new year...

in our home new year's was accompanied by tamales, menudo, bunuelos, black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread...yes, mexicans from texas can blend cultures like no others...but it was all part of the celebration and ritual for good luck in the new year and you can't mess with that...so, the best of new years, all the luck you can handle, a warm place, good friends and a full belly...

Awesome Mushroom Pâté...

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• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely ground dried mushrooms (a mini food processor should be able to grind a big handful of dried mushrooms)
• 13 ounces mixed mushrooms, caps quartered, stems roughly chopped (unless they're inedible)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, left whole and in their paper jackets
• About 8 whole stems of thyme
• Kosher salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 3 ounces Neufchatel cheese
• 1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, packed
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Truffle oil, for drizzling
• Baguette, thinly sliced, for serving

Procedures

1. 1
   Preheat the broiler. Put a wide ovensafe braising pot on the stove over medium-high heat.
2. 2
   Add the olive oil to the hot pot, followed immediately by the mushrooms, dried mushrooms, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss everything together with tongs so the mushrooms are well coated with the hot olive oil. Put the mushrooms about 5 to 6 inches from the broiler and cook for 15 minutes, tossing once. The residual heat from preheating the pot will help brown the mushrooms. Scrape everything out of the mushroom pot into a bowl to cool.
3. 3
   When the mushrooms are room temperature, set aside 1/4 cup for garnish. Put the rest of the mushrooms in the food processor with the Neufchatel, parsley, and lemon juice. Whiz until smooth. Taste, and adjust the seasoning. Decant to a pretty bowl, then drizzle with truffle oil, top with the reserved mushrooms, and serve with thinly sliced baguette.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/12/awesome-mushroom-pate-recipe.html

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and mint. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

Mini Corn Dog Muffins...

found this at the 'baking bad' blog...how ingenious!...i would just use home-made and fresh...love the taste of fresh jalapenos...and as i said, you can even make them vegan...

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

from Baking Bad original



Ingredients:

1 package of hot dogs, sliced

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1/3 cup water (for mix)

1 egg (for mix)

5 pickled jalapenos, chopped (optional)



Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a mini muffin tin generously.

Mix cornbread according to directions on box.  Add the hotdogs and jalapenos.

Fill each well with mixture.  Bake for 13-18 minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes.  Serve with favorite corn dog toppings. Enjoy!


change everything to fresh and healthy...you can even make these vegan...

and cheese...there should be cheese...even vegan cheese...

just like grandma used to make...

i follow a lot of food blogs and this recipe had to shared...


Recipe: Grandma’s Old Fashioned Elixirs Hot Toddy Cold Remedy
©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish
Prep time: 10 min || Yield: Makes 1

Ingredients
1 oversized mug
8 ounces of boiling water
1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
3 whole cloves
Cinnamon stick
2 green tea or orange pekoe tea bags
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and/or a splash of apple cider vinegar
1 to 2 ounces of Jack Daniels whiskey
Slice of lemon
Instructions

Boil the water, stir in the ginger, cloves and cinnamon stick; add the tea bags and steep for 5 minutes. Remove the bags. Zap in the microwave for 1 minute to get it back real hot, then stir in the honey, lemon juice and last, the whiskey. Drop in lemon slice. Drink it while it is still very hot, take a warm bath with some essential oils and crawl up in the bed.

If you’re not really accustomed to the liquor taste, you can add extra honey, or even sugar to help sweeten it more and mask it a bit, but don’t skip the honey. Taste before adding the sugar, then add a little, taste, etc.

Can substitute other alcohol in a pinch such as Wild Turkey, rum, scotch, or brandy. Can also omit the water and use hot apple cider.

The Perfect Apple Cake...

The Perfect Apple Cake...

A long love affair with fall apples led me on my quest for the perfect apple cake. I've already got the pie thing down. When trying different cake recipes, I found the right combination, from using different techniques and varying quantities from several recipes, all mashed into one. My. Perfect. Version.This cake is moist, but with a great crumb, soft apples punctuated by fragrant nutmeg, and vanilla.

MAKES ONE 8 INCH DEEP DISH CAKE

Ingredients:

• 2 sourish apples (granny smith, jonathon, ect)
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Honey
• 1/2 cup almond milk (or soy or regular milk, i just prefer the almond)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Peel, core, and slice the apples. With half of the apples, turn the slices, and chop three or four times, to get a large dice.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt until blended, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and honey and beat until fluffy. Add each egg, one at a time, mixing in between, then the vanilla. Scrape your bowl and beat again **I know this seems like a lot of steps, when really, you just want to throw it all in the bowl at once, and mix like a maniac. But, I must stress, that going slowly in this order, really does ensure proper incorporation of all ingredients, and ultimately leads to a more tender cake, and one that doesn't fall in the oven, or rise improperly. So, please do resist the urge to mix everything together at once**
4. Finally, beat in the milk. At this point, the batter will look kind of weird, like its curdled, don't worry, I promise it will come together when you add the flour. So, on that note, add the flour mixture, and beat until you get a smooth, creamy, beige batter. Woo hoo!
5. Now stir in your chopped apples, and spread into the prepped pan. Arrange the apple slices, overlapping them slightly, in a circular pattern over the batter.
6. Put the pan on the top rack of your preheated 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes. Like with all cakes, this guy is done when a toothpick (or dried spaghetti noodle, is what I use) inserted into the center comes out dry. Allow cake to cool for a little while, and remove the sides of the pan. Voila! Its yummy, all by itself, no additional adornments needed... not even ice cream, which is a revelation for me...

Voila! Its yummy, all by itself, no additional adornments needed... not even ice cream, which is a revelation for me...:

Chocolate Caramel Tart

this is so many different kinds of wrong!...yum...





Chocolate Caramel Tart (adapted from Claudia Fleming > Marlow & Sons > Saveur)

For the Chocolate Tart Dough

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

For the Caramel Filling

• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche

For the Chocolate Ganache

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 1/2 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Make the tart dough: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and confectioners’ sugar until combined, about 1 minute. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Sift in flour and cocoa powder, and beat on low speed until just combined. Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and form it into a disk; wrap well. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

Preheat oven to 325° F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the tart dough into a large circle 3/16 inch thick. Transfer the tart dough to a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and press into pan. If it falls apart at all just push it back together in the pan. Chill the tart shell in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Prick the shell all over with a fork.  Line with parchment paper filled with pie weights or dried beans and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights, and bake until the pastry looks dry and set, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool. (The tart shell can be made 8 hours ahead.)

Make the filling: Place 1/2 cup water in a large saucepan. Add sugar and corn syrup, and cook mixture over medium-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it becomes a dark-amber caramel (I removed it when it was sort of a medium amber since I knew it would continue to cook off heat), about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and carefully (the mixture will bubble up) and slowly add the heavy cream followed by the butter and crème fraîche. Stir until smooth. (The caramel can be made up to 5 days ahead and refrigerated in a covered container.) Pour the caramel into the cooled tart shell and allow to set, first at room temperature and then in the regrigerator.

Make the ganache glaze: Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and let stand for 2 minutes, then stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Pour the ganazhe over the tart. Refrigerate until set.

Remove the tart from the refridgerator 5-10 minutes before you are ready to serve it. Cut the tart into slices and sprinkle each with Fleur de Sel.