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Share in the real-life stories of two Betty Crocker editors. Each week, Andi and Heidi will tell you all about their personal food experiences: what they love to cook, their kitchen disasters, their biggest food challenges, and how they feed their families and friends. And they’ll help you find ways to bring creativity and inspiration to your kitchen every day.
 
 

December 2007 - Posts

  • So I know I said I'd try to post from home but it seems every time I turn around it's snowing and I have to shovel myself out. It's beautiful to look at, but enough already! I'm glad I was not one of the millions who has to travel over the holidays.

    On Monday, when one round of shoveling was done, I decided to make homemade dog biscuits. I was inspired by a set of cute bone-shaped cookie cutters I found while out shopping and by Murphy, the dog my family has had for the last 15 years. Murphy is a West Highland White Terrier and he’s not in very good health. I don't mean to bum you out at this otherwise festive holiday time, but Murph hasn’t got a lot of time left. He can't tackle the stairs and I don't think he even knows where he is anymore. In an effort to improve his quality of life just the tiniest bit, thought I'd make him some homemade treats. Here's the recipe:

    Fido's Favorite Treats
    1 cup rolled oats
    1/3 cup butter or margarine
    1 cup boiling water
    3/4 cup cornmeal
    1 tablespoon sugar
    1 to 2 teaspoons chicken or beef-flavored bouillon
    1/2 cup milk
    4 oz (1 cup) shredded Cheddar cheese
    1 egg, beaten, 2 to 3 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour.

    1. Heat oven to 325° F. Grease cookie sheets. In large bowl, combine rolled oats, butter and boiling water; mix well. Let stand 10 minutes.

    2. Stir in cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, cheese and egg; mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition to form a stiff dough.

    3. On floured surface, knead in remaining flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky, 3 to 4 minutes. Roll or pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with bone-shaped cookie cutter; place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets.

    4. Bake at 325° F. for 35 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets. Cool 15 minutes or until completely cooled. Store in loosely covered container.

    It’s an understatement to say Murphy liked the treats. He gobbled them down in no time, as did my own dog, Mia. I just wish there were an ingredient that would make a dog live forever.
    3 comment(s)

  • I'm wrapping up stuff here at work and ready to head out on vacation for the holidays. I'm going to do my best to post from home, but photos and links don't seem to work so you'll just have live without them.

    In the meantime, if you need a blog fix, check out Smitten Kitchen and The Pioneer Woman Cooks! They are two ridiculously funny and entertaining blogs. Plus, they have beautiful photography. These women crack me up and know WAY more than I do about food.

     

     

     

    1 comment(s)

  • As much as I love the holidays, I also look forward to the peace that occurs once they’re over. I usually save enough vacation days to take off the days between Christmas and New Year’s. I don’t do much that week, mostly sleep-in, take my dog for long walks (provided it’s not too bone-chillingly cold) and read a book or two. Most of the time I stick to reading fiction, but the next book on my reading list is Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Barbara Kingsolver is hands-down my favorite author and I figure if anyone can keep me interested in a novel about eating only locally-grown food for a year, it’s her.

    How about you? What do you do on the days between December 25 and December 31?

     

    2 comment(s)

  • I'm often invited to parties where everyone is asked to bring an appetizer—and the combination of appetizers that everyone brings becomes our dinner. These appetizers dinners are some of my most favorite meals.

     

    Some of my friends expect me to bring an interesting appetizer—one that would take all day to make and/or maybe have an ingredient in it that they have never tasted. Holiday appetizers like: Camembert with Balsamic Bell Pepper, Spiced Pork Tenderloin Crostini and Puff Pastry Wreath with Brie are just some of the ones I like to make.

     

    The appetizers that disappear the fastest though are usually the old traditional favorites. Here is one that I used to bring to parties for the kids. Those kids are grown up now but they still like these Mini Crescent Dogs.

    Mini Crescent Dogs

    1 comment(s)
  • You could win $5,000 by entering the Betty Crocker Cookie Mix Recipe Contest. While you are baking cookies this week, why not try converting one of your favorite scratch-cookie recipes to one using a mix in order to save some time? If you don't have time this month to enter a recipe, you have until noon on February 1, 2008 to do so. Click here for more details.   

    The wining recipe from the last contest was Chocolate-Topped Peanut Toffee Bars. 

    Chocolate-Topped Peanut Toffee Bars
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  • I spent Saturday afternoon with a few friends over at A.C.’s mother-in-law’s house baking cookies. Amy made Spritz, I made Caramels and A.C.’s mother-in-law, Carole, made Mocha Logs (I forgot to get the recipe—sorry). Never one to be satisfied with ordinary cookies, A.C. chose to make Rosettes and Krumkake.

    Making caramelsPan of caramels
    I make caramels every year. It’s gotten to the point where people count on them. It's a tradition. They’re not difficult to make, but cutting and rolling each caramel is extremely time-consuming, considering one batch makes well over 100 candies (I always forget to count). In the past, I've made my own wrappers by cutting wax paper into squares. Last year I discovered these which revolutionized the process. Now I’m a caramel-wrapping machine. (I wrapped two whole pans on Saturday.) Once wrapped, I put two dozen or so caramels in little holiday-themed cellophane bags, tie the bags with a festive ribbon and hand them out as gifts.
    Wrapping caramels

    I'm going  to be honest with you—I don't use the Betty Crocker recipe for Caramels, I use my mom's. Don't get me wrong, it's not that Betty's recipe isn't good, it's just that mine is better. Besides, I wouldn't want to mess with tradition.

     

     

    (Photos by Amy)

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  • My four-year-old niece, Morgan, goes to this cool preschool that places a lot of emphasis on teaching kids about nature and the environment. They do all sorts of fun things like go on hikes, eat fried dandelions and learn how maple syrup is made. A live chicken, named "Miss Chick," actually lives in Morgan's classroom.

    Last week my sister Carrie read the class The Big Snow, which is all about how animals prepare for the winter. Then she showed the class how to make For-the-Birds Feeder, a craft in The Cheerios Cookbook I gave to Morgan couple of years ago (full disclosure: I edited the book).

    Like lots of places these days, Morgan’s school is peanut-free, so Carrie used soy nut butter instead of the creamy peanut butter called for in the directions. She called the event, “messy, but successful.” Considering every one of the kids who made the bird feeders chose to take them home rather than leave them at school, I’d have to agree about the successful part (and I'm grateful I wasn't charged with clean up!).

    I'll post a photo of Morgan's bird feeder as soon as I get my hands on one. In the meantime, here's the photo from the book and the directions:

    For-the-Birds Feeder
    For-the-Birds Feeder


    Start to Finish: 15 minutes
    1 bird feeder

    Supplies:
    Sharpened pencil
    Sugar ice cream cone

    Pipe cleaner (chenille stem)
    Table knife
    Creamy peanut butter
    Cheerios cereal
    Birdseed


    1. Use the pencil to poke a hole in the pointed end of the ice cream cone.

    2. Twist a knot in the end of the pipe cleaner. Thread the pipe cleaner into the ice cream cone and out the hole (The knot will hold the pop cleaner in place).

    3. Use the table knife to spread the peanut butter on the outside of the cone. Press the cereal all over the peanut butter to cover the cone. Sprinkle the birdseed over the cone, pressing it into the peanut butter with your fingers.

    1 comment(s)

  • One of our most memorable meals we've enjoyed was when I prepared a smoked crown roast of pork for our gourmet group. It was a recipe from the 1988 edition of the Best of Gourmet hard-cover cookbook titled, Crown Roast of Smoked Pork with Wild Rice, Fennel, and Sausage Stuffing. 

    Jack and I have talked about it so often and over so many years that I decided it was time to try it again this holiday season. The recipes calls for a 21-rib crown roast of smoked (about 8 pounds). About a month ago, I started to call upscale supermarkets in town to order the roast. The butchers of these stores all but laughed at me, telling me that most meat comes pre-packaged to them and very few stores have the ability to do their own smoking.

     

    Not one to give up, I started calling butcher shops across the Twin Cities to see if any of them could help me out and finally found one with a smoke room. The butcher explained to me that a 21-rib roast is the result of tying

    1 1/2 racks together and suggested that I buy a 16-rib roast since that is how many ribs a rack usually has and it would be more than enough to serve our 10 guests.

    I filled it with a fennel-apple stuffing from a Fine Cooking magazine since Jack isn't fond of wild rice. I roasted it for around 2 1/2 hours at 325°F. and it turned out perfectly. It was as moist and delicious as we had remembered.
     
    Crown Roast

     If you can find a meat store or butcher shop who can smoke a roast for you, ask them to:

    1. Smoke the roast for around 5 hours.

    2. "French" the bones which means they should cut the meat away for the end the ribs so that part of the bone is exposed--then you have a place to slide on the gold foil frills.

    3. Cut away the chine bone, which runs perpendicular to the ribs, which will make it easier to slice the roast into chops.

    I purchased one rack with 16 bones which inclued the less than-perfect end pieces. For the picture-perfect roast, I'd recommend asking the  butcher to use the best part of two different roasts and tie them together, leaveing the end pieces for a soup or stew.  

    If you can't find anyone to smoke a roast for you, an unsmoked roast will look beautiful and be delicious too. I really love those gold frills--don't you?!
    1 comment(s)
  • Between work craziness and running about town Christmas shopping, I haven't been doing a lot of cooking or baking lately. Last night I ate cottage cheese and a couple of pickles for dinner. (What can I say? I lead a very glamorous life.) Currently the space under my tiny Christmas tree is full; my fridge is not. That said, check out this site. If you've ever wondered what the inside of other people's refrigerators look like, this is sure to peak your interest.
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  • It's always a challenge for me to come up with attractive and yet affordable centerpieces–but here's an idea for this holiday season. I recently attended an architectural awards banquet where the holiday centerpieces were simply but artfully arranged. I loved the kind of organic feel of them due to the use of a large pinecone as the focal point. A couple large brown leaves at the base, a bit of ivy, a few red berries and some pliable branches (does anyone know what these are?) were added to increase the size of the arrangement–still keeping it very inexpensive to make.  

    Here is one of these centerpieces on my kitchen table. Notice the snow through my widows!

     centerpiece

     

     

     

    1 comment(s)

  • Not to worry—I’m not hitting you up for cash or gifts (though I’m happy to share my wish list if you’re so inclined). Instead I wanted to share this cool site with you. Not only is it an effortless way to donate food to those in need, but you can improve your vocabulary at the same time. Careful—it’s addicting.

    1 comment(s)

  • No word yet as to if there are any cookies left at the Courage Center. I’m told we wound up donating approximately 75 tins and 225 bags brimming with homemade goodies. That’s a heck of a lot of cookies.

    As I mentioned on Wednesday, I helped decorate the gingerbread men/women. Andi swears by the recipe we used, and she knows what she’s talking about—she makes something like 20 dozen over the holidays to give to family and friends. I’m not kidding. She uses traditional cookie cutters, but I like the idea of mixing things up a bit and using these ABC, as in "already been chewed" gingerbread cookie cutters. Considering they’re sold out here and here, I’m not the only one who thinks they’re cute.

    Everyone who decorated the gingerbread cookies commented on how easy the frosting was to work with. Based on their reaction it seems like that's a pretty rare quality in a frosting, so I've included the recipe here.

    Royal Icing
    2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
    1 ½ tablespoons meringue powder
    3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

    Beat on high speed with an electric mixture until you can cut through the icing with a knife and form a well.

     

    Here are some of the other items we made to donate: Holiday Chocolate Chip Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Bonbon Cookies, Oven Caramel Corn, Peanut Blossoms, Chocolate Linzer Hearts, Peanut Brittle and Peppermint Bark.

     

    Do you have a tried-and-true recipe you make every holiday? Care to share?

    1 comment(s)

  • Tis the season to share my lutefisk story. What is lutefisk you might ask if you aren't from Minnesota or of Scandinavian descent?

     

    It is a Scandinavian Christmas specialty made with unsalted dried cod that has been soaked in a mixture of water and potash lye for eight days—it’s a way to preserve fresh fish for those long, cold winter months. The downside of this method of preservation is that it stinks when it is being cooked. I mean REALLY stinks! If you can get past the smell and the gelatinous texture (a little like Jell-O), it tastes good—like fresh fish.

     

    You can either simmer it for 10 to 15 minutes or bake it in the oven at 375F. for only 25 to 30 minutes. Be sure to use a glass baking dish and do not cover it with foil—anything made of metal will corrode once it comes in contact with the fish. It's served with melted butter or a white sauce, depending on whether you are Norwegian or Swedish. Oh, and traditionally, white foods are served with it such as boiled or mashed potatoes and maybe some steamed cauliflower as a veggie. (To add some color to your plate, it is okay to serve peas, too.) One more thing that we must have with this meal is lefse—a sort of tortilla made with potatoes and flour.

     

    A few years ago, I had invited a large group of friends over for dinner on a Saturday night in December. A couple of weeks before my dinner, I asked everyone who was coming if they would prefer lutefisk or Swedish meatballs. Yes, some of them actually ordered the lutefisk!  I decided to bake the lutefisk so that I could join my guests for the appetizers of cheeses and flatbreads and some glögg (Swedish hot spiced-wine) and not have to worry about overcooking the fish. After the lutefisk was done, I left it in the oven on a very low setting to keep it warm for about another half an hour or so.

     

    When I opened the oven to check on the lutefisk, much to my surprise, I found the baking dish full of liquid. Many pounds of lutefisk had cooked down to lutefisk water. Must have been the lye. It was a good thing that I'd made lots of extra meatballs.

     

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  • I just spent the last two hours decorating gingerbread men—as part of my job. Yeah, it’s rough.

     

    For the past several years a number of us in Equity Enterprises (the department in which I work) volunteer a few hours in the Betty Crocker Kitchens making cookies, peanut brittle, bonbons and caramel corn. The first shift starts baking at noon; the second shift begins at 2:00 and finishes up any baking or decorating that needs to be done; and the final 4 p.m. shift takes all the finished goodies and carefully packages them up into holiday tins. The tins are then donated to the Courage Center, who sells our baked goods as a fundraiser for their organization (BTW: I think the dates are incorrect on their site. The bake sale is Thursday, December 6th and Friday the 7th). Without fail, our homemade treats always sell out.

     
    Gingerbread Men Bonbons
    Linzer Hearts Countertop of COokies


    Needless to say, spending part of your workday baking cookies is a pretty good time. There’s holiday music playing, snacks to munch on, and an overall feeling of goodwill that pervades the room. Plus, it’s fun to joke around and get to know people you don’t work with on a regular basis. At one point a food stylist actually complimented and copied (!) one of the gingerbread men I decorated. Now that’s what I call a Christmas miracle.

     

    1 comment(s)

  • It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Minnesota, after getting six inches of snow last weekend.  It  feels likewinter too—with the high temps predicted to be in the 20s all week. An easy way to do some holiday shopping while staying warm and cozy at home is to purchase gifts online. To give you some ideas of where to go for some great food, cookware and tabletop gifts, here are the web site addresses from the many catalogs that I have sitting on my desk right now. Have I missed any that you like to order from?

     

    Andi at desk

     

    Harry & David

    Wine Country Gift Baskets

    Dean & Deluca

    Hickory Farms

    Mars Cheese

    Savannah Candy

    The Popcorn Factory

    Cheryl & Co.

    Nueske's

    Mrs Fields

    Stonewall Kitchen

    The Swiss Colony

    Figis

    The HoneyBaked Ham Co.

    Kansas City Steak Company

    Mackenzie Limited

    Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue

    Priester's Pecans

    Viva Terra

    Gooseberry Patch

    Sur La Table

    Chefs

    Williams-Sonoma

    Crate & Barrel

    Cutco

    NapaStyle

     

    4 comment(s)
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