At the cabin

When we're at the cabin, our days revolve around eating. Today was a pie crust kind of day. I made a chicken pot pie and tarte tatin, with pears. Sara declared the pot pie her favorite food ever, or at least for today. I finally retained the proportions of butter to sugar (1 to 1) which is then proportioed to amount of fruit and size of pan. So, the 12" pan with 5 pears quartered (less one quarter to Greg and Sara) worked well with 3/4 c. of both butter and sugar. Yum.
Then we went trekked to our friends for a party and playing in the snow. The pistachio and chocolate covered toffee I made for a holiday snack was a great hit!

More Pizza

A few days after Christmas, we decided to see the movie Avatar in 3D and have pizza. I made the dough and left it to rise while we were away. This try at homemade pizza included sausage and carmelized onions and some without a tomato sauce base. Greg tried his hand at forming a crust. Sara made her own mini pizzas. Still wanting to have that traditional pizza experience, we sprinkled cornmeal on the parchment paper. Voila. Just the right touch. I neglected to coat the crust with oil before the toppings, and it did make a noticeable difference in the crispness of the crust. With full tummies, we continued to design our next pizzas!

Christmas Dinner

(posted from my phone, at the cabin)
For our big Christmas Dinner, I planned to have Pistachio encrusted beef roast, pan roasted potatoes, fresh green beans and cheese popovers. Everything was set to go, but then . . . I got a Pizza Stone and peel for Christmas! Guess what we had for dinner? I made dough, we browned sausage, added onions, and ran down to the grocery for mozzarella - except the store was closed! Plan B included shredded cheddar we had on hand with some grated parmesan. after evaluating the various methods of creating a slip sheet between the pie and the stone (flour, cornmeal or parchment paper), we settled on parchment for less mess and foolproof transfers. Perfection!

Here is my  iron chef in her new Christmas gift

Other things I learned

1) If I would have read the fine print earlier, I would have learned this:  don't cook the liver with the giblets for the stock for the gravy.  The taste is too gamey and overwhelms the stock, and then the gravy.  I didn't use the liver and had the most delicious gravy ever.

2) Vegetables that were put up in the freezer taste much better boiled than microwaved.  This is a very useful bit of information that I have not read anywhere.  Since frozen vegetables are no substitute for fresh, with respect to texture and crunch, anything that makes them more appetizing is a plus.  The flavor is nothing but summer!

Cold weather and comfort food

It's been really cold - high of mid thirties, frost, and the fireplace ablaze!  Greg saw this recipe for zweibelkuchen, a tradition German onion and bacon tart-y/quiche-y thing and wanted me to try it.  I used Carek's bacon, which is so lean that I needed to add oil for carmelizing the onions.  I was ok with the instructions until I got to part about kneading the dough for 10 minutes.  Time out.  I decided to get out my trusy KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook, and let it do it's thing for 10 minutes.  Perfect.  
Next time, I'll cut the onions into thinner, narrower strips; use olive oil in the crust, and maybe substitute sausage if I don't have any bacon.  This was excellent with a salad of lettuce from our covered garden, which is so far, safe from the frost.  We both agreed that this would be a great dish for a party!

Next up:  Beets, still in the ground!