Monthly Archives: October 2012

Bovine Bounty Winner

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Before Sandy blows off our roof and wipes out our power for a week, I wanted to post the winner of the first Subee’s Kitchen giveaway. Congratulations to Dani F., who will receive this “bovine bounty” bag of dairy-themed gifts! (Winner selected using Random.com.) Dani posted that one of her favorite uses for cheese is her friend Karen’s cheese puff appetizers. Maybe Karen will share her recipe? I love a good cheese puff.

By the way, the cauliflower gratin recipe I promised is still in the works. I made one with cheese and cream the other day, which was rich (imagine that) and delicious, especially served alongside pork tenderloin braised in apple cider. Next I was going to try a version with a white sauce (flour/butter/milk) instead of cream to see which one I liked better. However, this effort has been stalled by Halloween parties and Sandy preparations (gas, water, wine, cat food), so please stay tuned. If we’re in the dark this week, I’ll be posting some “use up the food that’s in the fridge” creations until the laptop runs out of juice.

Speaking of creations, I came up with this one today on the way to Target. I already had the devil costume and shiny white fabric in the attic (I think I’ve alluded to my pack-rat tendencies?), so I just needed to pick up a plastic yellow bowl along with the bottled water and paper towels. Can you figure out what I am?

A Deviled Egg!

Ice Cream Sand-Witch

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Has this ever happened to you?

You duck into the grocery store for one thing (something you need for a recipe and/or forgot from the last visit to the store). Once in the store you start thinking about other things you need, and soon you have a cart full of stuff. (And of course you didn’t bring your reusable bags in from the car because you were only supposed to be getting one thing.) All this, and by the time you get home you realize you forgot the one thing you went to the store for in the first place.

This just happened to me today, and not for the first time.  I think I should coin it “Grocery Store ADD”, and shopping lists are the only way to cure it. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother making a list because I was only supposed to be getting one thing – gruyère cheese for my cauliflower gratin. The cheese never made it home. Before I could get to the cheese aisle, I had to pass some Halloween displays and the ice cream aisle end cap display. This is what got me derailed:

I’d never noticed this product before, and instantly I had an idea that got me all excited (and forgetful, apparently).  The wheels were turning.

With a few store-bought products and the vanilla ice cream I had at home, I could quickly whip up some ice cream witches’ hats for after school snacks. By cutting down the cones, the portion of ice cream becomes just right for kids (or, ahem, moms).

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Say Cheese (and Win!)

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To say that we like our dairy products here in the Kitchen is a bit of an understatement.  With almost a year of blog recipes under (or over?) my belt, I took a look back and found that all but a handful called for some sort of dairy product(s). It seems Julia Child, most chefs everywhere and I are all in agreement: everything tastes better with butter (or cream or cheese).

That said, I saw no conflict of interest whatsoever when the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council invited me up to the Finger Lakes region of New York to learn about modern dairy farming and (of course!) taste a few products.

So this past Friday, my friend Amy and I set out for Canandaigua, NY– about a 5-hour drive from where we live. With the alternative weekend plans being 5 hours standing around on a soccer field, this was an easy decision. (Did I mention the product tasting?)

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Zero-Calorie* Creamy Vegetable Soup

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OK – technically speaking, this soup has 96.5 calories per serving (still a bargain), but since you can burn 100 calories by cooking for 34 minutes, this soup nets you zero calories. That’s my kind of math! (Similar to “subscribe and save 80% off the newsstand price” or “buy 2 pairs of shoes, get the 3rd pair free”; how can you go wrong?)

(Calorie information is from sparkpeople.com. I was excited to learn that you can also burn 100 calories by rearranging furniture for 14 minutes – finally justification for one of my favorite pastimes!)

Besides having “zero” calories, this soup 1) tastes rich and complex, 2) is gluten and dairy-free, and 3) contains four types of vegetables but no one will ever know. (We have some vegetable-phobes in our house.) And – like any pureed soup, it can also be dressed up for Halloween with a sour cream spider web.  This will up the calorie count a little, but will keep the attention away from the exact contents of the soup. (I called it Mystery Soup.)

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Deca-dent

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This seems impossible, but my baby girl turns 10 today.  A whole decade – whoosh! I know this time warp happens to all parents, but I still feel blindsided. Luckily there is a tiny bit of leftover birthday cake from this weekend’s festivities to console me.

Initially I had big plans for a Cake Boss-esque masterpiece – maybe a fondant-covered purse cake or something appropriately bling-y for a 10-year-old girl. But then I came to my senses! There was no way that was going to happen this weekend between soccer practices, soccer games and Grandma Jean’s 80th birthday celebration. So on to Plan B: this candy-embellished cake made a big impact and took less than 20 minutes to decorate, including the homemade frosting. Whether making a cake or savoring childhood, every minute counts.

10 years ago . . .

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Harvest Salad with Apple, Blue Cheese & Maple-Glazed Walnuts

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Normally I’d have a lot to say about a salad as beautiful as this. I’d talk about the perfect balance of sweet and tart, tender and crisp. A feast for the eyes as well as the palate. Autumn on a plate. Something old, something new, something borrowed, some cheese blue. And so on. However, I’ve waited until the last minute (once again) to iron and sew on Girl Scout uniform insignia for a meeting tomorrow, and there are way too many dishes piled up in the sink for me to expound upon this lovely salad at the present time. So I’ll be brief: Honeycrisp apples + candied walnuts + blue cheese + lettuce + vinaigrette = a delicious and satisfying fall salad. If only the new “Everyday Mathematics” were this simple! (Partial sums and column addition, anyone?)

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After-ghoul Snack

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I promised my husband I wouldn’t get carried away with the Halloween blog posting, but the kids still need a healthy after-school snack, don’t they?

Orange bell peppers make festive (and edible) dip vessels, and are a lot easier to carve than pumpkins.

Cut off the tops like you would for a jack-o-lantern, then use a grapefruit knife (what do you mean you don’t have one?) or your hands to remove the inner membranes. Rinse out any seeds.

Carve a simple jack-o-lantern face. My nose and mouth were a little too low; try to keep the “face” on the flat part of the pepper, before it curves under. This will keep the filling from oozing out too much.

Fill with a dark-colored dip, such as black bean or a 50/50 mixture of hummus and olive tapenade. (The stuff Peyton Manning keeps talking about in his DirectTV commercials.) I used about 1/2 cup of store-bought hummus and 1/2 cup of store-bought kalamata tapenade.

For a better presentation (since I messed up the face), I elevated the pepper jack-o-lantern with an upside-down custard cup.

Serve after school (or at a Halloween party) with carrots and breadsticks. And don’t forget to eat the pepper afterwards, unless you’re wary of double-dippers. . .

 

Warning: 31 Days of Crazy Ahead

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There’s a whole spectrum of crazy when it comes to Halloween enthusiasm, ranging from “Appropriately Spirited” to “Get Out the Commitment Papers.” I like to think I fall somewhere in the middle – you know, having fun but keeping it real. Some of my nearest and dearest, however, think I’m a few slices short of a loaf. . .

In case you can’t tell, I’m a Ghoul Scout.

With 31 days to go until All Hallows’ Eve and the festive spirit building daily, I thought this year we’d try a Countdown Calendar Tree:

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