Tortillas and Oranges » advice

Cooking: A Family’s Other New Year

admin — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:37:40 +0000

September is a funny month to me, and I’ll tell you why. I feel like it’s another “new year”. In fact, in my life I have three “new years” within one calendar year: January 1st, January 21st, and Whatever Day School Starts. Let me explain.

I am a big fan of resolutions. December 31st usually finds me curled up with a brand new notebook, mechanical pencil, and a mug of mexican hot chocolate; furiously scribbling down my ambitious resolutions. And because my resolutions are just that–ambitious–I usually stumble right out of the gate; that is until January 21st–my birthday. While you may think January is a really crappy month for a birthday–think again. I always take that grand day to rewire my January 1st resolutions and recover from what is usually a false start. On January 21st, I really get going. My year proceeds smoothly until the summer chaos undoes every habit I’ve worked so hard to acquire. Until school starts. That’s right folks, the first day of school is yet another New Years Day in my book. I always have new goals, plans and projects that I implement on the first day of school; which is why I’m excited about this week. School starts on August 21st. This year is rather sad for me because my youngest, Pops, is starting kindergarten. I am at a crossroads in my life and scared to death about it. But until I’m ready to face that little issue, I’ll think about food. I am revamping my girls’ hot breakfast rotation. Now, you know I am a Hot Breakfast Fanatic. Really, I hate cold cereal more than life itself and think of it as my mortal enemy. I hate, hate, hate it–as a breakfast that is. After school snack–totally acceptable. My hot breakfasts consist of four choices:
1. Eggs and toast
2. Oatmeal
3. Cream of Wheat
4. Waffles or pancakes

That’s it. I don’t make anything else. My girls have informed me in no uncertain terms that they are sick of the rotation. So what amazing hot breakfast am I missing? What could I make in a limited amount of time that would knock their socks off? Help me, and happy new year.

Holiday: Gift Giving

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:30:38 +0000

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the neighborhood gifts that come by. I am always blown away by people’s creativeness (Kimberly, your cereal mix with white chocolate still holds the award for most clever and addictive). We moved to our new town a year and a half ago so we now receive a totally new set of neighbor gifts. I love them. But I desperately miss our old gifts. The Famous Bread Wreath. The hand dipped chocolates. The bags of dipped pretzels and home made caramels.

I’m dying to know. Really I am. Do you pass out neighbor gifts? What do you make for people? What are you doing this year?

Dinner: Thanksgiving Working Menu

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:56:26 +0000

I need all of this week’s recipes to be in one place. Here. You’ll see the post grow and change. I have linked what I can but the same information is posted below. After I’ve figured out what I’m doing when, I’ll print this entire post out, staple it and get to work. We have a little over 30 people coming this year, so I’ve decided to keep the menu and preparation as simple as possible (hence the addition of turkey roasting bag and lack of diversity in dish). Have fun prepping, cleaning, cooking, and eating. I know I will (except for the cleaning part…bleh).

Caramel Apple Cider
Great Basics Article (use for gravy)
How to Cook a Turkey in a Bag
Roast Turkey
Sage Stuffing Recipe
Fruit & Sausage Stuffing Recipe
Corn Bread for Stuffing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Corn with Fresh Herbs
Cannon Family Rolls

Caramel Apple Cider
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 Gallon apple cider
2 1/2 cups water

Caramel Whipped Cream
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons brown sugar
Caramel Whipped Cream: In a small chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream with the brown sugar until soft peaks form.
First, bring the cream and brown sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cider and the water and raise the heat to medium high, heating just until the cider begins to steam, about 4 minutes. Allow people to serve themselves out of crockpot or warm pot on stove. Top each one with 2 tablespoons of caramel whipped cream (recipe follows) and serve immediately.

Sage Stuffing
8 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from a 1-lb white loaf with crust removed)
4 cups coarsely crumbled buttermilk corn bread
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
2 medium onions, finely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
1 turkey liver or 3 chicken livers (2 to 3 oz total), trimmed and finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped celery
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup turkey giblet stock or low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Spread all bread crumbs in 2 shallow baking pans and bake in upper and lower thirds of oven until dry, about 15 minutes total. Cool crumbs in pans on racks, then transfer to a large bowl and stir in parsley, sage, salt, and pepper.

Melt butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, then add onions and liver and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add celery and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl with crumbs and toss well. Add eggs, stock, and cream and toss well.

Transfer stuffing to a buttered 2 1/2- to 3-quart shallow baking dish. Bake, covered, in middle of oven 30 minutes, then uncover and bake until browned, about 30 minutes more.

The Best Cornbread
Because I’m using this for a stuffing, I’ll reduce the oil to 1/2 cup. I want it to be dry.
2 eggs
1 cup sugar*
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil**

Mix eggs, sugar, and buttermilk together. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bake in a 9X13 at 400 for 15-25 minutes.

*This amount of sugar is a bit steep for me. Ever since I read Good Calories, Bad Calories, I cringe at really sweet things that are meant to be savory. I belong to the camp that believes cornbread is a savory, not a sweet. So, I usually about about 1/2 cup sugar or even less if I’m feeling really tough. Sorry I’m not that much fun anymore.

**I’ve made this with 1 cup of butter instead of oil, and boy oh boy is it divine. A bit more fattening and expensive, but divine nonetheless.

Sweet Potato Casserole (Heather Sundahl/Emily Curtis)
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup milk

Topping:
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts

Bake sweet potatoes (scrub, pierce with fork and bake in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes). Once they’re baked, they peel easily. Place peeled potatoes in large mixing bowl (I use stand mixer). Mash them. Mix together first six ingredients and put into a 9X13 inch baking dish. Mix together topping and spread on top of potatoes. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serves 10-12.

Corn with Fresh Herbs
Combine desired amount of frozen corn, 3 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper in pot. Stir over low heat till warmed through. Sprinkle with assorted fresh herbs (chives, parsley, tarragon, sage, basil).

Organizing Recipes: Google Docs

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:00:17 +0000

In our house, we’ve given up hard drives. We store everything in the cloud. More specifically, google docs (or documents if you insist on being proper). I’ll be using google docs to organize and store more and more of my recipes. If you are a lucky friend of mine, I’ve already shared a document with you called “Most Used Recipes”. Email me if you want in on the action (tortillasandoranges@gmail.com). Fall being Fall, this morning I started a doc called “School Night Meals”. You may want a piece of that action as well. My first three entries are Beef and Lentil Soup, Black Bean Orzo, and Curried Chicken and Apple Soup. Wowzer. I’m jealous of myself. You now know what recipes are coming your way. Welcome back. Hope your summer was fun, relaxing, and sunny.

Equipment: Rubber Gloves

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:02:54 +0000

How necessary are these things? Really?

Do you use rubber gloves? I ask because this summer I had a house full of mommies who were disgusted by my lack of rubber gloves. One mommy couldn’t breathe until she got back from Target with a darling pair of dish cleaning gloves, just for me. I don’t know why I don’t use them, it never really occurred to me. Have I missed something?