Bouchées Parmentier au Fromage

Potato Cheese Sticks

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1/2 lb. baking potatoes (2 medium potatoes)

1 cup sifted AP flour

1 stick softened butter

1 egg

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

1/8 tsp white pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt, to taste

Peel and quarter the potatoes. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain, then put through a ricer. You should have about 1 cup.

Stir the potatoes over moderate heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan for 2-3 minutes until they form a light film on the bottom of the pan, indicating most of their moisture has been evaporated.

Beat the flour into the potatoes, then the butter by fractions, then the egg, cheese, and seasonings. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Preheat oven to 425. Either butter 2 baking sheets or cover them with parchment paper.

With a fluted pastry tube 1/4 inch in diameter, squeeze the mixture into 2 1/2-inch lngths spaced 1/2-inch apart onto the baking sheets. Bake both sheets at the same time for about 15 minutes, or until the sticks are lightly browned.

Mousse de Fois de Volaille (Chicken Liver Mousse)

from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1 lb chicken livers
2 Tbsp minced shallots or green onions
2 Tbsp butter
1 stick butter, melted
1/3 cup Madeira or congac
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp pepper
Pinch of thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste

Look the livers over and remove and greenish or blackish spots. Cut the livers into 1/2-inch pieces.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the livers with the shallots (or green onions) for 2 to 3 minutes or until the livers are just stiffened, but still rosy inside. Scrape into a blender or food processor.

Pour the Madeira (or cognac) into the skillet and boil it down rapidly until it has reduced to approximately 3 Tbsp. Add this to the blender.

Add the cream, salt, allspice, pepper, and thyme to the blender. Blend at top speed for several seconds until the liver is at a smooth paste. Add the melted butter and blend several seconds more.

Force the mixture through a fine sieve and taste for seasoning. Pack the mousse into a bowl, cover, and chill for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip

Olive oil

1 head of garlic

1 Tbsp butter

3 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium onions)

3 Tbsp sour cream

2 Tbsp cream cheese

3 Tbsp mayonnaise

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the top off the head of garlic, place in a baking dish, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for an hour. Squeeze the garlic from the cloves, mash with a fork, and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add the butter. After it melts, add the onions and some salt and cook slowly for about 20 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Unocver and turn the heat up to medium high. Cook the onions until golden brown, stirring quite frequently. Remove from heat and cool.

Combine the sour cream and cream cheese, stirring well. Add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne. Mix to combine, then add the garlic and onions. Stir, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Basil Lime Spritzer

Food and Wine Magazine

3/4 cup sugar

Zest of 1 lime, removed in strips with a vegetable peeler

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (2-3 limes)

1/4 cup water

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil

Bring sugar, zest, juice, and water to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let syrup stand, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Discard zest and pour syrup into a blender. Add basil and blend for 20 seconds. Pour through a fine sieve lined with a rinsed and squeezed paper towel unto a bowl or measuring cup, then cool. The syrup will keep for 2-3 days, covered and chilled.

Pour 1-2 tablespoons into an ice-filled glass, top off with sparkling water, stir, and enjoy. Very refreshing.

Below is the cookie recipe from The Joy of Cooking. The changes I made were that I did not chop the raisins, I toasted the oats a little in the oven while I was getting the rest of the recipe together, and I used a spoon to smush the cookies instead of my hands. I think I also used a smaller drop size, because I got 48 cookies out of the recipe as opposed to the 42 it indicated. Also, the thing about parchment paper was me. I find greasing the cookie sheet to be overkill. Plus, with parchment paper, cleanup is much easier.

The salsa that I made the other day was Number 5 with more chiles. I watched the broiler more carefully this time and pulled them before they became spicy nails. However, with some of the smaller chiles, I will probably add them raw next time. It was too difficult to separate the skin and seed them and have anything less. They were quite small. With the extra chiles, the salsa was much hotter (duh). Still very tasty. After cooling, I found that it needed and extra shot of lemon juice and salt.

The hummus, as I explained in my comment below, was not good. It saddened me, because it was Alton Brown’s recipe, and while I have the utmost respect for the guy and adore his shows to bits, his recipes always seem to fail for me. Well, not always. 50/50. I’m not going to crib the recipe from the Food Network site, but here’s a link. It had far too much lemon (I would suggest using just the juice, not both the juice and the zest) and was lacking in spice/spicyness. I tried to improve the situation by adding some cumin and Tabasco, but it didn’t really work. Also, the final product was very, very loose. I do like a looser hummus for popcorn-dipping, but this was going a wee bit too far. I’d cut back on the oil or the reserved garbanzo liquid.

I should review recipes over at Food Network, but… it doesn’t seem right, a positive review for a Sandra Lee recipe and a negative one for AB. (I made the Pork Wrappers again to finish up the wonton wrappers before they expired, and they are actually kind of tasty. Bad Sarah! Bad!)

Classic Oatmeal Cookies

Joy of Cooking

1 3/4 cups AP flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 lb unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins, chopped
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350. Grease a cookie sheet or prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Place the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a mixer and beat on medium speed until well blended. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until blended and smooth. Stir in the raisins and oats.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. With lightly greased hands, lightly press the cookies down to form 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Bake until the cookies are lightly browned all over and almost firm when lightly pressed in the center of the top, 6 to 9 minutes; rotate the sheet halfway through baking for even browning. Remove the sheet (or the parchment) to a rack and let stand until the cookies firm slightly, about 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool.

D&D Update

We were able to raise our cleric from the dead, so yay. My armor lost its magical bonus to protect me, so boo, but I was only going to keep it until I reached next level (trying to be optimistic). My armor class has been knocked down by two points, and I’m going to lose money on its trade-in value. My belt of displacement totally proved its worth tonight. I think I missed out on some major hurting because of that.

We ran away from a dreadnought, killed a crapload of umber hulks, discovered our gnome NPC companions were actually good metallic dragons, and failed to kill a nightwight (but we did manage to kill a creature it summoned).

We’re not meeting next week. Sadness.

Well, I won’t be able to post the recipe for the cookies I made until I get my hands on the second half of The Joy of Cooking. I made oatmeal-raisin cookies, and they turned out quite well (although I don’t think they’re as good as Ryan’s). I’m always a little wary of my baking skills.