Culinary Cafe

Mulling the Holidays

Candie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:10:06 +0000

Do you have one seasoning that you use in almost every dish you make? My favorite seasoning during the holiday season is my blend of Mulling spices. This seasoning contains whole allspice, cloves, cinnamon chunks, and dried orange peel. I make a mulled wine for cozy adult evenings, a much loved mulled cider that I serve at all family gatherings. My favorite use of my mulling spices is an incredible brine that I use on pork, chicken and most importantly my holiday turkeys. Brining the turkey for 24 hours makes for an extremely juicy and flavorful turkey. I must admit I also deep fry my turkeys and that has a lot to do with the juiciness but the flavor is all due to the brine.

Check out my Roasted Brined Turkey, Hot Mulled Cider and Mulled Wine recipes.

Mulled Wine

Candie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:55:04 +0000

Summary

Yield	6
Prep Time	30 minutes
Recipes	Alcoholic

Description

Wonderful for relaxed gatherings during the cold winter months. This recipe can make a satin purse out of a pigs ear bottle of wine. Feel free to use your cheapest bottles of wine for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 bottle of wine (you can use almost any type)
2 tbsp Mulling Spices (Cinnamon,cloves, allspice, orange peel)
2 tbsp Brown Sugar (adjust to taste)

Instructions

Place the wine, spices and sugar in a crock pot and allow to simmer for 20 minutes before serving. You can leave the seasoning in the wine and just add more wine and maybe a bit of sugar if you decide that one bottle is not enough.

Notes

Dry and semi-dry wines tend to be my favorites for mulled wine.

My Fall Food Chore List

Candie — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:58:44 +0000

Fall is a busy time. We get to deal with all those veggies and fruit you grew or was given to you. I also have black walnut treas in abundance around my property and this year I actually want to get as many nut meats as I possibly can. So I currently have a long list of chores to get done before everything rots. The first was to process the incredibly abundant Concord grapes and I think I ended up with about 3 gallons of grape jelly. Between that and the several gallons of strawberry preserves I made this spring and my kids should be set with PB&J for the next year. My next task is to make hot sauce from the Bulgarian carrots and random hot peppers my father-in-law gave me. I want to also make applesauce but the rain is keeping me from picking my apples at the moment. We had a hard freeze a couple days ago so I will be collecting black walnuts in the next day or two. I think I will deposit them in the drive and see how much husk I can get off with the car without crushing them. I will be sure to take as many pictures as I can and update you all with the progress.

Autumn has arrived!

Candie — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:54:23 +0000

Life is trying really hard to keep me from posting but today I am bound and determined that I am going to get it done. Fall officially arrived and this weekend I harvested my grapes and got almost 2 bushel of huge concord grapes. This was a wonderful year for grapes and I have never had my vines turn out such large and sweet grapes. My pumpkins and winter squash are still going very strong but they are forecasting a frost for tonight and if it is cold enough to kill my plants I will have to harvest the bumper crop of squash hiding among the 40x40 square that is currently just a sea of plants. I have already harvested most of my huge Jack O' Lantern pumpkins. Only two huge pumpkins that are to big for me to carry and that are still growing remain in the patch. Here is a (blurry) picture of those monsters.

This fall weather has me craving turkey. My family loves turkey and begs for me to deep fry them for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I usually keep a couple frozen turkeys in the freezer for when I get the hankering for turkey. My freezer is devoid of turkeys at the moment because I didn't find any good sales on them last year so I am keeping my eyes open for a good deal so I can stock my freezer again. When I prepare turkey whether I am frying or roasting them I always take the time to brine them. Brining them makes them juice and oh so flavorful. I use my Roast Brined Turkey recipe as a base but instead of the cloves, and allspice I use 3 tablespoons of Mulling Spices. A few years back I created a Mulling Spice blend that contains allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and orange peel. It is great for mulling wine and cider but I absolutely love it for brining any poultry or pork.

To make up for my recent absence today I am giving away a tin of my Mulling Spices and a tin of Cream Earl Grey Tea. I will pick two winners to receive one of these items. Just comment on this post and tell me about your fall experiences so far this year.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

Candie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:16:50 +0000

Summary

Yield	1
Prep Time	1 1⁄2 hours
Recipes	Pies

Description

This decadently rich pie is extremely easy to make but don't tell your family or they will have you making it every night. Drizzle with chocolate syrup before serving for an additional wow factor.

Ingredients

unbaked pie crust
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 - 8 oz package Cool Whip, thawed

Beverage Pairings

Instructions

Blind bake your pie crust at 400F for 15 minutes. Before baking poke crust or use pie weights to keep crust from bubbling up. Let crust cool before adding filling.

Whip peanut butter with cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar carefully and whip until incorporated. Add the thawed Cool Whip or if you are as impatient as me I put my Cool Whip in the Microwave for 1 minute to soften it enough to use. Whip until smooth, the sides of the bowl will most likely have to be scraped.

Pour filling into crust and smooth with a knife or spatula. Freeze for at lease one hour before serving. Can be topped with addition whipped cream but it is not needed.

Notes

This pie is so rich you will want to slice it small and serve it will one of the two strong teas I have suggested to cut the sweet creaminess.

Labor Day Menu Wrap-up

Candie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:36:46 +0000

The party was a rousing success! Far more people than I expected showed up and we had a grand time. The menu turned out pretty much how I planned except I left out the potato packets because I ended up with Amish potato salad instead. One thing that surprised me was how fast the Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno's were devoured. I had made half of them with my home-grown Bulgarian carrot peppers that are very flavorful but also very spicy. We learned that even a single seed left in them will make your eyes water. Even with the heat lottery going on we ended up making a second batch later in the night. I will be posting my new frozen peanut butter pie recipe today because this pie was devoured with as must gusto as the peppers. My husband was actually happy that my rhubarb pie didn't go over so well because that left more for him. I have to also thank those that brought other goodies. We had deviled eggs, veggie trays, chocolate éclair pie(cake? Not sure but I have to get the recipe), a wonderful little appetizer interestingly name "Hanky Panky" and a delicious watermelon. I also added a couple more drinks to my bar tending repertoire including alien secretions and illegal aliens. Both of these drinks included Midori which is a incredible melon (tastes more like honey dew melon than watermelon to me) liquor. The illegal alien recipe was born after we made margaritas and wondered what it would be like with a hit of Midori… well needless to say it was a hit and we decided it was so good it should be illegal.

I have been recovering most of this week from my long and tiring weekend. I had tons of fun but I needed a ton of sleep to get my energy back this week. You should see me make up for the slow week by posting these wonderful recipes from the party.

Updating my Labor Day Plans

Candie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:03:26 +0000

I realized I forgot the Bay leaf in the brine for the Grilled Chicken recipe and I forgot to link to recipes as I put them online in the menu.

Now I just have to figure out what I am going to server as munchies until my brother gets off work.

Potato Packets

Candie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:09:13 +0000

Summary

Yield	6
Source	Ree at Pioneerwoman.com
Prep Time	1 hour
Recipes	Potato

Description

An extremely easy potato side dish that can be cooked either in the oven or my favorite way is on the grill. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a splash of chives or scallions.

Ingredients

6 Russet potatoes, cut into chunks
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6 tbsp Butter (regular, salted)
1 pint Heavy cream
Kosher salt
<p>Paprika</p>
Garlic, granulated
Freshly ground black pepper
Basil, dried
2 Tablespoons minced parsley

Beverage Pairings

Instructions

Pile potatoes and onions on a square of foil. Add 1 tablespoons butter, splash on a little more than a tablespoon of cream, then sprinkle on salt, paprika, garlic, basil and black pepper. Wrap bundles tightly and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until extremely tender. If you are grilling don't be afraid to throw these on the grill but not over direct heat.

These cute little foil packets can be served right on the plate! Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a splash of chives or scallions.

Grilled Chicken

Candie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:58:45 +0000

Summary

Yield	4
Prep Time	3 hours
Recipes	Barbecue

Description

This chicken is guaranteed winner every time I make it. Even people who say they don't care for grilled chicken come back for more of this chicken.

Ingredients

4 cups water
1 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup black pepper, ground
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup cider vinegar
Quartered Chicken Parts, any quantity you need
Lemon pepper seasoning, to taste
Granulated garlic, to taste
1/4 cup mulling spices, whole
1 bay leaf

Beverage Pairings

Instructions

Bring water to boil in saucepan and add kosher salt, pepper, sugar, bay leaf and mulling spices. Stir and turn down to simmer for 5 minutes than turn off heat and let cool for 30 minutes. Add vinegar to cooled brine.

Rinse chicken and remove extra fat. Place chicken in a non-reactive container and add 2 water glasses full of ice. Poor brine mixture over chicken and ice, cover and let stand for 1-2 hours. Remove chicken from brine but do not rinse. Sprinkle with lemon pepper and granulated garlic and maybe a bit of salt depending on how salty your lemon pepper seasoning is.

This chicken should be grilled indirectly so only put coals on one side of your grill or only light one side of your gas grill. Get the grill hot and place the chicken on the cooler side of the grill until juices run clear. To get the grilled crispy skin move chicken to hot side just before removing from grill. Cooking your chicken with this method not only makes for very flavorful and juicy chicken but it also doesn't need watched carefully, just rotate the pieces every 15 minutes or so that everything cooks evenly.

Notes

The key to this chicken is in the brine. Do not try to brine overnight because the chicken will become to salty. Keep the brine time to 1-2 hours for best results.

Labor Day Menu

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:15:51 +0000

I was horrified when asked this weekend what I was planning for the following weekend for Labor Day. I had no ideas Labor Day had snuck up on me. I always throw a party for Labor Day weekend. My brother and one of my best friends birthdays always fall around Labor Day so started a tradition of throwing Labor Day parties many years ago. Unfortunately I am recovering from some type of flu so I couldn't feel less like planning for a party.

Luckily Ree over at Pioneer Woman is more energetic than I am and her Labor Day menu was able to spur me on to plan my own. I am going to borrow a few things from her menu like her Potato Bundles which I will be revamping in my own way and posting here this week. With a garden full of spicy Bulgarian Peppers waiting for me I will have to try her Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. I am going to have to buy some actual Jalapenos so that the weaker stomached of the group can still enjoy them. The Bulgarians have incredible flavor but their heat can peel the paint off your car. I am not sure how I can improve on her recipe for them but I will let you know if I decide I can make it better. I may even try a hand at her Favorite Burger recipe. This one I know I will be changing up. I just can't make a recipe as it is listed on the page. I think that is why I am not the best baker. Baking is a science and cooking is an art.. I am much more of an artist than a scientist.

This is what my menu is looking like at the moment. I am sure it will change 3 or 4 times before Saturday.

Grilled Chicken
Hamburgers - recipe will be posted
Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies
Amish Macaroni Salad - I must admit I buy this at Wal-Mart but I will work on a recipe
Potato Packets

Peanut butter Pie - I think I have one on the site at the moment but his is a no cook version that I will be posting
Rhubarb Custard Pie

As you can see I have a lot of recipe work to get done this week. I imagine I won't be posting an more pictures until next week when I can do a nice wrap up post.