Boeuf a la Bourguignonne: Rachel Ray wouldn’t touch this recipe with a ten foot pole.

I admit it: I’m totally on the Julie-Julia bandwagon. I had heard about the Julie/Julia Project, one woman’s quest to cook all 536 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, in passing years ago and read the book a few months ago. The whole concept is right up my ally, for a few reasons. First, it combines two things I love, cooking and writing. Second, it resulted in a not-so-secret fantasy of mine coming to life: a normal girl’s blog launching her second career as a writer.

Wipe that smirk off your face and stop laughing. I ask you - what’s so damn funny about that??

Also, as a side note, from someone who has read Julie/Julia, seen the movie and is working her way through Julia Child’s autobiography My Life In France, they are all worth a read/view if you love to cook. Julia/Julia, the book, goes into great detail about the food - from the quest to find marrow bone to the trial/error/error/trial of making the perfect an edible crepe to more information than I ever wanted to know about aspics, it’s all there. The movie goes into much greater detail about the life story of Julia Child, which Julie Powell's book only touches on and is inspiring to anyone who would like to believe her life’s course is not set in concrete by age 30. My Life in France, of course, goes into even greater detail. None of the three are particularly drama-ridden or fast-paced, but I loved them all. You may or may not.

For these reasons and because on Christmas morning I unwrapped my own copy of MTAFC, for my second spot on the Soused Chef, I have decided to step it up a bit, moving on from nuked alcohol-laced cheese to one of Julia Child’s signature recipes, Boeuf a la Bourguignonne - Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms.

Some observations I made along the way:

1. First off, I know one of the points of this blog is to post the recipes, but for this one, I highly recommend just picking up a copy of MTAFC if you want to try it. (Available on Amazon for as little as $20.00.) Simply put, there is more to Boeuf a la Bourguignonne than just the recipe.

2. If I were attempting to cook my way through the entire book, attacking BB would’ve enabled me to cross off not one but three recipes, as during the course of the recipe one must also cross-reference and prepare Oignons Glaces a Brun (Brown-Braised Onions) as well as Champignons Sautes au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms).

3. This cookbook gives painstaking detail as to not only what you should or should not be doing, but the why behind it. In My Life in France Julia describes her style as one of “culinary exactness” with a “scientific approach”, and the book relays example after example of recipes she went round and round and round perfecting. Much of this painstaking work I will never benefit from, as seen in Exhibit A:

“Through trial and error, for instance, I deduced exactly how much gelatin must go into exactly how much liquid per exactly how much mayonnaise so one can make pretty mayo curlicues on a fish dish.”

But as one who is a self-admitted lover of detail and process, I can appreciate the effort.

One side effect of all this exactness, though, is an almost paralyzing intimidation, the likes of which I have never faced in the kitchen. Most cookbooks do not list the negative consequences of not following the recipe to a T; at times, Julia does:

“Successfully sauteed mushrooms are lightly browned and exude none of their juice while they are being cooked; to achieve this the mushrooms must be dry, the butter very hot, and the mushrooms must not be crowded in the pan. If you saute too many at once they steam rather than fry; their juices escape and they do not brown.”

The implied, unwritten next sentence being, “and you will forever be a miserable failure, whose biggest culinary feats will be undercooked Raman Noodles and anything done on a George Forman Grill.”

Even when a consequence is not spelled out, the premise under which you wind up cooking is that Julia specifies a certain amount or parameter because she’s tried it every other way with inferior results. That being said, imagine my horror when after spending an afternoon crawling all over Charm City looking for a “9 to 10 inch fireproof casserole, 3 inches deep”, I came home only to unpack a dish that upon measurement ended up being eight inches across and four inches deep. In a panic, I placed a call to my parents’ house, where one cook and several individuals with advanced degrees in mathematics were congregated. My mom passed the phone to my sister, to whom I shrieked, “I don’t want to talk to Half-Assed Cook Laurie, I want to talk to Math Genius Laurie - will this casserole dish be big enough??”

Together, we pieced together our learnings from 7th grade algebra:

Still, I proceeded very uneasily.

4. This recipe takes time. I cannot fathom why any sane person would attempt to cook and serve BB on a weeknight. I chose to whip through it on a Saturday afternoon to serve for Sunday dinner, as the recipe states it can be prepared a day in advance, subtly hinting it may even be better that way. I started cooking at 3PM, knowing full well I had dinner plans that evening. Two pieces of serendipity saved me from winding up in the dog house that evening: first, the beef cooked in less time than stated (see below). Second, my dinner companion for that night is a champion who can roll with the punches, not batting an eyelash when I opened the door with crazed look on my face, a spatula in my hand and sweatpants on my bum and acquiescing when I requested we grab a quick drink at a bar on the corner, so I could pop home and throw the cooled stew in the fridge before heading across town to dinner. Well played, sir, well played.

5. The recipe states, “Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2.5 - 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.” Thankfully, I set the kitchen timer for 2 hours, for when the buzzer sounded, I discovered a completely cooked stew, though thankfully, not overcooked. I wondered if it was because the casserole dish I used was cast iron, and this puzzled me tremendously to the point of asking the chef at the restaurant to stop by our table so I could ask (another piece my date took in stride). He thought it much more likely that my oven is not calibrated, something I will need to investigate. Bottom line, check in regularly with yo beef. Saying my life flashed before my eyes is a dramatic understatement of how I felt at the two hour mark.

6. Boeuf Bourguignonne is friggen off the hook good. Right out of the pot, served for dinner the next day (better), and lunch the day after (even better yet). Humina, humina, humina.....

7. This whole kitchen color thing is getting a tad out of hand.

To quote the great Carl Weathers, “Now wait a minute. This is just purely a social call. You know, just two adults getting a stew on, man.”

Getting my stew on,

khop

PS: Some additional pictures from along the way....

Tipsy Fruit Salad

My friend Missy and I had an abundance of frozen sausage from the summer farm share. We decided to go Iron Chef and create our holiday party around this secret ingredient. And because it's fun to be silly and immature when you are an adult, we decided that all non-sausage items had to be ball shape. Yes, my parents would disapprove. Hopefully they won't read this post.  Just as they feared, here is proof that I was corrupted by our high school basketball t-shirts. I was in high school in the early nineties - you know when those "Big Johnson" and "Co-Ed Naked" t-shirts were popular. (Perhaps the Big Johnson T-shirts were only a hick, backwoods Maine popularity?)  So along the same lines, one of our team moms thought printing "Lady Cougars Know How To Handle Balls" on t-shirts was appropriate for 16 to 18 year old girls to wear. Thus began my downfall into immaturity and inappropriateness.

I took a cantaloupe, a melon, and a papaya and used a melon baller to create fruit balls for my salad. Unfortunately the snow put a damper on the party and not too many people were able to part take in Tipsy Melonballs. I find the original recipe (below) a little ridiculous - why would one actually measure out fruit for a fruit salad? I think it's best to get 1 to 2 of each fruit you like and then cut it up and throw it in the bowl - don't worry about measuring, that is crazy! I used raspberry preserves for the sauce because that is what I had. It tasted great, but it turned the sauce a brownish color which was a little off putting. I also think you can cut back (or exclude) the confectioners' sugar, especially if your fruit is ripe. Now that sounds like the beginning of a good t-shirt.....

Tipsy Fruit Salad
Source: About.com
 
Ingredients
3 Tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3 Tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur
2 Tablespoons apricot jam (I used raspberry preserves)

Fruit of your Choice, such as
1 cup mandarin orange sections, drained if canned
1 cup seedless grapes
1 cup hulled strawberries, cut in half
1 cup blueberries
1 mango, peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks
1 cup peeled diced apple
1 cup peeled diced pears
1 cup miniature marshmallows, optional

Directions
Place lime juice, sugar, Grand Marnier, and jam in a small bowl. Whisk until combined. Set aside.

Place your fruit (and marshmellow) into a large bowl. Drizzle on the Grand Marnier dressing and gently toss to coat all of the fruit.

***************************************

Check out these post ballin' photos. I love these two colors together and I wish I was a little more artistic and had a better camera to create a cooler photo. The texture, shadows and shininess in the remaining fruit was a great contrast.

 

Bourbon and Maple-Glazed Salmon Fillets

For those of you who are looking for some healthy eating, this one's for you. Salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids, the good kind of fat. And if you are calorie counting, here are the nutrition facts: 315 calories (44 percent from fat ), 15 grams fat (2 grams sat. fat ), 8 grams carbohydrates, 35 grams protein, 360 mg sodium, 96 mg cholesterol, 0 grams fiber .

I've made salmon this way a few times and it always turns out well. The flavors are smokey and sweet. I recommend using individual fillets as the recipe suggests (instead of a whole piece of fish as shown in my photos below). Using smaller fillets allows for the glaze to coat the side of each fillet serving, ultimately giving you more flavor with every bite. Fillets will also cook faster than a whole piece of fish.

BOURBON AND MAPLE-GLAZED SALMON FILLETS
Source: Witchita Falls Crave.com
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon
4 (about 6 ounces each) salmon fillets with skin on
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Rinse the fillets under cold water and pat dry.
In a small bowl combine the oil, Dijon, maple syrup and bourbon. Set aside half the glaze.
Place the salmon fillets in a shallow dish and brush with half the glaze. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and up to 3 hours before broiling.

Preheat the broiler to low. Coat a broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place the salmon fillets on the pan, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper. Broil for about 8 minutes. Brush with the reserved glaze and continue broiling, another 4-5 minutes* depending on the thickness, until the salmon is just cooked through. Remove the salmon by sliding a spatula between the flesh and skin, leaving the skin on the broiler pan.

* I had to broil about 3 to 4 minutes longer when using this larger piece of fish.

1. Salmon marinading
2. Reserve glaze
3. Salmon after broiling 8 minutes

Rum Balls - How to Crush Things in Your Kitchen

Deck the halls with balls of rum, fa la la la laaa, la la la laaaa. It's the time of year for parties and sharing of favorite treats. These rum balls are easy to make and will be a hit at any party. I have found that anything that contains alcohol is a hit at a party.

This recipe brings up two kitchen questions:

1) How do I crush things in the kitchen?
You'll need crushed Nilla wafers and pecans for these rum balls.
You could use a food processor, or a blender, or a nut chopper or, here is a combo nut and spice grinder. Or you could use this recipe as an excuse to buy the Slap Chop and you can finally stop having a boring life.

(Those of you with weak stomachs, please skip this paragraph)
I highly recommend avoiding the KitchenAid Immersible Blender for crushing things. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea when I first tried to use it to chop up pecans - but I ended up in the emergency room needing a few stitches. Some of you out there are probably bright enough to avoid using your fingers to clean pecans from the blades while the blender is still plugged in. I blame this accident on being an immersion blender novice and on the early time of day - most of you know that 10am or earlier is not my best time of day. All in all, it was quite an embarrassing attempt at expressing myself for a Valentine's gift one year. I'm now quite meticulous about unplugging the blender unless I'm in the immediate act of blending. Thank you for taking me to the ER that day Emily!

Since my mini food processor died and my dog ate the rubber ring for the blender, I chose to kick it old school and used a rolling pin and a zip-lock bag. This method requires a little more brawn but is not as expensive as the other options.

2) Do I really need a double boiler (or insert other random kitchen tool)? 
This recipe advises to melt the chocolate in a double boiler. A double boiler helps to melt chocolate slowly by heating the bottom of the inset pan with hot water. Much better than finding yourself with burnt chocolate - a disappointment to all since it's not edible in any salvageable way.  Many pots and pan sets contain a double-boiler, but some require you to buy an extra pot to inset into a bigger pot. Some sets don't even offer this feature. So, the question is "Do I need this?" Well, if you work with chocolate and sauces, then yes it's probably a good thing to get your hands on. But I'm not sure if I would run out and get one. Instead, I would check out Goodwill, yardsales, Craigslist, or maybe rummage through married friends' basements looking for those wedding gifts they never use. You can take this same approach for other kitchen tools - microplanes, crockpots, ice cream makers, etc. Once you know that you will use them a lot, you can then upgrade and spend some dollars on a better model. My dad actually found my double boiler for me at Goodwill in West Lafayette when I was in college. At first I was skeptical and denied that I needed such a thing "Where am I going to put it?" Yet, it has come in useful, and is another situation where my dad can claim he knows best. It's a little on the large side and made of some aluminum mix making a potholder sometimes necessary, but I haven't had a need to upgrade yet.

Rum Balls 

Ingredients
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/3 cup rum - spiced or flavored, I used orange*
2 1/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers (about 3/4 of a 12 ounce box)
1 cup finely crushed pecans

Instructions
Crush up vanilla wafers and pecans and mix in a bowl. Melt chocolate chips in a pot over boiling water (i.e. in a double boiler). Remove from heat and stir in sugar and corn syrup. Add rum and mix until well blended. Add vanilla wafer and pecans to chocolate mixture. Put in the fridge for a while to harden, about 10 to 15 minutes. Roll into balls, then roll balls in sugar or more crushed pecans.** Sometimes, I even sprinkle more rum over balls for good measure.

*If you only have white rum available, you can use this and experiment with your own flavorings -add vanilla or almond extract (probably about 1 to 2 teaspoons), or add a teaspoon cinnamon to spice it up.
**I think it's really difficult to make the pecans stick. Rolling them is sugar is by far the easier technique, and you can never go wrong with more sugar in anything :)

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

My current business trip to Vegas has been somewhat of a bomb, but not the good kind that the Gap Band is singing about. I've been here less than 24 hours and have suffered the following:
1) The lobby of the hotel smelled like one of those taxi cabs that never throws away old air fresheners - the driver just hangs one after another making a cardboard bouquet hanging from the rear view mirror
2) There were only smoking optional rooms left when I checked in. The term "smoking optional" made me think - "eh, maybe it won't be that bad." I was very very very wrong. The room was disgusting, I think they pumped smoke into the room as one of the amenities. The ceiling was cover in yellow stains. not all over yellow in color, but splotches of yellow, greasy cigarette remnants. On the bright side, the hotel let me change to a non-smoking rooms the next morning. Unfortunately the damage had been done, and all my clothes and luggage smelled. Yeah, they should not be able to false advertise as smoking optional. Bah, nothing is real in Vegas.
3) There is no mini-bar in my room. Normally this isn't a big deal, but after a 5 hour plane ride I really wanted to head straight to my room have a cold drink...maybe a refreshing gingerale. I did not want wander the Habitrail of the casino floor looking for a bar or an overpriced convenience shop. I wanted to overpay from the convenience of my room.
4) I woke up groggy with bloodshot nicotine stained eyes and NEEDED coffee. There is no coffeemaker in my room. Now this is a BIG DEAL.
5) There were no lanyards left when I got to the registration booth. I had to clip my name badge to my collar all cockeyed. How was any high rolling gambler going to be able to flirt with me by name? The free conference tote bag that I picked up had the logo printed upside down.
6) The one block to the convention center was more like 5 blocks weaving in and out of people offering things I wasn't interested in. Again, not a big deal, until I had to walk back in the rain this afternoon, no umbrella.
7) and finally, I'm back in my hotel and change into my comfy clothes and realize that the pant hem on my new suit pants has begun to unravel.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was near tears after 2 minutes in my smokey room. But all in all, my mood is still pretty good considering all the bad things that have happened....but I realize that I'm just not feeling Las Vegas right now. I'd rather be home making cupcakes. Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes to be specific.

These cupcakes contain three kinds of alcohol and are the bomb, for real. The cake part of the cupcake is made with stoudt. A center piece is of cupcake is hollowed out, removed, and replaced with whiskey chocolate ganache. The frosting top is made with Irish Cream. My friend Emily directed me to this recipe and gave a fist pump when I told her I would need her help to make them for Thanksgiving festivities. I shared them at a Thanksgiving Eve party and already have a request for a repeat appearance.

Some thoughts about this recipe:

I highly recommend investing in tools to decorate cupcakes. It's one of the reason why making cupcakes get me all excited. This pastry bag kit provides several decorating tips and disposable plastic pastry bags. I'm still learning different techniques about how to use the pastry bag. Emily taught me that you should fold over the top of the bag when you are trying to fill it as she demonstrates in this photo. Although I'll never complain about having to lick frosting off my fingers, this technique makes things a little neater and sanitary. If the frosting or ganache warms up from handling the bag, stick the bag in the refrigerator to cool it down. The Wilton website has some good pastry bag instructions and decorating tips. But, it's just as easy to jump head first into the frosting (wouldn't that be heavenly?) and just figure it out as you go.

I'm more of a towering frosting kind of girl, but the frosting was delegated (and unsupervised) to Emily. This recipe makes a small amount of very sweet frosting. It was plenty to cover the cupcakes, so I'm grateful for her agreeing to frost the cupcakes so that I could change and get ready for the party. But, if you like to be more liberal with your frosting, you should double the recipe.

This recipe prompted me to buy another cupcake pan so I could make all 24 at once the next time I make cupcakes. Makes it easier to pace yourself and evenly distribute the batter. Since I plan on making oodles of more cupcakes in the future, this investment was worth it.

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes
Source: Smitten Kitchen

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup stout (such as Guinness or a chocolate stoudt)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (double recipe if you like frosting towers!)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys Irish Creme (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer (or a sharp knife and a steady hand will work) and a piping bag (a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)

Instructions
Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, hollow out the center of the cupcake. You can use a 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer to cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. Or you can just use a knife. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. These center pieces are yummy, so taste away.  Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. If the ganache isn't cool enough, it will dribble out of the bottom of the pastry bag, making quite a mess, but a tasty mess! Be sure the ganache has cooled enough to avoid a mess, especially if you have a dog that likes to help clean up.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. Adding the powdered sugar slowly helps prevent the frosting from being grainy.

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin, add in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar and beat. Ice and decorate the cupcakes. You can use a star tip and dot the cupcake with frosting stars. To add your own touch - sprinkled the cupcakes with various colors of sanding sugar or shaved dark and white chocolates would look and taste fantastic as well.

Do ahead: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Orange Candied Ginger Cranberry Sauced

My measuring cups are taking a vacation for a week or two - they got a pretty good workout last Wednesday and Thursday. However, I did make plenty of tasty things to keep this blog in business while they (and I) recover. 

We'll start the Thanksgiving recap with the saucing of the cranberry sauce. I've never really been a fan of the whole cranberries sauce from the can - my sweet taste buds clearly out number my tart ones so the tartness never wins and the consistency of the whole cranberry sauce is a turn off. To the contrary, I am a fan of the jellied cranberry sauce and for some weird reason the can shaped consistency does not bother me.

In search of pumpkin and bourbon recipes, I came across links to cranberry and bourbon recipes. Bing! I knew what I was going to make for the Thanksgiving dinner with friends! As I've gotten older, I have begun pushing myself to try things that I may have previously decided that I didn't like. I've never had homemade cranberry sauce, so I was excited to find out my feelings about a non-canned version. By the way, "bing" is one of the noises in my head when I happen upon a good idea, as is "Ha!" and "Woo!" 

There are lots of cranberry sauce recipes out there. Many of them have bourbon as an ingredient and I was also tempted by other recipes that had orange zest and candied ginger - it seemed like a good idea to try to combine a few recipes. Then I happened upon this one with triple sec. Since bourbon has already made several appearances on this blog, I felt it was important to share the spotlight with our brandy/Cognac based friend triple sec, invented in France in 1834, but now made in Haiti.

Crystallized ginger is a candied form of the root, somewhat similar in candiedness as dried pineapple - it's chewy, sweet, coated in sugar but has the ginger zing to it. It might be a challenge for some to find it in their grocery store and may also turn away those thinking "How the heck am I going to use the leftover ginger? Just another thing to clutter my cupboard and potentially spill and create a sticky mess!" Well, you can also make yummy ginger shortbread cookies if you have any leftover ginger. Perfect on a wintry day with a hot cup of tea. I'm pretty sure you can find crystallized ginger at most large grocery stores. I think I got mine at Whole Foods, but I also see that Wegman's has it, perhaps even in bulk! I would steer clear of this McCormick product. I suspect it is uber expensive for such a small quantity.

Cooking up the sauce was pretty easy and quite stimulating to the senses! Fresh cranberries are the most beautiful red colors in the world. The wafting smells of candied oranges from the pot reminded me of making lollipops with my mom when I was younger. The most difficult part of cooking was finding the simmer setting on the dial on my stove. Too far one way was a boil and too far the other was....well, nothing. Even with this challenge, the recipe was forgiving, and little extra boiling didn't seem to hurt it. 

The final product was delicious - much more on the sweet side (which is probably why I liked it so much) but balanced by the tartness of the cranberries and the zing of the ginger. There was a good amount left over after Thanksgiving. I don't think this is because it wasn't good - I think my friends didn't realize how good it was because they are used to the canned stuff. Or, maybe it was the 13 other dishes on the table. Friday morning, we put the leftover cranberry sauce on pumpkin pancakes, soooo good! A far better use for it than accenting a turkey. I also plan to try it with some oatmeal tomorrow morning. You could also add it to yogurt, or put it on toast, or a bagel with cream cheese. 

Orange Candied Ginger Cranberry Sauced
Source: Whole Foods Market
Makes 2 and 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1/2 cup orange juice*
1/2 cup triple sec or orange liqueur 
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 (12-ounce) bag fresh or frozen and thawed cranberries
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 cup crystallized (candied) ginger, finely chopped, divided
1 tablespoon orange zest*

*you can zest one good sized (large?) orange and then squeeze about 1/2 cup of juice out of it

Directions
Put juice, triple sec, and brown sugar into a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring often, until sugar has dissolved. Add cranberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add ground ginger and about a third of the crystallized ginger and simmer, stirring often, until cranberries have popped and sauce is thickened to desired consistency, about 10 minutes more.

Remove from heat, stir in zest and all but a few pieces of the remaining crystallized ginger. Set aside to let cool to room temperature. Garnish with reserved crystallized ginger and serve. 

Nutrition Info (provided by Whole Foods)
Per serving (about 1/2 cup): 280 calories (0 from fat), 0g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 1g protein, 72g total carbohydrate (4g dietary fiber, 61g sugar), 0mg cholesterol, 25mg sodium

80-Proof Pie Dough = Fool Proof Pie Dough

America is going to eat a lot of pie in the next week. In a survey conducted by Crisco, apple beat out pumpkin as the pie ingredient of choice. Many people choose to buy pre-made pie. In fact, the frozen and fresh pie sales totaled over $500 million in 2008. You can find these pie facts and more on this nifty pie statistics website!

In case you are planning on making a pie for Thanksgiving or if you are planning your contribution to a party celebrating National Pie Day on January 23, 2010, I wanted to post this recipe a little prematurely (sorry no pictures yet!) and help you make the flakiest, most tender, and easiest to roll pie dough your rolling pin has ever seen.

I first learned to make pies from my mom. The recipe went like this:

Mom's Pie Crust

For each crust:

1 cup flour

1/3 cup shortening

dash of salt

Mix with fork until fine. Add water until it feels right (about 2 tablespoons or so).

You will have to make a lot of pies to know what "feels right." I interviewed my mom about her PIExperience

Cassie: So, how many pies do you think you've made in your life time?
Mom: Oh, hundreds
Cassie: What's the most you've made at one time? You used to make them for the church pie sale at Thanksgiving, right?
Mom: The most I made for that was six.

It's likely you don't have enough time between now and Thanksgiving, or even National Pie Day to make the 300++ pies needed to figure out when the dough feels just right. Thus, I'd like to introduce the Fool Proof Pie Dough from Cook's Illustrated which uses vodka to help avoid a tough crust. Why vodka? Pie dough gets its structure from gluten. Gluten is long strains of protein that form when flour mixes with water. Too much gluten will make a tough pie dough. It's tough to find the right balance: too much water equals too much gluten and a tough crust; too little water makes the dough difficult to rollout. Vodka contains 60% water and 40% ethanol. Since gluten does not form in alcohol, using alcohol allows you to use more liquid without the risk of forming too much gluten. Vodka is colorless and tasteless, and the alcohol will vaporize in the oven. Adding vodka to your crust won't impact the taste of your crust (unless you use those flavored ones), just the texture.

My mom has worked with this recipe a few more times than I have and says this:

Cassie: How many pies have you made with this pie crust recipe?
Mom: Maybe a half dozen
Cassie: What's different about this pie crust? Aside from the vodka and added step of chilling the dough.
Mom: The dough is sticky so you need more flour when you are rolling out. I chill the vodka too, that seems to help. But, yes, this pie crust is much easier to roll out. It makes a real nice crust. I like it. But you know, I've seen this recipe a lot lately - people talking about good pie crusts. Cook's also did a review of store-bought pie crusts - they picked Pillsbury. I've used that several times when I don't have time and need to be quick - it's pretty good too, for store bought.

So there you go, if you don't have time to make a crust, but still want to bake your "own" pie, my mom, the pie expert, endorses the Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust.

80-Proof Pie Dough
from Cook's Illustrated

Makes one 9-inch double-crust pie (that means a top and bottom for one pie, or two bottoms for two pies)

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

Instructions
1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds an there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl. 
2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

I feel like I'm letting you down a little bit by not posting photos and a little more commentary with tips and tricks for making pie crusts. For now, I will direct you to Smitten Kitchen for more info about this pie crust. She also uses a pastry blender, which I prefer over the food processor. Why? Well, because I don't own a food processor and because you can over process the flour/butter. A flaky crust comes from the visible butter bits in the dough. In the oven, the butter bits will melt and create mini pockets in the surrounding flour. Steam escapes from the water in the butter and lifts these pockets to create the flakes of your flaky dough. Go science go!

I promise to update with photos and more comments after Turkey Day!