New Years Eve dinner

One of my besties and her family were in town for a wedding, so they stayed a few extra days to hang out with us!!
It was a wonderful time.
We decided to stay in the for the evening, since one of our visitors was a 5month old cutie!

I've had Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1 & 2 for a few years, but haven't made anything.  New Years Eve seemed like the perfect time!

Everyone napping while I cook!

I made boeuf bourguignon with mushrooms and onions.  I also made garlic mashed potatoes and G made tomato, cucumber, red onion salad with a pomegranate vinaigrette dressing.

 As an appetizer, I also made these baked cheese bites (found on pinterest) but with goat cheese and homemade green chile jelly! (without the sticks)

Dinner was a hit! and everything was tasty (or so I was told.  I don't eat red meat or pork, so no bourguignon for me!)

Pottery Barn Reindeer table setting.

It only took a few years to get the whole collection!  Love it!

Dessert was pretty difficult :)  A variety of single size ice creams with a few rousing games of rummikub!

We rung in the New Year with Gruet champagne and flipping between Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daly.  Fun times!
It was a wonderful way to ring in 2013!
Hope you had a great New Years and are having a great 2013.
ELH

Coffee Ice Cream

I wanted to use my KitchenAid ice cream maker....so I made coffee ice cream. Looking at the internet most of the recipes only called for tablespoons of instant coffee. I found one recipe where you steep the coffee beans in the hot cream liquid for an hour and then add fresh ground coffee before going in the mixer. It was very tasty and is definitely a keeper recipe!!

Action shots of the ice cream -

New kitchen toys!

My latest tool - red of course!

I do love the color red/cranberry. My favorite crayon as a child was Magenta!
(On a side note, did you know that they make a crayon called Asparagus?? I have that crayon!)

Our kitchen has black appliances, so I wanted to accent it with red.
We have fancy red Peugeot salt and pepper mills, red KitchenAid blender, hand mixer, food processor, tea pot, and now an immersion blender!
I already had a White 350W stand mixer, so GAH wouldn't let me register for a red Artisan stand mixer. Maybe if we get a bigger kitchen ;) or open a bakery....

I used the immersion blender whisk attachment to mix the waffle mix for breakfast. It was fun to use, and yes a little over kill!
I am going to make soup soon and puree it with the immersion blender. It should be fun!

What are some of your favorite kitchen toys?
-ELH

Making your own butter

Today must be Butter Wednesday.
Two of the blogs I read had articles about homemade butter from crème fraîche
and from raw milk.

Since the wedding, I have been trying to use all my kitchen tools to make new things....
Next weekend we are having a family birthday party and my SIL is bringing bread....
I might have to bust out the red KitchenAid food processor and make some homemade creme fraiche butter!

Enjoy!
-ELH

What happened after the Corn Chowder...

Us being silly while watching the sunrise at 10,023 feet on Haleakala Volcano on Maui

The last post was about the success of the new Corn Chowder recipe.
Lets talked about that evening...

We invited our pet-sitter over for dinner. He is a good friend of GH and has done a wonderful job taking care of Molly, Asparagus, and Artichoke (I like random names for pets!)
He is also a drinker, so the boys had a few too many drinks that night. The pet-sitter ended up falling asleep on our couch and GH sort of passed out in bed.

Before I continue, let me tell you about our bedroom TV routine.
GH hates most of the shows I watch, so he picks the show before we go to bed and sets the sleep timer. Usually he picks 90min, I would prefer 30min since I usually fall asleep and wake up before the timer goes off. Waking up again sucks! GH would put the remote behind the pillows and then I would have to find it after waking up. I would usually end up waking GH up and the remote would fall behind the bed, again annoying! So, the new plan is to give me the remote, which I set on my night stand. This has worked wonderfully.

Back to the Corn Chowder night...
GH set the sleep timer and put the remote on his night stand. We fell asleep, I woke up before the timer went off and that is when the fun started. I tapped GH on the back and asked him for the remote. He instead handed me a bottle of Gatorade that was next to the remote. I replied with "thanks, but I wanted the remote." He put the bottle back and fell asleep. A few minutes later, I tapped GH on the shoulder again and asked for the remote. This time he turned to me and growled something vicious about not touching him again (honestly I don't remember the exact words, but it funny and a little scary)!!
WOO! Needless to say I was a little shocked. I just looked and him and considered my options - 1. Crawl over him to get to the night stand - which would probably included touching him...
2. Get out of bed and walk around to the night stand.

I picked #2!
The next morning I asked GH if he remembered what happened and he had no clue. Funny!
I guess I will need to be more vigilant about taking control of the remote before falling asleep.

Enjoy!
-ELH

Corn Chowder

Sunset in Maui.

We got a lot of cool kitchen tools for the wedding and a few cook books to test out the toys!
The past week, I have been cooking from Real Simple, Best Recipes (Thanks Liz!)
I made Golden Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives. It was pretty good, but I used long-grain brown rice that pretty much turned to mush. Next time, I'll stick with minute rice!

Chocolate Pots - basically chocolate mousse/pudding that I put in our Cobalt LeCreuset
I served it with Sea Salt Olive Oil ice cream that I made with my KitchenAid mixer ice cream attachment. The recipe came from Desert Candy.

On Wednesday, I made Smoky Corn Chowder using our new blender and Red LeCreuset soup pot. Serves 4 as main dish, 6 as a side dish.

8oz sliced bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces (I used turkey bacon and cooked it with olive oil, salt, and pepper)
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (we like garlic, so I probably added 5 cloves!)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (skipped this)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (used fresh crushed chile from New Mexico and probably added 1 tablespoon! We like it hot!)
20oz of frozen corn
3cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup half-and-half (used fat free version since it is what GAH puts in his coffee)
Scallions, thinly sliced
1 baguette

-Cook bacon until crisp (6 to 8 min). Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
-Spoon off and discard all but 2 tablespoons of the drippings and return the pan to medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, and red pepper and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.
-Stir in the corn, broth, and half-and-half and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer half the soup to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the pot and stir in 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper.
-Divide the soup among bowls and top with the scallions and bacon. Serve with bread.

Now I really wish that I had an immersion blender!
Enjoy
-ELH