We LOVE egg rolls around here. I’ve been apologizing for our homemade eggrolls because they don’t contain any eggs and aren’t dipped in egg before they’re cooked. Well, today I read that the term “egg roll” can mean all kinds of things, depending on which country you’re in. I think we’re off the hook!

Back in 2006, my sister Laura wrote a post on My Sister’s Kitchen (of COURSE there’s a sister!) about a delicious new recipe that she’d developed for her family: Asian Sloppy Joes. When I tried the recipe, MY family fell in love with it and it landed on the regular menu cycle around here. One of the best things about Laura’s recipe has always been that I can get two meals out of it. A few months ago, I ended up with some extra wonton wrappers in the fridge and had the brilliant idea of wrapping up the sloppy joe mixture inside of those. WOW. Homerun! Egg rolls!

Homemade Egg rolls!

I couldn’t bring myself to fry those egg rolls. We just don’t eat much fried food and I do my best to keep it that way. I discovered though, that brushing a little olive oil on the egg rolls and baking them gave me a crispy crunch that is almost as good as frying them. (One son still is pretty sure that frying them would be better!)

Asian Sloppy Joe Egg Rolls

Ingredients:

• Asian Sloppy Joe Mix (yes, go visit the site and grab that recipe!)
• 20-24 square wonton wrappers
• olive oil

Make the Asian Sloppy Joes and serve on buns one night. The next night, use the leftover sloppy joe mix in these Egg Rolls.

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Place a large tablespoonful of Sloppy Joe in the middle of the wonton wrapper and fold it up sort of like a little burrito.

Put a spoonful of filling on the wonton wrapper.

Fold the bottom corner up over the filling.

Fold over one end...

Fold the other end in...

Fold the top down and roll it up tight.

Place the egg roll on a jelly roll pan that has been oiled with olive oil. Arrange the egg rolls so that they aren’t touching each other. I usually fill two jelly roll pans with 24 egg rolls.

Arrange the egg rolls on a pan; don't let them touch!

Brush the tops of the egg rolls with olive oil. You can use a pastry brush for this or, if you have one of those pump misters, you can spray olive oil over the top of the egg rolls.

Brush or spray olive oil on the egg rolls.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and starting to blister. Turn the egg rolls over halfway through the baking time. (I recognize that every oven is different; it’s important to keep an eye on these little egg rolls.)

Serve with chili sauce or hot mustard sauce.

I made a bunch of these for our Super Bowl Party Sunday night and they made GREAT finger food. They’re also still tasty when they’re served at room temperature.

Don't they look yummy?

Make LOTS of these egg rolls because they disappear fast.

This is a fun variation on the standard Sloppy Joes that I normally serve. If I was still packing lunches for kids, I bet these would be a terrific lunch treat. (Hint! Hint!)

Remember that we’re heading towards Valentine’s Day. Check My Sister’s Kitchen for some yummy Valentine’s treats. If you don’t have time to make your own, be sure to check out the fabulous goodies that Stick Boy Bread Company has lined up for Valentine’s Day celebrations! If you subscribe to their newsletter, you can get word on all the latest specials.

Barb, writing for My Sister’s Kitchen

We’re heading into Super Bowl weekend and all the great party food that entails. I’ve been marking things on Pinterest for weeks; it all looks so good! As always, I’ve been trying to find some healthier homemade alternatives to some of the favorite party foods. I admit that I have not come up with a healthy version of Lil Smokies sausages….and I find that so sad! So far, I have found two different approaches to sweet potato fries that I’m really liking.

One of my goals was to find a recipe for baking sweet potato fries instead of frying them. I’ve had a few failed experiments that aren’t worth discussing but I’ve found two techniques that I like. Credit for today’s success goes to this site  called Guilty Kitchen. I embellished the recipe pretty generously, but this is where the ideas started today. You’ll notice that my fries don’t look much like the photos on that site, but they were just delicious so I’m calling it good.

Homemade Sweet Potato Fries with Curried Aioli Dip

Ingredients:

-for sweet potatoes

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 egg whites
• 2 T. flour
• 1 t. cumin
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 t. curry powder
• 1 t. smoky paprika
• 1/4 t. cayenne pepper

-for aioli:

• 1/2 c. mayonnaise
• 1 t. curry powder  (this is a second t. of curry)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/4  t. lemon juice
• 2 T. kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk
• 1 t. honey

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Start by peeling the sweet potatoes and slicing them into long, thin slices. How thick you  make the fries will affect how long they need to be baked.

Soak the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes in cold water.

While the potatoes are soaking, whip up the two eggs whites into a frothy mess.

Dry the sweet potatoes and then mix them into the egg whites. I found it easiest to just use my hands to get the strips of sweet potatoes well-coated. Sprinkle the flour and the spices over the potatoes and work them throughout the sweet potatoes. Again, it’s messy but the easiest seems to be just using your hands for this part of the process.

Arrange the sweet potatoes on a well-greased rack  placed in a baking dish or jelly roll pan. Don’t let the strips touch each other.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. Start checking for doneness at about 30  minutes. We found that we actually liked the fries best when they were just done and not quite totally mush. They weren’t exactly crunchy but still had just a little bit of structure.

While the fries are baking, make the curried aioli. I used my handheld immersion blender but a regular blender or food processor would work too. Just throw all the aioli ingredients in and blend until smooth. We all loved this dip so much we also used it for our tortilla chips and decided we need to make it a LOT. (A friend pointed out that this isn’t actually REAL aioli because it uses mayonnaise as a shortcut. It worked well for us but I will try to figure out a way to make this without the mayo in the future.)

We loved these sweet potato fries and the curried aioli dip. This is definitely party food on Super Bowl Sunday.

I also want to recommend Stick Boy Bread Company as an excellent resource this week as you start to plan for your Super bowl menu. They have the most awesome desserts. This past week we celebrated my twins’ birthdays with a Flourless chocolate Torte from Stick Boy and it was to die for! HIGHLY recommend!

Barb, writing at My Sister’s Kitchen

Homemade soup! It’s one of the easiest things in the world to make. If you throw a package of stew meat, a bag of frozen vegetables, and a can of diced tomatoes into a stock pot with some water, in an hour you will have a very respectable pot of homemade soup.  It’s respectable but not really amazing. Today I want to take a few minutes to explain some insider tricks for making Simply Amazing Soup. (Rumor has it that it’s possible to make soup with a stone, but that is, thus far, unverified.)

Two simple rules can change your soup-making:

1. Maximize the flavor of each ingredient.

2. Never, NEVER throw away flavor.

Maximize the flavor of each ingredient: brown, saute, and roast as many of the ingredients in your soup pot. You will really develop and bring out the flavors of just about anything. Yes, this does add prep time but not as much as you might think. If you saute your onions and celery, for example, they are already well on their way to being cooked. Browning your meat before putting it into the soup means that it requires less cooking time later. Still, it does take time to maximize flavor. I think it’s worth it.

Never throw away flavor: This is going to go against what our mothers told us to do when we cook. Instead of washing up as we go, we want to RE-use those pans to capture all the different flavors. If I saute onions and garlic until they’re carmelized in the pan, I can either scrub that pan out before browning the meat in it OR I can let the meat brown in a pan that is already reeking (in a really GOOD way) of garlic and onions. I never wash flavor down the sink  if I can help it.

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:

• 2  28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes (or 10-12 romas)
• 4-5 whole garlic cloves
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 handful of kale, chopped
• 1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 pounds of frozen, mixed vegetables
• 2-3 pounds of round steak (or other meat of your choice)
• 12 ounces of oregano tea
• 1/2 c. uncooked barley
• 2 slices of bacon, fried crispy
• Approx. 4 quarts of Hearty Beef Stock (enough to fill the pot)
• salt and pepper to taste
• butter and/or olive oil for sauteing

Instructions:

First, the disclaimers. If you don’t like a particular ingredient, don’t use it. If you want a different flavor or ingredient that I haven’t mentioned, DO add it. If you don’t have time to maximize the flavor of a particular ingredient, don’t sweat it. If you’re in a hurry, dump stew meat, frozen veggies, water and diced tomatoes into your stock pot and turn on the burner. The more “maximized ingredients” you have in your soup, the more complexity and depth of flavor you’ll have in your soup bowl.

The next thing I need to point out is that when you saute foods, a splash of olive oil is going to be one of the healthier options. Try using a batsqueak of butter when you brown the meat because butter just browns up WAY better than olive oil.

1. Start roasting your tomatoes. I generally toss whole tomatoes with olive oil, a little sea salt, and whole garlic cloves. Fresh tomatoes are best but at this time of year, canned tomatoes work. Here’s an entire post on roasting tomatoes that might help. One of the first places I invoke rule #2 (never throw flavor AWAY) is by draining the cans of tomatoes into a bowl. I then soak the uncooked barley in that juice while the tomatoes are roasting, which is about three hours.

2. At this time you should make your oregano tea. This is an area where you can get creative. In fact, today I used a tablespoon each of thyme, marjoram, oregano, and tarragon. An Italian seasoning mix is tasty in this herb tea as well as herbs d’Provence.

3. Next, chop and saute the onions and celery. When they are translucent and soft, stir in the kale and fresh parsley and cook for a few minutes longer.

4. Remove the onions, celery, kale, and parsley from the pan and set aside in a large bowl or tub. Using the same pan, saute the frozen mixed veggies for about ten minutes. If some of the vegetables get slightly browned (not burned) don’t worry, that will only increase the flavors.

5. Remove the veggies from the pan and add to the tub of already-cooked items. Melt 1/2 t. of butter in the bottom of the pan. While it’s melting and starting to brown, rinse and pat dry the round steak. Add the meat to the browned butter and let it sizzle for a bit, turning frequently until most of the surface area of the steak is browned. The meat may not be cooked through yet, but the flavors are really developing now. The bottom of the pan should be accumulating some lovely browned meat juices too. Do NOT throw those away!!!!

6. Remove the meat from the hot pan and set aside. Pour the tomato juice and barley into the pan on top of the buttery meat juices. Add a quart of beef stock and start to simmer the barley.

7. Cut the cooked meat into small, bite-sized pieces and set aside with other cooked items. (And if you end up with any small bones in your meat, be sure to bag them up and stick them in the freezer as a head start on your NEXT pot of beef stock!)

8. Add the entire tub of cooked veggies and meat back into the stockpot. Add enough additional beef stock to cover everything completely with liquid. Strain and add the oregano tea. Let the soup start cooking.

9. Fry the bacon until it is very crispy but not burned. After the bacon cools a few minutes, crumble it up as finely as you can add to the soup. I can’t help but sing the praises of a slice or two of bacon. There is no ingredient that gives you more flavor bang for your buck. Two slices will flavor an entire pot of soup. Nobody will feel like they’re eating bacon in their soup, but you’ll get a nice flavor bump.

10. When the tomatoes and garlic have finished roasting, chop both up coarsely and add to the pot of soup.

Here’s another chance to invoke rule #2. When you take the tomatoes and garlic out of the baking dish, there will be some lovely flavorful juice in the bottom of that hot pan. Pour about a cup of beef stock into the hot pan and use a spatula to work loose all the browned bits of tomatoes and garlic. Dump it all into the soup pot.

11. Let the soup simmer for a couple of hours on a very low burner. If you plan to eat the soup the following day, you can refrigerate it after it’s simmered for 2 hours. Soup is often more flavorful the day AFTER you make it because the flavors have a chance to develop and marry in the pot.

12. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crusty French bread. Better yet, head over to Stick Boy Bread Company and grab some Italian Parmesan bread. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the rich flavors in your bowl.

Be sure to take the time to savor all the complex flavors in your soup!

Now….again with the disclaimers here….I realize that this has taken me most of the day. I haven’t actually spent most of the day WORKING on this soup, but it’s been in the making while I’ve done all the other things on my to-do list today. I realize that not everybody has the time to spend an entire day making a pot of soup, so here are a couple of things to remember.

First, you can make some of these things ahead. Today I could have roasted twice as many tomatoes as I needed and frozen the half I didn’t use. I could have sauteed twice as many onions and celery and frozen part. I could also have made half the components for this soup today and the other half tomorrow. There are a lot of short cuts that work on this.

Second, if I hadn’t had time to oven-roast the tomatoes, I could have skipped that step. In fact, if all I had time to do was saute the onions and celery and brown the meat, I would have still ended up with delicious soup. The more flavor-maximized ingredients I have, the richer and more complex the soup flavors are. Some days, my soup might be pretty basic and that’s okay. If I maximize the flavor of just ONE ingredient, it can really change the soup for the better.

Of course, if you want to keep your soup vegetarian, just skip the meat and use a vegetable stock instead of beef stock. Celiacs should leave out the barley. Brown rice is a good substitute if you want to add in a carbohydrate. Six years ago I wrote some more thoughts on the Art of Homemade Soup that have some additional thoughts and idea on soup-making….without the stone!

Barb 

Three weeks ago I mentioned that an important ingredient of French Onion Soup is a really sturdy homemade beef stock and promised to revisit that issue. Today is the day; that lovely stock is simmering on my stove as we speak!

I’m totally serious when I tell y’all that using homemade stock in your soups will make the difference between decent soup and so-stellar-people-can’t-stop-raving-about-it soup. The layers and complexity of flavors you get from using homemade stock make it worth the relatively small amount of trouble it is to make it.  This ingredient is practically magical!

I know I’ve said this before and I want to reiterate it (until you’re so  sick of hearing me say it that you just give up and start doing it!) but making your own stock is sooooooo easy. It also tastes better and has world’s less sodium. The more you make homemade stock, the easier it is.

Homemade Beef Stock

The amount of each ingredient is going to vary according to how much stock you make.  My standard batch of any kind of stock is usually about 20 quarts, but I’m scaling this back to about 5 quarts. Making stock is more of an art form than a science, so feel free to increase or decrease each ingredient to suit your taste or the size of your pot. Also try experimenting with other vegetables that you’d like to have flavoring your beef stock.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 Beef bones or ribs with small amounts of meat still clinging to the bones
• 2 large onions, quartered
• 6 large carrots, trimmed
• 6-8 whole garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 small sweet potato, quartered
• 4 roma tomatoes, quartered
• 3 stalks of celery, trimmed
• 1/2 bulb of fresh fennel, including the tops (optional)
• fresh herbs including rosemary, oregano, thyme, dill
• 1/4 c. wine, wine vinegar, or lemon juice
• any other vegetables you like (Keep in mind that peppers, cabbage, and broccoli all end a very strong flavor)
• 1 T. black pepper corns

The secret to super amazing beef stock is roasting the beef bones and vegetables in a 400° oven first for about 1 hour. Use a large roaster pan (I typically use a big foil pan for this.) Bundle your fresh herbs together and put them in with all the rest of the ingredients. Roasting everything gives you a jumpstart of flavor development.

(A word about beef bones: I hate to buy meat specially for making stock and always have a chicken carcass or two lurking in my freezer waiting to meet their stock destinies. Beef stock is a little trickier though. For one thing, we don’t eat much beef–most just venison. I asked the butcher at my local grocery store for beef bones to put in my homemade stock and he pointed me towards….the dog bones! He told me that in their shop, all the beef bones that are sold as dog bones are food grade and not past their prime. Some of them have quite a bit of meat scraps still on them. It’s worth talking to the butcher at your grocery store about what his or her recommendation is for making stock. Those butchers know a LOT!)

(Also a word about that wine, vinegar, or lemon juice: I always try to add something acidic to my homemade stocks. You really don’t taste the flavor after you’ve cooked the stock overnight, but the vinegar, wine, or lemon juice will leach calcium from the bones your cooking, making your stock rich in calcium!)

Once the bones and veggies are browned, dump them all into a big 6 or 8 quart stock pot. Fill with enough water to cover the roasted things  and then keep filling until you’re about 2 inches from the top of the pot.

Bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes. Then turn the burner down as low as you can. If you have a simmer burner on your stove, use that one. Cover the pot and simmer for 24 to 30 hours. Yes, this means overnight! Your house will smell utterly amazing, especially if you include plenty of garlic. Add water several times over the course of the simmering time. About 4 hours before you plan to pull the stock off the heat, stop adding water and let the stock reduce about 20%.

Line a colander with cheesecloth or a muslin tea towel. Place on top of a large container (you might need a couple of them if you’re making a lot of stock.) Gently pour everything in your stock pot through the cloth and colander. Let all the stock drain down into the container for about ten minutes. Throw away the bones and vegetables and wash out the stock pot.

Return the stock to the stockpot if you want to reduce the stock further. The further you reduce the stock, the more intense the flavors will be. This stock is now ready to use in soups, pot pie fillings, stews, etc. It can also go into the freezer until you need it.

I try to store the broth in containers of varying size so that I have flexibility in how much I want to use at one time. At this point, I almost always store the stock in the deep freeze. Occasionally I’ll fill several quart canning jars with stock and store them in the fridge if I know that I’m going to be using them within a week. Do NOT freeze canning jars of stock. I learned the hard way that no matter how much head room you leave, those jars shatter when they freeze and then you lose ALL the stock. Very sad.

If there are any large pieces of meat left, I usually pick those out and add them to the dogs’ next meal. Any meat left doesn’t have much flavor left in it because the flavor is all in the thick, beautiful stock.

It really helps to label the stock if you plan to keep a couple of different kinds of homemade stock on hand in your freezer.

I want to reiterate something important. This process of making stock does take quite a few hours, but it does NOT require a lot of work. Most of the time, the pot is just simmering away on the back burner. Once this stock is in your freezer, it definitely takes no more time to USE than commercially-prepared stock.

Don’t forget to visit Stick Boy Bread Company and pick up some crusty artisan bread to go along with your delicious homemade soup!

Barb 

I’m not real big on New Year’s Resolutions (although I did have some fun thinking about what kind of New Year’s Revolutions I wanted to be part of!) but the first two weeks of January are a time when I look ahead and sort of come up with a Plan. Of course it’s always a flexible Plan because my life demands flexible. I thought I’d let y’all in on some of the things that we’re looking ahead to here in My Sister’s Kitchen:

• I want to learn how to make Ebelskivers. Or use my Ebelskiver. Or something. I don’t even know if that name refers to the device that makes it or the food it makes.  Until I got this cool toy for my birthday, I had never even heard of such a thing, but now I’m seeing references to Ebelskiver everywhere! It LOOKS like there’s enormous scope for creativity here! Watch for updates!
• I want to meet some of the local chefs and bakers in our town. I need to spend more time visiting Stick Boy Bread Company. They have such yummy things! (My wonderful husband bought my birthday cake there last week and it was YUMMY! It was also a treat NOT to have to make it myself!)
• I have a new camera that I’d like to become better at using.
• I want to explore the world of homemade Nutella. I’ve had one disastrous experiment already and I’m sure there must be a way to do this successfully. Really, it was disastrous. Awful. Nasty. I’m not sure what happened but it was BAD. THAT is a post that didn’t get written! If I’m successful, of course that will just lead me into other things like chocolate almond butter….all of which I plan to share with you.
• My husband has been experimenting with making homemade kale chips. I’ve always been a little nervous around kale…some bad childhood memories have kept me from really embracing this vegetable. I am cautiously optimistic. I want to learn more.
• I want to explore the world of juicing. We had some amazing concoctions during the month of December and I’d like to capture some of the different delicious combinations in the form of recipes. I’d also like to learn about how different fruits and veggies might fill certain nutritional needs.
• I’ve heard rumors that my sister, Laura, has had a Big Cooking Adventure involving homemade Tamales. I can’t WAIT for her to publish that recipe because I love, LOVE, love tamales! I’d love to be able to make them instead of buy them! You’ll have to visit My Sister’s Kitchen to get that recipe when it’s published; I’ll let you know when it’s live!
• I want to learn more about gluten-free cooking/baking because I have LOT of people in my life who are on very strict gluten-free diets. I’ll be sharing with you some of my favorite websites for that as well.
• Over Christmas I was introduced to different kinds of salt….black salt, pink salt, orange salt…all from different parts of the world. I’d like to learn more about salt and develop a palate that can taste the difference between those salts. Of course, I’ll pass along my findings!
• This year I plan to learn more about making sauces. I know that covers quite a variety of foods, but I’m coming to the conclusion that I need to learn more about this area.
• I’m hoping to talk some friends into teaching me about cheesemaking.
• I’m planning to experiment with sprouted grains in my breadbaking. I have a suspicion that there’s a whole unexplored world out there. I can’t wait to write about it!
• I want to learn how to make rice crackers.
• I’ve just started learning about Chinese food and hope to share some of those adventures with you.
• I’m on a recipe hunt: I met a lady this week who is looking for a recipe for an old southern drink that you froth with a frother. She thinks it’s called syllabub or sillybub or cylabub. Any ideas?
• Okay, I’ll throw in an old-fashioned resolution for you: I’d like to keep my deep freeze more organized. Every time we clean it out I realize that there are treasures in there that I’ve just forgotten!

So what about you? What food adventures does 2012 hold for you? Are there recipes you’d like to try? foods you’d like to make for the very first time? Kitchen lore you’d like to learn? or share?

Barb

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Any time my husband is off work for a holiday, we eat GREAT breakfasts. Yesterday was no exception. The initial idea for these tasty little individual vegetable frittatas came from FatPhat Girl’s tumblr site. Once we got started, though, we just kept finding new variations to try. These frittatas can be tailored to exactly how you or your guests want to eat.

Individual Frittata Bites

We used roughly 2 eggs, 2 T. browned ground sausage and 1 ounce of grated cheese per person. The vegetables we used included the following:

• red bell peppers
• green bell peppers
• yellow bell peppers
• red onions
• yellow onions
• jalapeno peppers
• medium-sized mushrooms

Before we started just cutting up veggies, we determined how we wanted to use each veggie. We cut 1/2 inch wide rings of the peppers and the onions. We cut round holes out of the center of the mushrooms. Those gave us the little  ”holders” for the frittata bites. We diced up the other parts of the veggies to a very fine size.

The more you can do ahead of time for these little frittata bites, the easier they are to make in the morning. Most of the chopping can be done ahead of time. You can even whisk the eggs together and refrigerate if you want to.

When it comes time to cook them, start by spraying your skillet with either nonstick spray or olive oil. While the pan is heating up, whisk together:

• 2 eggs per person
• about 2 T. minced veggies per person
• 1/2 t. minced garlic per person
• 2 T. browned, ground sausage per person
• salt and pepper
• about 1 ounce of grated cheese per person (we used grated cheddar, asiago, and parmesan!)

Arrange the rings of peppers, onions, and mushrooms in the skillet. Leave just a little room between them in case there’s leakage when you pour the egg mixture in.

VERY carefully spoon the egg mixture in to each ring, filling them to the top. Cook on medium low until the eggs are starting to set up. Flip and brown the other side. Both sides of these frittata bites should be golden brown when you’re done.

We didn’t take the time to try this today, but I suspect that you could also bake these frittata bites in the oven if you’re doing large quantities of them. We also discussed that these would be fun to let everyone choose their own ingredients and make individualized frittatas to order.

Serve a variety of vegetables on each plate. These were just delicious. If you’re feeding anyone who is trying to stick to a low-carb diet, this a great breakfast option. You can leave out the meat for your vegetarian friends and you can skip the cheese for your lactose-intolerant guests. If you make a bunch of these, they also keep warm in a shallow baking dish in a 150° oven. Cover them loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil while they’re warming.

I served these little frittata bites with some wedges of homemade pumpkin bread for a super scrumptious breakfast…okay, I’ll admit it, it was probably BRUNCH by the time we all ate!

These would also go well with a slice of toast made from bread from Stick Boy Bread Company. Check out their newsletter for the latest goodies.

Barb  

I learned something very important over Christmas: my brother-in-law, Paul, ROCKS the kitchen. I watched Paul assemble this delicious homemade French Onion Soup while we were visiting and it was so easy!

After our holiday busyness we’ve decided to keep this New Year’s Eve festivities simple. We plan to serve this tasty comfort food with some sourdough bread and just sit in front of the fire. I never knew how easy French Onion Soup was to make! This takes a bit of time but it’s not that much work.

Homemade French Onion Soup

Start a few days ahead of time by making a hearty beef stock. (I’ll write a post about this in the next day or so and link it. Making your own stock is going to give the very best results but you can also use commericially made beef stock from the grocery store.)

Finely slice 8-10 onions. Saute in 2 T. olive oil for at least an hour or until completely browned and starting to caramelize. Important note: Paul used sweet onions for this. I’m going to try using yellow onions as well as throwing in a few red onions. I think this is going be one of those preference things. It’s worth experimenting with.)

After the onions have browned nicely, cover with water and cook until the liquid is reduced to half. Cover the onions a second time and cook down a second time.

Add about 2 to 3 quarts of that beef stock and simmer for a couple of hours. Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, top with croutons and cheese and melt under the broiler. OR….an easier option is to slice some sourdough bread, toast it, and melt cheese on it. This is actually so much easier than dealing  with super hot bowls from being under the broiler.

See how easy this is? It’s amazing how tasty and comforting this soup is after a week of Too Much Christmas!

If you need to run out to Stick Boy Bread Company to grab some crusty sourdough to use on your French Onion Soup, make sure you head over there on Friday or Saturday, the only two days this week that they’ll be open. It’ll also be your last chance to get Rum Cakes, Christmas Stollen, Pumpkin Pies, Pecan Pies, Cranberry Walnut Pies, and other holiday treats.

Barb  

Earlier this fall we played around with some homemade marshmallow recipes. I’ve procrastinated about putting the recipe up because the ones we tried ALL called for at least a full cup of corn syrup, something I try to avoid if possible. Last week, however, we had a breakthrough! My dear friend, Jenny Bryk, mentioned to me that she was making homemade marshmallows with no corn syrup and no processed sugar! I couldn’t wait to hear about this!

When Jenny described her recipe, I was delighted to learn that these homemade marshmallows are made with HONEY! Better yet, the recipe is extremely easy!

The magic ingredient in marshmallows, what gives them their fluff, is plain gelatin. You can find Knox unflavored gelatin in the same section as the jello and pudding products.  I’m sure that there are organic products available, but I felt comfortable using the Knox brand.

Homemade Marshmallows

What you’ll need:

• 3 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin
• 1 c. water, divided
• 1 c. honey
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. vanilla extract

In a deep mixing bowl, whisk together the gelatin and 1/2 c. cold water. This recipe works best if you have a stand mixer (like a Bosch or a Kitchenaid) but it will work if you have a deep bowl and a hand mixer. (The hand mixer will require you to stand for about ten minutes of mixing.)

In a heavy saucepan, stir together the honey, 1/2 c. water, salt, and vanilla. On medium heat, bring to boiling. Use a candy thermometer to determine when the mixture reaches 240°. This will take several minutes, depending on your burner. As soon as the mixture reaches the proper temperature, remove from heat.

Drizzle the very hot honey mixture very slowly into the mixing bowl with the gelatin and water, with the mixer running. After all the hot honey mixture is in the mixer, set the timer for ten minutes and turn the mixer to the  highest speed.

While your mixer is doing the heavy work, prepare your pan. Line a baking dish or jelly roll pan with parchment. Sprinkle powdered sugar across the bottom of the pan to keep the marshmallows from sticking. The size of the pan will determine the thickness of the marshmallows.

After ten minutes, the mixture in your mixing bowl should be fluffy and close in texture to marshmallow fluff you get from the store. Spoon it into the prepared pan and spread out evenly. This stuff is sticky and before you know it, you could end up starring in your own cartoon with sticky stuff going everywhere! Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the top of the marshmallows.

Put the tray of marshmallows-to-be in a cool dry place for about 10 hours. After they’ve dried, sprinkle with a little more powdered sugar and cut into squares. Toss the squares into a tub with powdered sugar and shake up. Arrange the marshmallows on a tray to dry for a couple more hours.

My friend Jenny toasts coconut to sprinkle on the parchment and on top of the marshmallows so that she isn’t adding any processed sugar. I am a woman of much less principle so I used powdered sugar.

Okay, once I tried this recipe the way it was meant to be made, I just had to get creative and, oh boy, did I have some fun! First, I tried making this recipe with molasses instead of honey. It worked out nicely…and as long as you like molasses, the marshmallows were delicious. Since molasses has some trace elements of good things in it, the marshmallows are bound to be better for you. Of course, since molasses is dark brown, the marshmallows are brown and not bright white.

Then….I tried peppermint extract instead of vanilla. Oh. My. Word! Those were delicious and will be fabulous in hot cocoa. I sprinkled some little colored sprinkles on top of them to keep them separate from the vanilla marshmallows. This makes me really curious about some of the other flavor variations I can try….

I have a couple of young friends who are particularly sensitive to corn syrup, so I am delighted to find this recipe for a fun treat that they CAN eat.

Here’s another thing we’ve learned: these are really yummy compared to store-bought marshmallows. If, however, you toast one of these little babies……OH MY WORD! The flavor is fabulous! They toast faster and get really liquid-y much faster than commercial marshmallows, but they are just so delicious!

These marshmallows also make a fun Christmas gift for your gift basket.

A quick word about Christmas baking….if you’re running short on time, Stick Boy Bread Company is your friend. They have the most amazing treats this week. Keep in mind that they’ll be closed from 4 PM on Christmas Eve through 12/29. That means you need to head over there NOW for your extra Christmas treats!

Barb  

There are entire books written on the subject of how to pull off big elaborate entertaining events. I’ve done big parties, fancy dinners, crowds of people and hooboy is that a lot of work! In this season of my life, I’m looking for quieter, simpler gatherings most of the time. Several years ago, I started a tradition that I want to commend to you.

Tonight was one of those quiet gatherings at my house when I hosted 9 or 10 women from my church for a Sanity Night. The idea behind a Sanity Night is simple–stop, take a deep breath and STOP the busyness for an evening. In spite of enduring a whole LOT of teasing about sanity or the lack thereof, I actually do feel calmer and more sane at the end of the party than I did when I started. I’ve learned that it’s important to take time to collect myself and regroup during the insane busyness of this Christmas season. This is a really fun way to do that.

I’ve been doing Sanity Nights for my friends for several years now and I highly recommend them.

The Recipe for Sanity Night

The key is simplicity. Not every party needs a gazillion different appetizers or a dozen different types of cookies. Choose one cookie to serve. Tonight, I actually served two kinds because I wasn’t sure if the first ones were going to turn out. Usually, though, I stick to our favorite Molasses Cookies. (The other cookie selection I opted for tonight was Cookie Brittle, mostly because it’s the FASTEST cookie recipe I have!)

Serve something hot to drink. Tonight I skipped the coffee, although a good aromatic decaf would have gone nicely with the cookies. I set out a variety of teas and I made a huge crockpot full of Hot Spiced Cider. Between the molasses cookies, the peppermint teas, and the hot cider, my house was filled with amazing smells!

The atmosphere is almost as important as the fragrances. It really helps if you’ve already decorated for the holidays. I like to use lots of candles and lots of little lights. Central to our evening tonight was the crackling fire in the fireplace. If you don’t have a fireplace, a coffee table with a large tray of candles can create the same ambiance. Make sure you have some Christmas music playing softly in the background too.

The very most important ingredient in a Sanity Night is the bunch of good friends that you invite. I’ve learned that most of us are so busy during this holiday season that it’s really tough to get out for one more night. I can barely stand the thought of adding one more thing to my busy calendar. So Sanity Night is a night with no agenda. We sit around and drink our cider and eat our cookies and just talk. Because Sanity Night at my house is a come-and-go thing, friends can drop in for 15 minutes or stay for two hours. It’s comfortable and no-pressure.

For me, Sanity Night has become an important mile marker in each Christmas season. It’s an evening when I stop to breathe, spend time with friends, and think through what the rest of my holidays are going to look like.

Now, before I wrap this up for the night, I want to get back to those Molasses Cookies….I made a discovery today when I ran out of time. I simply didn’t have time to roll the dough into balls and then roll them in sugar. I was OUT of minutes.

So I lined a 9×13 baking dish with aluminum foil, sprayed some non-stick spray on it and spread a layer of molasses cookie down. I had to wet my hands down a little to be able to pat the dough down flat. I sprinkled sugar over the top of the molasses cookie bars and popped them into a 325° oven. I baked the bars for about 30 minutes.  A test toothpick came out clean when I inserted it. After the the bars had cooled just a little, I lifted the foil out of the pan. I used a pizza wheel to cut the bars into little spicy molasses squares. VERY yummy and every bit as good as molasses cookies! So next time you need a little hurry-up, try this shortcut!

Okay, let’s be honest…sometimes the simplest way to keep our sanity is to not even make ONE type of cookie. If that’s what your Sanity Night looks like, head over to Stick Boy Bread Company and pick up something delicious to serve. I’m still drooling over their Eggnog Cheesecake. Okay, the Peppermint Ganache Cake haunts my dreams too. Really, these folks have something for everyone…even keepsake Christmas ornaments made out of bread!

If you’re feeling a little frazzled with all the Christmas concerts and parties and shopping, I invite you to grab a little sanity by slowing down for a Sanity Night.

If you haven’t checked in recently at My Sister’s Kitchen, do stop by. We have some great ideas for holiday gifts from your kitchen and planning for holiday meals. Later this week we’ll be posting some recipes for homemade marshmallows that are just amazing!

Barb  

Yes, it’s true. In 18 days, Christmas Eve will be upon us. I can hardly believe it. ACCKKK!!!!! I can hardly STAND it! There.is.so.much.to.do. This happens to me every year. Every single year. This year, I’m going to try to plan ahead for the Christmas holidays in some of the same ways I planned ahead for Thanksgiving last month. Want to join me?

I’d like to invite you to join me in my preparation for Christmas here in the Kitchen. 

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to review all the recipes for different Christmas goodies that I am absolutely determined to make this year. I’m going to start with three main categories.

• 31 Days of Christmas Cookies: This is a great bunch of recipes (31, to be specific!) for every favorite Christmas cookie we can even imagine.
• Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen: Over the years we’ve developed a handy list of fun things to give as gifts….all right here in the kitchen.
• Ideas for Planning Christmas dinners: if Thanksgiving is traditional, Christmas dinner is a no-holds-barred affair. There’s just no telling what fabulous food might show up on our Christmas menus.

Once I’ve figured out what are the must-make items this year, I’ll look at my calendar and figure out when each recipe gets made. One of the biggest secrets to keeping the Christmas season manageable for me is figuring out what is reasonable. It’s not reasonable to think I’m going to hand decorate 900 cookie-cutter Christmas cookies. It’s not reasonable to think that I can suddenly conjure up enough homemade jam to give as gifts if I haven’t planned for it back during those summer months. If I didn’t, in fact, plan for it last summer, then I’m not going to waste an iota of stress over the thought of homemade jams for all the aunties. Nope, I will just move on to other things.

I have some ideas for cool gifts from the kitchen that I’ll be writing about over the next week or so. I also just got my hands on a decorated Christmas cookie recipe that is reputed to be just amazing. I’m always on the lookout for new tasty treats at this time of your, so check back often. I’ll be adding to our already rather comprehensive list of Christmas goodies. To make sure you miss one of these great recipes, sign up on My Sister’s Kitchen to receive an email every time there’s a new post here in the Kitchen.

One of my goals during this Christmas season, as it is every year, is to feed as many people as much delicious food as often as I possibly can….all without stressing out and forgetting what the real meaning of Christmas is! I’m ready to dive in! Will you join me?

If you, on the other hand, decide that too much Christmas baking will just be too stressful, check out what you can order from Stick Boy Bread Company. This bakery has the most amazing goodies! The Gingerbread men are in, perfect for dunking in your coffee. As far as decadent desserts? I have two words: Eggnog Cheesecake. Sign up for Stickboy’s weekly newsletter to get news of their latest holiday treats!

Barb