Mmm...

Here's another recipe I wanted to share; Baked Le Pleine Lune with Mushrooms and Walnuts.  Click on the link for both a printable recipe and a printable step-by-step.

Though the recipe is Baked Le Pleine Lune with Mushroom and Walnuts, it includes suggestions for substitute cheeses if you can't find Le Pleine Lune.

Also includes suggestions for wine or beer pairings. 

Craft and Gift Idea links

For those who are looking for some craft ideas and how-to's for Christmas gifts or decorations, here are some of my related posts and articles.

Decorations:

Get Spicy: Here is a step-by-step of the fragrant decorations we made for our tree in 2011.

Quick and Easy Garland and Easy Crochet Garland: Two versions of a spiral crochet garland with contrasting edging.

Temari:  This is a link to a series of posts, which you will find in reverse order.  These step-by-step posts were done in 2011 using 3 inch cores, but they can be made in a variety of sizes - our Christmas tree has them in 1 1/2 inch and 2 inch cores.  They make great gifts as well as decorations.

Christmas Sachets: These step-by-step decorations go back to 2008 (posts are in reverse order).  We don't have many left, but their scent still lingers.

 Apple Cinnamon Cookie-cutter decorations:  These were our 2009 decorations.  You'll find the step-by-step to make them in Part One, then finish them in Part Two.

Eight Point Star ornaments: these yarn wrapped ornaments are fast, easy and addictive!

Plastic Canvas ornaments: A step-by-step for two different plastic canvas shapes.

Crochet Covered Christmas ornaments: A free pattern.

Christmas Light Luminaries: Step-by-step instructions to modify a string of Christmas lights, these can be used all year, by just wrapping them with seasonal garlands.

Hand Crafted Gift Ideas:

3 Hour Crochet Cowl: A free pattern for a simple cowl, with ideas for modifications.

Simple Lap Blanket: Another free crochet pattern.

Salt Jar Luminaries: A step-by-step for candle luminaries.

A Pot of Roses: These everlasting flowers will be sure to bring cheer to a loved one!

Gift Idea Product, Move and Book Reviews:

Over at Squidoo, writers have been given quest challenges to do reviews on various themes.  Here are some of mine that might inspire some gift-giving ideas.

Endhiran (Robot) Movie Review

Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Disney's Missing Princess

Star Wars Original Trilogy - Unaltered

For the Well Rounded Crocheter - Plus Size Crochet

The Philosopher's Kitchen, for the Historical Foodie

Wabash Familiy Farms Popcorn Maker

Recipes to Enjoy:

Making Chevre de Provence (you'll need to start these a week before you need them)

Tourtiere

Mulled Wine

Christmas Goose step-by-step, Part One, Part Two, Part Three

Yum!

Some food "crafting" for a change!

We have a guest staying with us at the moment, and today he treated us by making some Home Made Snickers Bars, based on the recipe here.



The red pieces on top are watermelon and strawberry flavoured Pop Rocks.  They have a habit of popping unexpectedly!

These are sooooo good!!!  Thanks for making these for us, Jordan!!

Our assembled Easter basket

We made a few changes in this year's basket.  It's a lot heavier than usual this year, too! *L*   Fitting it all in is always a challenge.



In our basket, we have:

Bread (recipe here) - "symbolic of Jesus, the Bread of Life."
eggs; kraszanki (onion skin dyed eggs) and peeled eggs (first soft boiled, their shells cracked, then boiled in a tea and chai spice mix for about an hour or more) - "indicate new life and Christ's Resurrection from the Tomb."
butter (mixed with garlic, parsley and paprika) - "reminding us of the goodness of Christ that we should have toward all things."
salt - "So necessary an element in our physical life, that Jesus used its symbolism: "You are the salt of the earth." "
chrzan; grated dried horseradish root (I've also used prepared horseradish paste or a chunk of fresh root) - "Symbolic of the Passion of Christ..."
sausage (garlic) - "indicative of God's favour and generosity."
ham (a Polish ham we found at the Italian Centre grocery store) - "Symbolic of great joy and abundance."
cheese (we chose friulano, this year) - "symbol of the moderation Christians should have."
prosciutto rosettes (new this year, in place of the more traditional bacon, which we've never included before ourselves) - "A symbol of the over abundance of God's mercy and generosity."
olives (garlic stuff and almond stuffed - new this year) and
olive oil (new this year) - The olive tree symbolises wisdom, peace, hope, light, fertility, health, wealth and balance.
candy coated chocolate eggs - my one concession commercialism. ;-)


This will be part of our brunch tomorrow, and some of the ingredients will be used to marinade the lamb I'll be doing this year for dinner.

Our Easter preparations

Today we're getting stuff ready for our traditional Easter basket.



Half of the eggs we'll be doing this year were cooked with onion skins.  This evening, we'll be doing tea dyed eggs that will be shelled for the basket.

The bread is always the centerpiece of our basket.



Here is our basic bread recipe, with the variations I did below.

For 2 loaves.

1-2 Tbsp yeast (preferably the old style active dry yeast, not the quick rise stuff)
1-4 Tbsp sweetener
1/4 cup butter or oil (optional)
2 1/4 - 2 3/4 cups warm liquid
2 tsp salt
6-8 cups (whole wheat or blend)

Dissolve yeast in warm liquid (water, milk, broth, potato water, or the liquid from making yogurt cheese) with 1 tsp sweetener (honey, sugar or molasses)
After 5-10 minutes, add remaining sweetener, salt, butter and 3 cups flour.
Beat at medium speed with mixer for 2 minutes, or 200 strokes with a wooden spoon
Add 1 more cup flour and beat briefly.
Add remaining flour until a soft dough results.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth.
Please dough in oiled bowl.  Turn to oil all sides, cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled.
Punch down dough and knead briefly.  Shape into loaves and place into oiled loaf pans.  Cover lightly and allow to rise until the dough reached the top of the loaf pans.
Back in oven preheated to 350F (325F if using glass pans), in centre rack, for about 35 minutes.
Cool on racks.

Our variation:

For sweetener, we used plain granulated sugar.  For the liquid, we used 1 cup warm water to proof the yeast in the bowl of our mixer (I have a KitchenAide with a dough hook).  In a tiny bowl, I used 1 Tbsp of warm water to soak the saffron threads.  While those were doing their thing, I scalded 1 cup of milk and melted 1/4 cup butter into it.  Two eggs were also added (the equivalent of about 1/2 cup liquid).

For more photos of our Easter preparations, check out my flickr account.

Christmas goose - the verdict!

Well, I can at least say the goose was a success!  It wasn't at all fatty like I remember.  Actually, I found it tasted like turkey drumsticks.



Unfortunately, by the time we got to the entree, even with the long breaks in between courses, we were all so full, no one could eat much!  Of the five of us, two liked the goose quite a lot (including me), two could take it or leave it, while one didn't like it at all.  Which isn't too bad, considering we all have very different tastes!

As for the rest:

Smoked mozzarella mashed potatoes
(quantities to taste)

yellow potatoes, cooked and mashed with:
smoked mozzarella, shredded
sour cream
garlic granules
crumbled bacon
salt and pepper

Broccoli done the Julia Child way.

Place florets and peeled stems in a pot with about half an inch of water.  Cook with lid on until almost tender.  Drain.  Return to pot with butter, minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste.  Cook in butter until crisply tender.

Soooo good!

Now we need to wait around for dessert. :-D

Christmas Eve - our goose is cooked!

Part One
Part Two

These should be the last photos of the goose preprations.

The goose itself, cooked to an internal temperature of 82F, finished roasting a fair bit faster than the time recommended by weight.  Here's how it turned out.



It's looking quite crispy, which is what I like.  Here, it's been moved to the platter so I could drain the roasting pan.  As I write this, it's back in the roaster and staying warm in the oven.






I drained the roaster into a 1 quart canning jar, including some of the drippings, but it was too much.  Aside from this amount, I got a soup bowl's worth of drippings that still had a small amount of fat on top.

I'm hanging on to the fat, as it's supposed to be really good to cook with.

As for the drippings, I used them to make a gravy.  There was not much more than a cup of drippings, two which I added a splash of red wine and another of orange juice and brought to a boil.  I thickened it with corn start.  No other seasonings were added.  It's a rather tangy gravy that I kinda like.

Meanwhile, on the assembly line, we've got Bacon and Cheddar devilled eggs, mashed yellow potatoes with smoked mozarella, garlic and bacon bits, and broccoli a la Julia Child.

I'm getting soooo hungry!

Christmas Eve - cooking our goose

Part one

The goose is now in the oven, so I've got a bit of a break before I have to start the next longest cooking items.



The first order of business was to remove the goose from the marinade.  There wasn't a whole heck of a lot to take it out of.  I decided to leave some of the marinade herbs on the goose, putting more into the cavity.  Then there was the job of piercing the skin with a fork all over.  Some areas were very hard to pierce.  I hope I was thorough enough.  I didn't truss it, though I did cut slits on either side of the tail bone and tucked the ends of the drumsticks in.






I was thrilled to find a turkey lifter a couple of days ago.  It's got little legs to keep the bird lifted.  For the cooking/basting liquid, I combine roughly 1 cup each of red wine, orange juice and boiling water.  Mdm Benoit seemed adamant about not using anything cold on a goose in all her recipes, so I thought adding the boiling water might be a good idea.

The goose is seasoned with our favourite spice mix.  As for the wine, I picked this one for cooking with because it was cheap.  I'm trying a glass to drink right now, and I can't say I'd recommend it for drinking.  You know how, when tasting red wine, you're supposed to swirl it in the glass to check the viscosity?  It doesn't seem to have any.  Why that makes a difference, I don't know.  Either way, it's a pretty mediocre wine.  Not bad, but not good, either.  I'm not a wine drinker, though, so take it for what it's worth. *L*

For the meal itself, I picked a Big Ass Zin.  We've tried Big Ass Cab before and enjoyed it.  I considered getting it again, but wanted to try something different.  I have to admit, I bought the brand for the label art!  Like I said, I'm not a wine drinker, and I don't know brands.  So I usually end up picking them based on descriptions and, lately, humour (we picked up some Vampire wine recently, too).  Not the best way to pick a wine, I must admit!  When I saw the Big Ass Cab label, I was smitten by the joie de vivre.  I couldn't help but think that a company that had such a lively sense of humour just had to have good taste, too!  Thankfully, the wine lived up my hopes.  I would definitely recommend it.  Hopefully, we'll be just as happy with the Zin as well.

Getting ready - preparing the Christmas goose

While we were still living in Manitoba, we shared our celebrations among three households, Reveillon with my husband's parents, Christmas day with my parents, and finally a party at my BIL's on Boxing Day.  Now that we live with no other family nearby, we've started to celebrate Wigilia on Christmas Eve.  Sort of.  There's pretty much nothing about the food that's traditionally Polish anymore!  Instead, we explore with different dishes and new foods.

This year, I'm doing a goose.

I've never cooked goose before.  In fact, I had been thoroughly turned off of goose the one time my mother served us a domestic goose.  Our previous experience had been with a Canada Goose my father had shot one year that was delicious, so we had high expectations.  I was pretty young, so I don't remember the taste all that much, but I do still remember being incredibly disgusted by the fattiness.  I don't think any of use were really able to eat it.  My mother never served goose again.

Over the years, I've encountered many references to goose and even goose grease, which had many uses, including medicinal.  Goose was clearly greatly enjoyed by many, with glowing descriptions of the flavour, and I could never understand why!

Fairly recently, while watching some Julia Child dvds, I discovered that goose skin was supposed to be pierced before cooking to allow the fat to drain out.  I now suspect that this was a step that got missed - we certainly never had to do it for any other birds we cooked!  Armed with this information, we decided to give it a try this year.

In going through my recipe books, I find myself turning once again to Mdm Benoit.  We'll be skipping the stuffing, but will roast the goose according to her basic method, then using a red wine/orange juice baste from modified from another recipe while it's baking.  The basic roasting instructions includes a 24 hour marinade, which I'm late for by a few hours.  The marinade is made up of:

Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup oil
1 carrot, coarsely grated
1 onion, thickly sliced (my fresh onion is for something else, so I used dry)
1 clove garlic, halved
6 whole cloves
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1 handful parsley

The first step is to "Wipe the goose with a cloth dipped in vinegar.  Do not scald, nor soak in cold water, nor wash with soap."

Soap??

The recipe doesn't make for a lot of marinade.  The only container I've got that's big enough to hold the goose to marinade is my roaster.



That one clove of garlic looks so lonely and ineffectual!  What you can't see is the huge neck tucked under the bird.  I had expected the neck to be removed, like with a turkey.  It didn't come with the liver or heart or anything, either.  Oh, well.

I covered it with plastic wrap, since it won't fit in my fridge with the lid on.  I'll have to make a point of remembering to turn it after a few hours or something, since what little liquid there is is lining the bottom of the roaster.

Other recipes I looked at included things like "remove excess fat from inside the cavity," but I didn't find any.  I guess the company that preps these birds is rather thorough about such things.

I really, really hope this works out.  I may have been young that one time I had domestic goose, but the memory of that fattiness still gives me the willies. If, however, it doesn't work... well, we have lots of tourtierre!

Christmas tourtierre, day two

The first half of our dough making is now done.  I figured I'd post a couple of shots before we start our assembly line.



We make our tourtierre with a hot water dough (another Mdm Benoit recipe) rather than the flakier cold water dough I usually use.  Here's the basic recipe our version is a variation of.

Mdm Benoit Hot Water Pie Crust
(enough for 1 double crusted pie)

1/4 cup water
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder.

Bring water to a boil.  Add shortening.  Remove from heat and stir until smooth.

Sift, measure and re-sift flour with salt and baking powder.  Combine mixtures.  Stir until smooth.

Set in covered container and chill for 2-3 hours.

We do ours in triple batches.  Usually I just use all purpose flour, but this year I tried pastry flour for about half the batches.  Usually we use Crisco shortening, but since they went transfat free, the resulting dough has a very different texture, so I'm trying a new brand.  As you can see by the photo, we also add egg and some herbs to the mix.  With so many batches to make, there's no way we'd do it all by hand!  I get one of my daughters to measure and sift the batches of dry ingredients while I use a kettle to boil the water and a food processor to whip up the liquid ingredients.  Then I transfer it to my KitchenAide mixer (best kitchen appliance I never paid for! *L*) with a beater attachment.  After beating in several cups of flour, I transfer to a dough hook and finish it off.  Then the dough it divided into three balls and set aside for chilling while the next triple batch is made.



Once all the batches were done, they joined the meat on the balcony to chill.  The bright orange dough is a new experiment this year; instead of herbs, the last two triple batches have paprika in them.  Should be interesting!

While the dough chilled, we headed out to do our annual Christmas family photo.  The meat is now inside to get closer to room temperature.  It won't take long, as it didn't freeze overnight; not even at the edges.  I'll have photos of the assembly later on.  Whether or not I get them up by tonight is a different thing. ;-)

Baking time! Tourtierre, step by step

It's that time of year again!  The weekend we dedicate to making our Christmas tourtierre.  This year, I ordered a total of 24 pounds of ground meats which should get us about 20 pies, the way we fill them. ;-)



I give the butcher shop a week to fill our meats order.  The last of it was ground shortly before I picked it up, but the rest was frozen as they slowly filled my order.  They don't normally carry some of what I ask for.

Though our own recipe is a family variation, this is the basic recipe we use.  The quantities are for one pie, but the ingredients in the photo are x24, except that only about half of the meat is in the photo.  Also, our mix includes some spices different from the recipe.

Mdm Benoit's Quebec Tourtierre

1 pound minced pork
1 small onion, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp savory
1/4 tsp celery pepper (I use just celery seed)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs



All the meats are dumped into our giant stock pot.



Then everything but the bread crumbs are added and stirred in.  For one pie, you would bring it to a boil over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes, stirring frequently to break up lumps of meat.  It takes a fair bit longer with this much meat!  (Note: while most of the ingredients are increased by the same amount, I use far less water; perhaps a quarter the amount it would be if I used the same math as for the rest.)

Once the meat is cooked, take it off the heat and stir in part of the breadcrumbs.  Let it sit for 10 minutes, then check to see if the liquid is absorbed.  If not, do it again every 10 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.



It should look like this.



evening update: corrected photo

At this point, the filling is allowed to cool, then baked in a double crust pie.  For this much, we let the filling cool for a few hours, then stick it outside overnight.  It doesn't freeze completely in that time, which works rather well when it comes time to fill the pies.

When we didn't have someplace safe outdoors to put the pot, the trunk of a car works rather well.  Of course, if you live somewhere that doesn't get very cold at night, you'll have to find space in a fridge or freezer!

Tomorrow, we make the dough and assemble the pies.  Hopefully, we won't run very late and I'll be able to post photos at the end of the day.  If not, I'll have them up on Monday.

Oh, man, the house smells good!

Get cooking, day two, part two

We're not done yet, but we've run out of space for the prepared pies and have to stop for a break. :-D



Here's the dough I made earlier: 8 triple batches, chilling in the snow at -18C. I'd run out of parsley part way through, so the last couple of batches were plain dough. :-D



I couldn't resist getting a shot of the meat again, too. The frost made a really neat pattern in the lid.



I finally took the meat inside at about 5pm, and this photo was taken about an hour later. Despite being outside for 14 hours, the meat hadn't froze even along the edges. It was a touch difficult to stir, though.



In fact, I broke my favourite slotted spoon. *sniff*



The chilled dough gets rolled out between a couple of sheets of heavy duty vinyl to make transferring to the pie plates easier. My husband is my dough rolling hero.



Our first pie, ready for baking! We did 6 before we started putting them in the oven. This is the first time we've baked tourtierre in our new place and we've got LOTS of room to prepare the pies, but not a lot for setting aside or cooling them, and only 2 fit in our oven at once.



One of our first pair of baked pies! The house smells soooo good right now! Our oven is very cool on one side and doesn't seem to like to hit the higher temps, so we have to reverse the pies after 15 minutes, then bake them for another 15 minutes, at about 400F. Our oven is actually set at 450F but has yet to reach that temp.



Danielle has been great helping out this year! My job has been to fill the pies, crimp the edges and cut in the steam vents while my husband and daughter do all the rolling and tending of the oven.



The ironing board and the top of our stove are the only cat-safe places we have to leave the pies to cool.



To freeze them, my darling husband shoveled the snow away from our patio swing so I could lay them out...



... and cover them up to freeze.

It is SO hard not to dig in to a pie right now! When we're done baking, we'll have one. I can hardly wait!!

Get cook, day two

We're now into day two of making our Christmas tourtierre! Here's where we're at so far...




I wasn't able to put the meat outside until something past 3 am, and the pot was still quite warm. This photo was taken about 8 hours later.




The edges are pretty frosty, so I mixed it up so the middle will chill even more. It's no where near frozen, even after 8 hours in temperatures closing in on -20C. The meat will stay out in the cold until shortly before we're ready to start the pies. The dough will be set outside to chill, too, as there's no way we'll be able to fit it all in the fridge.



Prepping for the dough. We'll be doing 8 triple batches of hot water dough. (Not in the photo is the flour and water.) I've got more shortening then I need, in case we want to make extra. The left over dough is great with some shredded cheese kneaded in, shaped into sticks and baked. Yum.



The best tools I never paid for! There's my KitchenAide Artisan mixer, which I got for free using grocery store points, and a food processor my wonderful in-laws gave us for Christmas a few years back (I'm one of those women that LOVES getting kitchen appliances as gifts).

It occurs to me that I won't need to use the processor. Typically, I'd do the boiling water, shortening and egg in the processor, then pour it into the flour in the mixer for kneading with the dough hook (at triple recipes, the heavy duty mixer is a must). Now that I think of it, though, I can just do the hot water mix with the beater, then switch to a dough hook and add the dry ingredients. That'll save on clean up later on.

Doing the dough is a VERY messy job. I might be able to get my husband to take photos for me, but I won't be handling the camera myself.

Get cooking, part two

It's been about 6 hours since I past posted, with the tourtierre filling cooking away. I frequently stirred the meat, breaking up any bigger pieces as it cooked. My husband was never able to find a longer wooden spoon for me - I think we'll have to go to a restaurant supply store for that - but it worked out in the end. The meat shrinks as it cooks, so by the end of it, it was fairly easy to mix.



Here's a meat and juices, fully cooked. At this point, the pot is taken off the heat for cooling.



To thicken the filling, I first add some breadcrumbs and stir it in. This amount is no where near enough needed to thicken the filling properly. Once it's stirred in, the meat's allowed to sit for about 10 minutes for the crumbs to absorb as much liquid as it can, and for any remaining liquid to rise to the top.



The next time I add flour for thickener. This time, it was enough.



Here's how it looks, after resting for another 10 minutes or so. If there had still been any liquid showing, I'd have added more flour.

For now, the post is still sitting and cooling for a while. Before I turn in for the night, I'll put the lid on and pop it onto the balcony. We're at -13C with a windchill of -23C right now, so the outside is probably going to freeze a bit. There's too much there for it to freeze solid overnight.

Tomorrow, we make the dough and assemble the pies. As the dough needs a few hours to chill in the fridge, this is going to be an all day job.

It's going to be fun!

Get cooking!

Cooking is a craft, too, isn't it? :-D

Tonight, I've started on this year's Christmas tourtierre. We're planning on two dozen pies, though how much we actually end up with doesn't always stay on plan. *L* With our recipe, we calculate based on 1 pound of meat per pie, but we just fill the shells to our preference, so it doesn't always match up. Not that we have the exact weight of meat to start with, as the butcher doesn't have control over the weights of meats they don't process themselves.




Here I've got all my ingredients ready and waiting. Well, except the water. I didn't think I needed to include that in the photo. ;-)



Happily, all 24-27 pounds of ground meat fit into my new pot, with room for the other ingredients and stirring.



Next, it was time to add the onions, garlic, salt and spices.



And finally, mixing it all together. Fortunately, I have a very strong wooden spoon. Unfortunately, it's not quite long enough. I probably would have done better with just my hands. *L* After this, the water was added and I've started the cooking. I've also called my husband, who is out shopping with our older daughter, to find me a really long spoon!

I'll take more photos when it's time to thicken the filling before it's time to set it on the balcony to cool overnight. :-D

Darn. My husband just called. No luck finding a longer spoon. They're going to try someplace else on the way home (if it's still open). I can get away with using my current one, but it'd be a lot easier with a longer one!