Homemade Gumdrops

This holiday season I have taken on more candy making than usual, maybe I find it more of a challenge. Candy making in general is a very precise process. It all depends on the exact temperature you bring your mixture to, and from what I know if even a tiny drop of water gets into some mixtures you have already lost.

One of my very favorite shows is Good Eats with Alton Brown on the Food Network. He gets into the nitty gritty scientific portion of why things happen the way they do. For an interesting peek into the ways of turning sugar into Carmel and what happens to the sucrose read here.

A candy thermometer is also mandatory here. A candy thermometer cannot be a meat thermometer or an oven thermometer, or a thermometer to take your temperature. It has some vary unique qualities which AB discusses in this episode-Fudge Factor. And yes, making fudge is considered candy making.

That being said, these orange gumdrops were bright and fruity, perfect texture, not too hard, not too soft. The recipe itself I think is fairly universal, as in you can alter the flavored extract to what you would like. I plan to use this recipe for strawberry, raspberry, mint, and other flavors of gumdrops. I even tried root beer, which turned out OK, but they were a little strong, I may have used too much extract!

Orange Gumdrops (from Taste of Home)

2 tsp butter, softened and divided

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of light corn syrup

3/4 cup of water

1 package powdered fruit pectin (1 and 3/4 oz size)
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp grated orange peel

4 drops of yellow food coloring (I used a gel food coloring, thats what I had on hand)

1 drop of red

superfine sugar for sanding

Line the bottom of a 9"x5" loaf pan with aluminum foil. Grease the foil lining with 1 tsp of the softened butter. Grease bottom and sides of a large heavy saucepan with remaining butter. Add sugar and corn syrup to the pan. Cook and stir on medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to stir occasionally until candy thermometer reads 280 degrees (soft crack stage.)

Meanwhile in another large saucepan, add the water, pectin, and baking soda (mixture will bubble.) Cook and stir over high heat until the mixture comes to a boil, about two minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

When the corn syrup mixtures nears the 280 degree mark, move the water and pectin mixture back to heat source and bring up to a simmer. As soon as the corn syrup mixture hits the 280 degree mark, remove from heat.

Carefully and slowly add the corn syrup mixture to the water and pectin mixture and a very thin stream while constantly stirring. I'm not going to lie, it's nice to have an extra set of hands around for this process, but it can be done on your own. Once that is complete, add the orange zest, extract, and food coloring and stir to combine.

Move the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and allow to set undisturbed for two hours. At this point, move the set gumdrops to a cutting board and cut. I chose to cut mine into cubes, but you do as you wish. Roll each gumdrop in superfine sugar to coat.

Store in an airtight container.

**If you do not have superfine sugar, place 2 cups of granulated sugar in the blender or food processor and pulse for a minute or two, that should yield similair results to superfine sugar.

Red Pepper, Leek, and Bleu Cheese Steak Roulade

I saw this recipe in the Food Network Magazine (December 2009) and I knew instantly I had to try this. I've never tried to make something like this, so I knew this would be interesting. If you are not familiar, a roulade is French for a sort of rolled dish, as in meat or a light cake. You can vary the ingredients to what you and your family prefer. The few ingredients I chose I knew were going to be a success. But I whole heartedly confess to using shortcuts (and some not so shortcuts as you will see later) to make this dish quick and easy-which is especially appreciated coming up on this time of year, the holidays!

Here's my secrets: I grocery shopped on Saturday, on Sunday I sliced and cleaned my leeks, roasted off a red pepper on the grill, and the bleu cheese was purchased already crumbled ready to use. So I knew during the week that all I would really have to do was saute the leeks quickly, give my flank steak a once over with something heavy to ensure uniform thickness, assemble (roll it up,) get the bread crumb topping on and into the oven it went.

It was smooth sailing all the way up until I realized I did not have any twine, which turned out to be semi-essential! So I looked and looked and found these small skewers (what they were from I'll never know) and I managed to "pin" my roulade closed. Laugh if you will, but it worked, in a not-so-pretty way, it worked. Kitchen twine is now on my Target list this weekend!

Red Pepper, Leek, Bleu Cheese Steak Roulade

(inspired from Food Network Magazine December, 2009)

For the steak:

1 large red bell pepper (charred and peeled)

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper

1.5 pound flank steak, trimmed

1/2 to 3/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese

For the crust:

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

3 tsp dried rosemary (or fresh)

3 tsp fresh chopped parsley

3 tsp grated Parmesan

3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Kitchen twine for tying

Prepare the stuffing for the steak. Rub the outside of the red pepper with a bit of canola or vegetable oil and roast the red pepper under the broiler or on the grill for 8-10 minutes. When the skin is slightly charred remove pepper from heat and place in a paper bag for 5-10 minutes. I'm not entirely sure why, but I've heard that this will help to ease the skin from the pepper, which is your goal. Once the pepper is peeled, remove stem and seeds.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Saute the leeks in a little butter or olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes, remove from heat and cool.

Gently pound the steak with the back edge of a heavy pan, or with a meat mallet, until the entire steak is about 1/4 inch thick. Lay the steak on a cutting board with the long side facing you. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Place the red peppers in one row lengthwise, leaving a one inch boarder. Lay the leek mixture in the next row, next to the peppers. Lastly lay the crumbled bleu cheese in the last row, leaving an inch border to the end.

Roll the meat into a tight roll, tucking in the filling and seems as you go.

Assemble the crust. Mix the crust ingredients in a small bowl and toss until the mixture resembles wet sand. Brush the roulade with a bit of olive oil, and press the crust topping on top, try and do this rather firmly. Tie the roll with kitchen twine in three to four places, not too hard as to not disturb the topping. Depending on the size and thickness of your steak, you may need to tie the twine before you add the crust and snip off before serving.

Place the steak on a rack in a roasting pan and roast until the crust is nice and golden brown and a thermometer inserted in to the middle registers 130 degrees for medium rare (about 45 minutes.) Transfer to a cutting board and let rest for 15 minutes.

Carefully cut the twine and remove, slice the roll crosswise into slices and serve.

Weiner Schnitzel and Spaetzle

So my dear husband usually never makes requests when it comes to dinner, but he proclaimed one day that he wanted Weinerschnitzel and Spaetzle. Hmm, that's kind of out of the blue, but ok! I have never eaten either of the two, but I would give it a try anyway. So you guessed it, I Googled, and I Googled, and Googled. From what I could tell the weinerschnitzel was going to be a breeze, but the spaetzle was not. There are many many versions of this (as with most things) and I used a variation of one I found online.

This turned out to be a delicious favorite, the combination of the two that is, but I might invest in a spaetzle press next time. The process of making these little beauties was quite messy for me. This was my first attempt at this, so maybe my dough didn't have enough of this or that, but they tasted pretty good. After boiling the spaetzle I sauteed them briefly with a little butter and olive oil to give them a little texture and flavor, which turned out rather nice. If you unfamiliar with spaetzle, you can read more about it here.

Weinerschnitzel (adapted from Allrecipes.com)
two servings

4 boneless thin cut pork pork chops**, about a quarter of an inch thick, may need to pound thin.
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 lemon

oil for frying

Ensure that the pork is the desired thickness of 1/4", you may need to use a heavy skillet or a meat mallet to attain this thickness. In three separate shallow bowls or containers, place the flour in one, the lightly beaten eggs in the next one, and the bread crumbs in the final container.

Thoroughly dredge each cutlet of pork in the flour first, shake of the excess. Then one by one , submerge each cutlet in the beaten egg, allow excess to drip off, and finally dredge really well in the bread crumbs. Once these are completed, reserve them to the side on a plate.

Meanwhile in a skillet, heat oil until shimmering. Move pork cutlets to the pan, do not crowd and work in batches if needed. Don't let the oil get too hot or the crust will get dark too quick. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown. The cutlets of pork will cook rather quickly due to the thickness of each piece.

Once complete move to a paper towel lined plate to absorb any excess oil. Add a quick squeeze of lemon juice to each cutlet and serve. The lemon juice will really make a difference, don't skip it unless you have to.

**I believe that traditional Weiner Schnitzel is made with veal, but an ok substitution is pork.

Spaetzle

(adapted from Mrs. KLA's family recipe and Food Network magazine, October edition)

3 cups all purpose flour

2eggs

kosher salt

4 Tbsp. unsalted melted butter, plus 2 Tbsp melted butter for saute pan

freshly ground pepper

pinch of nutmeg

Combine flour, salt, nutmeg, and eggs in a bowl and gradually add up to 1 cup of water to produce a dough like consistency. Stir in 4 Tbsp of melted butter. The dough at this point should be smooth and elastic like.

Turn dough out onto floured surface. This is where it became a bit tricky for me. You are supposed to be able to simply press the dough through either a spaetzle press (which I did not have, ) or a colander with larger holes. I had neither so I turned to the pasta insert I had for my large stock pot. You are instructed to use a plastic spatula and press the dough through the holes, and voila, you have spaetzle. In a perfect world you could probably just press the dough right into a big stockpot full of boiling salted water and when they floated to the top you are mostly finished, strain them out and reserve them on the plate. Give them a quick saute to lend a bit more texture and enjoy!

The true story: My patience with the stock pot insert lasted minutes, same with the plastic spatula. In truth, the dough was so elastic and sticky my plastic spatula separated into two pieces. So I thought, hmmm, I'm not giving up yet, what else in my possession could I try. So I grabbed my four-sided box grater. I used the side you grate cheese with. Instead of using a spatula I used the two greatest tools God gave us-my hands.

So I grabbed a big scoop of sticky dough with my hand and reached inside the box grater and started to press the dough out through the holes. This took A LOT of work and patience, I truly believe that it was not supposed to be this hard, I'm sure there was something wrong with my dough...maybe? Of course now I realized I had a big pile of sticky, elastic-y spaetzle that began to cling together, so I grabbed for the flour and tried to remedy the situation and that worked.

After much cursing and a close bout with carpal-tunnel syndrome I was finished. I boiled them as mentioned and gave them a quick saute and sat down to a nice German dinner which was well worth the effort. It was delicious.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Pecan Pie Cookies (from Elizabeth's Edible Experience)

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large mixer bowl and beat until creamy. Reduce speed to low and add baking powder . Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Using your finger, make a small indentation or well big enough to host a small teaspoon of filling.

Combine all filling ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Place one teaspoon of filling in each cookies' well. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool one minute on the sheet and move to cooling rack. Enjoy!

**One note, I had extra filling left over. I saved it because I plan on making these again in the near future. However, it might be okay to scale back the filling quantities.

Wild Rice Salad

This is a recipe I rely on each Thanksgiving as each of us are responsible for bringing a side dish to the big dinner. The first time I brought it, everyone seemed to enjoy it. The second year I was strapped for ideas and busy with school so I brought it again. Same thing next year, so this year when turkey day came around again, I thought to myself, why change a good thing, and now I look forward to turkey day for many reasons, among them is the wild rice salad.

This 'salad' is a variation of several recipes and ideas I've seen over the years on websites and at restaurants. I use 'salad' in quotes only because when I was first put in charge of bringing a 'salad' to family dinners for holidays and whenever, I thought a salad was only referring to the green, leafy kind. I thought...how am I going to get a dressed leafy green salad down to where our family is an hour and a half away still in good presentable condition?! Well little to my knowledge, a 'salad' can also refer to other things like a pasta salad, or in this case a wild rice salad! Now I know, and knowing is half the battle (thanks GI Joe.)

When I first prepared this, I was adding things I knew would be tasty together, so I guess I consider this a recipe of my own creation. If you make one like this also, cheers, you have excellent taste in my opinion, maybe we can get together sometime :)

Wild Rice Salad

1.5 cups uncooked MN wild rice (prepared as directed on the package)

5 strips of thick cut bacon

1/2 cup toasted almond slices

3/4 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Rinse the wild rice and prepare as directed on package. Wild rice takes a long time to cook in my opinion, and sometimes I still have to strain it at the end of the cooking stage. The final stage of cooking should yield a firm and chewy rice. Once prepared, set aside until needed.

Using a sharp knife, dice the bacon and add to a cold saute pan. Once that is complete, move the saute pan to the stove top and brown the bacon. Upon completion, add the wild rice to the saute pan with the bacon, do not remove any of the drippings (unless there is A LOT!) A lot of the flavor in this dish is lent from the bacon drippings, so we want to use up all of that yummy bacon flavor. Add the Craisins and almonds to the pan and stir to incorporate.

Garnish with any remaining almonds and green onions and enjoy!

Sausage Penne

I have said it once, I'll say it again..In my opinion the Williams-Sonoma website is a goldmine of tasty recipes and ideas. They are fairly easy to prepare, always delicious, and have quickly become go-to favorites. I also enjoy bringing the leftovers to work the next day, it reheats wonderfully. There is some flexibility in choosing the type of pasta you utilize. The types that will offer the best results are ones that will hold on to the sauce such as penne, cavatappi, rigatoni, and others. I would stay away from ones like linguini, spaghetti, and angel hair. Not that it can't be done, it's your dinner! But in my opinion, there are better options. We like a little spice in our dinners, so often I'll add a bit of crushed red pepper flakes to the mix.



Sausage Penne (adapted from Williams Sonoma)

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb Italian sausage (I prefer spicy)
1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 lb plum tomatoes, seeded and diced (can substitute canned plum tomatoes)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb dried penne or cavatappi pasta
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan-reggiano

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add Italian sausage to the pan, carefully breaking it up with the edge of a wooden spoon or like utensil and cook through, do not overcook it to prevent hardening. Add the fennel seed. Stir in the tomatoes and parsley. Add the cream and let simmer until some of the liquid has reduced. Keep sauce warmed until pasta has been prepared.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to boil and prepare the pasta according to directions on the package. Drain the pasta and add to simmering sauce. At this time add the Parmesan to the pan and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Toasted Sesame Dip

This is an idea I got from a friend of mine, Jen. At first I thought, I don't know about this...soy sauce, cream cheese, I don't know but I'll try it. It was delicous, perfect for a party! She picked up this idea from another friend, whom I'm sure got it from another friend and so on and so on. I googled this of course and there are "official" recipes for this, but because in the beginning I did not know of them, I am not going to reference them here, just my good friend Jen and her delicous dip!

Toasted Sesame Dip

1 brick low-fat cream cheese (neufchatel)

1/4 cup soy sauce

2-3 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Crackers for dipping, such as Ritz or Triscuits

Directions

Unwrap the cream cheese and using a toothpick or fork, prick holes into the cream cheese all over, you really want to let the soysauce soak up into the cheese. In a container or a Ziplock bag (I opted to use the bag,) place the cheese and soy sauce and let 'marinate' for several hours in the refridgerator. Once complete, remove from 'marinade.' *Tip, if you opt to use the Ziplock method, move to the kitchen sink and using scissors, snip a little corner off , and the soy sauce will drain out easily, making an easy transfer to a serving plate. Crust the brick with the toasted sesame seeds and serve.