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What have you been cooking?

MsMary

Veteran

Again, I've been on a two-week staycation and with no place to go and nobody to see, Hubby and I have been cooking and baking up a storm! Santa brought me all new cookware for Christmas I've been having a grand old time in the kitchen!

1-2. Beautiful Le Creuset, which I've been dreaming of for years. We were going to go away for Christmas but spent the money we would have spent on the hotel on replacing our old mismatched cookware and I'm so happy every time I look at it! (Pot lid drawer for the win!)

3-4. We can't get together with our friends in person so one of our friends had the great idea of a Zoom paella party. She sent everybody a bag of paella rice and a little tin of saffron, along with a recipe, and we cooked it at home and ate together online. Big fun! (Pic 4 is the mess we made!)

5. Turns out bagels are easy and fun! Who knew?

6. One of the items on the latest season of The Great British Baking Show was something called Cob Bread. It took us a couple of tries but we finally mastered it. It makes great toast!

7-8. I got my husband a delivery subscription from http://www.goldbelly.com for his birthday and this month's offering was pulled pork from Memphis. We didn't have any hamburger buns and didn't want to leave the house, so we googled "brioche buns" and it turns out you can make them from start to finish in an hour! Delish!

9. My late mom always made Chex Mix at Christmas and since she passed last year I've taken up the baton. I made a huge batch and delivered some (masked and contactless) to my son and to my dad.

10. What's Christmas morning without homemade cinnamon rolls? Especially when you're clebrating finishing the Christmas jigsaw puzzle!

11-12. For the last couple of Christmases we've made mozzarella-stuffed arancini (Sicilian rice balls) for Christmas. This year we got a late start and ended up having Christmas dinner at 9 p.m. but it was worth the wait! The next day I took the leftovers to my son and left them on his doorstep.

I feel kind of sad (also a little mad but we won't go there) seeing a lot of Instagram feeds of family gatherings while my feed is just food photos, but I feel good that we are staying safe and keeping our family safe.

So share! What have you been cooking/baking this holiday season?

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33 replies

Latest reply was from olive12

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

What a happy set of pictures! I have the same color le Crueset—half a dozen mini cocottes, which are the most useful thing ever. (Also have blue ones to give away, if you know anyone who’s interested).

I’ve recovered from the Christmas baking bash (gingerbread, cardamom cookies, oatmeal trilbys with date nut spread, almond stars, and curried pecans) and back in the kitchen. I just made a tomato quiche for supper. Between my son’s new girlfriend and me going back to work, I see a lot of cooking in my near future, and I’m happy about it.

I want to come up with something they would like in the little fondue set he got a couple years ago. Chocolate fondue for fruit & cookies on the day he got it failed, and he likes chocolate even less now than he did them. Cheese won’t work because he doesn’t like cheese. Ditto beef. What else can you do with a fondue set?

For my first week back, I’m planning to prep the weekend before—salad Nicoise in a jar, Asian “bowls” in a jar, quiche to be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Suppers will be pasta tossed with veggies and cheese or miso soup in my cocottes.

Synne

Veteran

That paella looks soo good!

Helena

Veteran

Wow, everything looks phenomenal!

Anonymous

*carries off a mozarella ball*
Suntiger's Lazy Latin kitchen has been very busy lately
Bean chili with carrots, tomatos, bell peppers
Tofu with sundried tomatos, olives, spicy marinara
Roasted corn, quinoa, black beans, green chilis
String beans with soy sauce, ginger, garlic (usually I do with broccoli)
Split peas with Bombay kadai curry
Veggie "meatball" and portabella/ roasted pepper subs

In the queue for the month:
"One dish meal"- veggie chicken, rice, mixed veg
Polenta with marinara and feta
Rotini pasta with tomato cream sauce and California blend mixed veggies
Peas with masala sauce and paneer (attemping from cottage cheese)

The Cat

Veteran

Lots of traditional Scandinavian dishes.

rachylou

Veteran

Wow, Mary! Everything looks soo good! I also have dark orange Creuset, but everything is from my ‘compact living stage.’ Lol. I think I want a big frying pan and a big Dutch oven now.

JAileen

Veteran

The food looks so good!

Le Creuset is so nice, especially for soups and stews. We’re giving these to our son. He and his girlfriend have been quarantining, and we’ll see them tomorrow. GF is excited to get it.

I made chicken tortilla soup for Christmas. No pics, but it was delicious. For New Year’s Eve I’m making lasagna. My husband had to go to two stores to find lasagna noodles. We wanted cracked crab, but the fishermen are not happy with offered prices, so they’re refusing to go out. Then we thought tri tip, but Whole Foods’ offerings were poor, so lasagna. I hope it feels festive enough.

Re Memphis: I lived in Texas for ten years, and also visited Memphis when our son was in grad school there, and I much prefer Memphis BBQ over TX.

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Echo

Veteran

Wow, your La Creuset set is gorgeous! I recently indulged in some La Creuset baking dishes and adore them, so I can only imagine how wonderful the set must be! But it looks like you and Dh are fabulous cooks, so you deserve it!

The paella looks amazing; I've never tried making bagels at home. I make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning every year. I make them the night before and put them in the fridge. I take them out first thing in the morning to finish rising and we have them after the kids open their gifts.

For New Year's we always have an appetizer night, and Dh and I are making bacon wrapped scallops. cajun shrimp, mini meatballs, potato skins and mozzarella sticks. I'll have to start taking pictures of our food, too, as we haven't had any gatherings, either. I delivered some food and left it on my mum's step on Thanksgiving and mailed her a tin of homemade candy for Christmas, though. I hope to be in line for vaccination soon (teachers might be after essential workers and those with health risks) so I can see family again!

Bijou

Veteran

Your food looks amazing and so glad to see that you have treated yourself to a beautiful cooking set. When I was in my early 20's I bought myself a 3 pot Le Creuset set and we are still using them to this day, the best homeware purchase I have made.

I have not been cooking much because it is high summer here, but I have been enjoying making and eating salads and fruit. I have been trying to balance eating the naughty food of nuts, crisps, chocolates and Christmas cake (including an amazing Panattone) with fresh, healthy food.

Jules

Veteran

Love me some Le Creuset! I'm more of a pan minimalist because I find I can do almost everything in my one beloved LC dutch oven plus a Lodge cast iron frying pan and a few stainless steel pots, but I splurged on a bunch of accessory items in my colour (Palm) a few years ago - ramekins, utensil crock, salt and pepper grinders. I just noticed yesterday this colour doesn't seem to be available in Canada anymore, and was patting myself on the back mentally for not holding back when it was! Zero regrets even though those items are pricy for what they are (since they aren't the enameled cookware the brand was built on). They are the beloved purses and jewelry of my kitchen, lol!

I do have a pending kitchen store pickup for two new carbon steel pans - a crepe pan and a fryer. I am so over nonstick since I find even the pricy, best rated ones, lovingly cared for, are still basically disposable, staying in good condition for a year at best, so I'm giving carbon steel a try. Although we have found the well-seasoned cast iron surprisingly good for eggs etc since I threw out the last degraded non stick and forced everyone to use the cast iron instead for a while. Planning on making Crepes Suzette tonight.

Runcarla

Veteran

Love paella! Everything looks so yummy, MsMarry. Bring some of those mozzarella balls for those sitting on the bench during Angie’s next ‘this-or-that’ blog post.

Baking is my forte and the photos may make it look like we only eat dessert! LOL! Leg of lamb was the star of Christmas dinner, and filet mignon (we bought a tenderloin and butchered it for steaks instead of roasts) for DS#2’s birthday on the 27th. (His birthday dessert was homemade brownies with vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis.)

The order for a Tai take-away dinner from a local restaurant has been placed for New Years Eve, and it will be ham with fresh pineapple on the bbq for dinner on the 1st.

#1 Empire cakes, short bread, holiday spice cookies, chocolate
#2 peach cobbler
#3 apple pie a la mode
#4 asphergus

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kkards

Veteran

My cooking is very low key and small, but i do want to recommend a site in case there are others like me, cooking for 1 and looking for new ideas. I found this site early in the lockdown, almost all of the recipes are sized for one, so no guessing on how much and what to do if you are trying to scale a recipe that has 1 egg but makes 4 serving.
https://onedishkitchen.com

Jane

Veteran

Love the le crueset! It looks really super.

Amazing food! What a fab paella!

Just in case anyone is dipping into a carlucio recipe book, please can I suggest that the recipe for plums wrapped in mashed potato isn’t his best!

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Jules

Veteran

Oh no Jane! Too funny! I love fruit perogies but mashed potato fruit dumplings does not appeal

cjh

(website)

Veteran

Mmmmmm. ‘Nuf said.

MsMaven

Veteran

DH bought a corned beef and is in charge of cooking it. He says it will take 7 hours. (4 1/2 lbs.) He has been doing a lot more cooking since we've been home this year. He likes to invent variations of chicken with various red sauces that usually turn out well. We'll see how this goes. Normally the only time I eat corned beef is when we are in Chicago and I get a favorite sandwich at a place called Burt's.

Nice cookware, Mary. We need to buy all new cookware, so I'm interested in what others have bought and how they like it.

Ledonna N.

Veteran

I got a new set of pots an air fryer and waffle maker.

I’m in heaven. Making cakes lately

L'Abeille

Veteran

My chef son from out west is here for the winter (after quarantining) and my foodie daughter is here as well so we are eating extremely well. They considered doing a multi-seafoof Christmas Eve supper but weren't willing to give up the traditional tourtiere (French Canadian meat pie). So instead they decided on a Twelve Days of Seafood Christmas.

So far we have enjoyed: shrimp ring with cocktail sauce; raw oysters with pomegranate mignonette; oysters Rockefeller; smoked mussel dip; calamari; and tonight, hot crab dip. Mussels in white wine sauce and bacon wrapped scallops are yet to come. For New Year's Eve the kids treated us to dinner out at a seafood restaurant (open for limited dining here) so we had our lobster fix as well.

In addition, Christmas day was turkey and New Year's Day was spiral ham.

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Minaminu

Veteran

Wow! Lots of interesting recipes!

I love Le Creuset and been building up a set, been buying one every year, until Mr Minu banned me from buying another!

Eliza

Veteran

What a beautiful and thoughtful portrait of how to optimize the 2020 holiday season. So reality forward!
May 2021 bring you health, happiness and delightful meals cooked in the colorful cookware.

Anonymous

Mashed potatos and plums together- nah :p
Paneer was a fail, should've used low heat...oh well. Otherwise the peas with masala sauce was yummy Added cashews to it too!
DH did not have "suntiger enjoys cooking" on his 2020-1 bingo card...

Barbara Diane

Veteran

Smart to use money for cookware. I am so excited- I splurged on a high end digital thermometer. It is wonderful to easily know my food is cooked to the correct temperature.

I made a frittata tonight. Last night I did easy yams-microwaved, cut in half, brown sugar and butter. At Thanksgiving I added pecans and mini marshmallows. Easier and better sized for 2 and easier than a casserole and doesn’t need oven space. Not a revelation but I like it.

For Chanukah I made samosa latkes. My best new dish in the last month.

Barbara Diane

Veteran

Ms.Mary, would you please share your bagel and brioche recipes. Thanks.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Dang, all of this looks and sounds good. I've actually taken a little break from cooking a lot since Christmas (with the exception of Blue Apron meals -- we've been making our way through some Dangerously Delicious savory pies and carry-out leftovers). But I'm taking notes. I'm about to pull out the slow cooker again for some soups and the vegetable lasagna I always make with it.

MsMary

Veteran

Barbara Diane, here you go! Also as a side note, I have been organizing my recipes in Paprika (http://www.paprikaapp.com) and it's totally worth the low price I had to pay for it. I have it on all my devices and just love it!

Buns: https://kristineskitchenblog.c.....un-recipe/

Bagels: https://www.sophisticatedgourm.....el-recipe/

P.S. I couldn't get along without my digital thermometer!

AndiB

Veteran

I got my first cast iron enameled cook ware this year too, but lodge, and reviews say this brand works, not LC, but a close second. And all I can say is: Where have you been all my life??!! I’ve made all the things from frittata and chicken to the.most.amazing. Farro, butternut squash and bacon bake! I’ve really upped my cooking game during Covid. Along with a lot of work in the house. With 2 of my 3 grown daughters gone I’ve repurposed one of their bedrooms as my home office and yoga/meditation space, starting with fresh paint in a light blush pink and a new desk. Painted and redecorated a second bedroom for DD who is still home with us, she’s a 22 year old delight with Down Syndrome who will be with us a few more years before probably moving into some sort of semi independent living in a few years. Wanted to give her a more grown up space for her more grown up self. Cleaned out the garage, the basement, moved several bookcases to dining room to make a combo DR / library, and I love it so much. Cooking and nesting... the upside of Covid.

MsMary

Veteran

I'm with you, AndiB! I can't believe what a difference having really good cookware makes! I've heard great things about Lodge, too!

merwoman

Veteran

Raising hand, I too am shopping/cooking my way out of the pandemic.
I’ve got a serious case of pot-lust envy Mary!

My cherry red LC Dutch oven arrived last week, I christened it with a Pinot noir and Boeuf Bourguignon. Heaven! Life changing! I have a smaller fire engine red Staub pot arriving any day, planning to conduct some kitchen research. I’m sure red wine will be involved.

Earlier in the year I was obsessed with making pizza. A lot of trial and much much error, but am now very satisfied with the result. My darling merman made me a wooden pizza peel, it’s gorgeous, and does the job beautifully. I’ve had much better success in sliding pizzas off the wooden peel compared to a metal one.

We also invested in a Traeger Grill. You name it, we’ve smoked it. Top on the list are ribs, salmon and beef tenderloin.

Thank god for outdoor/indoor cycling otherwise I would need a whole new wardrobe to go with the pots, peel and grill!

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MsMary

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Merwoman, we've been obsessed with homemade pizza, too! We have been using a pizza stone in the gas BBQ and that is working very well, after a lot of practice. I will have to tell my woodworking husband about your hubby's homemade pizza peel!!

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