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how to make your own perfect mashed potatoes
Well, here’s the thing: I really can’t give you the exact recipe for perfect mashed potatoes, but I can tell you all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years so that you can make your very own mashed potatoes that you will deem perfect.
The only thing I stand by when making mashed potatoes is this: MASHED POTATOES SHOULD NEVER COME FROM A BOX!!! That is an absolute rule with me, and I never bend. I have never eaten potato flakes/potato pearls and been duped into thinking they are a) real or b) good. Oh, how I struggled my freshman year of college when that was all the cafeteria served!! But listen, if you like potato pearls, or potato flakes, that’s okay. We’re still cool.
But, you know, maybe you never make the real thing because you’ve only ever had a cruddy potato peeler. Here’s my solution: an Oxo Good Grips potato peeler. They cost about 8 bucks, but will be making you a happy potato/apple/vegetable peeler for years and years. Mine has lasted over ten years (which is more than I can say for some other things in my life).
(Is it just me, or does my son wear this shirt an awful lot in these pictures?)
much to be grateful for: a thanksgiving with friends
This year, as my family’s new life twists and unfolds in ways we never expected, I reflect on the ways close and true friends are absolutely vital. My three children and I recently moved into the home of friends who have willingly and unselfishly opened their doors to us. I can never repay them for as long as I live, but I will most certainly try. Angie, the friend I am staying with, was a roommate in college, and over the years, has invited me to join with her in countless family gatherings. Those experiences meant the world to me when I was thousands of miles from home.
Nearby to where we currently live, are friends I have made over the years who are just as good and true as Angie, and have been my safe haven these last several months. They have given me advice, called me several times a week to be sure I am doing alright, taken me to dinner, or simply been a listening ear. In addition to these friends are the ones I left behind in my last home, who were equally faithful. I don’t believe I have done anything to deserve any of these people’s friendship, but nevertheless, there they are. And I love them.
I have mentioned Shannon before on my blog. She is an amazing person. I love her home. It is lovely. She and her husband have made it into something special that is all their own. From the wood shop in the back, to the tree fort in the side yard, to the garden and the chickens they keep, I observe their life in admiration every time I visit. She and her husband are endlessly talented, and I feel it a privilege to know them.
Last week they agreed to let me have a little Thanksgiving at their house for the blog. Shannon and I cooked all day, and had a great time. The kids played, helped with the meal, and even chased the chickens back into their pens. To my delight, just before dinner, Shannon lit a fire in the fire place. As she did, I felt a pang of longing for my home in Massachusetts. But really, when I am with any of these my friends, who mean so much to me, I am home.
For our menu, which I will be sharing throughout the week, was the artisan bread stuffing with sausage and apricots, braised Brussels sprouts with caramelized shallots (listed below), mashed potatoes and gravy, and sweet potato mash with candied pear (also listed below). Shannon made the turkey, and I will share her techniques later this week. For dessert, we ate a pumpkin crème caramel, which you won’t want to miss.
In case you were wondering, Shannon took that picture of my hands grating the orange zest into the cranberries, and if you’d like that recipe, click here.
artisan bread stuffing with sausage and apricots
A certain family member used to always beg for a certain kind of stuffing every year. Oh, don’t worry, he didn’t insist on Stove Top or anything (cranberry sauce was a different matter entirely, but we won’t go there—or maybe we will. You can’t marry someone who grew up 20 minutes away from where the Pilgrims landed, who had a bus stop at a cranberry bog all through high school, and then expect her to condone cranberry sauce from a can. I’m sorry, you just can’t! In case you’re wondering, my cranberry sauce can help cure people of cranberry sauce aversion, and addiction to canned cranberry sauce. Click here for the recipe).
Anyway! He actually used to insist on Martha Stewart’s Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing, which I made for the first time back in 2003, and made every Thanksgiving up until last year.
In light of unfolding events last Thanksgiving (if you’re out of the loop, click here), I felt at liberty to finally try out a new recipe that had been brewing in my head for some time.
Remember that movie Hanging Up
The first people to taste this stuffing outside last year’s guest-less Richardson Thanksgiving table, were the fine folks at For Your Kitchen in Ogden, Utah. Last Saturday I taught a little class there on Thanksgiving side dishes, and it was great to meet lots of people, cook, share ideas, and eat. If you’re in the neighborhood, I’ll actually be teaching another class in December on time saving Christmas cookies. It’ll be fun, so if you want to come, sign up as soon as you can!
roasted pumpkin slices
These roasted pumpkin slices are a sweet and inviting treat after a long walk home from the bus stop. They’re easy to make and are filled with hints of Halloween and Thanksgiving (not to mention Vitamin A).
I saw the idea once in an old Martha Stewart Living in the “Good Things” section. I’ve always wanted to make them, and though I don’t have any of my magazines with me right now, I thought I’d make up my own version.
I’m kinda liking these themed weeks, how about you? (I’d say it’s about time to post something in the well-read or well-bred categories, but all in good time, right?)
This week will be all pumpkin recipes.
And speaking of my other two categories, do any of you have any suggestions? What should I write about for good reading and good breeding?
panzanella caprese
The other day, my friend Shannon and I were sitting at her table in her lovely home eating a panzanella salad made mostly of things from her garden. Her tomatoes were perfect, in all different colors and varieties, and I started to wish the whole salad were just the croutons and tomatoes and basil.
She said she liked the croutons the best too, and I thought it would be good to make my next panzanella with mostly those ingredients, like a caprese salad. All I did was take away the peppers and cucumbers, and added in some fresh mozzarella. It’s the best two salads all in one. I hope you enjoy it, too.
how to caramelize onions
Oh, how I love these!
The two keys to really good caramelized onions seem to be time and low temperature. High temperatures will cause the onions to cook too quickly and burn on the edges. If you don’t have much time, though, as is usually the case with me, you can raise the temperature to about medium. Just be sure to keep an eye on them, and stir them frequently.
I made these specifically for the sandwiches Brooke and I ate at our picnic, but they would be delightful in a warm pasta salad, mashed potatoes, or an omelette.
how to roast a pepper
On Monday, I’ll be posting about a picnic I had with Brooke from Conversations With a Cupcake. She was in charge of the kids’ food, and I as in charge of the grownups’ food, so I decided to make sandwiches that we would love but the kids would probably hate. How better to do that than layering them with roasted bell peppers? (Not to mention caramelized onions, which are coming soon).
money saving bread and my new philosophy on eating
Well at least, when you’re trying to save money, don’t sacrifice good food. Just find cheaper ways to make it.
Okay, so everyone is looking for ways to save lately, and I have to admit, sometimes the idea of it makes me cringe, especially when I imagine skimping on food. I like cane sugar, not beet sugar, or better yet, organic evaporated cane juice. Margarine or Crisco is definitely out of the question, so we won’t even go there. And why should I use the no name brand of chocolate chips when Ghiradelli and Guittard chocolate chips taste so much better because they use real vanilla? I don’t believe in enriching the lives of food companies that want to pull the polyester tablecloth over our eyes by pumping everything full of artificial this and that and long lists of preservatives. We may be saving money on our end, but they’re making more off of us by cutting corners.
Over the years, I have been the smart shopper in the sense that I don’t come home with a humongous cart full of refined junk for only $89.76, but instead I try (try) to buy less food, but of a higher quality (Of course, that’s when dad comes home, looks at the refrigerator, and charters a large Costco run to get “real food”).
The thing I have discovered in the last year, is that Americans really eat WAY more than we have to. We really do.
We buy efficient houses, we talk about buying efficient cars. But then, when it comes to food, we say How much of this pizza can I cram into my stomach at once? Then we think, Oh crap, I have to burn this all off! Burning it off means hours at the gym, hundreds of dollars on diets, blah blah blah.
I think God made our bodies efficient for a purpose. We don’t need to eat as much as we have all been programmed. We can actually eat less, save money, have more time.
Have you heard of that study about the rats? (Which study, Jaime? There are about a million.) Well, once on the Discovery Channel, I saw this show Human Body: Pushing the Limits. The episode on Brainpower talks about how our bodies are capable of extreme efficiency. It talked about these rats: one group was given a normal diet, the other group was given half the normal diet. Many of the ones with the smaller diet lived twice as long as the rats with the normal diet. The show suggests that these findings are applicable to humans, and that humans who drastically reduce their caloric intake can have much healthier hearts and even healthier lives (Don’t worry though, the guy they featured was eating 2000 calories, and they were calling it close to starvation mode. If I’m not mistaken, 2000 is the FDA’s recommendation). Here’s the video clip:
Now certainly, you’ve seen my website. I LOVE good food. But now, in recent months, my philosophy has turned more toward my afore written ranting. I am now trying to curtail what I eat, and try contenting myself more with simple food on most days (you can imagine my children are only slowly getting on board). Then, I pick a few moments here and there to eat great, delicious, crave-worthy food (like s’mores bars, or tres leches cake with chocolate ganache, or lemon cloud cupcakes. Mmmmm…..). It seems to be working well for me.
So after all of that, here’s a recipe for white bread. Ha Ha Ha!!! I began this post talking about saving money, and then it turned to a quality not quantity thing, and then my diet philosophy. Now I’m promoting a bread with zero nutrition. Ha! Well, I’m definitely not perfect!
But don’t worry, white flour can easily be swapped out with whole wheat flour (which I actually do all the time). I just add 2 more tablespoons of oil and use 4 tablespoons of honey instead of the 2 tablespoons of brown rice syrup.
Back to saving money.
This recipe is really versatile for bread, rolls, whatever, and is even great as hamburger rolls. This makes 6 large hamburger buns (you could also make hot dog buns), with no preservatives, no bleached flour, and no refined sugar, for about $0.75, if that. That’s definitely cheaper than what I would find at Whole Foods or a regular bakery, which still wouldn’t be as good of quality as homemade. I think that’s a pretty good deal, don’t you?
greek yogurt with honey and figs
My daughter, of course, wouldn’t touch this dish, even though it looks like a sunflower. My sons, however, did like it, especially the yogurt in the middle.
Some of these ingredients may be a little hard to find if you aren’t in a nicer grocery store. I found the figs and the Greek yogurt at Whole Foods, one of my favorite places on the planet. If you can’t find a Greek yogurt, substitute it for a vanilla whole milk yogurt, and drain it the same way as the directions. If you can’t find figs, you could also use pears, or strawberries, or anything else you would like.
Also, if you don’t have a cheese cloth, that’s okay. just use a couple layers of white paper towels. I used cheese cloth because the lines look pretty on the yogurt.
talamee
Connie, our wonderful guest mom, is back with us again and shares her recipe of talamee, a traditional Syrian flat bread. She and her husband came to our house a couple weeks ago to show me how to make it. This recipe makes a ton, so be ready to freeze what you don’t use the first day.
With our leftovers, we sliced the bread through the middle like a big ciabatta loaf and covered with sauce and cheese to make pizza. Then this morning, I mixed up some eggs, milk, cinnamon, and sugar. I crumbled the talamee into rough 1 inch pieced and dredged it in the eggs and milk mixture. I grilled it all together in a nonstick pan and made a cross between bread pudding and French toast. Yum.
talamee and family traditions, by Connie
My father was raised mostly by his Lebanese grandmother. She had already done her fair share of raising children, having 17 of her own, but when her daughter had to go to work in another state, she took in her two young grandsons.
