Xmas Spirit

Thanksgiving was quick and fun - too quick.  For a food holiday it should last longer.

However, it's now time for Christmas and because last year I was accused of not having much spirit - I am determined to jump into the fray and get it started.  I put up our tree (we have to have an artificial one because I am allergic to some evergreens) and I love silver artificial trees.  If it's going to be artificial, I don't want it to fake being something it isn't.

The act of unpacking the ornaments is part of the magic and memory of the holiday.  Each ornament retains a little magic of holiday's past and that's what gets me in the mood.  Tim will be happy this year despite my bah humbug attitude.

Farm Feast is next weekend.  So, I finished making the flood lights for the hall. Have to pick up more candles but next week is it so I hope a lot of people come - the food will be fantastic and although it's in a different location - it should be just as festive.  

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Rib Eye with Horseradish Butter and Root Vegetables

I learned two things this weekend.  The first thing is kind of sad.  One of our favorite cooking mags is going out of business.   Everyday Food which is a staple in our household is no more.  We learned in the last issue that MS Living is absorbing it.  Tragic because we use it all the time where as we don't use recipes from Living at all.  I know MS Omnimedia is having financial problems but this mag was from my standpoint one of the best things they did.  Sad.

The second thing I learned was that I love celery root.  Wow, it's delicious. Tastes almost like parsnips.  As a tribute to Everyday Food - we made one last recipe from them for dinner on Saturday night.  Sheet pan rib eye with root vegetables.  It's supposed to be easy and quick be we found that we had to adjust the time considerably.  That's unusual for the original recipe to be that far off but I guess because they are closing that they didn't double check this one.  It was incredibly easy to make just adjust the broiling time based on how you like your steak cooked.

Rib Eye with Horseradish Butter and Root Vegetables

1 large head celery root, peeled, halved, and cut into 1/4 inch wedges.
2 large carrots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 boneless rib eyes ( 1 pound each; 11/4 inches thick). Excess fat trimmed.
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter room temperature.
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish.
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard.
1/4 cup sliced fresh chives.

1. Heat broiler with rack 8 inches from heat.  On a rimmed baking sheet, toss celery root and carrots with oil and arrange in an even layer.  Pat steaks dry and add to sheet; season vegetables and steaks with salt and pepper.  Broil until vegetables are tender and steaks are browned. 8-10 minutes, flipping vegetables halfway through.  Tent steaks with foil and let rest 10 minutes.

2. Stir together butter, horseradish and mustard season with salt and pepper and spread on steaks.  Sprinkle with chives to serve.

Really simple and Delicious!

Parsnip - Onion Tarte Tatin

We went vegetarian this weekend.  Our favorite kale salad and this tarte. So delicious and light.

Parsnip - Onion Tarte Tatin

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/4 inch rounds and separated into rings
3 springs thyme
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper
3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch rounds
All purpose flour for work surface
1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees .  In a 10 inch ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium-high.  Add onion, thyme, and sugar and cook until onion is softened, about 8 minutes; season with salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to medium and spread onions evenly in pan.  Add parsnips in an even layer.  Cover, and cook until almost tender.  8 minutes.

2. On a lightly floured work surface, trim pastry into a 10 inch round .  Top parsnips with pastry.  Bake until pastry is puffed and golden.  20 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack. 10 minutes, then invert.

Hallway Wallpapered

I love wallpaper.  Change that - I love the idea of wallpaper.  Like tile, I love to shop for it, love to look at it but installing it is always more challenging then it seems.  We don't have a lot of space in the house where I would use wallpaper, however I wanted an accent wall and did it at the end of the hallway.  Like the effect and just need to paint the old dresser white.  

Gingersnap Palmiers

Palmiers are one of my favorite cookies.  I love the caramelized flavor and the flakiness.  Tim made these this weekend as we prepped for Thanksgiving along with Turkey sugar cookies.

Gingersnap Palmiers

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup dark unsulfured molasses
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
14 ounces good-quality thawed frozen puff pastry

1. Bring brown sugar, molasses, ginger, and water to a simmer in a saucepan, whisking until sugar has dissolved.  Simmer until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.  Pour syrup into a bowl, let cool.

2. Whisk granulated sugar, salt , and spices in a bowl.  Lightly sprinkle some sugar mixture over a clean work surface; place puff pastry on top ,  Cut into two 10 x 7 inch pieces.  Sprinkle generously with some sugar mixture; press into pastry with a rolling pin.  Brush generously with syrup.  Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll from both long sides, meeting in the center; brush with syrup to seal.  Sprinkle generously with sugar mixture.  Wrap in plastic, freeze until firm at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

3. Cut each piece of frozen dough crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Dip slices in sugar mixture.  Space 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Flatten with your palm.  Freeze 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Bake 10 minutes.  Flip and brush with syrup.  Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.  Bake until darkened, 10 minutes more.  Let cool completely on wire racks.  Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.
 

Acorn Squash with Mushrooms and Rice

Tim and I love Acorn Squash - we like to experiment with squash and sweet potato recipes this time of year to be able to bring something new to our families' Thanksgiving dinners.  This recipe is absolutely delicious.  We did add more cheese then the recipe called for because we like cheese but add to your taste.

Acorn Squash with Mushrooms and Rice

2 acorn squash (1 pound each)
halved crosswise, seeded, and bottoms trimmed to lie flat, if necessary.

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 pound cremini or button mushrooms, trimmed and diced small
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan ( 2 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, season cut sides of squash with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil, and turn cut sides down. Cover sheet tightly with foil and roast until tender, about 35 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a medium straight sided skillet, heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium high. Add mushrooms, onion, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Saute until mushrooms are golden, 8 minutes.  Add rice and broth and bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook until liquid is absorbed.  20 minutes.

3. Remove squash from oven and heat broiler.  Carefully scoop out 2 to 3 tablespoons flesh from each squash half and stir into rice; season with salt and pepper.  Divide rice mixture among squash halves, sprinkle with Parmesan, and broil until melted.  2 minutes.

Braised Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

What was expected to be a decent weekend upstate ended up being damp and cold again.  Comfort food was on the agenda.  One of our favorite chores during the week is picking the recipes for our meal for Saturday night.  We pour through all sorts of cookbooks and websites looking for options because by Friday we are tired and hungry and want to cook, bake and eat.  Not that we don't eat during the week but we are typically so busy , we order in and usually don't cook ourselves.  The weekend is when we get to experiment and enjoy the space we have in our large kitchen upstate.

So, after pulling a couple options this was our selection for this weekend.  While I painted the hallway  ceiling and finished wrapping burlap around shrubs and met with the Farm Feast crew at the Bovina Library.  Tim worked on Xmas presents and cooked a delicious dinner.

Braised Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds cut into 10 pieces)
Salt and pepper
1 pound brussels sprouts trimmed and halved
2 medium shallots thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees in a large ovenproof skillet. Heat oil over medium high. Season chicken with salt and pepper.  In batches, cook chicken until browned, about 6 minutes per side.  Transfer to a plate, then add brussels sprouts and shallots to pan.  Saute until golden brown.   3 minutes. Stir in mustard and cook 1 minute.  Add vinegar and broth, return chicken to pan, and bring to  a rapid simmer.

2. Transfer pan to oven and braise until chicken is cooked through.  20 to 25 minutes.  Add cream to pan and swirl to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.

Eye Candy

In Alleve coma on sofa... loving new coffee table that got delivered this week.  It's not helping my lower back pain from picking up downed limbs from Hurricane Sandy all morning but it's nice eye candy.

First Snowfall

Quiet weekend.  Cleaning up downed limbs from Hurricane Sandy and icky dead mice in sticky traps in basement.  Time of year that we get mice in our basement when it starts freezing and they come indoors - making me crazy trying to figure out how they get inside.  Pretty light snow - always makes me feel sad that Summer is truly gone.  Eating comfort food and waiting to vote on Tuesday.  Want this election over!!!!

Things To Do While You Are Surviving Hurricane Sandy

MEANWHILE! Before we head out last night, we got an email from a friend of ours who is an audience wrangler for several studio shows filmed in the city. She told us that Wendy Williams needed audience members because so many people can't get into the city. We emailed back saying - OK Sure - not knowing how hungover we would be the next morning but could back out if we weren't up for it. We got emailed back immediately with confirmations for 8 am live show. Hungover, raccoon eyes and black nail polish still intact , we went to the show and had a blast. I actually got complimented on my nail color by one of the production assistants when we showed up at the studio. Fun! Shhhh, don't tell anyone - we are supposed to be working from home on our laptops.

Renegade Halloween Makes Daily Beast

We made the Daily Beast!!!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/01/the-renegade-parade-new-york-city-s-halloween-party-survives.html

Renegade Halloween "Parade"

After 3 days of being cooped up in the apt because of Hurricane Sandy, we really needed last night. A friend of ours, Tim and I had to get out. We decided that despite the ban on the Halloween parade that we were going to go out and have a little adventure despite the NYPD and Bloomberg. We got dressed - I jacked up my hair, put a little eyeliner on, painted my fingernails black and threw on my Lucky Brand skull patterne

d sweater and went as a Preppy Goth Boy. (Boy) hmmmm? Our friend came as a marine and Tim was a "Modern Vampire" - what ever that means.

We went to our default Thai restaurant around the corner - Yum Yum Too ( Yes there is a Yum Yum One and Three) for dinner. While there - this British Guy and his Asian girlfriend have a little love spat which resulted in him throwing his IPhone across the restaurant. I love when couples fight in restaurants. Needless to say, it led to some hilarious bonding with a couple tables around us - one guy writing LOVE? on a napkin and holding it up like a banner calling for peace and happiness. We all ended up showing off our latest new toys on our phones - I didn't realize there is an instant disco strobe light ap that you can get for spontaneous dance parties - Gotta get me that one!

We grabbed a cab and rode down to Washington Square Park. We got out and couldn't believe how dark and empty the entire Village was at that moment - scary, surreal and beautiful all at the same time. You couldn't go into the park because of a patrol cop - so we wandered down to our default bar - Duplex which was all lit up with candles and looked beautiful and we wandered in and started drinking.

Suddenly, we see cop car lights and hear a tuba and looked outside and there is this spontaneous group of people dressed up in fabulous costumes coming down Christopher Street. We walk outside and feel like we just stepped into the party scene from the movie, Short Bus. This amazing group of people who decided despite the horrible events of the three days that the Halloween Parade was going to go on. We jumped into the crowd filled with people dressed in every imaginable costume and a little marching band playing a tuba, accordion and a couple brass instruments. It was amazing. It was like the old days of living in NY. It felt like how the old Halloween parade used to be. People kept joining the crowd and we were all just laughing and dancing and walking through the Village. All of a sudden the police started harrassing people on the sidewalk and they grabbed our friend and pulled him across the street and everyone stopped to watch them start to arrest him. We were standing there shocked - and the crowd started booing at the police - there were now 20 of them and a couple other police cars pulled up. We thought that they were going to arrest him but after the crowd started booing and yelling at the police they let him rejoin us. Big cheers and we all started down the sidewalk. People kept joining the crowd and it ended up being quite a little parade of people celebrating - and then the moon came out and it was such a great moment. You could see the stars last night and you can never see the stars in the city at night. People celebrating that the Halloween parade and the spirit of the parade couldn't be squelched by a Hurricane and the negativity of the Police in this town.

We left the parade by 6th and 18th and wandered over to my old neighborhood - walking through pure darkness and took pics of the building that lost it's facade at the corner of 14th and 8th. Wow, bricks still everywhere and all the belongings of the apt dwellers spilling out from the openings. We grabbed a cab and drove up 8th Ave back to our apt. There are moments in this town that are still so magical. I love NY.

I got back to the apt and I looked like a raccoon - the eyeliner smeared around my eyes looking like a chubby, tired Adam Lambert. However, I went to bed knowing that the spirit of this city is still there and shows itself in the darkest of moments.