Barefoot Contessa Project

My friend, Aly, and I were discussing a Barefoot Contessa Project. We love all of Ina's cookbooks, and thought it would be fun to cook each recipe of hers from all of her books. We even thought that we could spread the joy of cooking by sharing our finished products with friends. I am looking into the possibilities now!

Traditions II

Another Christmas tradition I am working on is making a roast duck for the holiday dinner. I stick to my duck a l'orange recipe that I have tested 6-7 times and love. The best part of the recipe is the delicious orange gravy. It involves making a caramel, adding orange juice and duck drippings. It is really delicious with a sweet and sour component. My family does not mind this recipe being tested again and again at all!

Christmas Traditions

I am a mom of young children and have been living away from my extended family for a year and a half. This helps me explore the holiday traditions I would like to set for my family. Since my husband is French there is an influence and a culture that I also like to honor. For the past two Christmases I have made a Buche de Noel. (or Christmas log) This is a pretty easy recipe to follow and the cake is very tasty. This year, I got fancy by making the white chocolate holly leaves. I simply melted the chocolate, added green food coloring and then played with painting the chocolate onto parchment paper. I painted a tear drop shape of chocolate and then added details with the tip of a knife. Finally, red M&Ms finished it off. I hope my Buche skills continue to improve with time. It is hard to make a log look too beautiful, but my details helped it out.

Bacon Drippings

Bacon is a wonderful ingredient. I use it in several recipes, especially soups! Recently, I made a homemade split pea soup and bacon was my first ingredient. However, when I cook bacon sometimes there is too much fat rendered to leave in the soup. I wouldn't want greasy peas! Whenever this happens I pour the excess fat into my Cuisinart and use it for a salad dressing. I also add a garlic clove, some Dijon mustard, some mayonnaise, lemon juice, honey and a little pepper. This dressing is fantastic on lettuce and spinach. It also tastes great with a wilted, warm spinach salad or my warm cabbage salad. Maybe it is fattening, but the flavor is amazing and I am not wasting lovely bacon drippings!

Steak for my birthday

I went to the local Amish Market to inquire about where their beef and pork came from. After seeing Food Inc. I am a little more careful about buying meat. The woman at the counter assured me that they were selling grass-fed animals from Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. So, I bought a few things including some nice looking New York Strip Steaks.

I made a nice marinade a couple of hours before cooking them. It included red wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, garlic, pepper and thyme. When I cooked the steaks I let the marinade cook in a separate sauce pan to reduce by half. I removed it from the heat when the steaks were done and added a couple of pats of butter. It was flavorful and delicious! As were the steaks.

Meatballs!

Meatballs are a really fun way to get kids involved in cooking. My girls just added ingredients like bread crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder and ketchup to the ground beef without measuring (I kept an eye) and then helped me roll all these little balls. My only rule was no hands in the mouth! I really didn't want them to get sick from raw meat. They listened and did a great job.

The sauce I made was easy! I just used cranberry jelly and chili sauce to make a sweet and sour mix. Click here for the recipe!

These were fun and delicious!

Curry Potato Salad

Here is the recipe for a potato salad I recently made. I borrowed from Bobby Flay and my friend Laura to create a delicious side dish!

Boil potatoes for about 20-30 minutes until tender. Cut into bite sized pieces once cooled.

Dice half a red onion and one whole bell pepper and add to large bowl with potatoes.

Sauce:

2 cups mayonnaise
1 shallot or 1/2 red onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup water
3 tsp. curry powder (yellow)
lemon or lime juice from 1 fruit

Saute the shallot and garlic for 3-4 minutes in olive oil over medium heat. Add the curry powder and cook it for another 2-3 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water to loosen mixture. Set aside to cool. In a blender add citrus juice and mayonnaise. Add curry mixture to blender. Blend until mixed and smooth. More lime or lemon juice may be necessary to help blend the sauce.

Pour over potatoes, pepper and onion in a large bowl. Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!