I Plan Parties

 

I plan parties and execute them for a living.  I’m passionate about food, plates, silverware, the setting – all of it.  It’s a good thing I do this for other people, because my husband couldn’t care less most of the time!  He doesn’t understand why I like the plates all in the same spot on the table setting, or the glasses in the correct corner.  What does that say?!  Every day meals at the Rees Residence are probably just like the ones at your house.

 

 

When I plan “big” parties for my clients I take the stress of this planning away from them.  Usually not all of it, my domain is the kitchen, the dining room, where ever there is food.  It’s usually at least 50% of the stress that they have.  Everyone loves the adrenaline rush that you get while preparing for a party, even my husband – he won’t admit to it, but I know that it’s true! They worry if the house is clean enough, do I have enough ice, what’s the weather going to be like, and everything in-between! 

I’ve seen long complicated check list.  I have a few that I make up for my events, and I wouldn’t even begin to suggest that you do this!  You know how much silverware you have, and where your glasses are! 

There are some things that you can do, and here are some easy tips to keep in mind.

 

5 Easy Tips

1.  I always try out the recipe before I actually try it on my guests! Why?  I need to know how it will taste – and so should you! I need to know how it will cook, and so should you!  And most important, I need to know how much time it will take me to get it done!

2.  Don’t go too complicated.  Not all of us are master chefs and sometimes simple with a few little tweaks are  great.

3.  Shop, Shop, Shop – make sure you have all of the recipe’s ingredients on hand – we call this mise en place. 

4. Taste your ingredients (or smell them) for freshness, and taste your meal as you go!  That’s the only way you’ll know how the finished product will turn out!

5.  Finish with a great (and easy) dessert!  It’s the last bite of the day, and that’s the one that they will all remember.

 

 

Onion Soup for the Cold Michigan Winter

French Onion Soup

My husband doesn’t generally think that soup is dinner.  I’ve been married almost 10 years now, and up till today, if I mentioned it, he just gives me that funny “where’s the meat and potatoes” look, but today he surprised me and said, after making that funny look, sure, I’ll try it!

 

Well, I think it was a hit.  He said we could have it for leftovers again on Thursday! 

He bet me I couldn’t make it again, and I’m a betting gal, so I wrote it down as fast as I could – so here it is:

 

Onion Soup

2 large yellow onions – julienne (that’s cut into French fry stick size)

a bit of EVOO

salt (to taste)

a swirl of red wine vinegar, or red wine

4 cups of beef stock

Grated Swiss Cheese – about ½ cup per bowl

Grated Parmesan (about ¼ cup per bowl, cause I had it in the fridge)

Large Croutons

 

Heat a large sauté pan with the EVOO and add the yellow onions.  You could use white, and I did use a bit of red onion to use it up. 

 

Let the onions caramelize.  This is very important.  Over medium high heat, let them set for a while in the pan, get brown bits of goodness all over and then give them a swirl, or a toss, and do it again.  Your house is going to smell wonderful.  This will take a while and is well worth the time.

 

If you constantly stir them, you will “steam” them to translucent, and never develop the dark caramelized flavor that you want.

You want the bits of browned goodness to add to your soup.  Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the bits.  When it finally reduces down to about 1/3 of the way, transfer the onions into another pan. 

 

Swirl a bit of red wine vinegar/wine in the sauté pan, and go after those brown bits again.  You may need to add some stock, that’s ok.  Transfer to your onion pan, add the stock and bring to a simmer to develop the flavors.

 

For dinner, heat your oven to about 400 degrees, place some croutons on the bottom of your bowls, ladle in some soup, and then top with the cheese.  Bake until the cheese is crusty!  About 10 minutes.

 

Enjoy, but watch out!  It’s really really hot!

 

Salt

We all know how much I love salt as a seasoning, but there are so many more uses!

Beyond Seasoning: Other good uses for salt

Though most of the time we use salt for seasoning, it also comes in handy for a wide range of less obvious applications.

Dulling the Bitter Edge

Here’s a little-known fact about salt: It masks bitterness. Our tastebuds have many more receptors for bitterness than for the other four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, and umami); thus, bitterness can often overwhelm other flavors present in food. Salt works to block the taste of bitter compounds, thereby enhancing other less prominent flavors. We add salt to everything from eggplant to coffee, where we’ve found that adding 1/8 teaspoon to the grounds for every full (72-ounce) pot reduced the perceived bitterness.

Tender Scrambled Eggs

Salt keeps egg proteins from bonding to one another, thereby producing a weaker protein chain and more-tender scrambled eggs. We recommend adding 1/8 teaspoon of table salt for every two eggs just prior to cooking.

Deep-Cleaning Cast Iron

The abrasive quality of kosher salt makes it a perfect cleanser for rusty or gummy cast-iron cookware. Our method: Warm 1/4 inch vegetable oil in pan for 5 minutes; remove from heat and add 1/4 cup kosher salt. Scrub salt into pan with paper towels until debris loosens. Rinse well and repeat if necessary.

Making Garlic Paste

Garlic paste adds robust garlic flavor to dishes like aïoli and pesto. To ensure that the garlic’s texture is smooth and unobtrusive, sprinkle kosher salt over minced garlic and use the side of a knife to reduce the chopped garlic to a fine paste.

Greener Green Beans

Adding salt to the cooking water not only seasons green beans but also helps them retain their bright color. When green vegetables cook in unsalted water, some of the chlorophyll molecules lose their color-enhancing magnesium atoms; this causes the vegetables to turn a dull shade of olive green. Salt stabilizes the chlorophyll, helping the vegetables stay greener. To maximize color retention without oversalting, use 1½ teaspoons of salt for every quart of water.

Quick-Chilling Drinks

Salted ice water will chill beverages faster than regular ice water or even the freezer. When salt is added to ice water, the freezing point and temperature decrease, lowering the ice’s melting temperature to well below 32 degrees. The result is a brine significantly colder than plain ice water that can rapidly chill liquids. When we tested this trick with three 750-milliliter bottles of wine, the bottle chilled in an ice-water brine plunged to the optimal 38-degree temperature roughly twice as fast as the freezer-stashed bottle and three times as fast as the one submerged in regular ice water.

Ice-water brine formula: For every bottle of wine or three to four (12-ounce) bottles of beer or soda, mix 1 quart of water with 4 quarts of ice and 1 cup of table salt.
Published with permission from Cook's Illustrated.

Julienne Raw Brussels Sprout Salad

Julienne Raw Brussels Sprout Salad

 

I’m not sure where I got this idea, but it wasn’t original.  It might’ve been a professional chef magazine, or one of my “I’m in love with food” magazines, but I did make it my own.

 

I love Brussels Sprouts, roasted and crunchy, not the “I’ve cooked these in water until they are mush” kind.  I’m a vegetable snob, ask my husband and he’ll let you know, I’ll return a dish to the kitchen, if my veggies are icky! 

I tried to use a small slicer to julienne the sprouts, but gave up and used a knife instead. 

 

Dressing

1 tbs good grained mustard

3 tablespoons honey

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup to ¾ cup EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together.  Yes this is too much for one salad, but it’ll keep for a few days in the refrigerator!

 

Now for the salad!

1 serving as a vegetarian entrée!

2 cups Brussels sprouts (clean) – julienne or chopped fine – raw

1 cup spinach – julienne
1/4 cup black beans

¼ cup almonds

½ small avocado – diced or smashed however you like it

2 tbs pomegranate arils (that’s seeds!)

1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
Feta Cheese crumbles to taste (this is an afterthought – I think it would be wonderful on my salad!)
 

Toss together, and enough dressing to coat, but not drench and enjoy

 

 

Cranberry Sorbet

Cranberry Sorbet

 

Everyone is making cranberries this season, and my mouth is watering.  I buy at least 8 bags to use throughout the year, surprisingly fresh cranberries are hard to find immediately after Thanksgiving and I like to have them throughout the year!  The fresh ones freeze in the bag just as they are and will keep for at least one year- that is, if you don’t eat them up!

Here’s a refreshing way to serve cranberries.  You do need an ice cream machine, if not spread the sorbet mixture in a 9 x 11 pan, and place in the freezer, stirring occasionally until frozen.  Then you can make a GRANITA out of it!  What’s that – well use your fork, and scrape up the mixture – like a frozen ice, and scoop it out – it’s still wonderful!

 

Cranberry Sorbet

4 ½ cups fresh cranberries, washed, drained, stems removed and discard

2 ¼ cups granulated sugar

2 ¼ cups white cranberry juice

1 ½ cups water

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

2teaspoons chopped fresh lime or orange zest

 

Place cranberries, sugar, white cranberry juice water and salt in a 3 ¾ quart saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes, until the berries pop.  Cool 10 – 15 minutes.  Drain cranberries (reserve liquid) and place in a work bowl of a food processor fitted with an “S” blade or a blender.  You may need to do this in two patches.  Add 1 cup cooking liquid and puree until smooth.  Press through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds and pulp; discard seeds and pulp.  Stir in remaining liquid, corn syrup and zest.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 6 hours.

 

Follow the manufacturer’s directions for your machine

 

How to Bake & Decorate a Cookie

Even Big Kids love to decorate cookies!


Now that it's Christmas time everyone wants to decorate cookies!

The number one rule - patience
The number two rule - more patience, especially if you are expecting young children to decorate expertly!

Cookie – defined: “small cake”

Yes that’s basically a cookie, and like cakes a multitude of problems can sometimes arises from poor ingredients, over mixing, or oven temperature is incorrect.

 

Basic Cookie Traits

 

Crispness

Softness

Chewiness 

Spread

 

When making cookies to decorate or roll out, spread is one of the most important factors!  You want your cookie to maintain it’s shape and a dough that is proportionate to butter and flour will make the best match.

 

Butter Cookies (like sugar cookies) require special attention.  If you make a large batch and your kitchen is warm, keep the extra dough in the refrigerator while it waits to be rolled. 

 

Chill dough for rolled cookies at least 5 hours in the refrigerator

When you bake delicate butter cookies, use bright shiny baking sheets, they don’t get as hot

Line your cookie pans with parchment paper, it helps with clean up, and your cookies won’t stick as much.  If you need to, you can lightly spray the paper

 

When your cookies cool, do not let them “steam” the cooling rack should be a good 5 – 6 inches above the counter

Margarine and butter have different shortening powers and cannot be “interchanged” in a recipe and get the same results

Use the best ingredients that you can!  Pure vanilla is so much better than imitation.

Check your baking powder if using – spoon ½ teaspoon in a bowl and pour ¼ cup of boiling water over it.  It should bubble up right away, if not discard it and purchase more.

Baking Soda does not have a “shelf” life, but some manufacturer’s suggest replacing after 3 years.  Check the box for the expiration date!

Measure the same way all the time!  If you spoon your flour lightly into a cup, do that every time; if you weigh it on a scale, do that every time.

Though these are chocolate chip cookies, you can see the difference in the basic recipe.  Just as with sugar cookies, the more butter, the stiffer the batter

-most sugar cookies use a little bit of baking soda or none at all! 

 

1.  Out line your cookies - take your time (notice the "candy cane") and let it dry completely.

2.  If you are using royal icing - after filling in the cookie, wait until it sets to add some accents, otherwise, it just runs together and you have a Picasso!

 

 

3.  If it gets sloppy - eat em!

 

 

 

4.  If you wait to long and the royal icing sets, the sprinkles will roll off!

 

 

 

5.  It takes a steady hand, and lots of time to outline a cookie with pearls!  Unless you have a lot of time, use them for accents on trees and stars, otherwise, it'll look like my crooked stocking!

 

Basic Sugar Cookies

Makes approximately 18 cookies 

Ingredients

2 ½ cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for dusting the cutting board for shaping/rolling out

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature, but not soft

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (clear vanilla extract if available)

 

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt – set aside

Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until smooth.  Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in vanilla.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated – the dough will be stiff.  Shape into a disk and refrigerate, for at least one hour, and up to 3 days.  If you want you can shape it into a “log” for slicing cookies.

Preheat oven to 350° F

Roll out cookies on a cutting board that has been dusted lightly with flour.  You may choose to do this between two sheets of parchment paper.  Roll out to 1/8”.  Cut out shapes and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until the edges are firm, and the cookie is lightly browned.  Remove from oven.  After 1 minute, remove from cookie sheet and place on a cooling grid/rack.

Cool completely before frosting.

Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days or freeze for up to 3 months

 

 

There are many different icing recipes.  I use royal icing for almost everything, why, I usually have confectioner’s sugar and water available.  You can use flavorings and color your icing as you choose.

 

Simple Royal Icing

3 – 6 tablespoons water

1 pound sifted confectioner’s sugar

food coloring as needed

Mix the water into the sugar, slowly. 

To outline cookies use a b it more water – check for consistency less water will be thicker and allow you to have a “straight” line

To fill in cookies you may need to add water to the batter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of salt

 

 

I love salt. Salt gets a bad rap out in the “foodie” world, especially from people who eat lots of processed foods.

I also teach at a culinary classroom, and am amazed by the “shock” when I salt my water for pasta and potatoes.  A gasp usually comes from the group, and I ask – “who did that?”  Usually someone will fess up, and I’ll explain the science behind salting water.  Most package directions ask for about 2 tablespoons of salt for 8 quarts of water.  Now, granted, that seems like a lot, but it’s not like I poured 2 tablespoons on top of cooked pasta!  That would be salty!

The human adult body needs approximately 250 grams  of salt to survive.   We get that in food, and our excess comes from processed foods.  Most babies when they are born don’t care about salt.  It’s not until we start ingesting foods with lots of salt, that we become addicted to it.

 

I’m fortunate that my blood pressure is usually in line, and I don’t add much table salt to my food.  I do love salty snacks on occasion.  But back to why salt the water?

 

Salting water brightens the dish’s final flavor, while keeping the sodium level in check.  When pasta or potatoes hit the boiling water, its starch molecules absorb only about 10% of the salt.  One of the key words is “it absorbs”, meaning it gets into the food, not just shaken on the top!  That’s enough to take care of your salt sensors on your tongue!  A 4 oz portion of pasta will have 92 mg of sodium.  Sprinkle 1/8 of a teaspoon on that pasta and you’ll consume 290 mg!

 

Remember; if you spill some salt throw it over your shoulder for good luck.  Here’s one of the explanations – there are lots out there!

The belief of tossing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder to get rid of bad luck come from the legend that the devil is always standing behind you, and throwing salt in his eye distracts him from causing trouble. Nowadays, most people only do this after spilling salt, which is thought to be bad luck because salt, was an expensive commodity long ago and folklore linked it to unlucky omens in order to prevent wasteful behavior.