The Easiest, Fanciest Appetizer EVER

This was in Real Simple this month, and ya'll, no kidding, it was REAL SIMPLE. Magically easy. And it looks fancy! All my friends were impressed when I took to a dinner party on Saturday night. I don't remember what Real Simple called it and I can't check because I had to memorize the recipe while I read it in the checkout line at the Teeter. There wasn't room in my brain for the name! EASY, FANCY, CHEESE APPETIZER (All good things)

• Log of goat cheese (or other soft, pliable cheese in log form)
• Bag of dried cranberries
• Bag of nuts (the REAL recipe specified pistachios, I opted for pecans)
• Parchment paper
• Shallow baking dish (gratin dish or a pyrex brownie dish, a cookie sheet works too.)

Get all your ingredients together, it's a lot, I know. Let the goat cheese warm up a bit so it's pliable. Tear up a big sheet of parchment or wax paper, and lay it your shallow dish/cookie sheet. Open up your log of goat cheese and lay it on the wax paper. If your nuts aren't already sliced, chopped, or otherwise broken into pieces, crush them up. Throw a big handful of crushed nuts over the cheese log. Throw an equal handful of cranberries over the log. Basically, you want to mush the nuts and cranberries into the cheese log until the cheeses is totally covered and looking festive. You can then wrap the cheese in the parchment paper and refrigerate until needed (should be ok for a day or overnight). Serve with fancy crackers or fancy slices of toasted baguette. Who doesn't love cheese?

[Husband]'s Pumpkin Pie

3/4 C of Sugar 1 tsp of Cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground Ginger 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 C of pumpkin (PUMPKIN, not pumpkin PIE filling)--buy 2 cans and measure it out. 3 slightly beaten Eggs 1 1/2 C of Milk 1/2 C of Evaporated Milk Pie Crust for single crust pie Mix all ingredients. Pour into a slightly baked pastry shell. Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until the center comes up/cake tester comes out pretty clean (it's custard, so it won't come out totally clean). If you want to make your own pumpkin filling (which is actually not nearly as hard as it seems) there are some great directions here at Annie's Eats. Whole Paycheck still had sugar pumpkins as of this past weekend. You can use pre-made pie crust, or if you want to make you own, I recommend Smitten Kitchen's recipes, here or here. [Husband] has a recipe, but I think it's magic and only works for him. I have had better luck personally with Smitten Kitchen. Happy baking!

Vacation!

Despite Tomas' best efforts and our fool decision to not buy trip insurance, St. Lucia is open for business, and [Husband] and I will be flying out on Sunday for our long awaited tropical vacation! We booked the trip back in February or March. Only then did we learn that this was to be the most active hurricane season since 2005. Whoops. Speaking of hurricanes, our room looks like one right now as I began packing this evening. No one will be going to bed until I make a little more progress. Because there is no place to sleep. Any packing advice? A friend is getting married in the Bahamas in February, so I was able to glean a lot of great travel advice from their wedding website---mainly bring everything you can because you don't want to end up buying tylenol and tums or sunscreen at their import prices. I bought every sort of medicine for every sort of temporary illness we (and by we I mean [Husband]) might encounter while we're there. Anything else to consider? I've got the usual beach things, dresses for dinner. What else? My big fear is that I'm going to forget either my passport or my bathing suit or we'll miss the plane. eek! I'm going to put all my bathing suits in our suitcase right now!

Thanksgiving!!

Several years ago, [Husband] and I decided, if you want to spend Thanksgiving with us, you have to COME to us. After a few years of stunned silence (what?) or looks of pity (you have no home to go to?) we realize we are in a unique majority. And really its a less rebellious statement/action than it seems. My mom is only a few hours away and can usually make it up. [Husband]'s parents are nearby and usually like joining us ([Husband]'s mom get a big kick out of telling her friends that her son cooks T-giving every year), if they aren't with SIL and her in-laws. Other parts of our extended family have their own traditions and places to go, so we never really had to travel if we didn't want to. Plus, as a few of you know, WE LOVE TO ENTERTAIN. Like LOVE. Can't think of many things we'd rather do! I'm addicted to cute cocktail napkins and centerpieces. This year we are hosting SIL and her family of 3, [Husband]'s parents aka Mom & Dad, and my mom aka Mommy. I know, I'm 27, she's still Mommy. Whatever we serve, dinner is always encored with [Husband]'s amazing handiwork in the form of pumpkin and apple pies. He even makes his own pastry dough! YUM. Over the next couple days, I'll post the Pumpkin Pie Recipe, one of my favorite extra easy and fancy appetizer recipes, AND one of our favorite entertaining for a crowd "gimmicks." If you're hosting a crowd or T-giving and that crowd includes your in-laws, you might want to check it out (hint: it involves liquor). Enjoy!

It's Friday, Let's Talk About Food (MY FAVORITE)

When I plan to make dinner, [Husband] always asks, "What are you making?" And I always say, "Food." "What kind of food?" "Delicious food." I mean really, what else do you need to know? If you don't own Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything already, which you probably don't, you need to drop EVERYTHING and go to the bookstore immediately. Purchase one copy for yourself and one copy for everyone you know who loves food. This will make an amazing Christmas gift. In particular, if you love the farmer's market, but don't know what to do with a lot of the produce you see (winter produce especially is confusing for me!), this is the book for you! I have been buying things that either I don't normally purchase/have no idea how to cook or that I know [Husband] doesn't like, and have been pretty successful so far. The book is set up as an encyclopedia, so when I arrive home with my mysterious produce, I look it up in the back and then cruise the whole section on that item. For instance, I picked up 2 small eggplants at the market. Came home, pulled Mark Bittman off the shelf and looked up eggplant. The book, in very simple terms describes the vegetable and then some common preparations. It then gives you 10 variations on that preparation. It's not so much a cook book of recipes, but a users guide for all kinds of food. What has always been difficult for me is riffing on recipes with success. This book lays it all out and rather than implying you should stick with the method indicated, encourages changes, substitutions, different size pans, etc. It's hard to explain unless you've flipped through and looked at it yourself, but this illustration may do it: I was cooking chicken in a pan one night and I wanted to make a pan sauce. I looked up "pan sauce" in Mark Bittman, and I had 8 different options at my disposal. I figured out what I had to make the sauce with, picked a sauce and not only was it edible, but it was GOOD. In summary, buy this book. You won't be disappointed. I'm pretty sure all 4 of your who read this blog are obsessed with pumpkin, so check this out: PUMPKIN CHILI. Really! I made it Wednesday night and it was GOOD. Based on comments in the ratings (which were all positive) I made a few changes.

• I used a pork loin instead of shoulder because it was cheaper.
• I seared the pork before braising it.
• We were out of beer (I know, I can't believe it either), so I substituted chicken stock and since most of the comments noted that it was a little soupy, I only put about 2 cups of stock in instead of the 3 cups of water plus 12 ounces of beer.
• I added a little less chipotle in adobo and one more poblano because I was worried about the intensity of the spice. Given there is less tomato in this though, I think you can get a little crazy with the spice without making it inedible. I've noticed that the more acidic your ingredients, the more pronounced even a little spice with be. The less acidic, the less pronounced.
• I added very little salt as many people who rated the recipe noted it was a bit salty.
• I added one can of drained/rinsed black beans and a box of sliced crimini mushrooms. I added these after the last step in the recipe (when the peppers/onions have been added to the meat/stock).
• Pumpkin mixed with sour cream=surprisingly delicious and not gross. All this was missing was a little cilantro as garnish.
• I'm pretty sure with minor creativity, this could also be vegetarian. The pumpkin was definitely the star here, not the pork.
• So what DOES the pumpkin bring to the chili? A nice creamy flavor that's great with the smoke of the chipotles and the other vegetables. I would absolutely make this again. Plus it only took about 30 minutes of prep and then I let it stew for an hour. DELISH.

HAPPY WEEKEND. WHOOOOOO!

Beast Fest

Here are some photos of what the Little Beast aka Griffin has been doing lately. Napping on the couch... ...leaving destruction in my wake... ...soliciting chin scratches... ...and belly rubs and generally surveying my domain. Looking forlorn when no one is petting me... ...snuggling with my friends... ...and generally being beastly.

FEAR THE GRIFFIN!

If I stare out the door hard enough, they'll let me out.

Mary Frances Solves a Mystery

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -Plato THANKS.

This Makes Me Want to Get an iPad

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/martha-stewart-makes-cookies/id398472789?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Using the Interwebs for Good

I heard about the It Gets Better Project several weeks ago through the "Savage Love" Podcast, which I listen to now and again. I wanted to write a post about it and how heartening it was to hear about the positive use of the internet (when there are so many cruel and hurtful ways it can be utilized), but I couldn't really get it into words. There was a short interview with Dan Savage, who set up the It Gets Better Project on YouTube in the Times today, so I'm posting that in lieu of coming up with some original thoughts. Haven't we all had a time of hurt/pain/trauma/crisis in our lives when someone shared with us that they had been there and that it would be ok and it would get better? And weren't we grateful for that? It can be so powerful to have someone comfort you and show compassion and empathy in this way, and I think that's why the concept of this YouTube channel really strikes a chord with me. Somewhat related, there's a quote that I saw once at the Bone Marrow Drive at W&M, it was in the PowerPoint presentation that was continuously playing in the UC on drive day, and it was something along the lines of everyone else is on a journey just as difficult as your own.* I fail to show empathy and compassion far too frequently, and I pretend to myself it's out of some sort of self-preservation. I try (I swear, I do) to think of this little paraphrased quote to remember that we get much farther in life and are more greatly fulfilled by sharing our struggles with one another. *if anyone can identify this quote that would be amazing as you'd be putting a 7 year old mystery to bed for me!