eager little mind

You remember the Tex-Mex Thanksgiving feast I was envisioning a few days ago? Well, that happened tonight for my husband’s birthday dinner. I liberated my copy of The Tex-Mex Cookbook by Robb Walsh from our storage unit and it provided all the inspiration I needed for the menu. If you are a fan of Tex-Mex, you must get this book. It’s the history of Tex-Mex cooking through recipes, pictures, interviews, clippings. And if you’ve lived in Texas, you’ll probably recognize some of the restaurants mentioned in the book. Oh, and everything I’ve made from the book has been fantastic!! So, that’s a big plus!

On the menu? Cheese enchiladas topped with chili gravy (Homesick Texan has the recipe here), pork and beef tamales with chili sauce, soft tacos, salsa, spanish rice, chips, etc. I think I made enough food for about 3 meals. And in full disclosure, I didn’t make the tamales. I bought a dozen frozen tamales from our local grocery store, HEB (Texas Tamale Company). And I just picked up the corn and flour tortillas from the HEB Tortilleria, instead of making my own. (Can I just tell you how much I love being able to pick up fresh tortillas at the grocery store. Love.) First off- the enchiladas rocked. So, so, so simple and so good. I usually don’t make enchiladas, mainly because the recipes I’ve used in the past had a tomato based sauce and it just wasn’t “right.” Now, I realize I was missing the chili gravy. That really is the key. And the tamales- rocked. I don’t even like tamales, but these were excellent. We stuffed ourselves on those and the rice and never even made it to the tacos. I guess that will be tomorrow.

Anyway, I love it when you make something at home and it turns out better (and way cheaper) than what you normally get in a restaurant. The only things missing were the cervezas and margaritas.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We spent ours with family and tons of food. The best kind of day. We also took Daphne to the movies for the first time. She LOVED it!! And I think it helped that we went to a theater that also served full meals and had waiters, so there was more room to move around. I can’t wait to take her back. And it was also very appropriate that my dad took us to the movies tonight. Growing up, my dad took us to a Saturday matinee just about every weekend we visited. Now, the tradition continues with the next generation.

And I realize as a blogger I’m supposed to have a really thoughtful Thanksgiving post. But I’m not doing that this year. Ha! Instead I’m going to gripe about traditional turkey dinners. Ok, gripe isn’t the right word. I’m certainly thankful for the wonderful meals we’ve eaten over the years. But I think that if you are going to spend crazy amounts of time in the kitchen with preparation and clean-up that you should at least make something that’s fabulous. And turkey just doesn’t do it for me. Actually, traditional southern home cooking doesn’t do it for me either (which explains why in all the times we’ve visited Savannah, we’ve never stopped by Paula Deen’s restaurant). I think we should have a beef tenderloin. Or steaks. Or, even better, a killer Tex-Mex feast with steak fajitas, homemade tamales/enchiladas and sauces, fresh tortillas, and lots of margaritas. Oh, that sounds so much better than stuffing. Maybe for Christmas. Does anyone else do a non-traditional menu for the holidays?

Daphne & I are getting a jump start on our holiday baking today by making some pumpkin butter. In typical Jenny/Daphne fashion, we managed to completely trash the kitchen. While Daphne was spilling the apple juice on the floor (because she was pouring it from cup to cup), I managed to spill my Penzeys Pumpkin Pie spice all over the floor. FYI- don’t try to Swiffer Wet Jet up a pile of spices from a tile floor.

But it will all be worth it when we can turn some of that pumpkin butter into pumpkin cheesecake. And if I wasn’t making a cheesecake, I would totally make this pumpkin pie recipe from Southern Living.

A gingersnap and pecan layer over the pie crust. Oh my goodness! And I love that they used the Anna’s Ginger Thins as a garnish as well. Hmm.. maybe for Christmas.

I’ll admit that it’s hard to get excited about pie baking. Especially since Costco makes killer pumpkin pies as big as SUV hubcaps for $6. And because growing up we’d usually buy our holiday pies from Tippin’s. Oh how I miss Tippin’s French Silk pie.

Here are our recipes, in case you need a little pie inspiration:

Pumpkin Butter

1 29oz can pureed pumpkin
3/4 c. apple juice
3 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar

Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices and sugars in large saucepan. Stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 min, stirring often, until thickened. Check the flavor and possibly add more pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate. (Also freezes well) Sometimes I’ll add chopped pecans.

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 c. pumpkin butter
1 9-in. graham cracker crust
Praline pecans (optional, or other candied pecans, or take the pecan streusel topping from the Southern Living recipe and use that)

Beat cream cheese at high speed until smooth. Add brown sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Stir in pumpkin butter. Pour mixture into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min, or until set. After removing from oven, chop praline pecans and sprinkle them on top. The heat will melt the sugar on the pecans slightly so they will stick to the surface of the pie. Or stick the pie back in the oven for a few minutes until your pecan topping can get melty. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Enjoy!

Like so many other families here in the US, we are slashing our Christmas budget. I think we will spend less this Christmas than any other year since we’ve been married. Our financial priorities lie elsewhere right now. So, I plan on making most of my gifts this year. Thankfully, I have a ridiculous fabric/yarn stash to get me started.

For those of you in the same boat, here’s an easy project. Really. You just need a computer and a stack of family recipes.

When my sister got married, I decided to make her a family cookbook. My Aunt Jackie did something similar for me when I got married, using a ring binder and page protectors. But, you know me, I had to push it to the next level. I started with the self-publishing service, lulu.com, and created a spiral bound, 178 page cookbook.

I just downloaded a Word template from lulu.com, typed in the text, designed a cover in Photoshop (they do have stock designs if you don’t want to design your own), uploaded the whole mess and this was the result:

I added a dedication page, table of contents, kitchen helps and conversions section, and divided the recipes up into sections. I didn’t do an index, because I was lazy. The cover was created with an inexpensive stock photo from istockphoto.com. Each book cost about $5 or $6 to print. So, you can print one for all the cooks in your family.

It would have been nice to do a scrapbook style, or full color cookbook. But at the time, those were expensive and I couldn’t have included so many recipes. Maybe there are more economical ways to do it now.

Anyone else plan on making gifts this year? What’s on your project list?

It’s a rainy, blah day here in Houston. Perfect weather for staying inside and watching TV, reading, and planning this week’s menu. Here’s my stack of books for today:

First up, recipe search and menu planning. I have 5 pounds of apples and am looking for ideas, preferably savory. Thinking of trying this- Rosemary pork tenderloin with harvest apples. Do you have a good apple recipe to pass along?

- Frank Stitt’s Southern Table. Stitt is an award winning chef from Birmingham. This book is just gorgeous.
- Stop and Smell the Rosemary. Junior League of Houston cookbook. Supposedly contains the best tortilla soup recipe ever. I need to try it. Some of my favorite cookbooks are from Texas Jr. Leagues, like Austin’s Necessities and Temptations, which is out of print. But if you are ever visiting Austin, you can pick up a copy in the capitol building gift shop.
- Barefoot Contessa Family Style. I adore Ina Garten. She’s my favorite celebrity chef.
- And just for fun, Julia Child! I grew up watching a bunch of public television, including Julia Child’s show. This was a birthday present from my sister and I’m trying to figure out what I will make first. Nothing involving gelatin, bone marrow or tripe

And a few photography books:

- Photojojo! So many great projects in this book.
- Exposure and Lighting for Digitial Photographers Only. One of the many photography books we have around the house.

And a crafty book:

- Pop Goes Crochet. What a fun book! 36 crochet projects inspired by pop culture. The first project that caught my eye was a retro, felted purse inspired by Dita Von Teese. I love Dita’s sense of style and she is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. She’s always off on some fabulous adventure. I’m also thinking of making the Doris Day scarf in an olive green wool yarn I’ve had for ages. I just need to find my hooks.

And just for fun:

- A Sookie Stackhouse book, From Dead to Worse.

What are you reading?

I’ve been a little obsessed with owls for the last few years. Maybe because my mom collected owls when I was kid. So, when I saw this recipe featured on Craft magazine’s blog last year, I bookmarked it and finally got around to making it today with Daphne. Aren’t they the cutest?!?

So fun! And to keep with the owl theme, I made this felt clip for Daphne last week using Lil Blue Boo’s owl applique pattern, just reduced 50%.

Speaking of my mom’s owl collection, when I was in elementary school I made her a ceramic baby owl in art class. I made him dark, dark brown and when it came time to paint his eyes I was puzzled. I couldn’t make them black, because they wouldn’t show up… so I made them orange/red. And you know what it looked like? A Jawa (Star Wars). Truly the ugliest thing ever. Just to show you that my craft projects haven’t always worked out.

Company’s coming… what are your go-to dinner recipes? I usually serve Asian grilled salmon or lasagna (Both Ina Garten recipes. Actually I don’t think you can go wrong with any of Ina’s recipes. She rocks!). I like making the salmon dish (sometimes as often as once a week), because it’s easy and tastes great. Plus, I’ve found that a lot of people don’t cook fish at home and are really impressed if you can cook it well. Little do they know how stinking easy it is to cook fish. And the lasagna? I’m not a huge fan of Italian food, but lasagna or other casseroles (like a King Ranch chicken) seem to be a safe choice for entertaining or potlucks. And Ina’s recipe is good, I think it’s the goat cheese that makes it, although I do make my own sauce from scratch.

And as of last week, I added another somewhat fancy/suitable for company dish to that list. Baked grouper with a sundried tomato/crab topping. We were at our local grocery store (HEB) waiting at the fish counter for some tilapia filets, when the chef in front of the counter offered me a sample of this grouper dish. I’m not usually a fan of crab, or toppings on fish, but this dish really worked. It was fab! The next week I tracked him down and made him give me the recipe. Here it is:

1 lb. grouper filets
Lemon juice, olive oil and salt/pepper
4 or 5 T. of sundried tomato butter (this was a seasoned butter available near the fish counter, but I’m sure it would be really easy to create your own version at home)
2 T. minced garlic
1/2 lb. crab meat
1/4 to 1/2 c. heavy cream (hey, I didn’t say this was low calorie)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub grouper filets with lemon juice, olive oil and then season with salt and pepper. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 min (ours took a little longer). While the fish is baking, melt sundried tomato butter in a saucepan, then add garlic and crab meat. Cook until it’s a light golden color, then add heavy cream until you get the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once the fish is done, plate each filet and then top with the crab mixture. Easy peasy! And really, really, really good. But, I’d make a few changes. I’d grill the grouper until it was almost done, place it in a baking dish with the crab mix and broil it for a few minutes until everything is hot and bubbly. And with the butter and the crab, this is a VERY rich dish. I bet you could use half and half instead of heavy cream. Yum, yum, yum.

What are your favorite recipes for company?

Just another project, since I’ve been so productive over the last 24 hours. Chow mein noodle “nests”

Just a basic rice krispy treat recipe, swapping out the cereal for La Choy chow mein noodles (and I can’t remember what blog I initially saw these on, sorry). The eggs are Easter Whoppers. I just scooped up a bunch into buttered muffin tins, attempted to create a nest like shape, gave up because it was too frakking sticky, then shoved the eggs in.

Honestly, they are cute, but I wouldn’t do them again with a marshmallow/butter glue. Too much of the noodle flavor. I’d go the more traditional haystack butterscotch morsel route. But they would be a fun (and crazy messy) project with kids.

Tonight’s project. I was commissioned to make a dozen of these cute little pandas. The instructions are in the book, Hello, Cupcake! I had to improvise, since I couldn’t find chocolate covered sunflower seeds (for the nose, I used 1/2 of a mini M&M) or Oreo cereal (for the ears, I used mini Oreo cookies). Now, I just have to figure out a way to transport them. Hmmm…

Haven’t had enough holiday junk food yet? How about making some Frito candy? I know what you are thinking, but it’s actually pretty tasty. The recipe is from Cookie Madness.

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If I make this again, I might increase the amount of butter/sugar “toffee”. I didn’t have enough to cover the entire frito/pretzel/Reece’s mix. And I might use my traditional toffee recipe instead of the brown sugar. Not sure.