: "Ugh! Did you put wheat germ in the waffles again?!" Luckily, my mom made us breakfast 90% of the time and I don't think that she tried those tricks.

Oatmeal Strawberry Muffins

(adapted from Very Berry Muffins, allrecipes.com)

makes 12 muffins

1 1/3 c all purpose flour

1 c rolled oats

1/3 c packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 c milk

1 egg, beaten

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 - 2 cups of chopped strawberries (I used frozen and I thought that they worked really well)

raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line muffin cups with paper liners or grease very well.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Mix in the milk, egg, oil, and vanilla and stir until combined. Add the strawberries. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Sprinkle with raw sugar if you like.
3. Bake muffins for about 25-30 minutes in preheated oven, or until the tops are golden and spring back to the touch. (My muffins took about 20-25 minutes to cook but I used frozen strawberries and my batter was really cold. I don't think that it would take muffins made with fresh berries nearly that long too cook, especially at such a high temp.)

I thought that these were quite tasty with my coffee this morning. I don't use All Recipes that often but I think that I will try to use it more because it has that handy calculator that allows you to cut recipes, which is oh-so-nice when you're cooking for one. I gave the amounts for the original recipe plus my changes but I cut it in half to make 6 for me. It still made 9 though so I'm guessing that the original will make more than 12.

TWD: French Pear Tart

My dad has a hard time following recipes and  his kitchen mantra is "a recipe is only a guide." Why does this matter?  This week's TWD is French Pear Tart, a recipe chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan herself, and it's also the last thing that I made in Houston, the swan song of my holiday baking.  So, as I was in the process of making this lovely tart, my dad walked through the kitchen and said something to the effect that the apple didn't fall far from the tree. What did he mean?  Well, a recipe is, after all my dear, only a guide and I can see that the recipe is for French PEAR tart and you just poached apples.  Diverge from the recipe, pas moi!  And so I read to him Dorie's hints for playing around, which included a substitution of apples for pears. But, really, this apple doesn't fall far from the tree because I'm afraid that I did indeed stray from Dorie's instructions, far past my substitution of apples for pears.

First things first:  I really meant to make this recipe exactly as it was written for no other reason than it looks just fantastic.  The pears were an added bonus because my parents always receive at least a couple of boxes of Harry & David Royal Riviera Pears during the holidays and what a fantastic way to use them up.  But, those pears were long gone by the time I made this tart but the fruit basket was overflowing with apples.  It seemed like such a shame to go to the store and buy more pears when apples were abundant; so, apples it was.  I decided to poach the apples because I was worried about them making the tart watery if I used them without precooking them beforehand.  So, I poached the apples in the simple syrup that the recipe calls for but I added a good wallop of apple pie spice and some vanilla extract for good measure.  It just added a hint of spicy sweetness to the apples and I don't think that the apples competed with the almond cream or the crust, thank goodness.  In retrospect I think that could have been

 a huge mistake if I'd made the apple pie spice too strong.  

On to the crust.  Dorie writes that you can use either plain sweet tart dough or sweet tart dough with nuts.  As I was already going alternative this week, the tart dough with nuts was really calling out to me.  But, which nuts to use?  We had pistachios and walnuts in abundance and both of them are listed as options.  I stood in the kitchen for a good 10 minutes pondering this decision.  As I was getting ready to pour the pistachios in the food processor, I put them up thinking that walnuts have a better flavor with apples.  Then, just as abruptly, I decided that it had to be pistachios.  I just love the green color and their flavor.  The crust came together quite nicely and I patted it into my tart pan.  I think that I was so busy contemplating all of these options that I didn't, even for a moment, stop to ponder the size of the pan.  OOPS!  I didn't even think about it until I read the P&Q today.  Honestly, I just grabbed the tart pan -- I'm pretty sure that it's at least 10" though (maybe a little bigger?).  It was a very hot and humid day in Houston the day that I made this and I think I was a little heavy handed with the dough as the heat made the dough harder to work with, a big no-no.  I froze the crust and pre-baked it and much to my everlasting delight, it didn't shrink.  I was already in love with this tart and I hadn't even tasted it.  

But here's where I hit another dilemma:  I had about 1/4 c of finely ground pistachios left and the only almonds in the house weren't blanched.  So, you guessed it, my almond cream is really almond-pistachio cream and it has brown and green flecks.  But that's ok, I think that those little flecks add character!  I will admit to being confused about the arrangement of the fruit slices -- be it pear, apple, or peach, so I just arranged mine in rows.  But I know that I must have used a large tart pan because I didn't have any issues with filling overflowing.  The apples covered most of the almond cream but it did peak up around them.  I baked it for the full hour, neurotically checking the progress every 5 minutes after the first 30 minutes.  Thank goodness for oven lights.  I don't have one in D.C. so I just sort of set the timer and leave.  My tart crust didn't burn but it got awfully close.  I think another 5-10 minutes and there would have been a definite charr flavor.  

So, if anyone has gotten to the bottom of this post and cares to know, I'm convinced that this is a terrific recipe because even with all of my fiddling, the tart was sublime.  It was sweet, but not too sweet, the almond cream is delicious, the crust was perfect (in spite of my heavy hands), and the apples worked really well in the tart.  I'll definitely make it again with pears and I'm very excited to try it with peaches in the summer.  

Special thanks to Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking From My Home to Yours for choosing this week's recipe.  

TWD (on Thursday): Tall & Creamy Cheesecake

Happy New Year! This is my first post of 2009 and, may I say, what a great way to start off a new year of blogging! When I saw that the recipe that Anne Strawberry chose for December 30th was a cheesecake, I knew that I wanted to serve it on New Year's Eve. It's just such a great dessert and I think that nearly everyone likes cheesecake. Everyone, that is, except for me! Yeah, I don't really like cheesecake. I love cream cheese plain but sweetened just doesn't do it for me. I did like this cheesecake though, it's not too sweet and very creamy. I served it with strawberry sauce, French chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce and I think that it went over very well.

I did go through a "cheesecake phase" a few years ago. It was sort of like Picasso's Blue Phase, only not nearly as illustrious. I set out to make "the perfect cheesecake" and I spent a couple of months experimenting with various and sundry methods of preparation. My final version was a take on a New York style cheesecake and the feedback was excellent. The feedback on this cheesecake was a little lukewarm but I think that if I liked it, it had to be pretty darn good.

Dorie offers a lot of ideas for playing around and I pondered making it fancier but I also knew that I was going to serve this to an assorted group of friends on New Year's Eve and I thought that perhaps the best route would be to keep it simple and offer some sauces to accompany the cheesecake. I followed the recipe exactly, crust and all. I used 1/3 c heavy cream and 1 c sour cream. I always make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature when I make a cheesecake. I had the water in the kettle for the bain marie and I had triple wrapped the springform pan with heavy duty aluminum foil because mine is a little leaky sometimes anyway and I read Nancy's post about the water getting through her foil and I didn't want to take any chances. Well, I didn't figure out until then that my mom doesn't have a roasting pan big enough for the springform pan to sit in (neither do I for that matter) and I had to improvise. So, I put a pan of the boiling water on the rack directly underneath the cheesecake and crossed my fingers. But all of that stress about triple wrapping the pan was for nothing. The oven was very humid but I'm blaming my lack of a bain marie on the cracks in my cheesecake as well as the dark top. I will say, the cracks faded to almost nothing as the cheesecake cooled. So, I think I'm going to scour the after Christmas sales for a roasting pan. I've wanted one forever but I have no idea where I'm going to keep it in my little Washington kitchen (which isn't actually that little but it's little for all of the kitchen gear I like to accumulate). I am completely taken with the idea of a smooth, pale, non-cracked cheesecake like Dorie shows in her picture. If I hadn't seen proof of other TWD-ers who achieved this I'd think it was photo editing. But, it's possible and I want to try. So, when I find a good deal on a great roasting pan -- it's on!

Thanks to Anne Strawberry for picking such a festive dessert to finish off a wonderful year of TWD blogging.