Pecan pie is one of my favorite things, and so, when it came time to assign dishes for this years Christmukkah dinner, that’s what I decided to make. Needless to say, I could not just follow a recipe – I had to try a few new twists! The first thing that came to mind was to soak the pecans in rum before baking, from which I hoped to get a richer flavor (and more of it, as the rum would then also be pecan-infused).
The second addition I made was impromptu – while mixing up the filling, I decided that what it needed was citrus. So, I convinced my dad to eat an orange so that I could use the zest.

What I did was this:
9-inch unbaked pie shell (frozen is OK)
3 eggs (you can use egg beaters)
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dark rum (I used Meyers)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup shelled pecans (halves are fine)
½ teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
About a day before baking, I put the pecans in a ceramic dish, poured rum over then (covering about 2/3), and covered the dish with a lid. It got stirred every few hours when people were awake and thought about it.
Then, I started baking as follows.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

– Beat eggs in a medium-size bowl until they are light-colored and fluffy, and good peaks form. (Use an electric mixer. If you do it with the standard egg-beater, you will have a sore arm by the time you are finished.)
– Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, salt, zest, and three tablespoons of the pecan-infused rum and stir by hand with a spoon until the sugar is dissolved and the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
– Stir in the butter and pecans (drain them before adding, but keep the rum!). Pour into the pie shell and bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the filling comes out clean. Let cool. Serve with whipped cream, to which you have added the remaining infused rum and the tablespoon of sugar.

I think the results of this pie were mixed. It tasted good, but I think there’s some refinement left to do on the recipe. First of all, I think it would have been good to have more orange zest – maybe a whole teaspoonful.
Then, the pecans. There should be more of them, and some should not be marinated – maybe 1 cup rum-infused and a half-cup plain, to add some crunch. Alternatively, it might work to marinate them more in advance, and then pre-roast them so they are dry and crunchy, but still have the rum flavor. Reserving some (wet) rum-infused pecans and adding them to the top of the pie (halfway through baking, so they don’t sink) would be really good – they would caramelize a bit and make a nice top-coat thing.
And that’s what I did on Christmukkah.

This is a favorite dish of mine that really hits the spot on a winter’s eve. I’ve been meaning to experiment with this a bit, perhaps leaving the skin on the chicken, substituting duck for chicken, or stuffing the chicken breasts with the fruits instead of topping them. If you feel similarly inclined, let us know how it turns out!
This is a family recipe, and no one has ever written down any measures: use as many skinless, boneless chicken breasts as you like, topped with as much of the other stuff as you like.

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
-Quarter the chicken breasts.
-Put chicken in an appropriately-sized oven-safe dish that has a cover – I use the ceramic kind with glass lid.
-Dab a bit of orange marmalade on top of each piece.
-Add black and green olives.
-Add currants and dried apricots (cut in half).
-Pour over with apple cider – half way up is good, don’t overfill!
-Cover and cook 20 minutes.
-Remove from oven, baste, and replace in oven, uncovered, for another 10-15 minutes.
I recommend serving this one with baked sweet potato or brown rice.

I don’t know what it is about December, but even the most reclusive of curmudgeons end up throwing a party. As it is, I’ve got something going on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of every weekend leading up to Christmas. I know, boo effing hoo. J and I have sensibly decided to sit December out for entertaining and let those with saner heads than we host events. However, I am not so out of the holiday party loop that I can’t bring the perfect cocktail party snack to a gathering – my version of the Union Square mixed nuts. This is the perfect party food. It allows guests to just nibble and converse. No balancing of plates and no utensils involved. I love the aromatic spiciness of it. This mixed nuts recipe has been around the block. Both Ina Garten and Nigella Lawson have their versions. I based mine on Nigella’s, but went crazy with different flavors. The core of the mixed nuts is the brown sugar and rosemary. On that, you cannot compromise.
So get about six cups of a variety of nuts. I usually do a mixture of cashews, almonds, and Brazil nuts. And to save money, buy them in bulk. Both Whole Foods and Yes Natural Market have bulk nuts (oooh dirty). Roast the nuts at 350 degrees for about ten minutes until they are slightly browned around the edges. In a bowl combine 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary, a pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste) and two pinches of paprika. Mush it together with your fingers so that everything is well distributed. In a large wok under low heat, melt a tablespoon of butter and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Add the brown sugar mixture and stir until the brown sugar and butter are combined. Add the roasted nuts and toss as if you are tossing a salad. Make sure that every nut is slick with the buttery sweetness of the brown sugar and butter. As a final touch, add a tablespoon of maple syrup and toss some more. When everything has been coated with the butter-maple syrup-brown sugar turn off heat and pour into bowls for serving.

A couple of weeks ago, while planning for the vaguely-infamous Brunch 2.0, I came across Clotilde’s recipe for yogurt scones, which looked both intriguing and easy enough for my measurement-impaired style of baking. You see, I have a very short attention span for following directions to a tee. I think it’s genetic: my great grandmother famously vexed her daughter – my grandmother – by keeping her ‘recipes’ on slips of paper that listed ingredients and quantities mostly unrelated to the way she made things. My grandmother simply doesn’t seem to use recipes, and so on. Consequently, my attempts at baking have a habit of being disastrous. Surprisingly, I thought these scones, based loosely on Clotilde’s, came out pretty tasty.

~1 ¾ cup flour
– Just under 7 tsp white sugar
– Just over 2 tbs. butter, (at room temperature)
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 135 ml plain yogurt, plus three tablespoons later on
– 2 Tbsp milk
– A small handful of chopped dates and ¾ tsp poppy
seeds.
(Yields 8-ish scones.)
– Preheat the oven to 400°F.
– Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, and dust it with flour.
– In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder.
– Cut in the butter until the whole lot is crumby-looking.
– Add the measured yogurt and milk.
– Mix the dough until it gets doughier, adding the additional yogurt as you go until it has a nice doughy consistency.
(Apparently you’re not supposed to over mix the dough, but since I don’t really know what this means I ignored it.)
– Once the dough is the right consistency, fold in the dates and seeds.
– Fold in a few more dates and poppy seeds, because what you have probably isn’t enough.
– Smoosh dough into a ball and place on floured wax paper, then press it down with your hands (or something more elegant, like a rolling pin, if you must).
– Cut into as many pieces as you like.
– Sprinkle some more seeds and date bits on top of each one (I actually for got to do this, but it would’ve been a good idea).
– Put in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven – they probably aren’t done yet.
– Panic, but then take the opportunity to brush some melted butter on to them, which you probably should have done in the first place, and put them back in for another 5-10 minutes or so.
– Remove from oven, let cool a bit (but not too much), and serve with strong coffee and mimosas.
If you prefer a more traditional approach to baking, please refer to WRC’s previous recipe and prnounciation guide.
Image shamelessly lifted from NM.

Of all the cheesy gimmicks a restaurant can come up with, having really really good food isn’t a bad one. Filling this niche is The Ugly Duck Out of Swansea, Tasmania, pop 529. As one of the few places in Australia not to major in frozen meat pies, Ugly Duck uses local organic products (sheep) to amaze stupid American tourists (us).
Here’s a recipe suggested to us by the Duck’s Mark for a Banana Smoothie…interpreted slightly for those of us who don’t have a neighbor with beehives.
Ugly Smoothie
Combine in a food processor:

• About 1 cup of fresh plain yoghurt- the extra creamy Greek-style stuff if you can.

• 1/3 cup of honey: Tasmanian leatherwood if you can, anything sweet if you can’t.
  
• A peeled banana.
  
• Maybe 2 ice cubes. One if it’s a biggy. Just enough to cool things down. That’s my addition, actually.

• A pinch of cardamom
  
• Cover with milk, but not too much- you can add more later if it’s too thick.

Process on low until everything’s smooth. Then slurp it like it’s the first non-fried food you’ve had in weeks. Which it might be.

The theft of food has a long and glorious history: Jean ValJean did it. Huckleberry Finn did it. And who could forget the classic knee-slapper, ”What are the first three words in a Hungarian cookbook? ‘Steal a chicken’”.
So it is unsurprising to that those of us who have spent the last two years sleeping at camp sites, hostel dorm rooms, and on one occasion, a beach, a very specialized form of cooking has evolved. This is hostel cooking, and it’s the most regional form of cuisine because each region has different foods to steal. And by steal, I mean ‘take without paying for’.
Let’s be fair. Lots of countries won’t allow fruits and vegetables over the state borders, and it can be better to carry only light, non-perishables like powdered soup and rice anyway. Hostel cooking is a cuisine that relies on having spent your last dollar on weird foreign beer the night before.
Basically, every hostel worth its pool table has a ‘Free Food shelf’. Some hostel stoves are coin-fed, and many places make you rent the cutlery. At some you even have to battle a giant German rugby player to be allowed at the sink. It’s in this classic tradition that we proudly give you the following recipes. They take 7 minutes, can be eaten out of the pot they were cooked in, and, most importantly, cost less than 2$ if you do it right. You’re on your own for the Rugby player tho.
Buy: 1 small white onion, and one 6-pack of eggs
Stolen spaghetti stew
This is the most basic of hostel dishes and it relies on one thing: carrying a large supply of powdered Chinese egg soup with you at all times. You can get the stuff for 50 cents at any Asian grocery store (I prefer the one in Rockville, but there’s one in Chinatown, and plenty of others all over the place). It’s really just beef or chicken bullion thickened with a little corn starch.
Start with whatever the required amount of water, cold in a pot. Add in the powder, and place it on low heat. Dice up the onion and toss it in. Add some of the ubiquitous spaghetti found on every free food shelf. If there isn’t any for free, find someone else’s groceries and either 1) steal a couple of strands, or if you think that will be too obvious 2) carefully break all the ends off of the entire pack, about half an inch down. That way, they all end up the same length, albeit shorter. Bring to a boil. Crack an egg into a rented cup and beat it a bit, then whisk it into the stew with a fork. Instant paradise in a bowl.
Really Deviled eggs
Take the eggs and hard-boil them. When you’re sure they’re ready, boil them for another few minutes, and then plunge them into cold water for a bit. Peel and slice each egg carefully in half and remove the yolks with a spoon. Locate some mayonnaise and some mustard. Grey Pupon is the best, but really anything on the free shelf will do.
Now just start adding whatever you can find to the yolks: a scoop of mayo, a scoop of mustard, whatever salt and pepper’s around, hot sauce, chili’s if it’s an Asian country, curry if it’s India (or England). Squish it all together with a fork to make a smooth yellow paste, and then scoop it back into the egg white cups using a spoon. Eat until you feel sick. Trade the onion to the Rugby player for a beer.

Over the weekend, I got a craving for chopped liver, the way my grandmother makes it. I know that chopped liver has few fans outside of the Jewish retiree community, but I grew up in Eastern Europe, so it’s a taste I acquired as a child. Having recently purchased my very first food processor, I realized that nothing was standing in my way. Nothing except my hatred of touching raw meat

.
Since I was craving chopped liver, and seriously contemplating making it, you can probably guess that I’m not a vegetarian. But touching raw meat just grosses me out. I know this isn’t a terribly eloquent of putting it, but: raw meat is totally gross. I never deal with it. I either cook vegetarian dishes or buy my meat already prepared. Thinking back over the past three years, I can recall only one occasion on which raw chicken entered my kitchen.

My squeamishness with raw meat is a problem I would like to overcome. So like an acrophobe who hopes to cure his fears by visiting a skyscraper’s observation deck, I walked over to Safeway and purchased a package of raw chicken livers and an onion. I knew I would have a problem when I had trouble taking the package out of the supermarket’s meat case. It looked wet and a bloody and I just didn’t want to touch it. Hoping to minimize my contact with the package, I walked back to the produce section, got a plastic bag (which should really be provided over by the meat section as well) and used the bag to get the livers out of the case.

After getting home, I took a deep breath and dumped the package out of the plastic bag into the sink. I took another deep breath and pulled open the lid. One more deep breath and I was handling a chicken liver. It was slippery. And unlike raw chicken, which doesn’t smell like roasted or baked chicken, raw chicken livers smelled a bit like cooked chicken livers. And did I mention it was slippery? Oh, and also quite bloody. I wondered if this is how a human liver feels to a surgeon. Then I thought, “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

I managed to stop thinking long enough to clean off the livers and dump them into some boiling water. While the meat was cooking, I neurotically cleaned anything that came in contact with the raw chicken. Part of the grossness of raw meat is that I am convinced that I will almost definitely die of salmonella if it enters my kitchen. Chicken livers take about 15 minutes to cook, and I spent most of that time scrubbing.
My family’s recipe for chopped chicken livers includes only a few ingredients: chicken livers, fried onions and cooked carrots. I also had some white mushrooms around, so I decided to make two batches, one with onions and carrots and the other with onions and mushrooms.

Grandma’s Chopped Liver

• Half a container of raw chicken livers
• A quarter of a large white onion
• 5-6 baby carrots
• Olive oil

Grandma’s (Modified) Chopped Liver

• Half a container of raw chicken livers
• A quarter of a large white onion
• 8-10 white mushrooms
• Olive oil

Using olive oil, I fried up some onion and mushrooms while boiling a few baby carrots and the liver. Once everything was ready, I dumped the ingredients of the first batch into the food processor and used the “pulse” button until all of the ingredients were smoothly blended together. After cleaning out the food processor, I blended the second batch. The chopped liver made with carrots was softer and lighter in color while the batch with the onions and mushrooms was darker and had a rougher texture. I though that I had added too much carrot to the first batch, and assumed that it would be obvious once I tasted it, but was surprised by how unobtrusively the carrots blended into the livers. I couldn’t taste them at all. Both batches were quite delicious, although having gone through the trauma of touching the raw chicken livers took a lot of thefun out of eating the final product.

And so, my latest adventures with raw meat did not help me get over my squeamishness. This acrophobe may never set foot on an observation deck again. In fact, the experience only served to further my progression to vegetarianism. If I am this bothered by preparing a meal, should I really be forcing myself to prepare it? For me, the answer is no. Next time, I’m making a nice chickpea salad.

-NM

As I have declared Thanksgiving season officially open on my other blog, I want to start the discussion over here as well. I was so inspired by the nippy fall weather this weekend that I roasted a chicken with some acorn squash. Thanksgiving is less than a month away and I am chomping at the bit to start the cooking. While all the hoopla at Thanksgiving may be about the turkey (or pumpkin pie for some), we still need to take into account the vegetarian option. This is where Pepperidge Farm comes into play. Their puff pastry shells are the perfect receptacle for a vegetarian filling. This makes a vegetarian entree that is not just an option but something the meat eaters want to get their grubby paws on. The only problem is when the meat eaters start hogging the stuff pastry shells. Basically, all you have to do is bake the shells according to directions, pull of the top, and fill. Here are two fillings that go great in the shells:
Marsala mushroom filling
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 pound of mushrooms (can be a mixture of portobellos, cremini, button, shitake) chopped into large chunks
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 cup of marsala (or white wine)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup cream or sour cream (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion and garlic together in the butter and oil until soft and translucent add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a shake of pepper. Add mushrooms and saute for 10 minutes. Add seasonings, herbs and honey and saute another 5 minutes. Splash the wine in and stir until the mixture has reduced and thickened (should be a gravy consistency). Add cream/sour cream for richness.
Root vegetable filling
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
3 cups root vegetable chopped into large chunks (carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, sweet potatoes etc)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup of milk (or cream)
1/2 cup of gruyere cheese
Saute onion and garlic together in the butter until soft and translucent add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper. Add the root vegetablesand thyme and saute for about 10 minutes (until the vegetables have soften a bit but still hold their shape). Add the flour and nutmeg and stir until the mixture is coated with flour. Add the milk and stir thoroughly until the mixture has thickened and then add the cheese. Stir until the cheese has been incorporated into the mixture and then pour into the puff pastry shells.

What do you do when you’re feeling homesick and in a country that can’t figure out how to make a decent hamburger? You make meatloaf, of course. But not just any meatloaf: A Bachelor’s “Better Than Steak” Meatloaf.
I’d love to say this was a family recipe handed down through six or seven generations, but it actually comes from the classic 1994 The Great American Meatloaf Contest Cookbook, modified slightly to suit my taste.
It’s not your normal meatloaf. Instead of pouring on the ketchup to cover up the taste of heaps of meat, this meatloaf uses bread, cream, and cheese to accentuate the taste of a beef/pork/veal mixture. It’s a rolled meatloaf, meaning you create the meatloaf exterior and then roll it around the insides, making the final output a series of layers. I’ve made it several times for friends and dinner parties, always to rave reviews.
Ingredients:
Meat Mixture
1 small white onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
6-8 fresh basil leaves; minced
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
8-10 drops Worcestershire sauce
2½ lbs ground beef
1¼ lbs ground veal
¾ lb ground mild pork sausage
Editor’s note: You can modify the meat mixture to taste. I’ve also used a beef/turkey/pork mixture, a beef/lamb/pork mixture and, for smaller loafs, just a beef/pork mixture. I’m a fan of very lean beef for health reasons, but the higher-fat beef does give it a bit more flavor
Filling
½ small loaf sour-dough French bread
½ cup half and half or full cream
1 cup crumbled bleu cheese
3 tbsp minced fresh parsley
Preparation Instructions
First, create your meat mixture. In a large bowl, combine the various types of meat, adding in the onions, garlic, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, basil, and eggs. Making meatloaf requires getting dirty. Wash your hands and then mix the meat up thoroughly by kneading through it with your hands. This will take some effort, but is worth it — otherwise you’ll end up with the beef, pork, and veal all in different parts of the meatloaf.
Next, lay down a strip of about 12 inches of wax paper or aluminum foil. Pull the meat out of the bowl and flatten it out on the foil. It should be about 1/3″ thick, a little smaller than the width of the foil, and extend, well, until you run out of meat. Keep two small pieces of meat aside.
Now, find a long pan (a baking pan will do). Then, slide the French bread lengthwise so that you’ve got the crust and some soft bread. Pour half-and-half or cream in the bottom of the pan and then lay the bread on top of the half-and-half. Press the bread downwards so it sucks up all the cream. Take the bread and lay it on top of the meat. Repeat this with the remaining pieces of the bread until the meat is covered. Leave about a quarter inch on each side of the bread, as you’ll want to be able to seal the meat when you’re finished. Next, take crumbled blue cheese and spread it out on top of the meat. Add parsley (I’ve also used rosemary, which adds some nice flavor).
Now for the fun part. You want to roll the meatloaf up. Starting on one end, use the paper to roll the meatloaf, as if you were rolling up a newspaper. Keep it pretty tight, if you can. You want it to look like a cake roll. When you’re finished, seal the two ends of the meatloaf using the extra meat you kept around.
Place the meatloaf on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Cook in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for approximately one hour (depending on the size of the meatloaf). Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.
And let us know if you try it!