Popovers

Another recipe from my New Year's Eve dinner was the Ina Garten's popovers. I watched her holiday show and thought "Hmm, those look easy". Well, they were easy and probably would have been perfect if I followed the instructions to the letter.

First of all , you need a popover pan. I did not have one, but thought I could go to Target on New Year's Eve and buy one. Alas, my favorite store disappointed me because they did not have the desired pan. I then thought,"What the heck, I can use my muffin pan". Wrong! They won't pop over in a muffin pan. The flavor was great, they just looked like muffins. Needless to say, I went to Williams-Sonoma (my other favorite store) the next day and bought one.

Ina says there are 3 secrets to perfect popovers; pan needs to be hot before poring the batter, fill each cup no more than 1/2 full (on the show she said 2/3rds) and do not open the oven door while they are baking.

Ina Garten's Popovers

1 1/2 tbs unsalted butter, melted + butter for greasing pans
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3 extra large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Generously grease pans with softened butter. Place pans in oven for exactly 2 minutes to preheat. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until smooth. The batter will be thin. Fill the pans less than half full and bake exactly 30 minutes.
12 servings.

Hot Mulled Cider

One of my favorite shows on The Food Network is The Barefoot Contessa. Ina's holiday show featured some great food and I based my New Year's dinner on that show. She made a hot mulled cider that looked really good. I made it and it was! Everyone liked it. You can add rum to it, if you so desire, after you ladle it into the mugs. I'm not a fan of rum, but Ryan tried it that way and really liked it. Ina's recipe called for 6 star anise which I left out, because the grocery store did not have any. My recipe is below.

Hot Mulled Cider

1 gallon of really good apple cider
4 cinnamon sticks
2 oranges, peels and juice
8 whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in a stockpot and simmer over low heat for at least 30 minutes. Ladle in to mugs and serve.

Dreamgirls

Okay folks, this one is not about food. I went to see Dreamgirls this weekend and if you have not seen it, you need too. Jennifer Hudson as Effie is worth the price of admission alone. Her version of And I'm Telling You is truly one of the most incredible scenes to make it to the big screen. She also does a phenomenal job of acting and should be nominated for Best Actress.

The rest of the cast does a fine job, especially Eddie Murphy. Who knew he could sing like that! Much better than his Party All The Time days. I would definitely see this one again! A very moving film with some of the best performances.

Lemon Cream Gelato

For dessert on New Year's Eve I served this recipe that I adapted from one of my favorite magazines, Tastes of Italia. The recipe makes a very thick custard, almost a little too eggy for what I would consider true Gelato. It was very good fresh and okay by the third day. Try to prepare and serve this the same day.

The only thing I changed in the recipe was that they called for 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon zest. I used the zest of 2 lemons, finely chopped. This made about 2 1/2 teaspoons. It adds such a nice subtle lemon flavor to this frozen treat. This will make 4 to 6 servings.

I received an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer this Christmas. This was the perfect recipe for testing out the attachment. It worked quickly and quietly. We had gelato in about 15 minutes. What a great gift and and a great attachment!

Lemon Cream Gelato

2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon zest

In a medium saucepan, heat milk and cream over medium heat until bubbles form at edge of pan. Remove pan from heat. In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until well blended. Slowly add milk mixture, continuing to beat. Stir in vanilla and lemon zest. Return mixture to saucepan and heat on medium for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture slightly thickens. Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Pour into bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours. Process chilled mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Hash Brown Potato Casserole

I did not have a recipe for this, but I kind of knew what I wanted it to be. I actually forgot to put it together, so I baked it at a higher temperature than you would normally do. This baked at 375 for 15 minutes, then at 400 for 30. It was in the oven with the popovers and I thought it was getting too brown, but the trick to popovers is not to open the oven!

Hash Brown Potato Casserole

1 (30 oz) bag Country style Hash Brown Shredded Potatoes, thawed
1 (10 3/4 oz) can Southwest Pepper Jack Soup
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup Colby-jack cheese, shredded
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 8 x 11 baking dish with cooking spray. Combine all the ingredients in medium size bowl and place in baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.

New Year's Eve Dinner

This year we celebrated New Year's Eve with my Mom and my son Ryan, both in town for the holidays. The menu included Standing Rib Roast, Oven Roasted Asparagus, Mixed Green Salad, Popovers, Potato Casserole, Lemon Cream Gelato and Panettone. All went well for the most part.

I had everything planned out and even the times written on the recipes as to when to start each item. Since I did not have a recipe for the potatoes, I forgot to make them. Dan asked about them about the same time the popovers were to go into the oven. I hastily put the casserole together and put it into the small side oven that we were going to use for the asparagus. The rib roast was a little rare for our liking so we sliced off the ends and put it back into the oven. I did not have a popover pan so I used a muffin pan, you don't get the same results. They tasted fine, they just did not popover.

The dinner went well and the desserts were great. The company was even better! It was a great way to end the year and look forward to the next! I will have the recipes to the dinner in follow up posts.

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I just finished reading Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia. This was a fun and quick read, although I got a little bored with it in the middle. Julie decides to spend an entire year making every recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She even makes things like kidneys and sweetbreads and all that gross offal. Julie Powell is one of those people that you can really relate too, she is a big flaming liberal Democrat afterall.She blogs about it and becomes famous. The story really comes down to her discovering the joy of her own life and really finding herself. Definitely worth picking up at your local bookseller.