Sage-free is okay!

So I had to cook a sage-free Thanksgiving due to Roberta's allergy to the herb. I was concerned, most especially for the stuffing. But I made my own poultry seasoning and it was delicious. I have given the recipe below, you could also add rubbed sage for a more traditional taste.

2 tsp. Rosemary

1 Tbsp. Thyme

2 tsp. Marjoram

1 Tbsp. Savory

1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp. cloves

Grind together in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.

We also had Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, which was a Rachel Ray recipe (and you know how I feel about Rachel Ray but they were delicious in spite of her!). Picture is of the spread (forgive the bad lighting, I took it with my cell phone)

Good Golly

I read USA Weekend yesterday and they talked about Marcel Desaulnier's new cookbook and about how easy and delicious his "Golly Polly's Doodles" were. But no recipe! I was so disappointed. Then this morning I looked at my friend Patti's blog and there was the recipe! Patti, you ROCK! So here is is and I'll report back as to how they are when I make them.

Yield: 17 cookies

Dough:

1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

1⁄2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces and softened

3⁄4 cup granulated sugar

1⁄4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 large egg1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling:

1⁄4 cup creamy peanut butter

1⁄4 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

2. In a sifter, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Sift onto a large piece of parchment or wax paper.

3. Place the softened butter, 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, and the 1/4 cup peanut butter in the bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on low for 1 minute, then on medium for 1 minute more. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. Mix on medium-high for 1 minute. Scrape down again.

4. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on medium for 30 seconds; scrape down again once they have been incorporated. Turn the mixer down to low and gradually add the dry ingredients; mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and use a rubber spatula or your hands to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Chill the dough in the refrigerator while making the filling. (Do not keep the dough in the refrigerator for more than 20 minutes; otherwise, the dough will be difficult to form into the desired shape.)

5. Place the 1/4 cup peanut butter and the confectioners' sugar in a clean bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on low for 20 seconds, then beat on medium for 10 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Portion 17 level teaspoons of the filling onto a piece of parchment or wax paper. Roll each portion into a smooth, round ball.

6. Using 1 heaping tablespoon or 1 level #50 ice-cream scoop, portion 17 pieces of dough. Roll each portion of dough into a smooth round ball, then flatten each ball in the palm of your hand into a 3-inch-diameter circle. Using your thumb, make a small indentation in the center of the dough. Place a filling ball in the indentation, then fold the dough around the filling and roll it into a smooth, round ball. Roll the balls in the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar to lightly coat.

7. Place the Doodles on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart width wise and 2 inches apart lengthwise. Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 6 minutes (that's right-just 6 minutes), until barely firm. (Over baking will cause these cookies to become hard.) Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Thanksgiving Challenged

Normally I make an excellent Thanksgiving dinner. Beautifully roasted turkey, a moist and flavorful bread stuffing, gravy from homemade turkey stock and pumpkin pie to die for, with real (not canned) pumpkin. And I’ve been making this meal for years, so it’s a snap, right? I was even going to change it up a little, making sweet potato ravioli with browned sage butter (see recipe in a previous post).

My brother and Val are visiting Val’s family for Thanksgiving so it’s just going to be me, Mom, Gram, my uncle Stuart and his girlfriend, Roberta. Only 5 people so it’s a cinch, hardly anything at all. Then last night my uncle leaves me a message, asking what time dinner is, what do they need to bring, etc. And at the end he tells me that Roberta is allergic to sage, so I need to make accommodations for her.

No sage?!? In a Thanksgiving dinner? But there is sage in the stuffing (just try to find poultry seasoning that doesn’t contain sage, I dare you). And I make an herb butter to inject the turkey with (yup, sage in that). And the Browned Sage Butter DEFINITELY contains sage.

Now I’m the first one to understand what it’s like to have a food allergy. I’m allergic to caffeine (as most all of my friends know) and I’m used to drinking water, never ordering tea out and passing up the “Coca-cola cake” on the buffet table. I even question waiters relentlessly as to what kind of rootbeer their restaurant serves (Barq’s has caffeine, Mug and A&W don’t). So I understand and I’m very sympathetic. I will do all I can to keep Roberta safe. No sage shall even enter the house, lest she come into contact with it! But it’s definitely going to be a challenge.

Okay, so my herb butter will be sage-less and I’ll make my own poultry seasoning for the stuffing. It’s back to the drawing board for the sweet potato portion of the meal. I’m sure it will all be fine, this just threw a bit of a wrench in my plans, that’s all (okay, a really BIG wrench, but we’ll adjust)

Confession time…for the past few years I have been using store bought pie crusts for my pumpkin pie. I know, and I’m ashamed. But the Marie Calendar’s brand is pretty good and I’m not a huge crust fan so it really doesn’t matter to me. But a co-worker’s wife is attending pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu and she sent in a pumpkin pie (I love you Jocelyn!). The filling was good (not quite as good as mine since she used canned pumpkin and it had ginger in it which my family doesn’t like, and I agree, ginger is too strong against the subtle pumpkin flavor). But the crust was phenomenal. And I don’t like crust all that well. But this was flaky, crisp and just ever so slightly sweet. Gosh it was good. Now I used to make pie crust all the timeand it was pretty good, but nothing like this. So I’m going to make pie crust for the first time in years. I googled away and couldn’t find anything that specifically said it was Le Cordon Bleu’s recipe but I found one by a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef and the recipe does contain sugar so I’m going to try it.

Here is the timeline for this week’s dinner.

Saturday night – stew down pumpkins (ask and maybe I’ll teach you my secret method!)
Sunday – make stock for gravy.
Monday – make cranberry sauce (not only is it delicious with dinner, but put some over cream cheese and serve with Ritz crackers as an appetizer, yum)
Tuesday – grocery store, make herb injection
Wednesday – bake pies, rolls, prep vegetables for stuffing, make mashed potatoes
Thursday – make the stuffing, stuff and roast turkey, make gravy, whip cream, collapse.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Me, Meatballs and the Ikea Holy Grail

To most of the world, shopping at Ikea is no big deal. For someone who was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada (an Ikea-less zone) it was a revelation and my newest obsession.

To the Ikea uninitiated out there, Ikea is a home store extraordinaire. They have furniture, house wares, cookware, linens, pictures, decorative accessories, toys, even pet beds! The store is a massive two story structure so large that there are arrows directing you which way to go. They provide you with pencils, paper and even measuring tape to take with you as you peruse the displays. You can write down the aisle and bin number of the items you want to pick up in the self serve areas downstairs. You can look at a display and say, “gee, I like that bed, I think I’ll buy it” and write down the bed number. But if you are decorating challenged and you have ever seen a display and thought, “gosh, I wish I could just buy that whole room, I’d take it all”, well at Ikea you can do just that. There is a sticker on the ROOM to tell you how much it is!

If you have never been to an Ikea before and are planning your first visit, allow yourself about 6 hours. Yes, it will take you that long, longer even if you are with someone else. I suppose it is possible, if you have been to the store a bajillion times, to “just run in and pick something up real quick”. It is also possible to visit the Wynn buffet and “just grab a little salad” but it’s not very probable. Plan your visit with ample time to ooh, aah, and exclaim.

They are pretty smart, those Swedes who designed Ikea. They know it takes a long time to really look around, see everything, make decisions, to figure out what will fit where. So they put in a cafeteria style restaurant with delicious food at reasonable prices so that you can fuel up for the buying portion of your visit. There is a pretty limited menu of mostly Swedish inspired dishes with a daily special that runs the gamut depending on the Ikea location. Just trust me, get the Swedish Meatballs. A plate of 15 of them, served with a cream sauce, boiled potatoes and lingonberry sauce is only $4.99 with larger and smaller orders priced accordingly. There was also a luscious looking open faced shrimp sandwich that looked oh, so European (it was just a sliced hard boiled egg topped with shrimp and a dollop of mayo and a sprig of dill on dark bread but you rarely see open faced cold sandwiches in the USA.) The meatballs are small, dense and delicious with a hint of spice and a delicious cream sauce. You can add soup or salad for a dollar more but since I was in a Swedish mood I added a piece of Daim torte, a dessert thingy that looked like caramel and nut torte. It turns out that Daim is a Swedish candy bar with “crisp caramel”. Whatever it was, it was delicious! While it is cafeteria style and you have to bus your won tables, the food is served on real plates with real flatware and real glasses for your beverage in an open, airy window filled place that has a lovely little area to corral the small tykes.

Okay so being in California without a semi-truck to carry my booty back I had to stick to the small stuff, so in my 45 dollar splurge I bought: 8 mirrors, 4 mini mixing bowls, a wastebasket, a dried flower arrangement, 2 candles, a bamboo curtain and a really cute dog butt hook. (No, it’s not a hook to hang a dog from, it’s a hook that looks like the rear end of a dog, with the tail as a hanger.) If I’d had a truck I found 2 bookcases, a wardrobe and a dining set that I loved. I then spent another 15 bucks on a bag of the frozen meatballs, 3 packs of cream sauce mix, a jar of lingonberries and an insulated bag to bring it all home in.

I made a batch of the meatballs on Friday and they were just as delicious as they were at the store. Now I’m obsessed with them. I need more. So if you want to know what I want for Christmas, I want 3 bags of Ikea frozen meatballs and a case of sauce packets. Lingonberries optional. But I’ve been a really good girl this year, so if it’s too much for you to go to Ikea for me, you could just petition the Swedes to put one in Vegas, and I’ll get my own!