Fotocuisine

(Read to the end for a FotoCuisine Giveaway!)

Every year, I do a four-course Christmas dinner for family. The number of guests range from 10 to 20 depending on the year, and to which cities family members are traveling over the holidays.

Each year, I do a theme. One year it was “wrapped” foods, one year was green and red. One year we had four hurricanes in Florida, so I picked courses based on the names of the hurricanes (Charley, Francis, Ivan, and Jeanne). Last year, I did an Iron Chef theme where guests picked the ingredient a week in advance.

This year, I struggled with a theme. Work and life pressure has been intense this year, like a good chunk of America. Both of my brothers and their families would be away this year, visiting in-laws, so the guest list was smaller than usual. My mother half suggested Christmas-on-a-budget, and it immediately resonated with me.

I wanted to still do a four course meal, but I wanted to keep it refined, yet inexpensive. We would have six adults this year, so I planned a meal under $100. Cooking staples already present in my parents’ house (flour, mustard, olive oil, sugar, etc…) wouldn’t count in the ingredient cost. I surprised myself when I planned the meal, went shopping, and ended up with a bill of $79.

Menu inside…

Things have been so crazy around here, that we haven’t had time to do our last two posts of the San Francisco trip, but they will be coming soon!

Until then, the holiday spirit suddenly whisked me away this morning, and I decided to make a run to the overcrowded grocery store to make my favorite cookies.

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I tend more toward the savory than the sweet when I cook, but you can’t beat these two words: POM cheesecake.

I wanted to do little mini-bites, and I also wanted to experiment to see if I could incorporate POM pomegranate juice into the cheesecakes themselves instead of just in the sauce. One of the best things about experimenting when cooking is tasting the results!

These would make great appetizers or desserts for a mingling crowd. Since we’re right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s the time for winter school and office parties, and these little minis would go over pretty nicely.
More pics and recipe inside

Most of what I like to cook is savory. I do have a couple favorite desserts, however. One is mousse, and last February, I made a POM pomegranate and white chocolate mousse for Valentine’s Day. For this month’s POM Guest Blogger entry, I decided to try incorporating pomegranate into one of my other favorite classic desserts, crème brûlée.

Crème brûlée is commonly served with berries, and the tart richness of pomegrante made me think they would go well together. I wanted to layer pomegranate jelly on the bottom, then form the custard over the top, followed by the crunchy sugar crust.

The pomegranate layer had to be denser than custard, or it would float to the top during the cooking process. While pomegranate-infused cream would be tasty, I wanted to try the layer idea, so I started with a pomegranate-gelatin mixture. The custard crème itself would be added warm, and I was worried the heat would almost certainly melt the gelatin, so I tried to be careful to reduce splashing when adding the custard. Browning the sugar was actually perfect for this experiment, because it masked the sides of the dish, where any seeping juice would be hidden. My grandmother, a lifetime baker, always says: “Frosting hides a multitude of sins”, and, happily, that applies to caramelized sugar as well!

In the end, it worked really well, and was a very tasty dessert. The layers and taste were elegant and provided a wonderful, silky richness.

Step-by-step inside

A couple years ago, Christey and I ate at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant at the Venetian in Las Vegas. It was the first (and so far only) Keller restaurant we have visited. I had Keller’s gnocchi parisienne, which is a different way of making them from the more common potato or semolina versions. This recipe alone was the reason I bought his Bouchon cookbook, and I’ve since been inspired by several recipes.

Gnocchi parisienne are savory, but made from the more traditionally sweet pâte à choux dough. For the savory version, mustard, cheese, and herbs are added.

For June’s POM Pomegranate recipe, I decided to try to take the pâte à choux gnocchi back toward a sweet direction, and made a dessert gnocci with POM 100% pomegranate juice, served with a pomegranate juice and chocolate ganache.

Dessert inside!

Today, guest baker Krissy makes strawberry cupcakes. We met Krissy in our childbirth class before our daughter Meta, and Krissy’s and her husband’s daughter Julie, were born. I’m not much of a baker, so Krissy walks us through her outstanding strawberry cupcake recipe! — Peter

I remember the first time I saw a red velvet cake a few years back on an episode of Sara’s Secrets on Food Network. I figured since we lived in Florida now (from Pittsburgh, PA), I should learn how to make a proper Southern Red Velvet Cake. The recipe featured Cake Man Raven’s recipe, and it is one I see time and time again in searching for the perfect Red Velvet recipe. I have used the recipe several times over, but was a bit put off by the amount of oil and its residual effects let alone how much cocoa powder really should be in the recipe.

After some research, I found I could make a few substitutions that hopefully would result in a healthier tasting treat. I substituted unsweetened applesauce for half the oil in the recipe, and yogurt for buttermilk. I rarely have buttermilk on hand, but always have yogurt since it is one of my daughter’s favorite foods to eat.

The first time I tried all the substitutions I was surprised that they actually turned out okay, but I could not believe how great they tasted! It was definitely the ‘Wow!‘ factor I was looking for when my husband and I tasted them. I was really excited that after some failed baking experiments one actually turned out. By using the strawberry yogurt we get a wonderful tasting strawberry cupcake – or a muffin if you leave the icing off!

Let’s get baking!

My son, Andy, turns 12 today. On Friday the 13th, which I think is cool. My mother, however, was so upset the day I had him because I had him Thursday, February 13th. “He’s going to have his first birthday on a Friday the 13th!”. I really liked that idea, but I have always liked 13. So there ya go

Over the New Year’s I recorded on the DVR a ton of Twilight Zones from the 60’s. Andy was curious about the series because we got in a long discussion about the series back in October when we ran the Disney Tower of Terror 13K (The Tower of Terror ride at Hollywood Studios is themed around the TV series ‘The Twilight Zone’). So for the past few weeks he has been watching a few episodes here and there and declared that he wanted a Twilight Zone themed birthday party. This made me very happy, as I love the show, but really wasn’t sure how I was going to do a cake with that theme. I knew that it must have an airplane with a monster on it though because his most favorite episode (and the one that scares him the most, but he still watches it over and over and over again) is ‘Nightmare at 20000 Feet’, the one with William Shatner in his screen debut, imagining that there is a monster on the wing of the plane destroying it.

Well, this is what I ended up with, and he loved it completely, which of course make me a very happy mommy (I would like to add, I am not a cake decorator in the least, and don’t really know the secrets, so please forgive the obvious mess-ups)

Pomegranates have a wide and varied history in mythology. Since pomegranates may be one of the first cultivated fruits, this shouldn’t be too surprising. Ancient Greeks believed that Aphrodite (the original Greek incarnation of the Roman goddess Venus) planted the first pomegranate, on Cyprus. The rest is history… or at least mythology.

February, of course, is the month of Saint Valentine’s Day — a different cultural viewpoint on the ever evolving courtship of the human race. For Valentine’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to mix two favorites in the field of love: pomegranates and chocolate.

I made a layered double-mousse, one with white chocolate, and one with pure POM pomegranate juice. When blended, the recipe creates a nice white and pink contrast, in honor of the holiday.

Gotta love it…

Christmas Eve dinner is a special event for me. Every year, I cook a four-course themed dinner for my family. One year the theme was “wrapped” foods, one year the theme was red and green, that sort of thing. Since I only go to this extreme once a year, I like to go all out and push what I’ve learned about cooking. Over the years, I’ve seen some good improvement in my cooking techniques, but also in my meal planning as these dinners have been for as many as eighteen guests.

This year was a first in a few ways. My brother, who is an excellent dessert guy, developed the dessert course in harmony with the earlier courses, and he also gave me a lot of help as my “sous” this year. Previously, I’ve done the entire meal on my own, which can be limiting. Also, this was the first year in which I asked my guests to pick a theme ingredient, Iron Chef style. In years past, I would surprise my guests with the theme — this year the surprise would be on me. I did ask for a week notice, but I also had to come up with the courses, shop, prep, pre-cook, and cook for fourteen adult guests.

After Thanksgiving, the guests emailed back and forth and compiled a possible list of ingredients on which to vote:
Agar gum, liquid nitrogen, miso, the whole goat, goat dairy, filo dough, bacon, rosemary, chili pepper, green chilis, orange, pomegranate, cocoa, rum, bourbon, avocado, sugar, cheese kids like, tomato, cilantro, hazelnuts, pistachio, nuts in general, coffee, beer, deep-fried everything, bread, rice

The semifinals simmered down to coffee and avocado, with a tie-breaking vote creating another tie. So, a coin was flipped, and coffee won the spot of honor.

I created an amuse bouche and three courses of dishes using coffee, and my brother came up with a final dessert (I don’t know what he would have done with avocado).

I asked Christey if she wouldn’t mind printing a tasting menu, just a 1/2 sheet with some different fonts. Of course, she came back with a two-piece vellum and card-stock menu, tied with a coffee-colored bow. It blew me away as well as our guests.
ho ho ho

What to do with a tropical storm sitting over us? We still had power…but had no idea if that would continue, or how long this storm was going to last (we’re all fine, by the way. Wind, rain, but no drama).

We didn’t want to do anything too elaborate and be left with a half completed meal…so why not make cookies?

We did a switch again, Christey baked, and I took the pictures. The recipe was an adaptation of my grandmother’s peanut butter cookie recipe.

cookies….