Dinner Report - Pork Arepas with Cabbage Slaw from Food and Wine

Against my better judgement I let Vince pick a dinner this week.  Amazingly, he didn't pick the single most labor intensive thing he could think of but rather Pork Arepas with Cabbage Slaw from January's Food and Wine.  If you haven't had an arepa, you have missed out - its masa dough wrapped around a filling of something delicious (in this case roast pork and cheese) then fried until crispy and brown.  This recipe called for topping the arepas with sour cream, pickled jalapeno and cilantro plus a tangy red cabbage and onion slaw.  All in all the dish was spectacular - the creamy, crispy arepa, cold sour cream, blazing hot jalapeno, and cruncy slaw with just a touch of cilantro.  I was in heaven. 

As always I didn't get a good picture but I've borrowed the illustration from Food and Wine's website where you will find the recipe if you're of a mind.  Actually I think ours looked better but that's just me.  

My condiment problem

It actually might qualify as an addiction.  I have almost never met a condiment I didn't want to buy.  Pickled garlic cloves?  Oh yeah.  Habanero orange jelly?  Bring it on.  Salsa de pocha?  Do I even know what that is?  Doesn't matter, I want it.  Does it have a cool name or a vintage style label?  I'm there even faster.

The end result of this is a refrigerator crammed with jars, bottles and cans, in some cases stacked two deep in the door. It doesn't help me much that nobody in this house worships at the altar of the condiment like I do. 

In keeping with my plan to do new things this year, I'm going to set my mind to creating meals using up some of these goodies and if they turn out not to be so good, I will toss the stuff out.  Maybe by 2013, I'll have one of those clean, spare refrigerators like you see on Barefoot Contessa. 

Don't hold your breath.

The best peanut butter cookies you'll ever bake (or taste)

So far I haven't been eating very dangerously in 2012 but another of my resolutions has been to wean my kids off store bought cookies and snacks in favor of the homemade version.  To that end, I made my favorite peanut butter cookies yesterday for the lunch boxes this week.  Its an insanely easy recipe with a secret weapon - Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis. 

If you haven't encountered these little darlings, they are tiny peanut butter cups which come in a bag already unwrapped.  They're a bit bigger than a chocolate chip, which means they're a little too big to add to the cookie dough whole.  Sadly, the chef has to chop them lightly, which often causes one or two to leap off the cutting board and into the mouth of the person chopping.  Yeah, its a dirty job...

At any rate, if you can't find Reese's Minis, milk chocolate chips are a reasonable substitution.  Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes ~24 cookies

1-1/2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup smooth peanut butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped miniature peanut butter cups or milk chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line with parchment two cookie sheets.


2. Whisk the flour and baking soda together and set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugars together until well blended. Add egg, peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until just brought together.

4. Mix in peanut butter cups or chocolate chips (if using) by hand until well distributed.

5. Scoop into 1-inch cookies and criss cross the tops with a fork, pressing down lightly. A bit of water on the fork helps if the dough is soft.

6. Bake 12-14 minutes, watching carefully as they can burn rather quickly. Better to underbake than overbake so don’t let them get too brown.

7. Cool then store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Notes:

• You can substitute almond butter, tahini or cashew butter for the peanut butter. I haven’t used chunky peanut butter but I imagine it would work just fine.
• Chocolate chips or peanut butter cups are optional but add a lot to the finished cookie.
• You can also add chopped nuts or other chunky items (toffee chips, crisped rice, etc.) to add texture.

Lemony Pickled Cauliflower

Okay, so this jar looks like something Hannibal Lechter had in his garage, which only proves yet again that I'm a terrible photographer, but in reality it contains amazing, cold, crunchy deliciousness in the form of lemony pickled cauliflower.  I know, I know, cauliflower is probably second only to Brussels sprouts in  the hated vegetable pantheon but really that's only because it has been abused so much over the years.  I always felt it needed to be blanketed in as much cheese sauce as possible to make it palatable so I'm not sure what made me try this recipe but boy, did it change my opinion.  

I got the original recipe from Serious Eats and ended up tweaking it a bit to make it even more lemony and tart.  Once the cauliflower has rested in the pickling brine for a bit, pull some out, drizzle it with a little olive oil and toss in some parsley for an amazing winter salad.  Caroline and I served it at her house with ham and the ravening hoardes fell on it like it was their last meal.  The best part is that since its a refrigerator pickle, you don't have to have any special equipment to partake of its goodness.  

This recipe makes two quarts

2 lemons, washed and slices

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

8-10 black peppercorns

1 good sized head of cauliflower, cut into florets

2 cups water

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

• Prepare two clean quart jars by adding two slices of lemon, one slice garlic clove and 4-5 peppercorns to the bottom of each jar.
• Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil in a sauce pan large enough to hold all the cauliflower.
• Once the water/vinegar mixture is boiling, stir to dissolve the salt then add the cauliflower.
• Stir the cauliflower until the water/vinegar mixture returns to the boil then remove from the heat.
• Using a slotted spoon, fill each jar halfway with cauliflower.  Add another couple of lemon slices to the jar then fill with the rest of the cauliflower.  
• Pour the hot water/vinegar brine over the cauliflower then top each jar with another lemon slice.
• Cap the jars, allow to cool a little then refrigerate for at least 12 hours before eating.
• Admire your handiwork (the jars look really pretty in person - much better than my pathetic photo above) then eat and enjoy.

Biscuits, Part Deux

I'm in no danger of becoming a great photographer so I've finally given in and started using #2's iPod to get quick pictures without a lot of fuss.  It gets even better now that I've figured out how to e-mail the pictures directly from the iPod to the blog.  Maybe someday I'll get a great camera but in the meantime the shoot and send thing is working. 

So...

Here's the biscuit recipe.  I think I posted it once before but I'm such a lazy blogger I'm just going to do it again and be done with it.  Many thanks to Betty Crocker and my dear mom for many breakfasts of delicious flaky goodies.

Makes about 15 1.5 inch biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a spray of cooking spray.
• Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. 
• Cut the butter into small pieces and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers.
• Mix in the buttermilk until just blended then turn out onto a floured board or counter.
• Knead lightly until the dough just comes together then pat out about 1 inch thick.
• Cut into rounds with a biscuit or cookie cutter and place on the prepared cookie sheet about an inch apart.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes, depending on your oven, until golden brown.
• Serve with LOTS of butter, jelly or sausage gravy.

I'm not going to lie - I've been known to make the dough in the food processor but honestly, the texture is so much better when you cut the butter in by hand that I try not to.  Another thing to note is that the better the butter (think Plugra or Kerrygold) the better the biscuit but Land O Lakes works just fine if that's what you have.

Oh, and you can add cheese if you want to.  About half a cup of good cheddar works great and they're even better if you add a pinch of cayenne or chipotle pepper. 

A Brand New Year but the Same Old Breakfast

Welcome 2012!  Another year and more potential culinary adventures.  I can't wait to see what this year brings.

In the meantime it never ceases to entertain me that my Chinese children love biscuits and gravy more than any other thing I've ever fed them.  No congee for my young ones, no sir, they love the artery clogging deliciousness of sausage gravy poured over my mother's famous biscuits. 

It was a revelation to me that my mother's delicious biscuits were not some long secret family recipe only to be revealed on one's deathbed but rather straight from the pages of her 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook. When she died I took possession of said cookbook and I have to admit, I've never made a better biscuit than the recipe she used.

I'm going to post this now because I want to get it done for January 1, but I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

2012 - My Year of Eating Dangerously

I haven't been a very good blogger, which is abundantly clear to anyone who has ever looked at this blog.  Part of it is the challenge of not having a good camera, part is that my original intent has been overcome by the reality of life with a full time job, two kids (or three if you consider the 52 year old who also lives in my house), sports, laptop issues, you name it.  I know there are plenty of bloggers who are able to pull it all together and blog regularly but I don't seem to be one of them.

So I've decided to change my approach and do something different for 2012.  Because I've been in such a rut, I'm going to try some new things, in fact, I want to try at least one new thing a month for the year then write about it.  A couple of things I'm thinking about are almost embarrassing for someone who claims to be a foodie - I want to try Korean food.  Yeah, I know, it is so last year but I've never had it and think it is something I ought to experience.  I'm also going to try my hardest to like fish in some form other than battered and fried.  That one might be a harder sell than Korean but I'm going to give it a shot. 

I already took a leap, which sounds completely lame to anyone who is a die hard foodie, but I ate a Cuban sandwich not long ago.  I always thought they sounded good but I'm not a pickle lover so I avoided them because of the pickles.  Anyway, Jane, Barbara and I went to Bryan Voltaggio's new lunch place in Frederick and I tried the Cuban.  I won't say the heavens opened and the angels sang but it was tasty enough that I was sorry I waited this long to try one. 

Here's a picture of Chef Voltaggio, who just happened to be working the counter the day we were there.  He's mighty cute in person, ladies.  Oh, yeah, mighty, mighty cute.

And if there's anyone out there who has any suggestions for more dangerous things for me to eat, I'll take them.  And if there's anything interesting that happens in between dangerous posts, I'll blog about that as well.  

A most excellent lunch, reheated for breakfast

Quesadillas are one of those dishes that you probably don't want to admit you love.  Here's a dish with no foodie cred that Rick Bayless cringes when he sees on a menu, but come on now, who doesn't love flour tortillas, melted cheese and grilled chicken?  Seriously, come clean, you love them, you know you do.

So I went to lunch yesterday with three of my coworkers - a special treat because normally I lunch alone and we tried a Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant that I've seen many times but never went into.  The food on everyone else's tables looked great, fresh and tasty but everything looked so huge I thought I'd order something small like a quesadilla.  Ha!  When it came, the thing was the size of a hubcap!  I could hardly lift the box it came in.  To top it off I ordered a pupusa, a Salvadoran treat that looks like a pancake but is actually a masa cake filled with cheese cooked on a griddle.  Wow!  Supermegadelicious.

All that being said, I made my way through the pupusa and about a quarter of the quesadilla before I threw in the towel.  I brought the rest of it home and amazingly it survived the night and was still there this morning, begging for me to eat it for breakfast.  Twenty minutes in a 350 degree oven and I had a toasty little meal that left me full, well, for the whole day.  I haven't eaten lunch yet and its 3:00 pm.  I love it.  

Why I quit blogging and why I've decided to give it another shot

Pictures.

That's it in a word.  I don't have a good camera and I won't be buying one any time soon so I've allowed myself to be intimidated by the glorious photos I see on so many other food blogs.

Bread.

There's a second word.  I originally started this blog to talk about baking but I just haven't been doing too much of it lately.  I love bread but nobody else in my family does so I end up baking and eating too much then throwing out the rest.  Not a good thing in an economy where wasting food is really a crime.

So I've changed my mind about how I'm going to blog going forward.  I'm taking the pressure off myself and if I get a good picture, well, that's a bonus.  And I'm going to blog about cooking of all types, not just baking.

I'm free.

I think...

Today's word - speed

I'm really struggling with whether or not I can recommend this recipe but I will give it one thing - speed. Normally, I am a slow girl. Seriously, I like to plan ahead with my baking and give my doughs a lot of time to rise and develop flavor. This recipe is the opposite of slow. You mix and torture the dough then bake it within a few hours of when you start.

I'd say this bread is not bad when hot out of the oven but it doesn't keep. If you have unexpected guests and want to get bread done quickly to go with a meal, go for it. Otherwise, if your expectations are low, you won't be disappointed.

Two Hour French Bread

1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp yeast (2 packages)
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1/3 cup oil
2 cups very hot tap water
6 cups flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup water. In a large bowl, combine salt, oil, and 2 cups hot water. Mix in three cups flour. Add the yeast mixture. Mix in remaining 3 cups flour. Stir down every 10 minutes for 5 times (keep bowl covered with a towel in between so it doesn't dry out). Shape. Raise until double. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 2 loaves french bread

In a Word - Comfort

I've decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month again and this time, I'm determined I will post every single day in March. This month's theme is "In a Word" in which you select a different word each day and blog about it. So for me, the word today is comfort.

Most people's comfort food reminds them of their childhood but my mother wasn't much of a cook when I was a kid so my only real food memories are of things I'd probably rather not think about (like ham, onion and sour cream casserole - dear god! what a disaster!) I'm not sure where I developed my love of Tex-Mex but for me, when I really crave something comforting, food-wise, this is where I go.

With all that's been happening professionally in the past few weeks, I've gone to the chili salad well more than once but this time I finally took a picture. Its a pretty simple thing - romaine, avocado, tomato, chili of some variety, cheddar, salsa and sour cream, plus a few tortilla chips for crunch. You can make it fancy if you want to but you really don't need to - this one has Tostitos and store bought chipotle salsa rather than homemade tortilla wedges and fresh pico de gallo. And it is still delicious.

Back so soon? My first post in a year...

I can't believe its been a whole year but what a year it has been! I won't offer any lame excuses except to say it has been a roller coaster ride that hopefully is drawing to a close.

In the spirit of getting back on the horse, I want to offer a recipe that we made the other night as a main course for Meatless Monday. The hubby and kids are NOT happy about my desire to be meatless, even for one meal, but they grudgingly ate this and three of us at least actually enjoyed it. It is based on a recipe from Real Simple but I made some tweaks, which I've indicated below. Next time I make it I'll use either sweet potato or pumpkin instead of the butternut squash, though, and if I make it for a non-vegetarian meal some chicken-apple sausage might be a nice addition as well.

Butternut Squash Bread Pudding

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the baking dish
2 medium onions, chopped (I used one)
1-1/2 pounds butternut squash (about half a medium squash)—peeled, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
kosher salt and black pepper (I added a lot more salt than the directions indicate below and it still needed salt when we ate it)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
6 large eggs
2 cups whole milk (I used 1%)
3/4 pound soft French or Italian bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 7 1⁄2 cups)(I actually just eyeballed the baking dish I was using and cut up enough bread to fill it)
1/2 pound Gruyère, grated (2 cups)(I didn’t want to use up all my good Gruyere so I used about ½ a cup of it and the rest was grated Swiss from the grocery store)

Heat oven to 375° F. Oil a 2 ½- to 3-quart baking dish.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the squash, season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cook, tossing frequently, until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes more. Stir in the sage. Let cool for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Add the bread, cheese, and squash mixture and toss to coat. (I actually used less bread than they suggest so I poured the mixture into the baking dish and let the milk and egg mixture really sink it for about 15 minutes)
Transfer to the prepared baking dish and bake until golden brown and set, 55 to 60 minutes.

I wish I had taken a picture because it was gorgeous - golden brown and puffed. Oh well, maybe next time. Because there will be a next time and I will post about it, I promise.

My New Yahoogroup - Baking Savory and Sweet

I guess I just got sick of hearing my own voice complain about how there weren't any Yahoogroups for baking so I started one myself. Its called Baking Savory and Sweet and the address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bakingsavoryandsweet. We have quite a few members already and have had a mini flame war so that makes it all official.

I have begun referring to myself as a "moderatrix," which sounds far more interesting and dangerous than moderator. One of my listies conjured up an image of a baker in black leather whipping her dough into submission which I really like.

So now I'm a list owner. Onward to complete world domination...

A new crop of bread books just in time for my birthday

I'll admit it readily - I am a cookbook junkie. I don't often cook things from the cookbooks I own (case in point - The French Laundry Cookbook - gastroporn at its finest but not something you'd actually want to cook from) but I read them like novels and drool over the pictures. I recently freecycled a couple of boxes of cookbooks I knew I'd never look at again and, even though I am not a packrat in the rest of my life, I will admit to a pang or two when this lot left my house. Thankfully, two long awaited bread books have come to take their place.

Anyone who knows me knows my complete obsession with no-knead bread, particularly the version introduced by Mark Bittman of the New York Times and Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Since I first discovered this bread four or so years ago I have baked hundreds of loaves and taught the technique to more people than I can even count. Imagine my excitement when I read that Jim Lahey had published a book called "My Bread." I decided to give myself a birthday present and buy the book (along with "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day" - more about that later).

My friends, it is everything I hoped for and more. This is a guy who is serious about his bread and it shows in every aspect of this book, particularly the obsessively concise directions and the "food as still life" photography. Since I'm the obsessive type myself, this book spoke to me loud and clear.

Some of the recipes sound so fantastic I can hardly wait for the weekend to bake, particularly fennel-raisin bread (candied fennel stalks combined with fennel juice, Pernod and golden raisins - I'm in heaven), carrot bread (carrot juice instead of water) and the various pizzas. My hubs and kids are a little bit over the whole homemade pizza every Friday night thing but this week they have no choice. How could you not want to make (and eat!) cauliflower pizza or fennel pizza or Pizza Bianca?

Now, on to the other book. I really enjoyed "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," the first book from the authors, Hertzberg and Francois. The brioche in particular was spectacularly good and I like the idea of making a large quantity of dough and baking it to order over the course of two weeks.

What they've done with this book is use the same technique with various whole grain and even gluten free breads. I didn't expect to get quite as jazzed as I was for Jim Lahey's (they are a wee bit less serious) but I found myself getting pretty excited. I'm thinking brown rice bread or oatmeal date bread sound good as my first breads from this book.

Its going to be a busy weekend.

I haven't posted much lately, in fact, I've barely posted at all this year. I don't have much of an excuse except that life has definitely gotten in the way. One bright note in all of this is that we now have pizza night every Friday and, thanks to Breadtopia, I have come a long way towards the pizza crust of my dreams (thin, crisp and chewy a la Saviano's on Long Island). Hopefully we'll be grilling pizza this summer too - a rather different experience but a delicious one nonetheless.

But I digress. Any reader of this blog knows I've had a love affair of long standing with Jim Lahey's no knead bread. It has been my go-to ever since I first learned the technique and is still a standby when I need to produce bread the next day but there's always been the issue of "what if I forget or I don't know I'll need a loaf the next day?"

Enter "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." I really didn't want to like this book because it seemed to want to horn in on the no knead movement and take it to the masses. Then, I caved. I heard the authors on "The Splendid Table" describing making brioche in just a few minutes and my curiousity got the better of me. I bought the book, made the bread and, well, drank the kool-aid.

The basic premise is that you mix up a big ol' mess of dough, refrigerate it and cut off a hunk whenever you want to bake. The dough lasts for two weeks in the fridge and by the end of the two week period has soured a bit for a slightly more complex flavor. The concept is simple and brilliant and I've ended up talking to about everyone I know about how to do this (after I spent the last three years bending their ears about Lahey's no knead technique).

This morning I went to the next level and used the brioche dough (and yes, it really is that simple - it took more time to melt the butter than it took to mix up the dough) to make sticky buns.

OH MY GOD!!!! THEY ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED!!!

I'm not given to Valley speak or multiple exclamation points under normal circumstances but normal speed and punctuation really don't do these rolls justice. They are just that good. Even my sub-standard photography captures the insane amount of luscious caramel topping. I am still, almost twelve hours later, in awe of the deliciousness.

If you're a baker and you don't already own this book, buy it immediately. I mean it.

Today's bread bakeoff

One of my coworkers and I have been talking baking for some time and I got her started on my beloved no-knead. Of her own volition (I'm so proud) she found the Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day website and has turned into a baking maniac. Talk about going from zero to sixty in 10 seconds! She's now baking just about every day.

At any rate, we decided, since we were both in the office today, that we'd do a "bread off" and each bring a loaf in for our coworkers to taste. Hers was a bit softer and less sour than mine; mine had a chewier crust and a slightly "holier" look but there weren't even any crumbs left after the ravenous hordes were done.

I'm so glad I've been able to convert her. Tomorrow, total global baking domination...

And so another month begins

I have been the world's worst blogger, especially for someone who says she wants to get serious about this stuff, so I'm going to commit to blogging a bit more. I certainly don't want to get maudlin but it is amazing to me to think I've been baking for over 50 years! How the heck did I get THAT old?

More later...

Is it Reinhart?

Or is it me?

Oh, I think we all know the answer to that question, but it frustrates me nonetheless. I've been baking for a really, really, really long time (yes, I am that old) and never in my life have I had so many disasters as since I've taken up this BBA challenge. I'm starting to feel like a flour covered loser and my family is resisting eating any more of my failures.

Just to make myself feel better, I've baked three gorgeous loaves of my beloved no-knead bread (my stable bread-boyfriend who never lets me down) plus cornbread (not from BBA) and the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever produced, all in one week. I'm starting to regain my confidence, slowly, but I'm feeling a bit more like myself again.

Here's a picture of this morning's loaf, which I have to admit is just plain delicious. The girls have developed a new obsession with garlic bread so I think we'll be having that tonight along with our soup for dinner. Mom and Dad will have grownup grilled cheese (grated sharp cheddar with pepper jelly).

On the subject of cupcakes, before I forget, they are from Georgetown Cupcake, a precious little bake shop in DC where they sell upwards of 4000 cupcakes a day! They won the Washington Post's cupcake contest and having tasted the results, I can certainly see why. These cupcakes are simply spectacular - just don't overfill the cups or you'll get martian tops, which are a bit less lovely but still delicious. Here's the link to the recipe. Try it, you won't regret the calories one bit.

As for me, I may have the courage to pick up BBA again this weekend. Wish me luck.

Not a complete disaster by any means...

But not exactly what I was going for... yet again.

It all started when I realized I had a fair amount of roasted red pepper hummus but no pita with which to scoop it up. The hummus to pita ratio never seems to work out here (not unlike the dog to bun ratio in houses where hot dogs are consumed - not this house any more, sadly, because even though I know hot dogs are the work of Satan I still love them). At any rate, I needed pita and I needed it quickly.

In keeping with my personal challenge to bake my way through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I didn't go directly to my fave pita recipe (Baking with Julia, the episode with Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a couple of my favorite food writers). I love this recipe and have used it many, many times with complete success. BUT, I promised I'd stick with Reinhart so off I went. Turns out he doesn't have an actual pita recipe but suggests that using his lavash dough you can approximate pita if you make rounds and bake on a stone instead of a baking sheet.

The dough was nice to work with, shiny and smooth, and only needed to ferment for 90 minutes so it seemed I was in good shape. Once I was ready to bake I divided the dough into four pieces of about three ounces each and rolled them out into rounds (sort of). On to the stone went the first two but there was no puffing going on in my oven that day. I ended up with chewy, crispy flatbreads, which were delicious but definitely not pita.

Caroline suggested that I write an indignant letter to Peter Reinhart complaining about his recipes. I had to remind her that he's one of the most famous and respected bakers in the world and if I wasn't getting the right results the issue was most likely in MY kitchen, not his.

Sigh...

The countdown is on

One of the greatest pleasures of the holiday season for me is to get invited to my best friend Caroline's parents' house. No matter which holiday they have a full house of beautifully dressed, interesting people sipping cocktails and discussing things like art, music and books. This year we're invited for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and I got Big Daddy to agree to Thanksgiving (we'll work on Christmas later - he won't know what hit him).

At any rate, my contribution to these soirees is always dessert and this year I'm pulling out the stops. I have to do something flourless since Caroline's mom is gluten free so my trusty Giada de Laurentis chocolate cake with almonds and amaretti will do nicely (this is from her Everyday Italian cookbook - I'm not normally a Food Network kind of gal but got this as a gift and the chocolate cake is worth owning the book for). Next is my beloved sweet potato bourbon cheesecake. I have to leave out the bourbon since we'll have a couple of people in recovery in attendance but it is spectacularly delicious even without it.

Of course there has to be pumpkin pie but I'm going to do an apple buttermilk pie as well. This pie is the evolution of a recipe that Big Daddy presented to me when we were first married. His version calls for canned apple pie filling and a sweetened condensed milk custard topped with oatmeal strusel. Oh honey, that baby was so sweet I thought my teeth were going to fall right out of my head! I've reworked the recipe to call for caramlized Honeycrisp apples and a buttermilk custard but kept the strusel because it is GOOD. Big Daddy says his version is better but that didn't seem to stop him from eating three pieces of the test pie I made over the weekend.

So that leaves one dessert left and I can't decide what it should be. Different factions are rooting for their favorites - Caroline wants Shaker lemon tart, the kids want Hershey bar cake and I'm leaning towards something chocolate like Claudia Fleming's cheesecake tart only with a chocolate cookie crust instead of graham crackers. Plus I'm in the mood to make a salted caramel sauce and that would be delishment on a chocolate something. Watch this space to see where I end up.