Christmas Day!

Santa was very good to Ms. Foodie!

Before leaving for RRR's I was the lucky recipient of some culinary gifts: "Santa's Cookies" aka decadently delicious chocolate covered graham crackers with caramel and peppermint from Bossman1, a lovely 2003 Barolo from Bossman2, another bottle of vino from J-Bends, some Jacques Torres Cocoa Dusted Almonds from JC (who knows about my culinary crush on Jacques) , and a box of Max Brenner chocolates from CJ to go with the Jacques Torres chocolates and baking sheets I already received from Rockstar.

So before Christmas Day even arrived, I had done pretty well for myself. What other surprises could be waiting for me under the tree?

Well, dear readers, Ms. Foodie and RRR couldn't stop laughing (and perhaps crying) when we both received copies of Rachel Ray: 365 No Repeats! Yes, a cookbook from none other than Rachel Ray, who I continue to mock in this blog, despite getting rave reviews for making her sage sausage bites at the recent Petey Holiday Party!

Perhaps my resolution for 2008 should be to stop making fun of the goofy joker faced pseudo cook and take some of her dishes for a spin. Maybe I'm missing something that has the rest of the country so enthralled.

Regardless, this gift should provide fodder for many posts to come!

Christmas Eve at Casa Cousina!

Well the big day had arrived and we were heading to Cousina's for dinner.

When we got to Cousina's the rest of the clan was there and had already gone through half of the seafood aspic. Our dish even got kudos from Cousina Solvita, the originator of the recipe. I was so proud of us!

The sausage bread was just perfect and while I could eat just these two appetizers all night and be completely satisfied, this was only the proverbial tip of the culinary iceberg!

First we started with Kristina's Cocktail aptly named for the hostess with the "mostess"... Normally, I don't enjoy drinks on the sweet side, but I found myself going back for seconds and thirds and fourths. It was delicious!

We retired to Cousina's beautifully decorated dining room where we began our meal with some homemade New England clam chowder, courtesy of Cousina's mother-in-law. The soup was the perfect amount of richness without being overbearing and creamy without overdoing it. The clams and potatoes rounding out the soup were diced to the perfect dimension. Wow!

Next course, was Cousina Solvita's lobster and avocado salad. I must say, this is one dish that I was anticipating for weeks! The dish is super simple (the best dishes usually are): chopped lobster, avocado, dill, mayonnaise and a bit of lemon juice.

While I am not a fan of mayonnaise based products, there is something about the freshness of the lobster coupled with the creaminess of the avocado that is absolute heaven! I stopped myself at my second helping.

For the main event, Mr. Cousina had been busy minding the grill while his mesquite beef tenderloin was cooked to perfection. A nice char on the outside and perfectly pink on the inside. The beef was served with some fresh asparagus and another treasured menu item from Christmas past, Cousina Solvita's mushroom cups.

After busting a gut, it was time to bust out in song and then to bust open some gifts. The kids were looking forward to opening presents and I was looking forward to dessert!

Auntie Lee made an amazing cheesecake (better than our pumpkin one for sure) and a chocolate trifle. We also had cream puffs and cookies. Now that's Italian!

When the kiddie chaos settled down, it was time to pick on some more cookies, call it a night and get ready for Santa!

I wonder what culinary gifts would be left under the tree for Ms. Foodie?

Cookies and Cheesecake

No rest for the weary and since we spent Saturday helping prep Monday's Christmas Eve appetizers, Sunday was all about dessert!

After much debate, RRR and I decided to make chocolate peppermint cookies, lemon cookies (last Christmas cookie hit) and our holiday favorite, Patti's oatmeal raisin cookies (recipe below):

Patti's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sift: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt.

In another bowl combine wet ingredients: 1 well-beaten egg, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp molasses, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup melted shortening.

Mix dry ingredients into wet. Add 1 3/4 cups quick oats. Add 1 cup baking raisins and 1/4 cup milk. You may find that you need to add up to one additional cup of oats to get the desired consistency of the batter. Chill for at least 20 mins and bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Cousina and her daughter stopped by to help us out and the cookies came out pretty good, although the lemon cookies were a bit 'puffier' last year.

We are not quite sure what went awry but RRR's suspicion is that Ms. Foodie didn't put in enough baking soda. Being a bit of an OCD-baker, I disagree.

Regardless of looks, all the cookies were delicious and we made some revisions to the chocolate peppermint cookie recipe (link to recipe above).

The recipe calls for peppermint extract and confectioner's sugar for the glaze. RRR thought that melted chocolate chips with the peppermint extract would be a better option and who am I to argue against melted chocolate?

In addition to our cookie-fest, we tackled our first cheesecake, a ginger pumpkin cheesecake courtesy of the fine folks at McCormick.

This recipe was passed on to me by Bacon, who is the Queen of Baked Goodness. Bacon brought this cheesecake over for Thanksgiving a few years back, and I've been itching to make it ever since. We struggled getting the gingersnap crust firmly pressed into the springform pan, but overall, it was a noble effort and the cheesecake was quite tasty. Our Grandmother (another cheesecake Queen) would have been proud!


NOTE: more pictures to come... Ms. Foodie misplaced her camera and was relegated to RRR's old school point and shoot!