The holidays would not have been complete without making the traditional family meal of meat pies. I realize the name is horrific, but it really is a perfect description.
I will explain as the two major ingredients are ground sirloin and pork sausage, hence, its name. Obviously, there is so much more to it such as the addition of onion, carrots, celery, and Herbes de Provence. Fortunately, I can buy the herb mixture at the store, so no more mixing my own with thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, savory, marjoram, oregano, and bay leaves. The other benefit of living in today’s world is I can use my @cuisinart to blend the ingredients together into a savory pie. As the mixture can be slightly grey, I add a touch of Kitchen Bouquet to darken the pie making it most pleasing to the eye. I hope you have a special meal as part of your holiday traditions. Big Guy and I enjoyed making this recipe our own as we bumped up the flavor and reduced the workload!
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I ended my bowling league season with a jar of kisses made by @hersheys. Our fearless leader decided to do a trivia question about the song: "White Christmas," which was an easy answer for me as this movie is one of my favorites. Ralph asked who knew another movie Bing Crosby sang "White Christmas." The answer is Holiday Inn.
Ralph planned no prize, so the other bowlers opted to gather up the kisses and give me my well-deserved reward…with their love. Rim shot, please! Once I got home, I realized I could make two batches of cookies from one recipe. I grabbed the mixing bowl and made peanut butter cookie dough. I used the kisses in one batch and made the other one plain. It turned out perfect but drove my poor Doodle mad since she loves peanut butter. Sorry baby, these are adult treats! We enjoyed the holiday season filled with outings, get-togethers, and family time. It was also the year when Hanukkah started on Christmas Day.
Our tradition is to make a “manly” quiche for breakfast on Christmas Day. It is an old @emeril recipe which, as Big Guy says, has the ingredients to satisfy the hungry heart. It was something we all looked forward to for Christmas especially the men in the family! The bottom of the quiche calls for hash browns, so Big Guy, falling into my two meals in one theme for the year, suggested we also make latkes to observe Hanukkah. Latkes are a traditional Jewish dish made from potatoes that are like a pancake or fritter. It turned out to be the perfect “appetizer” slathered with apple butter before we dove into the quiche. It was a lovely way to maximize ingredients while also observing two major holiday events. We have been making manly quiche for decades. Big Guy and I were initially inspired by a recipe by @emeril, we have played with the recipe over the years to make it our own @carondeletkitchen version.
The bottom layer is usually shredded hash browns, but Big Guy has been known to substitute tater tots. The eggs, onions, and sausage come next, and again, the sausage varies each time. In the beginning, we used @johnsonville sausage, then found a local sausage from @stoniessausage which has the perfect breakfast mix of smoked apple and bacon. While the original recipe called for rings of red peppers on top, Big Guy diced them and added them to the egg mix. The quiche is manly for its ingredients and size, so know you will enjoy this dish with leftovers for the next day. I was recently shopping @legrandsmarket and noticed a beautiful sausage stuffed with chicken, provolone, basil, and tomato. I was immediately struck with inspiration to use it in a pasta meal.
Big Guy got the ball rolling by cooking the sausage in the oven. While it baked, he created a sauce of olive oil, garlic, and roasted red peppers. Once the sausage was fully cooked, Big Guy pulled it out of the oven and cut it into small pieces to be tossed in the pasta. We opted to use fettuccine, but I am sure your favorite pasta would be perfect! It was a filling meal which we served with our favorite focaccia from @keycakesandco. It warmed our hearts and bodies on a chilly evening. I am spoiled rotten by Big Guy as he enjoys my purchasing fun tools as much as I do for use in @carondeletkitchen. God help the kids who inherit my collection!
I love the holiday season and look forward to the seasonal catalogs. I may not buy from every one of them, but @kingarthurbaking really hit my sweet spot this year. They had a snowflake brownie pan which I had to add to my other seasonal baking pans. It arrived and was a solid pan that I knew would make the perfect brownie. I surprised @abrandt1026 with this dessert as part of our weekly supper club and she was impressed by the details especially since I added a dusting of powdered sugar on top to bring out the snowflake design. I loved the response so much that I plan to make it again for Christmas. What a joy to find tools that add extra oomph to your baking! The snow was falling, and I got the itch to make soup. Thank goodness Big Guy is crazy like me and volunteered to run to @legrandsmarket to pick up the ingredients for a beef barley soup.
The surprise was upon his return he also bought the ingredients to make his fabulous meatballs with the idea of doing a riff on an Italian wedding soup. Me being me, accepted the challenge to make two soups at the same time since both soups shared the same foundational ingredients of onions, celery, carrots, and peppers. Big Guy prepped the top sirloin and the meatballs while I chopped and sauteed the vegetables. Once our individual preps were complete, I added peas, pearled barley, top sirloin, and beef broth to one pot. The other pot had meatballs, flat noodles, and beef broth. Two soups for the price of one! Apron drop! I love buying fun cocktail napkins throughout the year. I came across this one @tbahama and immediately put it in my shopping cart. Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like cocktails.
I enjoy making annual drinks based on holiday movies. As we load up the Christmas movies, we create fun cocktails based on the classic movies, The Bishop’s Wife and Beyond Tomorrow. The Bishop’s Wife has the scene where Cary Grant’s character orders stingers for the church ladies. In Beyond Tomorrow, the gentlemen toast each other with a Tom and Jerry which is even more vintage when you serve it in the appropriate punch bowl with matching glasses. If we want to be crazy, we can have champagne with White Christmas and martinis with The Thin Man, or in honor of Martini’s bar in It’s a Wonderful Life. The list could go on and I bet you all have other matching drinks to go with Christmas movies. I would love to hear them…and drink them! I have seen enough Julia Child specials, movies, and series to know her story of the perfect omelet. It seems many of her biographers believe it was the beginning of her television career.
I have attempted to make it over the years, and I admit I always end up scrambling the eggs. In his own quiet way, Big Guy has mastered the technique. He keeps telling me I am not patient enough, but I think I will give him the win on this one. One less meal for me to make in the @carondeletkitchen. HA! I read recently we have entered the “eating our ice cream with a warm sweater” phase since it the author of the article stated it is no longer considered just a summer treat. As I started checking expiration dates, I realized my milk and heavy whipping cream were on the verge of “going south” so I decided to join the “sweater” team.
I am in love with my @cuisinart ice cream maker so the task to make the ice cream is simple. You only need sugar, milk, salt, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla to make the perfect foundation. I say foundation because, while delicious as a plain dessert, it is better to add ingredients to elevate your dessert. We did our annual trek to the Best of Missouri Market where we loaded up on our fill of Flaherty’s Irish Candy. I broke up pieces of my On the Way to Galway Bay Irish candy which created the perfect topping. It was the perfect mix of sweet and salty to compliment the sweetness of the ice cream. It was an excellent way to satisfy my sweet tooth! |
AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
February 2025
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