The Perfect Stuffing Recipe + A Poached Egg!

A few days off at Christmas allowed me to experience two culinary successes.  These two victories were especially great, because I had wanting to conquer these two items for some time!

The Perfect Stuffing Recipe

So I have to thank friends of friends for this achievement.  Some friends of ours hosted Thanksgiving in their home this year and it was there that I had the most fantastic scoop of stuffing that I had tasted possibly ever (OK – Mamaw Lawson’s stuffing will always be #1, but since I don’t think I can ever replicate it, I needed something of my own).  The chefs said it was from Smitten Kitchen – a cookbook that I just happened to have in my collection!  

Since I was more than a little tipsy as this Thanksgiving soiree, I worried it might not taste the same to a partly sober mer.  But - holy crap was it good.  After it was out of the oven, I kept picking at it.  And mom told me to leave it alone.  I told her I couldn’t because it was f*cking good. LOL.  Luckily we were both buzzed so it was hilarious.

Here’s the recipe and some pics.

This is before it cooked.  I was so busy eating after it came out of the oven, I didn't take any pics.

If this doesn't look like a fine midwestern Christmas dinner (also kind of like Thanksgiving) I don't know what does.

A Poached Egg

There isn’t much better than a perfectly cooked (which in my opinion is kind of over cooked) poached egg atop some brunchy delight.  This culinary task has intimidated me for quite some time.  However, the time had come to try it out.

I brought some water and a splash of vinegar to a high simmer and gave it a swirl with the spoon.  Using a farm fresh egg from the chickens just out back, I dropped it in the water.  So that didn’t work.  Out the door to the dog.

Part two went a little better.  I basically did the same thing, but added some confidence.  Voila!

The first egg I ever poached sitting atop a creation of a hawaiian roll, sweet potatoes and prosciutto medley.  Thanks chickens!

Overall it was a great holiday.  And here is a classic from a few weeks ago - a lovely 2 story tall blow up Rudolph in Upper Arlington.  #housegoals.

New Nephew Neatness

My sister Katie and brother-in-law James gave our family a wonderful early Christmas present on December 20 – a new baby boy for all of us to love!  Baby Crosby Alexander was born on a very cold day, but he has warmed all of our hearts.

Katie invited me to witness his birth earlier this year, because she said I needed to understand and see what childbirth was like - or something to that effect.  Maybe she thought I was underestimating the process, or maybe she is trying to convince me to give her a niece or nephew.  Whatever the reason, I am so appreciative that she and James allowed me to be a part of the most beautiful, gross, amazing thing I have ever witnessed. 

If you’ve seen a baby take its first breath, you get it.  If not, you can’t understand until you experience it for yourself how awesome it is.

Katie, the champ, and little buddy Crosby.

My first pic with Baby Crosby. He is already giving me a look akin to, what the what?!?

Evan was and is very interested in Baby Brother.  He is a good Big Brother!

Little Buddy original - the cutest little stinker and new Big Bro!

Welcome to the family, Crosby!  

Christmas Cookie Classics

Hark! It’s almost Christmas!  This year has flown by and it’s hard to believe that the annual friends cookie baking weekend has come and gone. 

For the past several years, I’ve been firing up the old sleigh and heading up to Licking County for a holiday cooking extravaganza with my dear pals Abby and Lindsey, and their momma Mae – who is great for answering questions like, “is this butter browned enough?” or “can I mix all my dough in the food processor?” or even, “how much longer do these egg whites need to go?” – plus hundreds of others!

Over the years we have made countless recipes of cookies, candies, bags of random mixes, noodles, and whatever else inspired us.  Each recipe is mixed with a healthy dose of cuss words for the added holiday flare.

This year Lindsey had the bug so she couldn’t come (we missed you Linds!) but she sent her two little girlies to help out, and they did a great job!

Auntie Abby & Madeline cutting it up! 

Avery enjoyed finding miscellaneous treasures around the house when she needed a break :)

New to the cookie event was Miss Baby Morgan, who seemed to enjoy the shenanigans.  We are looking forward to many years of cookie baking with this one!  I'm sure she'll have sweet skills!

Baby Morgan was hopped up on excitement!

OK, so now that you know the parties involved, I’ll get to the cookies!  I always make jam thumbprints from a recipe I got out of a random Columbus Library cookbook years ago, if I find it, I'll share it later!  

This is the start of the jam thumbprints.  Nom nom butter, sugar, and eggs. 

Add a few more things and it's a fab dough!

These little dandies are rolled in coconut before they're baked, and after they cool they get a scoop of jam - raspberry in this case.

This year for some reason I got a wild streak and decided to swap out my other go to / always makes snicker doodles for gingerbread cookies.  SPOILER!!! This was a mistake, LOL.

I had high hopes for this recipe, I mean it was from freaking America’s Test Kitchen – like, those people know how to cook.  And they’re always smiling, and complimenting themselves, and having reactions of extreme pleasure after taking a taste of whatever they have created. 

I did not have such occurrences when I made their recipe.   For the record, I brought a box of cookies home and my dad ate ALL of them except these gingerbread cookies.  That’s saying something.

So maybe I just don’t like gingerbread.  After this recipe, I find that it suitable for decorative houses only – not for eating. 

Here’s the scoop on the g-bread:

I believe firmly, that the root is the grossness is molasses.  Read it correctly, molASSes. 

Grandma got this wrong.  Barf.

So I kind of kept thinking of Gingy from Shrek and felt sad.  Poor flat, fat legged cookie :(

But I like to end my blogs on a high note, so check out these amazing cookies decorated by Abby, her nieces, and her basically better than America’s Test Kitchen people momma!

Abby - "Cara, can you take a pic of us?"
Me: "Sure! Everyone look over here!!"

Nice work Madeline and Avery!  You girlies have the gift!

Happy holiday baking to add, and to all a nice glass of wine!

Ode to Haiku (the sushi restaurant)

So now that I have written this, I have to admit I feel a little insane dedicating a blog post to sushi!  But whatever, because it's Columbus history (kind of) and it's a goodie.

I BEGIN:

I think the first time I tried sushi, it was at Haiku.  Working downtown back in the day provided many opportunities to explore the restaurants up and down High Street (I never really have been very good at packing my own lunch), so I eventually found my love of sushi snacks. 

Haiku was a fave.  There were papers provided to write haiku poems, plus a variety of rolls for all tastes.  A favorite of friends and I was the harvest roll – which was basically not sushi and was pretty much just fried sweet potato and cream cheese wrapped in rice, lol.

In honor of Haiku’s soon to be (probably) restaurant obituary in the Columbus Dispatch, I offer this work.

Ode to Haiku.

Haiku was a place –

For us to go for yum yums.

Harvest roll was great –

And so was everything else.

Parking was on site –

A real treasure in Cbus.

Lovely patio –

Which was good for drinking drinks.

By now it has closed –

For a new high rise that will –

Be built on its land.

Haiku will be remembered.

The end.

OK, so basically I like to write haiku poems, too.  Because it will be greatly missed, Abby, John, Andrew and I met there for one last plate of sushi.

Soon to be something else from a fancy developer (I think).

Site of many a summer drinkie drink.

My BFF Abby and I are never too tired for sushi night! LOL! 

Thankfully, John created a killer sushi order for all of us.  Andrew - sorry if your eyes are closed in this pic.  

We will never forget.

Haiku poetry left behind by guests.

And then we got some Jeni's ice cream.  Matterhorn and sweet potato something.  It was freezing cold.

Cake Pops = Pop a Cork or Two :)

Picture it, Columbus, Ohio – 2013.  That is the last time I shared anything on my blog!  I was in my 20s then, and a graduate student at Ohio State.  I had recently left my job at OFBF and was looking forward to whatever the future held.

Flash forward to modern times.  I (still) surprisingly find myself in Ripley, Ohio – one place I didn’t figure I would call home until I was at least 60.  Life’s full of surprises that way, right?  I’ll catch up more on that later, but for now, I would like to kick off my return to blogging by telling you about my best friend (basically from the womb) Randi’s baby shower!

Randi and I have been besties since our 4H days, showing horses, going shopping, sneaking into our parents’ liquor and beer stashes (always getting caught, by the way), and we fortunately both ended up in Columbus and did the adult thing).

Now my BFF is expecting her first baby, and I’m so excited to have another honorary nephew!  I wanted to make Randi’s shower special, because she is awesome, and will be an awesome mommy!

So obviously I searched Pinterest for the latest and greatest.  I decided that I would make adorable and easy (so I thought) chocolate dipped pretzels and cake pops!  I selected these items mostly because they were cute, and I figured most people would enjoy them – but cute was the primary reason, ha!

The chocolate dipped pretzels were super easy.  I just got a bag of pretzel rods from Kroger and to my delight, most weren’t broken – we were in business.  By we, I mean my mom and I.  I melted a bag of Wilton Melts, dipped the pretzels, added some sprinkles and let the dry.  What a piece of cake basically.

Would you just look at that?  So easy, super cute, and delish.

Next, the cake pops.  Have you ever tried to find someone to make cake pops for a party of yours?  Was it difficult to find someone?  It was?  Oh, that’s because making cake pops sucks hugely.  They are so cute and yummy, but they are not really easy to make.  The trouble comes when the cake pop is to be dipped – it is very eager to fall of its stick and crumble into a mess.

Luckily, mom and I found a trick that worked for the most part to prevent epic failure.  We dipped the sticks in the chocolate, added the cake ball, and then let them sit for a while so they could hopefully set up.  Then, my mom basically spread the chocolate on with a knife, while I added the sprinkles before the chocolate dried.

I didn't take any pics during the process, mostly because I was trying to drink wine and not get super angry :)  But here they are after we were finished - left to dry.

Surprisingly, only one of 49 fell apart.  Dang.

If it wasn't for this lady right here, everything involving the cake pops would have been shoved into the trash.  Thanks, Mom!

Despite the cake pop frustration, it was so worth it because it did turn out super cute (as you’ll recall, my priority).  And if I was going to make these things, there was no better person to make them for than my bestie / sister!

Here are some pics from the shower.  Enjoy!

Gorgeous Mommy To Be Randi got all kinds of great presents for baby Bray!

 

Traditional (at least in Ohio) picture on honoree and cake / dessert table.

Staging the blessed cake pops was actually pretty fun.  I used an old horse shoe box I found at an antique show.

A good old fashioned Longaberger basket did the trick for the pretzels.

A little favor for the guests, plus a card they could fill out for Randi to read later.

Randi and her Mom (and my second mom) :)

Love you, sister!!! Cant' wait to meet Baby Bray!