Simple and delicious.

For the second year in a row, I was lucky enough to have Christmas dinner at my house. It turned out well. I made a fresh ham and it was pretty good. People had a hard time deciding if the beans or the carrots were their favorite dish. (I thought the carrots were the best.) My apple pie looked fabulous but it just tasted okay. The cheddar cookies were interesting. The rolls were terrific - Nick ate five. My grandma brought a great pecan pie and Judy and Bob brought some excellent home made wine.

My fresh ham:

I let Judy take the pictures of my dishes while I carved the pork. Luckily, I took this shot of my plate.


The liqueur recipes I posted was what I made as a gift for Bob. Bob gave me a bottle of Aberlour A'Bunadh Single Malt Scotch and we had several nips of Scotch through the day.

I'm hoping that Christmas at my house will become an ongoing tradition.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of very strong prepared coffee
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups vodka
1 cup brandy
3/4 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions
Make simple syrup with sugar and water. Let cool somewhat. Add vanilla and coffee. Stir all ingredients together and bottle.

Ingredients
1 cup ripe mango
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 1/2 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup cream base
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
Puree mango pulp lemon zest and put in glass jar with rum. Cover and let stand for 2-3 weeks shaking several times a week.

Strain out solids and discard. Pour liqueur back in cleaned jar.

Make a simple syrup of the sugar and water and let partially cool. Add to liqueur with Cream Base and vanilla. Stir and bottle.

Ingredients
1/2 pound toasted hazelnuts
1 1/2 cup vodka
3/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
Chop the hazelnuts int a food processor or blender. Move to a glass jug and add the vodka and Cover and let stand for 2-3

weeks shaking several times a week.

Strain and filter out all solids and discard the solids. Pour the liqueur back into the cleaned jug.

Over medium-high heat, boil the water and sugars until dissolved. Let cool until just warm. Add this syrup and the vanilla to the liqueur. Stir and bottle.

Ingredients
3 cups fresh cranberries
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup water
2 1/4 cup vodka
3 teaspoons orange zest

Instructions
In a food processor, process the cranberries, sugar, and orange zest. Pour into a gallon jug with the vodka and water.

Cover and let stand for 2-3 weeks shaking several times a week.

Strain out solids and transfer to another jug and let stand for one week. Rack into final bottles.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups cheddar, finely grated
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
1/3 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

Instructions
Cream the butter and cheese together at high speed in your stand mixer. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Combine flour mixture, nuts and cranberries with the butter mixture on high.

Turn dough out onto a large piece of waxed paper. Roll the dough into a log shape, roll the paper around it and twist the ends shut. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. You can freeze the dough at this stage as well.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Unwrap the dough log and, using a very sharp knife, slice the log into rounds 1/4 inch thick. Place rounds on cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Before baking.
Ingredients
Crust:
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup ice water (strain out the ice just before using)
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled
1 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Instructions
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar for 1 minute. Add the butter and mix just until you have a crumbly, sandy mixture. (You should still be able to see the pieces of butter.) In a small bowl, stir the water and vinegar together. With the mixer running at medium speed, drizzle in the water-vinegar mixture and mix just until a dough forms. Transfer the dough to a work surface and shape into a round, flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before using.

Dust a work surface with flour and sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and roll to proper size and thickness and put in flour dusted pan. Chill it while you prep the filling.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, toss the sugar, salt, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Sprinkle half the sugar mixture on the bottom of the pie shell.

Using a Japanese-style turning vegetable slicer, cut the apples into 1-inch wide, long strips. Make apple strips into S-curves (like ribbon candy) and tuck them into the crust next to each other tightly to fill the pie shell. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the ribbons and dot with the butter.

Place the pie on a sheet pan to catch any juices that boil over. Bake in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F. and bake until the crust is golden brown about 40 to 50 minutes more. Check the pie after 30 minutes; if the crust's edge is browning too quickly, cover it lightly with a strip of foil. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup apple cider
3/4 cup fresh cranberries - finely chopped in a food processor
2 T orange marmalade
angel food cake
vanilla ice cream

Instructions
Place a small saucepan, over moderate heat and add butter and apples. Sprinkle with brown sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg. Add cider and raise heat a little. Allow liquid to come to a boil, then add cranberries and marmalade to the pot. When sauce returns to a boil, turn heat back to moderate, and cook sauce 5 minutes until apples and pears are softened but sauce remains fairly chunky in consistency. Spoon the warm fruit sauce over cake slices and top with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

(picture by my sister, Judy)
Ingredients
1 head of garlic
4 large russet potatoes
1 cup milk, plus more as needed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Arrange garlic in 1 layer on a double thickness of foil and wrap tightly.

Roast the garlic and potatoes in middle of oven--the garlic will take 45 minutes and the potatoes will take 1 hour.

Unwrap garlic and cool slightly. Peel the cloves, mash with a fork, and set aside.

Combine the milk and butter in a large bowl. Scoop the flesh from the potatoes into the bowl and smash using a potato masher. Reserve the skins and julienne them.

Drizzle the skins with the olive oil, transfer to the oven, and bake until crisp, about 12 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, mix the potato mixture and garlic together until creamy. Fold in the basil and season with salt and pepper. Garnish the smashed potatoes with the crisp potato skins.

Ingredients
1# carrots
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 orange, halved
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel and roll cut the carrots and put them in a large shallow pan, add the oil, and season with salt and pepper. Turn to coat the carrots. Stick them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the carrots are fork-tender. In the meantime, melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Swirl the pan around and cook until the butter begins to become brown and nutty. Squeeze in the juice from the orange halves, add the brown sugar and cumin, and continue to cook for 2 minutes or until syrupy. Remove the carrots from the oven and arrange them on a platter. Drizzle the orange brown butter over the carrots and serve.

Instructions
2 (16-ounce) bags whole frozen green beans
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow skinned onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup apple cider
Salt and pepper

Instructions
Steam beans until almost cooked.

Heat a small skillet over medium low heat. Add a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and the onions and cook until beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the cider, raise the heat to medium high and cook until liquid is reduced and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Season the beans with salt and pepper, to taste, and add to the pan with the onions and cider. Toss evenly to coat the beans and keep warm until ready to serve.

Ingredients
2 cups milk
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons quick-rise yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs, well-beaten
3 to 5 cups flour, as needed

Instructions
Cook milk, cornmeal, butter or margarine, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in medium saucepan until slightly thickened. Add 1/2 cup water and mix well. Set aside to cool. Soften active dry yeast in warm water (110 degrees F). Combine cornmeal mixture, yeast, and 2 well-beaten eggs. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease surface and cover. When dough has doubled in size, cut and shape dough into dinner rolls. Let rise in warm place, about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake rolls for 12 to 15 minutes.

After using a tube of mush for the polenta on Monday I agreed to fry mush for breakfast this morning. A tube of mush is $1.49. I sliced it and fried it until brown in a little oil. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup. It was really good.

In a food processor: handful basil, two cloves garlic, quarter cup of Parmesan, quarter cup of pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Add olive oil while processing until it hits the right consistency. Stir into linguine. Delicious.

I knew I was making pesto. I asked Steve for a good side dish. He suggested this. For the dressing, I just stirred a little raspberry jam into some balsamic vinaigrette. For the almonds, I toasted a cup of slivered almonds on a dry skillet and boiled 1/2 cup white sugar with two tablespoons of water. When the sugar mixture began to brown, I stirred the almonds into it and spread it out on foil to cool. Easy.

This was delicious but I almost had a big problem. Alex wants to read the ingredients of everything I make. I told him we were having polenta and he wanted to see the package. Well, the package didn't say, "polenta." It said, "mush."

"Mush? You're not serious. We're not eating 'mush.'" [I found it interesting that he felt free to speak on Nick's behalf regarding food choices when it came to mush.]

A few weeks ago, my mom gave them a little speech about how lucky they should feel because their dad can cook. They respect my mom enough not to chortle like typical teenagers. But when I joked about it later, I was worried they might sprain something by the extreme eye-rolling I was witnessing. Now, I reminded them what my mom had said and that they should be lucky that I could make something palatable out of something called mush. "Trust me."

They did. Alex loved it. Nick wasn't crazy about the corn in the tomato sauce but when I told him that mush can be served with maple syrup he was interested. So, I'm making mush for breakfast this weekend. I'll have them eating grits soon.

This was really simple. I made a simple marinara sauce. I sauteed some mushrooms in a little butter and the slices of mush in some olive oil. I layered three slices of the corn with mushrooms and topped it with the goat cheese. Damn easy.

Day 2 - right out of the press - beautiful
Day 9 - looks moldy - smells and tastes good.
Day 23 - Holy crap - what happened? It's straight out of a horror movie. It's oozy and smelly. I double checked my instructions. It's supposed to be this way right now. My choices are to pitch it or keep the faith. I'm worried about where I'm going to keep it. It smells so bad.

This was certainly better than the Kraft Dinner. The recipe is here.

Ingredients
8 ounces fresh cranberries
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk
/4 cup powdered sugar
Special equipment: a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Pulse cranberries with 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a food processor until finely chopped (do not purée). Transfer to a sieve and let drain while making batter.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat together butter and remaining 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches until just incorporated.

Spread one third of batter evenly in well-buttered loaf pan, then spoon half of drained cranberries evenly over batter, leaving a 1/2-inch border along sides. Top with another third of batter and remaining cranberries, leaving a 1/2-inch border along sides, then cover with remaining batter. Bake in middle of oven until golden brown and a tester inserted in center comes out without crumbs, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes.

Good stuff. Alex loved it.

Yep, macaroni and cheese out of a box. It's good, once in a while.

It looked better than it was.