Flavor of the Month - Boozy

This month, the Flavor of the Month is Boozy. My problem is that I don't have a lot of recipes that include alcohol...in fact, I couldn't think of a single one. (Mainly because I don't like the taste of most alcohol/liquor.) But, I glanced thru the cookbook that I'm currently cooking thru and found a few desserts that included booze. We bought our first bottle of brandy and I made a recipe that used 1 Tbsp. Not a lot, but it still counts. This afternoon, I whipped up a batch of "Rich Chocolate Mousse". And even though it's not a favorite old recipe, it was pretty good. However, I must warn that it is definitely not a late night dessert. It is very rich, as the title states. The hint of brandy is just enough for me in this tasty, decadent dessert.

the recipe

we used the good chocolate - and it was intense
yummy chocolate
yummy melted chocolate

it may not look very pretty but it was rich and delicious

Rich Chocolate Mousses

10 1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 Tbsp brandy

4 eggs, separated

Unsweetened cocoa, for dusting

Break the chocolate into small pieces and put into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Add the butter and melt with the chocolate, stirring, until smooth. Remove from the heat, stir in the brandy, and let cool slightly. Add the egg yolks and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks have formed, then fold into the chocolate mixture. Divide 4 stainless steal cooking rings between 4 small serving plates, then spoon the mixture into each ring and level the surfaces. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours until set.

Remove the mouses from the refrigerator and discard the cooking rings. Dust with unsweetened cocoa and serve.

Burger & Fries

Yesterday we made yet another cookbook recipe - 2 actually! (I feel like I'm making a lot of recipes, but really I'm not...I have a long ways to go.) There's not much to say about this - it was Hamburgers and French Fries. The fries were more like oven-roasted potatoes...they were really good, they just didn't taste like fries. And we didn't follow the burger recipe exactly because we cooked them on our spiffy new BBQ instead of a grill pan on the stove. They were really tasty!

the first recipe

the ingredients
raw potatoes

another recipe

yummy ingredients

the fries look dark, but they were good...
the burgers are smothered in melted cheese!

dinner!

Pesto

Last week, I crossed off another thing on my list of Goals. I completed #19: Learn how to make pesto. After living in Italy, I've come to appreciate pesto. In fact, I love it! It's tasty and it goes with everything. People in Italy make their own pesto all the time but that always seemed intimidating to me. I finally resolved to try it and I discovered...it's not that hard! It was a bit of a challenge to find pine nuts here, but once we found them I was out of excuses. So, I toasted up the pine nuts, chopped up the nuts and basil, drizzled in the olive oil, added the parmesan cheese and stirred it in to the pasta. It was so delicious!! We even had some left over that we used on our garlic chicken pesto pizza. So good! Now that I know how to make pesto, I plan to make it often. I've heard it freezes well.

I can now cross off #19 and I can honestly say that my pesto was a success!

toasty pine nuts clean basil
nuts and garlic all chopped up
with the basil, oil and cheese added
delicious with pasta (we even added sun dried tomatoes)

Basil Pesto:

1 small clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
1 1/4 cups fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a food processor, pulse pine nuts and garlic together until finely ground. Add basil leaves and process until the leaves are finely chopped. With processor running, add olive oil in a steady stream. Add parmesan cheese and process until completely incorporated and the mixture is paste like. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Mac & Cheese

A few weeks ago, I made another recipe from the cookbook...I made Macaroni & Cheese. I've never been a big fan of homemade mac & cheese. I like the fake, yellow stuff in a box - it just tastes more fun! But, I've had good homemade stuff too so I thought this recipe had potential and it could have been a new "family favorite". Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I hoped. On the other hand, it wasn't that bad. When I was making it...it didn't look good. The stinky cheese was not appealing to me. So, after tasting it - I was kind of surprised that it was OK. It wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either. It was OK. We actually ended up eating most of it. So, another recipe down...and many, many more to go.

the recipe the ingredients
making a yummy cream sauce

delicious, crusty top

Updated Patio

We're real adults now! Last weekend (and the weekend before) we made improvements to our patio. We want to spend more time outside (especially now that the humidity has lessened) so we needed improvements. We bought a new grill - a real, full-sized, grown-up BBQ. We had some trouble with it at first, but we finally got it going. Our first meal to initiate the new grill was brats and grilled stuffed mushrooms...so delicious! Thanks for the great food Bill!

And what Patio+BBQ would be complete without a table and some chairs to enjoy it with. So, we bought a new table (and chairs)! We thought about buying cheap, plastic ones - because that would have been good enough...but, we wanted to get something a little nicer. So, we bought the nice glass table, with 6 chairs, with an umbrella and a cover! It's great - I absolutely love it! It's a good table and the chairs are awesome so it should last us a while. Thanks for assembling the table, Bill!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Its been pretty busy lately. We've been celebrating the New Year and enjoying lots of tasty food and fun adventures. Its also been great to have Peter here with us for the last few weeks (he left today and we are sad). Even though the holiday season demands its own special food, we were able to try a few recipes from the cookbook while Peter was here. The most recent one was Tuna Noodle Casserole. I have to admit that I make a pretty good Tuna Noodle Casserole, but the point of cooking through an entire cookbook is to cook all the recipes as they are written. So, I made the meal according to the recipe. The final verdict was: mine is better!

the recipe

I don't normally use green peppers, but I had to follow the recipe
a creamy, tasty tuna sauce

you have to have noodles

the topping was the best part: butter, bread crumbs, and cheese!

looks pretty good...(mine is better!)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! Hopefully you had a safe and enjoyable evening last night. We spent the night at home eating all manner of appetizers and counting down to a new decade. I hope that everyone is looking forward to a wonderful and exciting 2010!

enjoying our appetizing dinner

Ubi was not very excited about the new year
watching the Ball drop and enjoying our Sparkling Cider

Ubi had a lot more fun once we gave him some Sparkling Cider

we went outside and watched the neighborhood fireworks (they were close & loud)

Ubi did NOT like being outside with the loud fireworks...he was very nervous!

HAPPY NEW YEAR - have a blessed 2010!