Traditional Pot Roast

***This is one of my favorite comfort foods! Not only does it make the house smell down-right delicious, but it tastes amazing too! The best way to prepare this is with a slow cooker...it makes the meat so tender that it just falls apart and melts in your mouth.

This is how my Mom always prepared this classic dish, so it's still the recipe that I use (with a few additions). This doesn't come from any cookbook...just from memory. Sometimes, those recipes are the best! ;)

Feel free to play around with the ingredients. You can add garlic, or even substitute some of the beef stock with red wine!


Oh, and this is also great the next day...once all the flavors have really come together. If you like pot roast, you may also like this ITALIAN POT ROAST that I posted a few months ago. It's also fantastic!***



Ingredients:
One 3-4 lb. boneless chuck roast
1 cup water
Beef Stock
2-3 Tbsp. Amazing Taste Beef Seasoning (or your favorite seasoning will do!)
1 Onion, diced
1 package baby carrots
8 - 10 small, new potatoes or 2 large russet potatoes, cut into wedges
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) Cream of Mushroom soup
Garlic Salt, to taste



Directions:
Place roast in slow cooker and add water. Layer the chopped onion, potatoes, baby carrots and Cream of Mushroom soup around roast. Sprinkle Amazing Taste seasoning over all ingredients. Add enough beef stock to cover all ingredients, and stir to combine...making sure that the roast remains on the bottom. Season with garlic salt.



Cook on high for approximately 5 - 7 hours, or until meat is very tender...stirring occasionally. Serve hot!

Savory Low-Calorie Chicken & Amazing Taste Samples!

***A company named Amazing Taste recently sent me some wonderful samples of their seasoning product offerings. I had not used their seasonings before, so I was curious about them. I replied to their e-mail, and just a few days later I received 9 different samples! Pretty cool, huh? They even sent along some recipes to try. I happened to have almost everything for this recipe on-hand, so I thought I'd give it a try. I simply adjusted the recipe to serve 2 people. It was really good! You can see their product offerings and learn more about the company at the following site - Amazing Taste. Be sure to check them out! I used their Beef seasoning in a pot roast that I made last night...it was fabulous. I'll be sure to blog about that as well.

Amazing Taste - Thanks again for sending these great samples!

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 packet Amazing Taste Malibu Seasoning

1 cup carrots, sliced

1 cup zucchini, sliced (I didn't have this on-hand, so I substituted celery)

1/2 cup water, light beer or white wine

1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I left these out...we're not mushroom fans).

1 small onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place vegetables in 2-quart baking dish and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. of Amazing Taste Malibu Seasoning.

Coat chicken on all sides with remaining seasoning and place over vegetables.

Add liquid and bake chicken covered for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.

Serve with rice pilaf or brown rice. (I served this dish with white rice.)

20 Days Until Christmas!!!

Without a doubt, this is my very favorite time of the year! As I type this, I'm sitting by the Christmas tree...all lit up and pretty! I love it. We've got most of our decorations up now...including my new favorite decoration. When I was little, my Grandmother had some beautiful Annalee dolls. When I found the Annalee Christmas Countdown Calendar above, I HAD to have it! It reminds me so much of my Grandmother...baking Christmas goodies with her, listening to the reindeer on the roof (she'd always pretend like she could hear them on Christmas Eve...pointing out any knocking noises she heard outside), and seeing Rudolph's red nose on the way to visit family. See, she'd always find one of those towers with the single red light at the top and tell me it was Rudolph. Oh, those were the days. She made this time of year so magical. So, everytime I see my new calendar, all those fun memories come rushing back.

Oh, and don't you just love my new "Cook" ornament? My Nestie friend, Jenny, bought that for me as part of our Ornament Exchange....along with several little photo frame ornaments. I can't wait to pick out some photos for them. Thanks again, Jenny! I LOVE them!!!

Have you gotten your Christmas shopping done yet? I haven't bought the first thing! Is that bad? I've got several gifts picked out...I just haven't bought them yet. We plan on getting started next week sometime.

Well, now that the official countdown has begun, I can't wait to get in the kitchen and do some more holiday baking. What will you be baking this year?

Homemade French-Style Macarons - "Cook's Illustrated"

***Finally...I'm making progress with the ever-hard-to-make French Macaron. I found this recipe in the recent "Holiday Baking" special issue of Cooks Illustrated. Their recipes have never failed me...they test, re-test, and test again every single recipe...until they are almost fool-proof. I noticed that this recipe for macarons was a little different from the ones I've been using. One big difference was the addition of Cream of Tartar to the egg whites. It acts as a stabilizer and helps to stiffen the egg whites. Also I recently purchased a silicon baking mat....what a great investment! I only have one right now, so I had to make the other batches of macarons on regular parchment paper. The macarons baked on the silicon mat looked much better, seemed to bake more evenly, and even rose higher. It looks like I'll be buying a few more of those mats soon. Hmm...maybe Santa can leave a few of those in my stocking? ;)

So, here's a list of some things I did differently this time around:

1. Added a pinch of Cream of Tartar to the egg whites

2. Aged the egg whites at room temperature for 24 hours (covered)

3. I processed my own almond flour by processing 11 ounces of slivered almonds to a fine flour in a food processor.

4. Used a silicon baking mat on one batch.

Cookies

3 3/4 cups (15 ounces) almond flour (see my note above)

3 1/3 cups (13 1/3 ounces) confectioner's sugar

1/8 tsp. table salt

5 large egg whites, room temperature

Pinch cream of tartar

5 tsp. granulated sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit large pastry bag with 1/2 inch plain tip; set aside. Process half of almond flour, half of confectioner's sugar, and salt together in food processor until mixture is very finely ground, about 20 seconds. Transfer to bowl and repeat with remaining almond flour and confectioner's sugar; stir together and set aside.

2. In stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-low speed until opaque and frothy, about 30 seconds. Add cream of tartar, increase speed to medium-high, and continue to beat until white, thick, and voluminous, with consistency of shaving cream, about 90 seconds. Slowly sprinkle in granulated sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form and sugar is incorporated, about 60 seconds.

3. Gently fold one-quarter of almond flour mixture into whites, followed by vanilla. Gradually fold in remaining almond mixture until thick batter forms.

4. Fill prepared pastry bag with batter. Twisting top of bag to apply pressure, push batter down toward tip and pipe twenty 2-inch mounds about 1 inch apart. Use back of teaspoon or finger dipped in bowl of cold water to even out shape and smooth surface of piped mounds. Repeat with remaining batter and baking sheet. Let cookies sit at room temperature until tops are dry and smooth skin has formed, 1 to 2 hours.

5. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until lightly browned, about 20 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Carefully slide parchment paper with cookies onto wire rack and cool completely. Bake second batch of cookies while first batch cools.

***Note: If your macarons stick to the parchment paper and won't easily come off, put about 2 tbsp. of water between the parchment paper and baking sheet. Let sit for about 15-30 seconds and try again. Don't wait too long...the water will make the macarons soggy!***

Chocolate Ganache Filling

6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Combine the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the cream just to a boil. Remove from the heat and immediately pour over the chocolate and butter. Stir with a wire whisk until the chocolate and butter melt and are smooth. Let cool until spreadable. (I chilled the ganache in the fridge until it was the consistency that I wanted.)

To Assemble:

Spread about 1 tbsp. chocolate ganache over flat sides of half of cooled cookies and gently cover with flat sides of remaining cookies to form sandwich cookies.

Source: Cooks Illustrated - Holiday Baking special issue, Holiday

Thanksgiving 2008

The Spread...all made from scratch! :)

Roast Turkey with Bacon-Herb Butter

Sauteed Spinach with Pecans & Feta

Mashed Potatoes

Cider Gravy

Broccoli & Cheese Casserole

Cornbread Dressing

Double Cranberry-Apple Sauce

Honey Yeast Rolls

Sweet Potato Souffle

Carrot Cake

French Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

Walnut Brownies

Cheese Ball with Pecans

Cornbread Dressing with Sausage:


Double Cranberry-Apple Sauce:

Walnut Brownies:



French Macarons with Chocolate Ganache:

Cranberry Sauce & Cheese Ball:

Carrot Cake:

Desserts!

Whew...my first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success! Everything from the amazingly delicious turkey to the yummy carrot cake turned out great. I posted my entire menu in the post below (along with links to the recipes!), but I wanted to share some photos from the big day here.

This was only my second time roasting a turkey, so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. I found THIS recipe at Bon Appetit, and let me just say...I've never had better turkey! The bacon-herb butter that's put under the turkey skin is absolutely delicious. It has the perfect taste...with just the right amount of flavor. And the cider gravy...YUM! I basted the turkey every 30 - 45 minutes while it was roasting.

Another favorite was the homemade cranberry sauce. I've always eaten the cranberry sauce right out of the can....you know, the jellied kind. I don't think I'll ever go back now...LOL.

There's no way that I would have been able to coordinate all of these dishes and get them all on the table at the same time without being VERY organized. Microsoft Word was my best friend during this process. I started by putting all of my recipes in one document, along with a photo of each dish. I then created a shopping list and organized it by sections in the grocery store (baking aisle, fresh produce, dairy, etc.)....also including the quantity of each ingredient that I needed. The last thing that I did was create an itinerary for Turkey Day. I knew exactly what time to put the turkey in the oven, peel the potatoes, and start the yeast rolls...haha. It may sound like a lot of preparation, but hey...everything was done at the same time! I was also able to make several things ahead of time. I started on Monday with the Cranberry Sauce, made the gravy base and bacon-herb butter on Tuesday, and then I made the desserts & cheeseball on Wednesday. I also prepped the turkey and broccoli & cheese casserole on Wednesday, so I only had to pop them in the oven on Thursday! All of this preparation certainly made Thanksgiving Day even more enjoyable and easy.

On top of all this, I got the opportunity to bake a friend's Thanksgiving desserts...she placed an order for a Carrot Cake, Double Chocolate Cake, Walnut Brownies, and another batch of regular brownies. I was so excited to have my first big "order." My wonderful husband, Brad, designed a cute logo and made some decals for the bakery boxes. Take a look...I was so happy with the way everything turned out...I hope that Mrs. Watson was just as thrilled...

At the end of the day, I loved preparing Thanksgiving dinner! It was a BIG job, but I had so much fun with the preparations.

I hope that your Thanksgiving celebrations were just as wonderful!!!