Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients

• 8oz ground pork
• 12oz ground beef
• 2 slices sandwich bread
• 1/3c milk
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 5tbsp butter
• scant 1/4c flour
• 2c beef stock
• sour cream

Saute the onion in a tablespoon of butter until translucent and starting to brown a bit, about 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, add the bread (torn up) and the milk so that it can soak. You can also add the salt, cardamom, and nutmeg right now.

When the onions are done sauteing, add to the milk/bread mixture and toss the meat in there and the egg. Pulse the mixture until it comes together. You will probably need a spoon to kind of turn the mixture every so often between pulses.

Melt the remaining 4 tbsp butter in a wide saute pan (you can reuse the one you used for the onions). Form the meatballs to be about 1-2tbsp in size, placing them in the butter as you go. Keep the heat low-ish so that they sizzle a little but don't splatter. Also you don't want to burn the butter. Don't crowd the pan, you're going to have to do a couple batches. Turn the meatballs as they cook until they're pretty well browned. You don't need to cook them through at this stage. When you're done, fish them out and put them aside on a plate or cookie sheet and continue cooking the other batches until you've done all of them.

When the meatballs are done, set aside. In the pan, add the flour and whisk around in the remaining grease. Then add the beef stock and continue to whisk as you bring it to a simmer, scraping up the bottom of the pan.

When the gravy comes to a simmer, re-add all of the meatballs. Turn heat to low and cover the pan to cook for another 8-10 minutes. Then you can add sour cream to the gravy (if you're feeling decadent) - go for about 1/3c, tops, though.

Serve with mashed potatoes, black pepper, and lingonberry jam.

Thoughts: Nailed it. We really wanted comfort food tonight, and I think we did it. This is probably our most successful meatball recipe yet, also. This makes enough to feed about 4, but we made it for 2 with a lot of leftovers, as it should be.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Naan

We were making Chicken Tikka Masala (from Cook's magazine - awesome recipe!) and needed something to go with it. So instead of rice, we went for naan.

Ingredients

• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2c warm water
• 2.5-3c flour (until the dough is about right so it doesn't stick to absolutely everything - we did about 2.5c then used an extra 1/2c for kneading
• 1tsp salt
• garlic powder (we used like 1/2-1tsp), or any other flavorings you might want
• 1/4c vegetable oil
• 1/3c greek yogurt (we used nonfat and it worked perfectly)
• 1 egg

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Set aside. Combine all the other ingredients except the flour, then add the water/yeast/sugar mixture. Mix well, then add about 2.5c flour and fold together with a wooden spoon or your hands or whatever. Turn out onto a counter and knead for 3 minutes, adding as much flour as necessary to make this possible. Grease the bowl you were using originally and toss the dough back in there. Let it rise for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Now, without punching the whole thing down, grab a chunk of dough (as large as you want to make the naan - about 3" diameter will make about a 6" naan) and press / roll it out to about 1/4" thick. Spray a frying pan with cooking spray (you REALLY don't want too much oil here!) and heat until just smoking, then add the naan. You can kind of start the pan heating while you roll out the naan. Anyway, once the naan is on the pan, turn it to low and cook for 3-4 minutes, then flip it and do the same. You can flip it early if you think the naan is getting browned a little early - it will depend on how hot your stove is. If you flip it TOO early, you can always re-brown that side (we did this several times). Repeat with the remaining dough. sprinkle with salt as they come off the pan.

Thoughts: The texture of these was really great. I think they could have used a bit more salt, personally, and I think Claire agrees with me on that. In the future, it would be cool to add chopped chives or something. But otherwise, these turned out great. I would do this again.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Kedgeree

A Victorian era Anglo-Indian colonial breakfast dish (possibly invented in a Scottish regiment?). History is interesting.

Ingredients

• 8-12oz haddock, cod, or similar fillet
• 2 eggs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1c basmati rice
• 2tbsp butter
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground mustard
• 2 tbsp madras curry powder
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2c cilantro, chopped
• 2 lemons, juiced
• salt
• plain yogurt

Place the fish in a pan and add a little water - not enough to cover, I think. Add the bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. Remove the fish and set to cool, at which time you can flake it apart. I think smoked fish might be a good alternative here (and more flavorful) so if you can get smoked cod, I'd say go for it.

Set up the rice cooking. If you use a rice cooker, do that. I use 1c rice and 1.25c water. If you use a pot, use those ratios, bring to a boil, simmer covered on low for 10 minutes, then set aside covered for 10 minutes. Done.

Meanwhile, set a small saucepan of water to boil. When it's boiling, add the eggs. Boil for 10 minutes, then remove and run under icy cold water to stop the cooking.

OK. Now, in a large-ish saute or similar, add the butter and onions. Cook until softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook another minute or two, then add the mustard and curry. Cook another couple minutes, then add the tomato and lemon juice.

When that's done, remove from heat. Add the rice to the onion / tomato mixture, along with the cilantro and the flaked fish, and toss to coat. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut into quarters. Top the dish with the hard-boiled eggs, then serve with a little yogurt.

Thoughts: This dish was a little too lemon-y for our taste, and it needed a bit more salt. The fish lost some flavor to the weird boiling process (leave it to the Brits, amirite?) but if we had smoked fish, that might have worked well. I think next time we go with one lemon, smoked fish, and more salt. That would make this a pretty damn good dish.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Frisée and Wild Mushroom Salad with Poached Eggs

Pretty self explanatory.

Ingredients

• 10-12oz creminis, sliced (or whatever mushrooms you can get your hands one)
• 2 small heads of frisée, torn into bite-sized bits
• Enough eggs for however many servings
• olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• salt

Straightforward recipe: Saute the creminis in some olive oil. When they're cooked down, toss them with the frisee. Squeeze lemon juice over the whole thing. Poach eggs and top the salad with the poached eggs. Done.

Thoughts: Simple and delicious. I don't know how often we find ourselves in possession of frisée, but that's a farm share for you. In the future, I might consider adding thinly shaved parmesan or similar. Actually, we did this a few times when we had it. So there you go. Could possibly have used a bit more "dressing" - if I were to do it again, I'd make a light vinaigrette but with lemon juice instead of vinegar, and possibly mayo instead of mustard as an emulsifier.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Lamb Meatball Curry

It was an experiment, anyway.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 egg
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• water
• about 1/4c (?) cream
• salt to taste

Mix the meat, garlic, pepper, garam masala, and egg into a meatball mixture, then form into 1.5" diameter meatballs. Pop them in a 375 degree oven on a cookie sheet covered in foil for about 20-30 minutes, or until they're about done. I think at the end we broiled 'em to get a little char.

Meanwhile, cook the onion in a pan with a little neutral oil. When that's done, toss in the remaining spices (cumin, ginger, turmeric) and cook for a little bit. Then add the tomatoes and the tomato paste. Cook until thickened.

When the meatballs are done, add them to the onion / tomato / spices mixture. Add just enough water so that nothing burns and cook for another 10-20 minutes. When you're getting to the end, let most of the water evaporate off and replace it with some heavy cream. Serve over rice.

Thoughts: The meatballs were really the highlight of this dish. I'm not sure the sauce did too much for it. So I think we're going to have to tweak this idea a little bit. I think in the future I would use crushed tomatoes, or else possibly blend the whole sauce before adding the meatballs. Also might use some madras curry powder? Not sure about that. There was something missing here.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Decadent (?) Chocolate Puffy Things

Thanks to Emily and Mom for pointing this recipe out. They both made basically the same thing at the same time without having communicated about it. We were inspired, and we wound up with something about half-way in between their versions. I'm not thrilled with the name, but it's better than the recipe we got it from. Maybe appropriate because we've been eating 2-5 cookies per day since we made them. Anyway, I'm just recording it here to note the minor changes we made so we can do it again the same way next time.

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick (4tbsp) butter
• 4.5 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1.5 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 c unbleached AP flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 5/8 c sugar (1/2c + 2tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 c (12 oz) bittersweet chocolate chips

Basically you make this like any other cookies:

Preheat oven to 350. Whip the eggs in a stand-mixer, add the sugar and beat. In a separate pan (or to be honest, probably in the microwave) mix the butter, 4.5oz chips, and 1.5oz unsweetened chocolate and melt, stirring often. We used a double-boiler - probably better than straight on the heat source. When that's melted and cooled, add to the egg/sugar mixture. Add the salt and vanilla. Then add the flour and baking powder. When that's smooth, add the 2 c chocolate chips. Pop the whole thing in the freezer for 20 minutes to stiffen. Then, using a 2" ice cream scoop, spoon the batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 17-20 minutes, rotating half-way through. Take them out as soon as they're JUST getting done so they don't over-cook. Makes about 2 dozen.

Thoughts: I'm glad we halved this recipe. At the same time, this is awesome. These cookies are pretty amazing. Far and away the best chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies I've ever made. They have the advantage of being not too dry and incredibly powerfully chocolate-y. These are a winner. I think the ONE tough part about the recipe is taking the cookies out early enough. We could possibly have gone 16:00 or 16:30 instead of 17:00 (what we did) and it would have been perfect. But we're at a high altitude, so thinks dry out more quickly.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Korean Seafood Pancakes

I think these are also called Pajeon or Haemul Pajeon. We totally violated the basic premise of this recipe, but it was good, so I'm blogging it. In the future, we'll do it right.

Ingredients

• 1.75c white AP flour
• .5c rice flour
• 2 eggs
• generous pinches of salt
• water to make a pancake batter
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 daikon radish, grated
• 2c shrimp, chopped

Make the pancake batter. Add the fillings. Put about 1/2 the batter at a time on a non-stick (or highly greased) griddle. Wait for the top to start to look dry, and the bottom to be nicely browned before you attempt to flip this, or you'll have pancake bits everywhere. Cook about 5-8 min on both sides. Serve with a sauce made of 4:1:1:.5:.25 ratios of soy sauce : black or rice wine vinegar : oyster sauce : sugar : chili flakes.

Thoughts: We thought that this turned out a LITTLE on the chewy side, actually - possibly a result of the rice flour? Possibly the daikon. It can get like that. Next time, we're going to replace the onion with scallions (we didn't have any on hand, but that's what you are supposed to use) and up the seafood amount. Claire also wants to put kimchi in it. I cannot disagree completely.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Persimmon Pudding

We had three Hachiya persimmons that we got for cheap, but it was Thanksgiving and we couldn't really find time or space to eat these things before they got too over-ripe. So when they started spontaneously splitting open, we made something out of them. The recipe was called "Persimmon Pudding" but it would have been accurate to call it "Crustless Persimmon Pie" (to give an idea of the texture). It's really good, but I would actually put this in a pie crust in the future.

Ingredients

• 1c VERY ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp
• 1c sugar
• 1c flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1c milk
• 3 eggs
• 4oz butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk everything together. Pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish. Bake at 325 for like 45 minutes, until it's mostly set but still has a little jiggle.

Thoughts: This is really delicious. In the past when we've made things with persimmons, the flavor is kind of muted for some reason - like baking it removes the flavor. This didn't have that problem - it still tastes like persimmon. As I said, though, it has all the texture of a pie - it might be better in a pie crust next time. Also, it didn't quite set in the middle for a long time - I suspect that covering with tin foil for the first 30 minutes of baking would help.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Pumpkin Pie

Took a lot longer to bake than I thought.

Ingredients

• 1 small pie pumpkin, halved, seeds scooped out
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1c 2% (or higher) milk

For each cut half of the pumpkin, place it cut side down in a pie dish and add about an inch of water. Microwave on high for 15 minutes. When it's cooled, peel the skin off and mash.

Mix 1.75c of the pumpkin with all the rest of the ingredients. Throw in a pie shell. Bake at 425 for about an hour, until a knife inserted into the center comes out mostly (?) clean. The pie will jiggle but only a LITTLE bit.

Thoughts: This was easy. But it didn't completely set, either. I think that now that it's cooled it may be better. Probably best to serve after it has cooled. Now we have so much spare pumpkin, too.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - it wasn't the flavor, it was the texture. I would look at some other variations in the future.

Quiche

Well that was easy. Note - makes TWO quiches. So. Think about that.

Ingredients

• Custard
• 2 pie shells
• 5 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2/3c skim milk
• 1/3c butter (about 5tbsp), melted
• 1tsp salt
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• 1/4tsp nutmeg
• 1/2tsp rosemary
• about 1c summer sausage (or ham), cubed
• Other fillings
• 1/2 a red onion, chopped
• 1/2 a red bell pepper, chopped
• 4-8oz mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• about 1 bag of fresh spinach
• about 1c shredded dill havarti
• olive oil, as necessary

It looks complicated but it's not. Take the pie shells out of the freezer and set aside to thaw. Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all the custard ingredients together. Now, saute the vegetables, then wilt the spinach in some olive oil. Place all that in the bottom of the pie tins. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the tins, then pour the custard over everything. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the egg is set. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes or so. Also great re-warmed the next day!

Thoughts: This was awesome. We might adjust the veg ratios in the future, but it wouldn't be necessary. One possibility would be to see if cutting out the butter would still work. I think typically you're actually supposed to use 2%, whole, or half-and-half, but we didn't have that so we made do with butter and milk. I'm not sure how much the butter added, though - a lot of it kind of melted and then floated to the top of the quiches when they cooked. Even so, it's so good that maybe we don't want to mess with it. I don't know.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Not Quite Pasta Carbonara

Perhaps more accurately called "Pasta Not Quite Carbonara." This was actually an attempt to use up stuff in the fridge / pantry before we go out of town (and eventually move), but it was the perfect thing after a hard day of painting. OH GOD THE PAINT FUMES.

Ingredients

• 4oz bacon, cubed
• garlic. Like, a lot. Maybe 2tbsp.
• Olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2c of that sandy parmesan stuff
• black pepper
• 14oz canned diced tomatoes
• 1lb pasta

Make the pasta. While that's cooking, cook the bacon and garlic in a pan of olive oil. When the bacon is cooked, add the tomatoes and simmer for a while until it thickens a bit. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the egg, parmesan, and pepper and whisk thoroughly.

When the pasta is done, mix it with the tomato / bacon mixture until thoroughly coated. Do this over a low flame so that it's REALLY hot. Take the pasta off the heat completely, stir a couple more times, then pour in the egg and cheese mixture and stir constantly. The heat from the pasta cooks the eggs without curdling them (ideally - worked for us, but we've curdled them in the past). Then serve.

Thoughts: This was really good. The tomato really added, actually, although I know we're heathens for doing it this way. It could be the paint fumes talking, but I would definitely do it this way in the future.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Pan Popovers

Pan popovers


I got this recipe from a friend of mine and it's great. For a 1.5 quart saucepan, use the following:

• 1/8 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/8 cup flour
• 3/8 cup skim milk
• 1 tsp salt
• optional: basil, chives, tarragon, dill, pepper, etc.

Put the butter in the pan and put it in the oven. Preheat it to 425.
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and combine them with an egg beater until smooth.
When the butter in the pan is browned, carefully remove the pan from the oven and add the flour/egg/milk mixture.

Bake until puffy/browned, about 20-25 minutes.

When you remove it from the oven, there will be a lot of butter hanging out on top. Tilt the pan in all directions so that the butter runs between the popover and the side of the pan. This will make it easier to get the popover out.  Otherwise it will stick pretty significantly.

Thoughts: This is ridiculously easy and awesome. The next time we make it we might separating the egg whites from the yolks and whipping the whites separately so make it a little more souffle-like. It's pretty dense right now, which is all well and good, but lighter might be interesting.

Browning the butter before you add everything else makes this magical. Do it. Also put all sorts of herbs in it. We haven't added things like bacon, mushrooms, or shallots, because those ideas are just occurring to me now, but it would probably be another awesome idea. We'll report back. Claire out.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mousse Redux

Passover but sick of flourless chocolate cake? How about a layered chocolate and strawberry mousse instead? That was the plan. Instead of use our typical chocolate mousse recipe, we thought we'd go with a classic: Julia Child (by way of David Lebovitz). Then strawberry mousse.

Chocolate Mousse

• 6oz good chocolate chips
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2/3c sugar
• 6oz butter
• 1tsp instant espresso powder and 1/4c water (or 1/4c strong coffee)
• 2tbsp water
• pinch of salt
• 1/2tsp vanilla

This is a little complicated. Plan out your choice of bowls ahead of time. So, in one bowl, combine the chocolate chips, butter, and espresso. Melt over a double-boiler until, well, melted. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and 2tbsp water. Prepare a cold water bath. Whip the egg mixture together over a double boiler for 3 minutes, then remove and whip in the cold water bath until thick (it gets very thick). In a THIRD bowl, whip the egg whites and a pinch of salt until firm, then add the sugar and continue to beat until shiny and stiff. Add the vanilla and incorporate.

Now assemble: mix the chocolate and egg yolks together until completely mixed. Fold in 1/3 of the egg white, then the remaining egg white. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate. After 2 hours, top this with a layer of sliced strawberries.

Strawberry Mousse

• 1lb strawberries
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2c sugar
• 1/4c water
• 4 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1/2c heavy whipping cream

In a saucepan, cook down the strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and water until the strawberries are pretty decomposed. I even mashed them with a potato masher, actually. Then blend them (we used a stick blender) and let cool. When it's pretty cool (doesn't have to be COMPLETELY cool, but cool enough to touch), whip the egg whites with the salt and sugar, following the same process as outlined above. Then whip the whipping cream into stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Combine the strawberries and whipped cream, then the egg whites (1/3 first then the remainder). Pour over the now stiffened chocolate mousse. After 2 hours, top with another layer of sliced strawberries.

You could go on all day doing this, but we didn't. Serve (with a spoon? I guess?) and top with whipped cream.

Thoughts: This recipe is a little complicated, for either part. If you clean as you go and you plan out your bowls and utensils, you can get away without making a huge mess. If you don't plan ahead, you're going to have a bad time. But then, we had a bad time anyway. By the time we served this, it had completely deflated. It was like soup. Claire suggested maybe it was because we let it get warm and then cold again, which messed up the structural integrity, but I think we've had better success before. Anyway, total disaster. It was embarrassing because we had to serve it to everyone. Ugh. But then when we got home, we salvaged it by churning it into some extremely respectable ice cream.

Disaster Index: 6/10, but only because the flavor was good and it became good ice cream.

Soft Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

We never got around to making hamentaschen this year, and I felt wrong not having cookies. So I made some peanut butter cookies. I wanted a "chewy" recipe, so I wound up making my own version based on this and this. I did something in the middle. I baked six and froze the rest in individual portions.

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1 c smooth peanut butter
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 c flour
• about 8oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, the sugars, and the salt until you get sick of it. Beat in the vanilla, milk, and the egg. Then beat in the soda, powder, and flour, slowly at first so you don't cover the kitchen in those ingredients. Then just add the chocolate chips. Portion out 2tbsp of dough per cookie onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. Don't overbake - they don't look done when they come out, but carryover cooking will do the rest while they cool. I guess if you want to eat them hot out of the oven you should bake at least 12 minutes, because if you bake these for just 10 minutes, you won't even be able to pick them up because they'll fall apart completely.

Thoughts: This wasn't EXACTLY what I was looking for, but maybe it's even better. In the future, I would experiment with not using butter and not using as much flour, I guess. These were pretty greasy. But I'd still give it 1/10 because they were excellent. Claire liked them, too, I think.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cheese Blintzes

Kind of like crepes, but, you know, Lithuanian.

Ingredients

• Blintz Batter
• 2 eggs
• 1c water
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2c flour
• Filling
• 8oz of nonfat, small-curd, unsalted cottage cheese
• 2tbsp sugar (or more)
• 1/2tsp vanilla

This recipe is kind of ridiculous(ly easy). Basically, mix together the batter ingredients. Set aside. Mix together the filling ingredients. Set aside. In a nonstick pan (or on a griddle) on medium heat, pour out some batter. Tilt the pan around to make a blintz, um, wrapper? You probably need about 7" diameter. It DOES NOT MATTER if the edges look crazy or if it's not round. Anyway, when it's done on one side (and not until then), remove from the heat and put on a plate. Put about 2tbsp of filling in the middle of the blintz, then fold it like a burrito (i.e., fold in half toward you, then fold the sides in, then roll it up along the remaining edge). When you're done with all of them, serve (hot or cold) with jam or sour cream... or maple syrup, or whatever.

Thoughts: The filling we made had a very delicate flavor. Next time, I think we'll taste the filling a few times and try to adjust the seasoning - more salt may be indicated, and possibly more sugar. One could also add fruit to the filling - blueberries are obvious.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - the only bad part was that the filling wasn't quite perfect. Otherwise, this is a potential 1/10 recipe.

Sweet Potato Pie

I guess we didn't blog this. I have this habit of keeping recipe tabs open until they get blogged, and lo and behold this has been open for more than a month. We made this to use up our farmers market sweet potatoes before we went out of town. Results were actually pretty awesome, and I don't think this is actually that bad for you?

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3/4c sugar
• 3/4c milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2tsp cinnamon
• 1/4tsp nutmeg
• 1/4tsp salt
• 1 tbsp dark rum (maybe more?)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 9" pie shell (we used store-bought pre-made. It was fine.)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cook the sweet potatoes until tender. We peeled and par-boiled them, but when that failed to get them cooked all the way through, we microwaved them until they were very tender. When they are very tender, mash with the remaining ingredients (maybe want to add the sugar and milk first to cool the potatoes a bit - you don't want the eggs to cook when you add them, so make sure the potatoes are sufficiently cool before you do.)

Raise the oven temp to 400. Fill the pie shell and place on a shallow baking dish. Pop it in the oven for 40 minutes Remove and let cool before serving.

Thoughts: We made two pies, actually, because our potatoes were enormous. One of the pies we baked for 40 minutes and the other was more like 60, I think. Either way, the one we baked longer LOOKED like it was overcooked - it was much darker, and we were afraid we had ruined the texture - but it was actually much better. I guess it's very hard to overcook a sweet potato pie, and cooking the thing longer caused a lot of the sugars to caramelize, which gave it a much better flavor. The texture was better, too. So I would say 60 minutes or more may be more the way to go - just start checking on the pie after 40.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - even when we messed it up, we didn't.

Tres Leches Bread Pudding

This recipe requires you to do a little math. I recommend you check out the original bread pudding recipe I posted here to get an idea of how bread pudding works. I tweaked the bake time for this. The main difference is that I replaced some milk with evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

Ingredients

• Stale bread, torn or cut into smallish (1" or 1.5" pieces) - bagels work, too
• Eggs
• Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Evaporated Milk
• Whole Milk
• Vanilla
• Sugar
• salt

Preheat oven to 375. Add bread into a casserole pan. Now you have to make the custard. You need the following ratios: 4oz dairy (which is 1/2c milk), 1 egg, .5tsp vanilla, 2tsp sugar. So, for example, one can of sweetened condensed milk is about 15oz. Evaporated milk comes in 5oz cans. That's 20oz total. Add another 1/2c milk, and you have 24oz., so you add 6 eggs, 4tbsp sugar, 3tsp vanilla. Add a pinch of salt, too. If this math is too hard, just do:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated
• 1/2c milk
• 6 eggs
• 4tbsp sugar
• 3tsp vanilla
• 1/2tsp salt

Anyway, whisk those ingredients together thoroughly and pour over the bread. You want it to be pretty well soaked. Here's the secret. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then pack down the bread with a spatula or something similar. Let it go another 5 minutes or so and pack down again. You want the bread packed quite densely and quite soaked in custard.

Cover the pan in tin foil. Bake for 30 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another 15 minutes. Make sure it's set (you want it to look slightly damp, but not "wet" - it's a custard, so it shouldn't be completely dry.) Let sit 10 minutes.

While that's baking, you can make the brandy sauce. You can kind of add your own flavors to this, too. Do what seems right. Rum might be good.

• 1c sugar
• 2/3c water
• 1/3c brandy
• 2tbsp grand marnier
• vanilla bean or cinnamon stick, if you have it (or similar)

To a pan, add 1c sugar and about 2/3c water and vanilla / cinnamon (if using). Boil over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 or 10 minutes? Then take it off the heat and add the brandy and grand marnier.

When the bread pudding is done sitting for 10 minutes, poke holes in it with a chopstick or fork or something. Pour the brandy sauce over the top and serve with whipped cream.

Thoughts: I think I've done something really smart here. Judging by the reaction, this was something of a hit. I only regret that when I put the bread pudding together, I didn't poke holes in the bread pudding and pour the sauce over - I more or less put it on individual servings. I think that in the future I want the brandy sauce to really soak into the dessert. Also, I had so much bread that I needed a LOT of whole milk. I used only 1 can of the sweetened condensed milk and 1 can of evaporated milk, but I could have doubled that and used less whole milk - this would have given it a stronger "tres leches" flavor. But I think we have a winner.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

When we made this, we added the sugar too early, and it took FOREVER to whip the egg whites. The instructions include the CORRECT method.

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites (which is a scant 1/2 cup) (Claire hates it when I call it albumin, but really it's hilarious)
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/4tsp cream of tartar
• 2tsp vanilla
• 1c superfine sugar
• 12oz good chocolate chips
• 1/2c nuts optional (we didn't use 'em)

Preheat the oven to 200*, if you think that kind of thing is important.

In a bowl, combine the egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla, and beat until it forms soft peaks. Then add the sugar and beat until it forms stiff peaks. Our problem was that we misinterpreted what "soft peaks" means, so we under-whipped before we added the sugar.

Anyway, roughly chop the chocolate chips (and nuts, if using), and fold those in.

Spoon the "batter" onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (about 1 to 1.5tbsp per cookie) and bake (yes, at 200*) for about 2 hours, until "lightly golden".

Thoughts: For me, the flavor of these cookies was fantastic, and the texture was amazing. If you cook them at 300 for 25 minutes, they're supposed to be crispy and hollow, but I wanted them to be more ethereal. Though it does make one wonder - could I bake them hollow and then pipe something into them? Maybe worth investigating. I would use a bit less sugar next time - maybe as little as half a cup? Otherwise, I think this was very successful. Claire thinks they're weird. SHE'S THE WEIRD ONE.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Gelato

I'm not sure, maybe we've posted other gelato recipes here before, but this one worked very well, so I'm just going to go ahead and post it.

Ingredients
3c whole milk
3/4c sugar
6 egg yolks
add-ins

Combine 1.5c milk, the sugar, and the egg yolks in a medium-sized sauce pan. Whisk together and cook over low heat until it coats the back of a metal spoon, being careful not to cook the egg. When it's done, take it off the heat and add the rest of the milk (to cool it down rapidly so it halts the cooking). Pour through a fine-mesh sieve (just to be on the safe side). Stir in any add-ins you might have. We had some chocolates that had bloomed a while back, and we chopped them up and stirred them in. You can also add citrus zest, vanilla, cinnamon, whatever. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. Process in an ice cream machine, then freeze. Makes about a quart of ice cream.

Thoughts: Because this recipe uses whole milk instead of half-and-half or cream, it's a little more solid at freezer temperatures, meaning that you have to let it thaw a minute before you can really serve it. However this comes with the benefit that the flavors really come through. The high fat content of half-and-half or cream tends to mute the flavors you add. Whole milk doesn't have that problem. I would use this recipe again. Other thoughts: maybe in the future I would consider the use of a double-boiler to make the custard base? Just a thought.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Thousand Island Dressing

Oh my God we're SO BEHIND but this recipe is easy to blog so I'm doing it. We'll get to the other stuff eventually.

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 3 tbsp dill pickle juice (we used the brine from our home-made pickles because it's BETTER THAN STORE-BOUGHT YEAH)
• 1 hard-boiled, pickled egg, chopped (other recipes just call for a normal hard-boiled egg, but guess what? We had jalapeno pickled eggs in our fridge because we're awesome like that. If you don't have a pickled egg of your own, a normal one will do)
• 1/2 tsp white onion powder (but 1 tbsp finely grated onion would also work. We just didn't have any)
• 1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
  

Mix everything together and refrigerate it. Put it on your reubens.

Thoughts: Easy and good. We might add more spices to it next time. I don't know -- like cumin? Or dried dill? Some recipes call for green olives, which would be AWESOME. We might also chop up some pickles and put them in. The texture of ours was a little thin. How do you thicken it? Hm. Maybe if we substitute chopped pickles for the pickle juice, this would solve our problem. WE'LL REPORT BACK.

Disaster Index: 1/10