Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 50
KitchenKatalog: Blog 50
Tuesday, December 28, 2021, 07:00 PM
Meredith and Caroline prepped Candy Cane Cookies [A Beautiful Mess] and then the three of us made them from there.
They prepped the dough a few days before we made it. We just kept forgetting or not having time. Then, when we went to make them today, the dough was hard as a rock. We had to let it sit for a long time (perhaps too long) before we could shape them.
We followed the directions for shaping but it was tough. I found that if I rolled the strands then twisted, it shaped a tad better.
They also spread a lot. Perhaps based on the timing and being out too long. And weren't very crisp. But either way, they were really good. A nice bite of peppermint but not too strong.
Tuesday, December 28, 2021, 06:46 PM
Meredith and I made a double batch of Tortellini with Sausage and Mascarpone [What's Gaby Cooking] from What's Gabby Cooking. We followed the recipe more or less but doubled it and use Rao's tomato sauce. It was really good. Indulgent for sure but worth it.
Sunday, December 26, 2021, 07:02 PM
We made fondue for Christmas Dinner (though we pushed it a day). We made one batch ourselves and used most of a Trader Joes pack.
We used Cheese Fondue [Serious Eats] replacing Appenzeller with ??? (Probably Comte). We also didn't have or use kirsch and skipped the nutmeg. Ours was okay but needed more salt. And maybe the kirsch was needed. All together, it was fine but not as good as Trader Joes'.
We made two servings but ended up just saving one for another time (may freeze it)
We largely followed last time since we were really happy with it.
All roasting at 400°F.
Sunday, December 26, 2021, 08:58 AM
Christmas Sandwiches with black forrest ham. The "family" pack of rolls fit perfectly into that pan.
I think I used way too much green onion! And I guess despite going 15 min in the oven, I should have used more.
Saturday, December 25, 2021, 07:03 PM
This was supposed to be our Christmas Eve dinner but got pushed to Christmas.
I made Reverse Seared Steak [Serious Eats] with NY Strip. I got three steaks at Trader Joes and let the sit on the tray overnight. I baked them in the toaster oven, initially at 250°F but I eventually moved it down to 220°F to slow it down. At 125°F internal, I did the reverse sear.
For the sear, I used the cast iron and carbon steel on the grill with a clove of garlic and lots of butter.
It was chewy and not very good!. Very disappointing. However, it looked cooked perfectly making me really think this was just not great steak to start. It was pretty inexpensive and I didn't check the grade. Oh well. I would try the method again but with much better steaks.
We also had steamed crab. Not much to say about it except that they are delicious!
And roasted sweet potatoes (~1 hr) with [fake] butter and salt. And finally, our favorite green beans.
Saturday, December 25, 2021, 09:16 AM
I made Armadillo Eggs for Christmas along with bacon wrapped stuffed dates. Basically, identical to last year.
It wasn't a change in the recipe per se, but I found it easier to assembly line it. Slice all peppers, then deseed all peppers, then stuff them all, and then wrap them. It also meant that (a) I could avoid contaminating the cream-cheese with meat (just jalapeño) and (b) the sausage stayed cooler!
Thursday, December 23, 2021, 07:31 PM
Matcha Pound Cake with Almond Glaze [Molly Yeh] with a bit of blue food coloring. The blue worked to give it a nice hue. It was dense but that is expected with pound cake. And was very tasty!
Thursday, December 23, 2021, 07:00 PM
I made what is quickly becoming our favorite salmon.
I used Spiced Salmon Kebabs [Bon Appétit via Epicurious] for the seasoning following some of the observations from last time my Dad made it, and again seared it on the "griddle" (super, super hot).
I did about 2 minutes per side give or take a bit (it takes longer to lay it down than to flip). Mixing it all together in a bowel worked really well again!
Update: See our recipe book for an updated description
Served with blanched green beans (7 minutes)
